The importance of a “Teamship” Charter!
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The use of the term “Teamship” dates back to Sir Clive Woodward and the England Rugby Union Word Cup winning team in 2003.
His thinking…
“Other coaches before me had asked themselves ‘How can we be victorious with what we’ve got, or in other words how could you coach and manage the players effectively to earn victories. To me, the question was flawed…I took a different view. Instead, I started with an end in mind…winning…and then worked out what it would take us to get there. I asked myself ‘If our goal is winning against the best teams in the world, what would our organization need to have in place in order to succeed consistently?
Woodard placed a huge emphasis of creating a real “togetherness” within his squad and saw this as being as equally important if not greater than coaching the rugby skills themselves.
His view was that winning performances required an effective influencer at the centre but, importantly, the influencer needed to create a sense of ‘being as one’ in vision, culture, values, standards, and strategy. Once he’d got the team and the leader ‘being as one’ Woodward got the team to write their own set of standards and that everyone had to buy into and accept.
In doing so, every new player signed up this to when they joined. It meant everyone knew the standards, the team enforced it themselves and new players could understand the standards from the start. It also had a very important long-term effect – even if the leader wasn’t around, the combination of being at one with the team and the team having written its own rules meant the effect was long term.
In essence each person was making a total commitment to the values and ethos of the team…a “Teamship Charter” was born.
By creating this unique bond, people commit unconditionally to co-operate and use their own unique skills for the better good of the team. Effort, hard work and the willingness to compete is a personal choice. Being a great teammate is about making the decision to use your talents to not only better yourself but to recognize how your talents can make the team better, and where you fit in.
The phrase “greater than the sum of the parts” springs to mind. The question…has your team created their own charter that can be just that? “Greater than the sum of the parts”?
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
Mother Teresa