Editorial - February 3, 2010

Teamwork solves ‘prablems’

By Andy Comber

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success." That is what famed baseball slugger Babe Ruth said about teamwork.

Teamwork is more than success in sports. It can be a positive in school, business, industry and government.

I learned a lot about teamwork as an adult, or as some say, "mature" student in college.

Encouraged by my younger peers, I joined the college recreational softball league. Made up of photo and print journalists, our team was certainly unique – even our team name "Sally Vomit and the Salad Prablems" drew attention. Maybe it was something to do with the spelling of "prablems", being journalists – but still we were a team.

I could embellish the success of our teamwork, reporting the truth that we finished the season in the top five – but then there were only seven teams in our league. Still, teamwork got us to the playoffs.

My real lesson in teamwork came in our "do-or-die" playoff in soup. It had rained for days, was still raining, but the game went on. No trouble "planting" our feet at bat – they sank in the mud like roots.

You might be expecting a fairy tale ending, but there was no championship win for us.

Cold, wet, muddied, defeated by a run – we lost. But, I learned with teamwork, losing is never a "prablem"– we celebrated our successes, as we should, like winners of a World Series.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama talked about teamwork in his State of the Union address. He said he had campaigned on the promise of change, but noted he never suggested he "could do it alone."

Obama said there had been many times in history – times of war, economic upheaval – where the future was uncertain.

"These were the times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union," Obama said. "And despite all our divisions and disagreements, our hesitations and our fears, America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, as one people."

To face the challenges of today, Obama called on all politicians to work through their differences, "to overcome the numbing weight of our politics."

This call for teamwork is sound advice for our nation and our politicians. But, we are not doing so well with differences in Ottawa.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper reaped scorn from the opposition for temporarily suspending Parliament. More recently, he was accused of practicing "old politics" for appointing five pro-Conservatives to the Senate.

We have a fragile minority government at a time when we need strong leadership and teamwork.

Canada has to find a way to overcome its own numbing weight of our politics – like some baseball players overcoming the weight of mud on their shoes.

Teamwork solves "prablems".