Working as Part of a Team

The tradition: The circus, the commedia dell’arte, and the performances of Shakespeare’s plays at the old Globe Theater date back several hundred years. Teams were led by a director, or the equivalent of a director. Theater carried on the tradition, which informed early motion pictures, radio and then television, advertising agencies and Web development shops with similar ways of working. From the start, some aspects of the process were more team oriented than others. Some tasks were always solo acts and always will be. Others require the entire company on stage.

You’re part of the team, but you are hired with specific responsibility for costumes. You’re the music director, but you also play an important role in shaping the entire creative presentation. You’re the writer on this campaign, but the client is looking to you personally to provide the appropriate attitude. Junior people may not be assigned specific roles. More experienced hands train the young ones. It’s always been that way; it’s how we pass on the tradition.

The really good parts about working as part of a team:
1. If it doesn’t work, it’s nobody’s fault (and everybody’s fault, but that never matters).
2. If it works, you’re a hero, and you get to share the joy with a lot of other like-minded people. (This is team sports for creative people.)
3. On a really fine team, the work is shared, and the result is far greater than any one could have done on their own.

The good parts about working as part of a team:
1. You really are a part of something greater than yourself.
2. You learn a lot about working with other people, and how you fit in.
3. You figure out some interesting things about yourself (“Why am I always the first person to speak up?” or “Why don’t I ever speak up?”).
4. You learn some interesting things about other people (“I never realized she was so critical”; “I never thought of him as a natural leader”).
5. You learn soft and hard lessons from other team members. Team members take the time to nurture one another’s skills and contributions. When it works, this is just wonderful.

The bad parts about working as part of a team:
1. You might end up on a lousy team.
2. You might not fit into the team, regardless of its quality.
3. You might screw things up for the team (on a really good team, everybody covers, so this isn’t much of a problem—unless, of course, you screw up more than once).
4. Regardless of how much you contribute, you will never get the credit. For some people, this is a big issue. For others, it’s a nice break, and for others, it’s a far more comfortable way to work.

The really bad parts about working as part of a team:
None, really. There isn’t much personal risk when you’re part of a team.