Aerial view of CERN
Eleanor Dobson lives in “the world of small.” She is an experimental particle physicist from the CERN Atlas experiment– the Super Collider – in Geneva. Her presentation at TedX Zurich on 4 October was one of the best of the day; and she had an important lesson to teach us about teamwork and collaboration, which she says are key to the success of the project.
Because of the massive size of this experiment, 4000 scientists are involved in an assembly-line-like process. Holding up a single piece of paper with charts and calculations, she explained that this document represented the result of the efforts of all the team. When a miscalculation arose along the chain of thousands, no one single person was pointed out for blame; but everyone just pulled together to recover from the error.
Once established, deep-down team trust and collaboration – like that demonstrated by the CERN scientists – can’t easily be shaken. It’s hard to establish but well worth the time and effort to consciously build that spirit when teams are being formed. Existing teams may also need a “refresh” of that basic competency on occasion.
In your “world of small,” do your teams function with a sense of trust and collaboration? How will you ensure your future teams work well together? Think about those questions and if you don’t like the answers you give yourself, it may be time to take action to remedy that situation. Ask, assess, then act. Contact us – we’re here to help.