Sports Analogy

Kathryn went back to the sports analogy, hoping this would get through to them. “Okay, imagine a basketball coach in the locker room at half-time. He calls the team’s center into his office to talk with him one-on-one about the first half, and then he does same thing with the point guard, the shooting guard, the small forward, the power forward, without any of them knowing what everyone else was talking about. That’s not a team. It’s a collection of individuals.”

…

“All of you, every one of you, are responsible for sales. Not just JR. All of you are responsible for marketing. Not just Mikey. All of you are responsible for product development, customer service, and finance. Does that make sense?”¹

Your team can suffer from this whether the group is functional or cross-functional. Each member must feel responsible for everyone else on the team and must proactively communicate accordingly otherwise they’re just a collection of individuals.