I have often found that the college classes that I thought would be a waste of time often became some of my favorite moments in education. One of those courses was all about team building and the rumors that I had heard about the professor and his syllabus worried me enough that I put off taking it until I had almost completed all of the requirements of my masters degree. 

The first day of class we watched clips of Dances With Wolves involving the customs of Native Americans as portrayed in the film. I had to admit that the presentation prompted me to immediately think differently about the movie itself and the idea that the nuances of teamwork are essential to the success of virtually every culture. I appreciated the way that the professor allured us into listening to his take on the value of knowing how to work with others and so I felt a bit more comfortable with the whole concept in spite of being a dedicated introvert who had mostly worked as a lone wolf throughout my career. 

By the second class we were allowed to self select a group that would undergo the process of becoming a real team throughout the rest of the semester. I had been in classes with two women who had impressed me and I gravitated to them immediately. I was excited when the three of us forged a solid promise to work together by sharing the load of any assignments that we might have to complete. Another woman who had not yet found a group was soon a member of our happy and hopeful union and we had high hopes of succeeding.

It did not occur to us at the time that we were mostly of the same ilk, three middle aged women with type A personalities and work ethic. Our fourth member was young and seemingly naive so we silently felt that we would be mostly carrying her along. We were not concerned at all about the lack of diversity that defined our group but that aspect would soon be changed by the professor.

By the third class a new male student had arrived late from China. His English was all but nonexistent as he attempted to explain who he was and why he had come from so far away to earn an advanced degree. We held our breaths as the professor scanned different groups as though deciding which would be graced with the newcomer. When his eyes locked on our section of the classroom we understood that we would be the guinea pigs who would have to deal with an individual who seemed unable to offer anything of merit to our projects. Suddenly we had become an incredibly diverse group and we were silently unhappy about the prospect. 

We were required to meet regularly beyond the hours of the class. In those meetings we would have certain goals to reach and in the process we would learn about the different stages of team building. We had to provide the professor with a report of how we were progressing. While we initially believed that we would more than likely be in so much agreement with each other that we would be able to carry our young man from China along without any problems, we would soon learn that forming a cohesive partnership between five different people is never that easy.

We got through the norming phase but began to understand that we had three chiefs and two individuals who just sat looking as though they wished that the three of us vying to take over would get our acts together. Once we determined who was best at keeping the team on track we entered the storming phase which quickly boiled over into a series of grievances that included a full blown crying session from the youngest woman who felt that we older ladies were treating her as though she did not have a brain. Her accusations were shocking to hear but because our goal was to work through the stage of disagreement for the sake of the ultimate goal we set our defensive attitudes aside and soon realized that we had indeed been sidelining her without providing her with opportunities to express herself. 

Of course we were still not hearing from the man from China who seemed to just stare at us as though he was miserable. We had to find a way to give him a voice and that became our next challenge. Weeks passed and we heard little from him but along came an assignment from the professor that forced us to take a quiz together. Amazingly the man was able to write down his ideas coherently enough that we were able to see that he was in fact absorbing the gist of the materials that we used in the course. We were able to use his work in the tract that we gave to the professor and he noted how well we all seemed to be using the skills of each person in the group. When we saw our grade we literally felt like a team that had won a trophy and we bonded ever closer. 

Our final assignment was a long paper that would demonstrate how well we had understood the concepts of the class. We began meeting at the home of one of our members that looked out on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. By then we felt the comfort of friendships that allowed us to be honest with ourselves and each other. We used the movie Hoosiers as the exemplar of incredible team building. We sat together eating popcorn and taking notes about the moments when team building took place in each scene. 

Each and every person had so many wonderful ideas that we had to pick and choose what was most important but we made sure that every point of view was honored. Since I enjoy writing I was charged with putting all of the different entries together and since we had worked as a group our words seemed to fluidly join each other. The young woman that we had intitially misjudged came up with the most important and unique section of the paper. The man from China knew how to make our efforts look professionally polished. We turned in that paper assured that even if it did not impress the professor we would cherish what we had done together forever. 

We were over the moon when we received the only A plus that the professor claimed he had ever before given. He cited the area of the paper that had been conceived by the younger woman as the key to its perfection. He noted the incredibly professional look of the presentation and he understood that only a well defined team working together would have been able to create such a masterpiece. 

I still think of that class and how much it taught me. It was there that I learned the value of diverse voices and talents. I saw that being in an echo chamber produced mediocrity while genuinely tuning in to many different points of view was powerful. I took that lesson with me to the remainder of my career. I had learned the importance of building a diverse team with individuals bringing their best skills to the table. Diversity and real teamwork are the foundations of the kind of creative thinking that solves big problems. Real teams that respect each player’s value are incredibly powerful winners. Those run by a tyrant who only allows one voice destroy any chance of doing great things. We would all do well to accept this powerful truth.