What does teamwork mean to you?

I have been playing team sports for many years. In fact, since I was in junior high school, teamwork became one of the most valuable words in my life. I believe that teamwork is important in all team sports in order to be able to achieve a victory. Of course, there is no 100% guarantee that good teamwork leads to victory all the time. In the past, I have lost many games even though our team worked well together.

Yes, teamwork is not everything, however, I believe that having great teamwork is one of the most significant keys to building a good team or relationship with others. Also, I strongly feel that knowing the importance of teamwork allows people to develop important life skills such as social skills. I have heard that in Japan it is common now that during job interviews you might be asked what your opinion is about teamwork. Employers are keen to find out what your working style is when it comes to your colleagues, how you feel about working in a team environment, how you solve problems within your team, and they want to know if you see value in teamwork. Many jobs require people to work closely with one another.  So, teamwork is not only the key in team sports but also it is important in our daily lives.

How do you build good teamwork? My answer is to communicate with respect with your teammates. I think it is fair to say that there is no way to build good teamwork without good communication. When I met my teammates, to play La Crosse, for the first time, when I was a freshman, we came from different backgrounds, values, and ways of thinking. We often had to have lengthy discussions, which took time for us to learn how to understand one another. There were plenty of clashes between us and we had to face conflict, and disagreements. We all had days when we did not want to talk to or be with one another. But we knew that we could not avoid this.  Ultimately our goal was to learn how to communicate with one another in such a way that we could fully understood one another. The time that it took for us to get to this place was long and tiring, however it helped us to build a wonderful strong relationship with one another, which I believe is what teamwork is all about.

I would like to share this story. One of my teammates was always quiet during team meetings. We all thought that the reason for this was that she just did not want to share her opinions with us.  One day when we were having an important team meeting, the girl was being quiet as usual. One of our teammates said to her, “It is so unfair that you never share your ideas or thoughts. I don’t feel that you are committed to our team.” Then the quiet girl started speaking through her tears. “I know what you mean, and I want to share my ideas but I just don’t know how to express them, especially in front of other people. I know I should try harder to speak up even though I am not good at it.”

Then she shared with us that being quiet does not mean that she is not thinking of anything. We all misunderstood her. At the end of the discussion she added that she was going to try expressing her thoughts and feelings, if it would help the team. She cried a lot, as she shared her true feelings, and it was the first time for us to know the true story. Looking at her crying made us think that perhaps we could have shown more compassion and talked to her more about this previously.

We also realized that we must never forget to respect our teammates even if they have different ways to express themselves. We told her that no matter what you think, your voice means a lot to us. She nodded her head in agreement. Since then, she started sharing her thoughts more and more. It was a valuable learning moment for all of us. We learned that having respect is just as important as communication for building good teamwork. It is a great life experience for me and benefits me now.

Fortunately, I have great colleagues at work, and we have the same sense of values  and belief in the meaning of teamwork. We believe that having good teamwork creates a positive learning environment for the children and us. In the class, the children have an opportunity to learn about teamwork. We often talk about it especially around sports day because it seems to go hand in hand with sports. The children love cheering and supporting their classmates and shout, “Go Go ――-(their name)” or “Ganbatte!” By participating in fun games that require teamwork, they enjoy communicating with others and it helps them to develop collaboration skills.

Learning teamwork is one of the ways for them to know how to respect and support others, and improve self-confidence, and problem-solving skills.

I have observed them many times when they are creating and making large constructions with their peers. These cannot be made individually but when they get together and help each other, they realise that they can do many so things in so many new ways. Then they call us and show their finished products to us proudly and shout out, “We did it together!”

Lastly, I’d like to mention that all members of a team are important, even the ones that are quiet, however knowing the importance of teamwork truly helps life skills and it can help solve difficult problems. Thank you for reading and tell me what you think!

Written by Sayaka (Petals Class)

Photo taken from https://www.myperfectresume.com/career-center/jobs/networking/5-ways-to-improve-your-teamwork-skills

Date: March 12, 2021