NO-NONSENSE TEAM BUILDING: WHAT IS YOUR PART IN YOUR BAND

Richard M. Obertots, MBA, NREMT-P (ret), CEO, ThinkThroughTools, LLC

Prior to my 29 years in HEMS and healthcare, I had a most enjoyable and demanding career in musical composition, recording and performance.
Beginning professionally at age 10, I was earning a good living by the age of 12 in a for-profit enterprise, "band," called The Rapscallions. We performed at high school dances, parties and weddings (with our parents as "roadies" driving us about and helping us to carry and set up our heavy
equipment.) In the 60s, there were many very able musical groups and competition for employment was extremely intense. If you were not highly proficient and could not engage as part of a team - you simply did not get or keep work. Pure survival of the most fit.

AREN'T WE ALL PART OF A "BAND"?

So how does this relate to what we do in helicopters, fixed wing or critical care ground units? Why is being in a band relevant? Many stopped reading this the second they saw TEAM BUILDING in the title because many have become cynical or apathetic about team building. I too - when asked to offer a presentation on team building for an international symposium in Australia first thought, "Okay - here we go again - I will face a lot of eyes rolling up and ears and minds shut down." Then I realized that team building is more vital than ever and there must be a way to get to the core of it, without all the "warm and fuzzy" stuff that is overdone. There has to be a no-nonsense, yet creative and effective approach.

I reflected back on my youth, building many bands and recordings, then realized that each core concept of team building could be portrayed as an element of building and producing a song. The metronome which keeps time, the parts of the drum set which drive the rhythm, the bass guitar as the musical foundation, keyboards, strings and horns which can be melodic and polyrhythmic - each had a role - and needed to be systematized and synchronized just like team building. Plus, many individuals have played an instrument, been in some kind of musical performance, built bands or desired to be in one - so, many could relate.

NO-NONSENSE BOTTOM LINE

The presentation, in the form of an upbeat original song, developed and each part which represented a team building principle was recorded separately just like each "track" for a song is built in a studio. During the first "performance" - individuals from the audience in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia were "volunteered" one-by-one to be on the stage to mimic or "play" each separate track or instrument while I explained and built up each principle.
One-by-one as "our band" increased in number - our team was building. At the end - "OUR BAND" was playing together - with the audience clapping to the back beat, while laughing at many in the group still trying to "find" the beat. It was an entertaining, fun, engaging and effective outcome that did demonstrate how to build a team that could work and play together. It made sense and working in the musical lines metaphor - the bottom-line eliminated nonsense but was not boring.

This format was later "edited" to a shorter version to focus on four core principles based on the four letters of TEAM. Like all performances it had to have a climactic ending - which leads us to the "key note" ending of this article.

WE DON'T HAVE TO LOVE EACH OTHER; WE DO HAVE TO HELP EACH OTHER!

I believe many would agree that our work is high criticality high consequences and must be high in reliability. We simply cannot be effective and achieve high yield outcomes unless we build teams and operate effectively as teams. However, I believe it is nonsense to think that while we are on duty we have to "love each other" to be effective as a team. Let me elaborate.

One of our firm's founders, John Chamberlin expressed this in a very no-nonsense way when he told his staff, "You don't have to be on each other's Christmas card list. But - while on the job you have to work together - without exception."
Figure 1 is a graphic that sums up the end of the No-Nonsense Team Building presentation. Whatever you do to build your team and sustain it - the end point is - we don't have to love each other - WE DO HAVE TO HELP EACH OTHER!
There must be zero-tolerance in our high tolerance profession for those that do not help each other on the job!

Now, it is astonishing when you really enjoy, respect and maybe even "love"
each other while working together - nothing is more fulfilling - other than all these things and eating chocolate or maybe playing in a band together too.
I hope the HELP EACH OTHER principle can help you focus on your part in your "band" and help you to build and sustain your team.
Rich O.

To obtain information on the NO-NONSENSE TEAM BUILDING presentation or the soon to be published book and on-demand (Internet-Based) course NO-NONSENSE TEAM BUILDING: A Practical Approach to Create and Sustain Organizational Cohesiveness complete the form below or communicate directly rich.obertots@thinkthroughtools.com  412.670.9906