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Baseball taught me a lot about teamwork and diversity. But when I mention the word “diversity,” I’m not necessarily referring to culture or race. I’m really thinking more about diversity of skills, abilities, and experience.
A baseball team fields nine people playing nine different positions. Each position is fundamentally different and requires specific skills. Even the most mediocre managers in Major League Baseball would never consider putting experienced right-fielders (or catchers, or first basemen) at every position during a game. Similarly, even the most mediocre CEOs would never consider having their boards field all accountants (or lawyers, or engineers). It’s the diversity of professional expertise that makes a team strong and effective.
The five branches of the United States military have always practiced teamwork and diversity. Army tank battalions, Marine platoons, Navy boat crews, Air Force C-130 crews, and Coast Guard helicopter crews all are comprised of a set number of people with different professional experience.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew, for instance, consists of a pilot, copilot, mechanic, and rescue swimmer. Their four areas of expertise are blended together into a team effort that rescues people in danger. It is this blended expertise that saves lives. Four pilots can’t do it and four mechanics can’t do it. No group of four other professions can accomplish what the crew working together can accomplish.
Each crewmember receives extensive and identical training in his or her specialty area. Procedures are standardized for each element of the helicopter team’s operations. As a result, crewmembers may be transferred in and out of any team in the country without missing a beat.
Six people in the helicopter would be less efficient. Based on experience and evaluation, the Coast Guard had determined that four is the optimum number in the way of both expertise and capability. Capacity is also maximized in that the helicopter maintains the space and weight for up to ten people to be rescued. The helicopter and its crew become the optimal package to accomplish the mission.
The U.S. Coast Guard knows how to practice teamwork with diversity – and they know how to make it work when it really counts. We all know how well the Coast Guard performed during Hurricane Katrina. Take a look at this month’s “Featured Leader” column and read about they performed on September 11, 2001. It’ll make you proud.
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