A Story
It never ceases to amaze me how confidently organizations promote a false narrative about teamwork.
On January 5, 2024, a door plug tore off the side of an Alaska Airlines 737 six minutes after takeoff from Portland. The cabin decompressed at nearly 16,000 feet. Phones, clothing, and children’s toys fell out of the airplane onto the neighborhoods below. There were 171 people on board, and thankfully everyone lived to tell about it. If the door had torn off at cruising altitude, it would have been a different story.
The cause was four bolts. They had been removed during rework at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory and were never put back. They were never found. The process specifically designed to track safety-critical fasteners was not consistently followed.
I know this happened almost two years ago, but something about this story really bothered me.
Three years before that flight, Congress ordered an independent review of Boeing’s safety culture. Around 20 experts spent a year on it. They reviewed 4,000 pages of documents and interviewed 250 employees across six locations. Their conclusion? Boeing’s safety culture was “inadequate and confusing.” One of the key findings was that people were reluctant to speak up, because they feared retaliation. Some said they had raised concerns and watched them get ignored. The managers who saw the safety reports were often the same managers who decided raises and promotions.
When the report became public, Boeing’s response included a line from its CEO urging all teammates to speak up.
Teammates…
The word was right there. And that is exactly the problem. An organization can use the full vocabulary of teamwork while creating conditions in which “being a good team player” reflects a false narrative about what teamwork actually is.
An Insight
I think a lot of us don’t really understand what teamwork is.
What gets promoted in most organizations is agreeableness. We tell people to fit in, get along, and cover for each other. We tell people not to be difficult, and end up encouraging people to contort themselves into whatever shape the moment requires. Essentially, we ask square pegs to figure out how to fit through a round hole.
True teamwork is a different thing entirely. It is taking people with genuinely different capabilities and putting those differences to work in service of a mission none of them could accomplish alone. Think of an orchestra, where a number of different instruments work together to make the beautiful music. It wouldn’t work if everyone was playing the same instrument.
We need to celebrate individual differences, and talents, and shift the narrative around teamwork if we want to build a better culture.
And we can start by shifting what we say and believe about teamwork.
| False Teamwork Beliefs | True Teamwork Beliefs |
| A good team member does whatever’s asked | A good team member does what they are best at |
| Everyone should be able to cover for everyone | Everyone should be able to count on everyone |
| Differences create friction | Differences create capability |
| Team players say yes | Team players say what’s true |
| Speaking up is disloyal | Silence is disloyal |
| Strong teams need strong chemistry | Strong teams need clear roles |
| The team comes before the individual | The team gets nothing from a diminished individual |
I hope you looked closely at these items. They are subtle but very important distinctions. Read the left column again and notice how virtuous it all sounds. That is why it survives even thought the costs associated with these beliefs are high. People end up operating outside their strengths. Concerns go unvoiced. Talented individuals slowly lose their passion for their work because they take on too many tasks they don’t want to do. Burnout sets in, and frustrations mount. Before you know it, you have a culture of zombies who hate what they do, but do it anyway, all in the name of “being a good team player.”
A Subtle Shift
The shift I’m proposing here is a simple:
Change your assumptions about teamwork.
Assumptions are upstream of everything. They shape what you notice and the actions you take. If you’re carrying an unhelpful assumption about teamwork, you will struggle to be a real team player and you will struggle to build a strong team.
So here’s a gentle suggestion:
Look at the table above and commit to making a few subtle shifts in your assumptions about teamwork. Pick one belief from the left-hand column and get rid of it. Adopt a few beliefs from the right-hand column, and see where it takes you.
Remember…Small hinges swing big doors.
