The American Vision of Teamwork
Anywhere in life you need the right people on the bus to take a satisfying journey. To demonstrate that I’m going to bounce around a bit (potholes and rough road will do that). I’m going to brag a bit about my people, and in turn by inference about myself. Then I’m going to tell you how I screwed up. Ego & blind faith can be nasty teachers.
The highs and lows
Aerospace is an industry that can chew people up and destroy lives. Teamwork is essential for individual success and survival. I know so many engineers and sales people who have fallen off the cliff. Divorce, alcoholism, destitution, alienated children, psychological damage – all of it part of the sacrifice, addiction and misplaced dedication made to the world of airplanes and the magic of flight. Somehow I have survived relatively intact, but the body count of people I know continues to grow.
Seeing all that, I think now it’s a minor miracle we actually built what we set out to do at TTF Aerospace. That is, construct a company where people are appreciated, their ideas are valued, and working as a team toward common goals is the only acceptable mode; to provide a workplace where everyone can feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. I believe in people. I believe if you give people empowerment and opportunity the majority of them will excel. What I didn’t do was give enough credence to partners who might be complacent, or worse, liars and betrayers.
It’s always a struggle, and if I were a harder man I probably would have set TTF up differently from the start and been more assertive about certain things. This was a bootstrap operation. That we were able to grow an aerospace company with limited funds and no outside investment into a world class player was highly unusual, a fact not lost on those who knew our story. I think while it existed TTF was one of those true “only in America” success stories.
I remain proud of our accomplishments, humbled by the people who worked there, and regretful of its ultimate closing. It was especially gratifying to be able to walk through our own factory and see all the things we were making and services we were delivering. We had over 100 different TTF-designed products and services we provided to more than 130 aircraft companies around the world. We supplied lower and main deck crew rests, galleys, lavatories, class dividers, reinforced cockpit doors, overhead stowage bins & life raft compartments, ceiling & floor panels, major system and support structure modifications, seat mods and testing services, and the list continued to grow. TTF counted many of the world’s largest airlines as customers, including Air Canada, Air France, American, Alaska, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, TAP, United, US Airways and Virgin Atlantic as well as some of the largest leasers, maintenance centers and Tier 1 manufacturers, like AAR, Aercap, Airbus, Air Lease Corp, Aviation Capital Corp, B/E Aerospace, Boeing Capital, CIT, GECAS, Jamco, ST Aerospace, and Safran/Zodiac. If it sounds like I’m tooting our horn I guess it’s because I am. I still consider it the challenge and the accomplishment of a lifetime. Still, it only took one person to ruin it.
Setting expectations like that arranges the stage for two outcomes – reward and disappointment. Most of the time we were rewarded for doing things right. But, the margin for error is always small and ultimately we made a mistake in people judgement that cost us our business and our people a great place to work.
In the end nearly every victory is bittersweet, if for no other reason than victory means an ending. So, while TTF will always be a part of me, it eventually became time to move on to the next thing.
The “I” Part of Moving Forward
For me, removing mental obstacles has been the most important part to moving forward – keeping the desire, the motivation, the ambition, the belief, especially the belief we can continue to excel at old things and accomplish new ones. It’s even okay if those ambitions are somewhat delusional; so much the better, in fact, because I think they push people to do more than they might otherwise attempt.
Some of the best words I ever heard about moving forward, about life, fear and losing came from Steven Jobs in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University:
“Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
“…Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
That encompasses so many different key thoughts. Pride, fear and guilt mean nothing when it comes down to the end. I have nothing to lose but myself; it cannot be taken, only I can give it away. We always need to be about becoming something greater than we are.
We can’t be happy if we put off until tomorrow what we can do today. It’s easy to get distracted; easy to fall into traps, like snow skiing’s hot spots. Life is sneaky that way. I don’t want outside pressures to be an excuse for giving my self, my desires, and my becoming away.
It doesn’t all have to happen tomorrow, but it needs to stay in my consciousness and remain part of my intuition. It needs to remain the guiding light, the driving force of my existence. Course corrections are inevitable, I just need to be sure to check my compass now and then so I don’t wander off. Everything requires work and preparation to be done well. Even spontaneity requires a bit of effort to get into that space and be satisfying.
Commencement speeches like Jobs’s always espouse a fair amount of idealism. Because we need others to help us (at least, I do), by necessity daily living is much more pragmatic, more compromising. We all have different motivations and perceptions, so accommodation sometimes becomes paramount to making progress as a team. Compromise is usually a dirty word to people like me who have an unwavering objective. It creates a fear of giving away the vision, but I grudgingly know it’s sometimes required to achieve my goals. Our different experiences shape perceptions of different worlds for each of us, and unique perspectives can provide valuable insights.
Being open minded and staying true to our ideals and core beliefs can be threatening. I don’t have to compromise my integrity to change the route I take to achieve my goals. But, as has often been the case for me, I usually end up letting something go to get what I truly desire. It brings to mind the old warning to be careful what you wish for….
I have also come to understand that what I give up today can still be out there for me to attain tomorrow. Persistence is a virtue, but it also requires another one: patience.
With all that in mind, I like Mark Twain’s notion of greatness: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”[1]
And John Ruskin, who wrote, “I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I don’t mean by humility, doubt of his power. …(These men) see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.”[2]
The Balance of Teamwork
I delegate my trust to select people because it comes down to a belief in the basic value and goodness of human nature. Certainly it can be scary and risky to do so. It depends mightily upon the ability to judge and evaluate the nature of the folks we hire. It’s not infallible; miscalculations are made about people. Some fail us; others make mistakes. But, rather than micromanage and mother and enable, I want to hire the best people we can. I want people who are smarter than I am in a given discipline, so I can set them on their courses, mentoring and guiding them through the big picture to the finish line. While I can’t claim all the credit and my ego knows it isn’t all me, I think it’s incredibly more satisfying to lead a group to victory than to claim it’s all me. It’s an ego trip of a different kind, not the all me, but the all we.
From a team perspective, I have always found American Football to be the greatest game ever invented. If one person fails one time to perform their task, the mission of that moment fails. Football, however, also has intermediate goals called first downs. With them teams are given four chances to work together and successfully attain the goal. If we keep reaching our intermediate goals, we eventually reach our ultimate goal, in this case to score a touchdown. Eleven people need to be on the same page, giving the same high level of effort to make one play successful. To do it over and over again is to master the best of human cooperation, commitment, courage, problem solving and interaction.
There are no excuses in football. It’s a very physically and mentally demanding experience. True teammates will do whatever they can for each other because there’s a bond forged of hardship, blood, sweat, and adversity to a common spirit and a common goal. If it’s been done right, when it’s over there’s a bond that lasts a lifetime. So football is a microcosm, a powerful metaphor of life.
A Powerful Lesson from an Immigrant
All this was impressively reinforced upon me one evening on March 20, 2018, on a dinner cruise in Florida’s Choctawhatchee Bay. Janice and I were sitting across from Mariam and Francisco Martinez who had immigrated to Canada from Venezuela about ten years before. Six years later Francisco’s company transferred him to Dallas where they gained US citizenship. We struck up a conversation I found both encouraging and enlightening. Through observation Francisco has come to believe there are three major characteristics that distinguish American society from the rest of the world. He believes those virtues will continue to make America great. What he went on to say validated most everything I hold dear about my life in this country, and how truly special this place is. If you’ve traveled the world you know this, too.
Francisco asserted teamwork is intrinsic in American life, its prominence so ingrained it can never be destroyed. Further to that, he claimed the American Experience is exemplified in two entities – the game of American Football and the United States Military. No where else in the world are the virtues of teamwork more strongly held and supported and spread across a society than here in America, and he says it’s because of these two institutions of American life. He said further evidence of the uniqueness of this American quality can be found in the observation that people in other societies do not understand the attraction of American Football; they cannot grasp its concept of team.
The Martinez’s say the subordination of self and the giving of the self to others exists at a level here that can’t be found anywhere else. Francisco feels nowhere else does the concept of ‘when the team wins everyone wins’ permeate the foundation of the moral structure like it does in America. Quite an interesting paradox when one considers we are known as the land of the rugged individualist.
I have wondered if those ideals are somehow intertwined, but I have never been sure how to articulate it. Perhaps it has something to do with the liberating sense that comes with giving one’s self to team goals; maybe it frees us to actualize our dreams by defining roles, highlighting strengths and exposing weaknesses, thereby ultimately giving us an awareness and inner strength to seek new challenges.
In addition, Francisco said it even translates into an involvement to volunteering that exists nowhere else. Lastly, as if to close the circle, he and Miriam asserted there was one last virtue related to it all – the realization that in America help is always available. All one has to do is ask. One may have to ask more than once, but help is always there if one asks.
I believe Francisco is right, and I was so grateful to be there to hear it from him. In team settings, we hear all the time about heroes and stars. But, the one thing we hear all the time from the best of those heroes and stars, be they military or athletic, is the same modest, team-oriented refrain, “I am no hero. I didn’t do anything special. I just did my job.”
All of that relates directly to teamwork in business. For me, it’s that simple. Few of us hold the power of a visionary like Steve Jobs. He was incredibly demanding and unforgiving; falling short of a goal was never acceptable and his people often paid an insulting personal price for that. I believe he was successful for two reasons. First, he adhered unfailingly to a powerful vision and a will to make it real. Second, his team shared that vision. They allowed him to drive them and treat them poorly to attain the collective goal.
For the sake of a goal, they chose to cede their own will to his will. In a way, it was yet another demonstration of Francisco’s concept of American teamwork. To do that to such an extent, however, the team mantra has to demonstrate a payoff for every person involved; it must be a shared experience. The ultimate goal of human experience is to have a life of shared experience. Appreciation comes with understanding. Understanding only comes by appreciating the risks. Is experience then a circle, or is it a spiral, alternatingly ascending and descending? Either way, it must come by sharing. We all must own a vision of ourselves and it takes others to help us get there; collectively taking chances, exhibiting courage and commitment vaults each of us closer to our personal goal.
I consider Steve Jobs a genius but not necessarily a great person or a great leader. As William Shakespeare wrote, “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.”[3] Amazingly enough, however, humanity needs all of us to move forward and be worthwhile. The old Greek axiom that one cannot appreciate beauty unless one has seen ugliness rings true.
For me, then, the ultimate goal has always been to gather people around me who have the will to make a life of their own, to execute their visions and fulfill their own dreams. To realize those dreams through a shared experience has always been the best accomplishment of all.
[1]Moore, Hank, Power Stars to Light the Flame, Di Angelo Publications, Houston, TX, 2012. Ch. 6.
[2]Ibid.
[3]Barnet, Sylvan, Ed., “Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene I,” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1972, p. 813.
