“If you want to build a team, give them a real problem to solve,” I started. “Forget about sensitivity training and communication seminars. Give them a real problem to solve.”

“You mean I should forget about the team circle with all the falling and catching?” Donna smiled.

“Yes. Think about a high performing team you were once a member of. And tell me all about it.”

“Okay,” she responded. “I remember a team. I was just out of college and a group of us got involved in this community service project. We were together for only six weeks, but it was pretty intense. After the project, we all moved on to different things, but when we worked together, against all odds, we were unstoppable.”

“Don’t tell me about the project, tell me about the team. Who was on the team, why the intensity, what was it that made that team so powerful?”

“We were focused. The project was very clearly defined, along with several problems, issues and challenges. The more difficult the problem, the better we worked together.”

“What was it, about the team that made it work so well?” I pressed.

“The biggest thing,” Donna nodded, “was that no single person could do the project alone. It was necessary to cooperate, necessary to ask for cooperation, necessary to communicate. It wasn’t that we were good at being a team, there was just no other way. It was necessity.”