The platoon moved out on a moonless night in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan and walked stealthily for miles over the sandy, high mountain desert. Finally arriving at the right spot, the 30 men established an ambush overlooking a dirt trail. Spreading out, the soldiers burrowed themselves into the earth and tried to hide. The platoon struggled to stay awake as they stared over their rifles. When the sun slowly peaked over the horizon, two motorized patrols drove out the gates of other camps, headed directly at villages known to harbor the Taliban. As expected, when the Taliban saw the clouds of dust the MRAP trucks kicked up, they grabbed their weapons, threw on their patus, and jumped on their motorcycles to get away from the mounted patrols. The three motorcycles took separate, well-worn trails away from the Americans. The planning and execution of the operation was flawless — one of the unlucky insurgents drove his motorcycle right into the engagement area of the ambush.

Did you watch the ten-part ESPN documentary series on the Chicago Bulls’ sixth championship season called The Last Dance? The Bulls had great talent with Michael Jordon, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and others. Their goal was to win their sixth championship. The team’s wins and losses tracked the progress. The Bulls Hall of Fame coach, Phil Jackson, created a phenomenal culture that helped to manage the giant egos on the team. And they developed trust through tough workouts and practices, as well as the grind of the NBA season.

That platoon in Ghazni would never be mistaken for the Chicago Bulls. But they planned and executed the ambush as flawlessly as the Bulls executed the Triangle Offense. How did both of these organizations develop into great teams? And how can that help you build your small or medium sized business into one? I believe that there were five critical elements that helped forge great teams:

• A goal

• A roadmap of how to get there

• A scoreboard that tracks the progress

• A culture that provides the guardrails for the team to operate between.

• Trust in the team that developed through shared experiences and hardships

The 1997-1998 Bulls’ strengths were the goal (The Last Dance), roadmap, and culture that Phil Jackson implemented. The platoon in Ghazni had a competent platoon leader, a savvy platoon sergeant, a goal (to conduct counterinsurgency operations in Ghazni Province and bring everyone home), a rudimentary scoreboard, and a solid culture. But what really forged that group of individuals from all walks of life into a superb team was a series of shared experiences — tough training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; a validation exercise at Fort Polk, Louisiana; a series of gun fights in Paktika Province, Afghanistan where they learned what worked and didn’t work against the Taliban; a move to Ghazni Province; and more engagements in Ghazni where they learned what worked and didn’t work against a slightly different enemy.

Previously, I’ve posted about setting the goal (mission+leader’s intent —https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/the-coronavirus-crisis/d-day ), developing a roadmap (OPORD —https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/the-coronavirus-crisis/the-opord ), and enhancing your culture (https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/the-coronavirus-crisis/enhancing-culture ). Some organizations do a great job of using shared experiences and hardships to build trust in the team. We are all experiencing a collective shared hardship right now. Think about how you are using it with your team. Are you using it to build the team? Or is it breaking your team down? What team building events do you have on the calendar for the next 6 months? Be creative and safe, but figure out ways to bring the team together and build that trust.

Go on the offense and use the coronavirus crisis as a catalyst to build your team and have it operating at an extremely high level.