Life is a Team Sport

I play on a lot of different teams, both at work and at home. We hear a lot these days about being a good team player, but most of what I hear talks about communication, cooperation and compromise.  All those things are great and necessary for good team play.  But they’re also all behavioral rather than cognitive, and we all know that our behavior flows out of our thoughts.  In other words, as our thinking goes, so goes our behavior.  Nowhere is this more evident than in how teammates interact with one another.

It seems to me that there is one aspect of our thinking that has a massive impact upon how we interact with others on the team.  It has been true for me personally and I’ve seen it consistently in others.  I don’t have a great term for it, but the moniker isn’t really important.  It all has to do with where we individually believe we should set the bar regarding the nature of our relationship with other team members.

The lowest setting of the bar is intolerance.  That’s where we might view others as wrong simply because they do not hold our view.  We discount what they say, what they need, and even their potential contribution.  Needless to say, this is not consistent with teamwork (or friendship, marriage or any other type of important relationship).

Up from there is tolerance.  That’s where we can accept that others have views, perspectives and contributions that are very different than our own.  We still aren’t crazy about that fact, but we’ve learned to live with it and at least pretend that we like it.  Our primary view is still toward us and our needs.  Teamwork can exist, but it’s hard to maintain any kind of cohesion and unity.

The next setting of the bar is respect.  This begins to mature our relationship with our teammates by helping us look outwards, towards others on the team.  We value their personalities, gifting, contributions and needs.  This makes every aspect of teamwork more fun, effective and rewarding.

The highest setting is advocacy.  This is where we actively look out for the best interests of our teammates.  “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil 2:4-7).”  Relationships and teamwork can get crazy good under that kind of selflessness.  How many ways could God bless the teams we’re on, both at home and at work, if we lived with this kind of intentionality?

I’m going to spend some time praying about where I’ve got that bar set, on my home and work teams, and I invite you to do the same.