I love TV shows that show great teamwork. They aren’t always easy to find. Most shows tend to focus on an individual character and their story arc. I’ve been watching The Bear recently and it is one of those.
The Bear is about a restaurant that is in the brink of falling over. Most characters in the show are struggling with some issue in their lives: grappling with mental health issues, grieving lost loved ones, broken marriages, terrible childhoods etc. They bring the internal chaos to work and the there is no room for the individual skills to flourish. People are too busy screaming at each other to think about why they are there or really, to listen to any good ideas. There is strong push to go back to what was before. This feels a lot like many teams I’ve worked with. Maybe less dramatic.
It is interesting to see what gets them out of the rut. Some of it comes down to small changes — devising clever ways to say “sorry” when it is too intense to say it out loud (they roll their fist on the chest), calling every person a “chef” as a sign of respect, making sure the tape is cut properly etc. They have to continue to do non-ideal things to make ends meet. The individuals themselves have to go on their own personal journey in parallel. Some of it is brought on by new perspective from external events or time spent training internships. Overtime, they start to demonstrate to each other it can be done, as a team. Even things like changes in processes stop being taken as power plays or done for adversarial reasons.
Of course, their challenges get harder. Each individual have to step up their game overtime to make it work. However, the most important thing is that they learn to lean on each other. They learn to be candid, but respectful. Each challenge ties them closer together.
And they make great food. Check it out — highly recommended.
Image credit: TVDB
The other shows I loved for its team work is “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. It probably needs no introduction to many: there are so many things to like about it. I just couldn’t noticing how their team dynamics helped them get out of so many issues. “The West Wing” isn’t bad for teamwork either.