#oneaday, Day 251: Teamwork, Do It Together

I’m going to quote a LazyTown song at you and there is nothing you can damn well do about it.

Links in a chain
Tracks for a train
They’re always better together.
A cocoa in a mug
A kiss and a hug
They’re always better together.
When nothing seems to fit
And you just want to quit
Teamwork, do it together
Teamwork, friends forever
We’re all for one and one for all, we’ll—

Okay, enough already. Even I’m feeling a little nauseous*. But it’s an apt introduction to the matter I would like to talk about today, which is collaborating, working together, being a team player, whatever you want to call it.

In life, teamwork is essential, even for the most inept recluse there is. At some point, they’re going to have to deal with other people. So it may as well be a pleasant experience for everyone involved.

The thing I don’t understand is why so many people don’t seem to get this. For example, I was talking to a friend the other day and it seems that a work colleague had gone behind her back and caused an unpleasant, tense situation when in fact all that was needed was a quiet, friendly word. In fact, given the situation in question, even that wasn’t warranted at all, but this isn’t the time or place to discuss that.

But it seems to happen over and over again; I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard friends comment about the stresses of working with other people, either because they don’t pull their weight, or because they’re the sort of person described above, who is only concerned with making themselves look good and balls to how everyone else feels.

If you’ll indulge me a moment, here is something which truly can be learned from the world of video games. I was enjoying a friendly game of Halo: Reach with some friends earlier, and we were playing Team Slayer. For the benefit of my readers out there who don’t play games at all, an explanation: this mode splits eight players into two teams of four and tasks each team with blowing seven shades of snot out of each other until one team or the other has scored fifty kills. Very simple. And yet what many people who play it don’t seem to realise is that by working together—simply a case of sticking with someone else and protecting them, and occasionally telling other team members where opponents are—success can be pretty much guaranteed, at least until the other team figures out the same thing. Which often doesn’t happen.

It’s the same in reality, only with less shooting each other in the face with rocket launchers. Usually. Rather than striking out as a “lone wolf” that just happens to be part of a larger venture, working together with others is a far more sure-fire way to get things done. Things get done a lot quicker and everyone is a lot happier as a result. So I have to wonder why so many people try and put up barriers to this sort of collaboration. Whether it’s wilfully ignoring things that they’re told, making themselves inaccessible, refusing to listen to feedback or simply not chipping in their bit of effort at crunch time, it makes life unpleasant for everyone. Those who are spurned by the git who isn’t helping end up feeling bitterness and resentment. And said git often starts to feel superior, like they don’t “need” to get involved.

I’m very fortunate in that all the ventures I’m currently involved with are very much team efforts run by people who are friends with mutual respect for one another, and people who talk to each other. There’s no bitchiness, no backstabbing, no resentment. I think. Unless I’m causing it.

Oh God, am I the git?

* inserted to draw attention away from the fact that I have listened to the LazyTown soundtrack on Spotify far more times than is really healthy. This is just between you and me.