TEAMWORK?

TEAM WORK?

Over the years, different names have been used for people related or working together for a common purpose, we know of fraternities,sororities, coven, family, clique and more recently team. Wikipedia defines team as "a group of people or other animals linked in a common purpose. Human teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent sub tasks. A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses". Going by that, it will be safe to use the English proverb "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" to classify a team. For 'team' reasons, the proverb is the one of the most used statement in office 'pep talks', locker room 'talks' and even family re-unions. But what does that really mean? From a writers perspective, the "motivator" wants to ensure he 'minimizes' those weakness in each teammate in order to achieve 'maximum' results.

From CEO's to club managers, every great organization, team and company thrives in all circumstances because every part of the team plays at 'maximum' the task designated or assigned, this literally means the failure of one part is failure of all parts. A look at the players on the pitch will give a clear picture of what I am talking about. 

Usain Bolt was just stripped one of his gold medals thereby making his "triple-triple" record invalid and for what? A crime a fellow team member committed during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How annoying can taking a "super-speed free fall" in 2017 for a crime someone committed in 2008? And it's just because you were teammates.

Personally, I did not know anything about any Nesta Carter until the news broke yesterday. I got thinking of the years of training, those glorious record breaking moments he had, the joy he felt, the glory he brought to Jamaica and the wonder he threw the athletic and indeed the entire world into, all that (or at least the Beijing medal) gone. Because some Carter guy took a banned drug. Well, being Usain Bolt, he already said he was ready to give the medal back and move on with his life (since they cannot take away the moment, victory, thrill, joy and excitement I guess) which is a very commendable action to which I duff my hat. But what about the other two guys that ran the relay with them (Asafa Powell and Michael Frater). It may be the only medal they have earned in all their career and that will mean them loosing everything, years of labor, logistics, enthusiasm, zeal and sweat. Why? The "weakest link" snapped (just like when a necklace snaps and all the beads scatter all over the room and cannot all be found again). That is what happens when a teammate fails, every other person fails. The effect is 9.58seconds faster than that of a domino because even Bolt himself cannot beat that. 

The real issue now is the number of things you have forfeited as an individual because a "weak link" snapped, the number of deals, achievements and targets you had to let go because a teammate "failed". As individuals and Corporations, we cannot be everywhere doing everything at the same time so we need "capable hands" to handle those parts we cannot handle or don't know how to handle, yet we have to bank on the ability of the person entrusted with such task to deliver to the very best of all abilities. Now that is where Carter comes in. It's not as if he is not capable (to get to the level of representing 'Jamaica' at Olympics is proof enough), he most likely outran a million other athletes and kept a very good record so much so that the national coach picked him. It will therefore, be safe to say he was qualified, passed the test and was on board a world record breaking team, yet a silly, tiny "mistake" brought all that to a stand still. How many times have we (qualified, tested, perfected, world record breaking guys) do that silly, tiny 'thing'? Allow me to add that all this is happening because he was caught (I bet many others are out there basking in their glory simply because they have not been discovered yet), so we too may think we have gotten away with it but if I am correct, he committed this offense nine years ago. That said, the past may be deep buried for almost all of us but what action is our 'Nesta Carter' taking today that will shatter the link in 2026? Being good at what we do is not good enough. We ought to stay on top of our game so that history or nine years from now we can still stand tall. Who forms your team? What makes your chain? That my friends is where the danger lies because "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link".