THOUGH drawn from different backgrounds, cultures and diversities of people, members of a team constitute a family. Every one works towards achieving the team’s specific goal, and each person has to play a specific role if the team is to function cohesively. A team cannot function disparately; everyone has to be accountable for their part. When this happens, it creates an environment conducive to personal and group/team success. Teamwork gives an imbued sense of confidence and accomplishment, and has no substitute when it comes to achievement.

Using athletics as an analogy, an individual runner, though having a coach or mentor, has no esprit de corps or even a way to recognise leadership, since he/she is singly involved. Being a member of a team teaches the individual how to work in a united environment for a cause/common good. Another advantage of team membership is that it teaches one to identify or recognise potential leaders and the role they can play in developing themselves and their community. And where there is a team-oriented leader, s/he leads through competition rather than suppression, which allows for the generation of ideas and unleashing of potential. A team environment teaches resourcefulness, and training also takes place in preparing individuals for unforeseen events that could potentially prevent accomplishment of the mission.

For a team to develop, it has to assume its own identity, and this is influenced by the personality or characteristics of its leader(s). It is the strength of the leadership that influences the cohesion of various/diverse parts/individuals to complement the strength of the team. These factors/characteristics are critical for a functioning or practical unit, because the team becomes more goal-oriented and ultimately realises its successes.

Teamwork is about accomplishment. The participants want to get things done, and behind this backdrop, there is a likelihood of having progress, given that they are in an arena where they compete for a collective good. In sports, the best leader is not necessarily those who are the best athletes, but the ones who bring out the best in their teammates and create an environment for success.

Extrapolate this concept to a country which can be considered a team or family. It takes leadership of someone that has a sense of teamwork and family cohesiveness to develop the society, given that in such an environment it is not about self, but the importance of everyone working together in order to succeed.

History has shown that society cannot function effectively and efficiently when everyone is fighting for self, or representing self. In such an environment, chaos is created due to the absence of a collective vision/goal/mission and accountability, which are necessary for loyalty, respect and mutual understanding. Seeing ourselves as one, regardless of our diversity, gives us a common identity and creates opportunities for creation of common principles and realisation of goals that would move citizens and country forward.

Even though there may not be all the accolades or individual recognition, together each one achieves more. And this can be achieved through accountability, where each is helping another to be better and to do more, which in turn will create an environment for progress.

A team also creates the environment wherein someone can be comfortable attaining their full or true potential in an atmosphere where it is done for the better of all, not one. As one increases his/her abilities and/or skills, everyone on the team moves forward. This eliminates or decreases sluggish performance, because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the parts cannot succeed without the whole. The spirit and intent underpinning our motto -– One People, One Nation, One Destiny — is to weld the diverse peoples and cultures as a united unit/country, pursuing a common destiny. Our motto means that we are each accountable to the other, and ought to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. We are a team. We are a unit.

One People, One Nation, One Destiny means that we should be here for each other’s well-being, betterment, and development. But what has been absent, over a number of years, is the defining of a common message that can rally the society around a common purpose and common achievement.

It needs to be said that if one Guyanese fails, Guyana, as a country, fails. In the environment of teamwork, none is allowed to fail, because our mission will not be accomplished. This is the only way any society develops – through common identity, something to strive for, to fight for, and to represent; something which creates lasting identity and unity. In addition to unity keeping us together as a group, it also gives us a reason, not just to fight for the mission and country, but for each other.