When a team calls itself one.

I have always worked hard to build a cohesive team whenever I get the chance. I use hyperbole, metaphors, rhetoric...ever so often getting "ermm...ok" looks staring back at me. I have always been the cheerleader, forcing the idea of a team down the throats of my charges.

But what happened today reminded me that all that effort can be worthwhile.

I set the team an ideas challenge; each one of them come up with the solution to a business problem. Whoever comes up with the best wins a prize. I gave them 3 days. Today, they came back saying instead of pitting against each other, they brainstormed the problem together, and collectively came up with solutions. And they asked for the prize to be shared.

Today is the day my team is a team because they call themselves one. No force-feeding, just a small gesture of coming together, a shared fate, a collective accountability.

Looks like I have to buy them all lunch. Glad to.