Here's a great fact:

"If all the muscles in the body were able to work together, at the same time, a human being could lift 10 tons."
The Bodies Exhibit

Dear Colleague,

Now that's something to think about. If we could get our muscles working together simultaneously, each of us could lift 5 cars at once. By extension of this medical fact, what if we could get our teams working together with the same exponential strength? Not with lip service, silos, and hidden agendas holding us back, but with real alignment and laser focus. How much power could we harness and how high could we go?

Let's look at some remarkable team achievements from the past and present. Each took a catalyst leader to spark the new idea, but then the team moved it forward with astonishing speed and effectiveness.

I have cited some ideas, examples, and inspiration from two of my favorite recent reads - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs by Andy Kessler and added some experience from our consulting practice. Here's to a great year ahead for you and your team.

	A life isn't significant except for its impact on other lives. -Jackie Robinson  ______________ And no, we don't know where it will lead. We just know there's something much bigger than any of us here. -Steve Jobs ______________ Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

I love how break-through apps, tablets, and new applications are rocking our world, but personally I struggle to keep up. I have to work at it all the time. Yet it has to be front and center in businesses today or none of us will be relevant, or even still in business tomorrow.

Teams have benefited significantly from technology. In fact without technology, we wouldn't have been able to build the best teams the world has ever known. Highly connected, remote teams were not viable before technology. And today, who isn't remote? Consider how we have been uber connected by cells, texts, tweets, emails, webinars, social media, and virtual conference rooms (where half the room is on one side of a conference room table and the other half is halfway across the world.) If you haven't experienced a virtual conference room, seek one out. It is like Disney World applied to the corporate world - surreal and jaw dropping, but now useful in business.

"It is the output of the human mind that creates wealth," says Andy Kessler, author of Eat People. I would add that it is also the output of a tremendous team effort. Here is an example from his book.

Charles Curtis invented the steam turbine engine and then his team brought electricity to the masses in the early 1900's. Subsequently, a janitor with asthma invented the suction vacuum cleaner, William D. Coolidge invented the X-ray Tube that changed medicine forever, and Clarence Birdseye perfected the flash-freezing process. Each inventor leveraged from Curtis's turbine engine but it took smart, hard-working, and diverse corporate teams to move the new product to the marketplace and make it successful. It always does.

Recently I attended an owner's conference of Hampton, Hilton Garden, and Homewood Suites. Each year the leadership of these three brands strives and succeeds in surpassing all kinds of numbers and indicators from the year before. So what are they focusing on today? They are gaining a better understanding of how to capture today's market by studying Generation Y'ers - the population between ages 19 and 27. That generation knows about more about applied technology and social media than any other other generation.

As you shape and grow your team today, it's smart to significantly factor in the Gen Y group. While the Boomers still control 70% of the wealth today, their reign will eventually come to an end. The Gen X'ers are next in line with much experience and value to add. But no company can afford to lose sight of what is coming up - this Millennium's generation of 19 to 27 year olds who have incredible aptitude for seamlessly integrating and adopting technology, and then having a keen instinct for when to discard the technology and move on to the next development. "Mark Zuckerburg, I have tee shirts older than you," Andy Kessler mock ranted to the founder of Facebook in a recent interview.

Just like Curtis, Coolidge, and so many other visionaries before him, Mark Zuckerburg harnesses the power of team to maximize the effectiveness of his brilliant ideas. As early as college he turned to the power of team just in time to pass his art class at Harvard, and it didn't involve cheating. When the founder of Facebook, realized he had not made it to a single class of Art History at school that semester and the final was coming up, he harnessed the muscle power of his entire class. "I downloaded all the images of art that we were supposed to study, and created a website that had comment boxes on it for each piece of art. I sent this website out to the entire class with a 'Hey guys, I built a study tool. Everyone just go use this to comment on, and then go back and see what everyone else has said.' Within an hour or two, I had a bunch of people in the class who filled out all the information about the photos of the art and we each just kind of reviewed it, absorbing the comments. I got an A in the class and heard afterwards that the grades in the class were way higher than they had ever been."

Here are a few ideas to consider in building a more powerful team:

1. If you are the boss, individually ask each of your team members what else they need to be a better and more productive team. A surprisingly small adjustment may yield exponentially larger results - possibly more training, flex time, better snacks, upgraded technology, more appreciation, fewer meetings, a company sponsored sports league, less weekend work etc.
    
2. If you are on a team, put together a business case for your boss on why you need more tools or resources to get optimal results for the company.
    
3. Select a short, punchy, and relevant business book, divide it into several sections, and have selected team members lead a discussion on each section. Then keep the learning process going.
    
4. Plan a relevant and engaging off-site team-building event, with a coach or facilitator. The site can be anything from a Girl Scout or Boy Scout Camp to a luxury resort. You will be amazed at how the simple factor of a fresh environment will create bonds of trust that in turn will create awareness and progress on issues that never get addressed in the office. Best practices in each department get shared, including new technology. Add an individual or group assessment, like the HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument) or the Hogan Leadership Series, and the team building moves to a more significant level.