Team Launch

            In teambuilding, so we have been told, eight components contribute to its health.  They follow with their respective explanations:

1. Direction: The team has a shared understanding of its purpose and goals.

2.  Talent: Each team member knows and shares his talents with the others.

3.  Work Process: The way things are done is planned and efficient.

4.  Roles: Each team member understands his own function and that of the others.

5.  Team Process: The team communicates and cooperates well.

6.  Team Norms: The culture of the team is generally understood and articulated.

7.  Reinforcement: The team members build one another up with encouragement in love.

8.  External Relations:  The team understands its larger role in the organization and relate well to those outside the team.

            In Launch, probably our greatest strength is External Relations.  We know, as our team, how we relate to everyone else here at camp.  Our function as a team is to do the things that need to be done, whether that means we are each off in different directions helping in different areas, or working together on a particular project, such as the log cabin or pop cans.  Since we work under everyone, we have excellent relations as a team with those not in our team, because we are constantly working alongside of them in support roles.

           

            Perhaps our weakest area is Reinforcement.  We don’t really tell one another when a good job is done.  A good job is expected, so when it is, in fact, done, nothing special has occurred.  It’s normal to do a good job.  The only feedback we really get is if we are doing something wrong, partly because this is out of the ordinary, but partly because this is the only time we demand attention.  Flaws draw our attention in a task-oriented environment, but we must be ever-mindful that the tasks are not eternal, but our co-workers’ souls are.