We few, we happy few, we band of........?

October 1, 2021 12:33 PM

I am looking for examples of high functioning, inspiring teams/groups to inspire my....less high functioning team. Ideally, this team: works well together to accomplish hard tasks, the tasks are cognitive, not physical (so, no sports examples, please), and technology helps the team be so good. Nice to have: would be known and inspiring in many regions of the world, works under a lot of time pressure, and does not use magic or superpowers. Could be a specific team, a profession, or anything that we can aspire to be more like. Thank you!
posted by papergirl to Work & Money (23 answers total)

Not sure that this is at all helpful but the movie Sneakers immediately popped into my head when I read your question.
posted by 12%juicepulp at 12:41 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Oceans 11? (replace "11" with the number of people are your team)
posted by nkknkk at 12:49 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

The engineers who came up with a solution to the Apollo 13 explosion: "Houston, we have a problem."
posted by wenestvedt at 12:50 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

The original Barksdale detail team from The Wire pops to mind, in that they were mostly chosen specifically for their lack of aptitude but ended up actually being good at their jobs. Sometimes (Lester Freamon) because they were overlooked, and sometimes (Prez) because they found skills they didn't realize they had.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:52 PM on October 1, 2021

It may not be quite the inspiring message you want to send, but the group of folks who produce the war in Wag the Dog are incredible collaborators.
posted by phunniemee at 12:53 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

A team in the operating room, where you have people with different skills, and a hierarchy, but each contributor is necessary.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:58 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Leverage team is a cheering example. Heist stories generally are likely to provide examples, but many of them don't have happy endings.
posted by praemunire at 1:00 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Clarification: Are you looking for real examples of teams or fictional representations?

I think that the complexity of what happened with Apollo 13 is a good example of high level functioning with a real-world, life or death outcome on the line. Engineers to the rescue!
posted by zerobyproxy at 1:26 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

For fictional: NCIS and the crew of the Enterprise.

In the real world the teams who organize and run the Disney parks are amazing. Just a huge amount of effort into making things effortless.

As others have indicated astronauts are probably the pinnacle of visibility, teamwork, and professionalism.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:42 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Here's a really good article about the team who made Fraggle Rock
posted by Chenko at 1:46 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Maybe the team at Bletchley Park who cracked The Enigma code during WWII.
posted by bondcliff at 1:50 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

High-functioning, inspiring teams usually work under high-functioning, inspiring management, for companies who pay and treat them well. If your team is less than impressive, it's quite possible the environment in which they work is also subpar. Maybe you need examples of good management, HR, and compensation policies?
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 2:20 PM on October 1, 2021 [7 favorites]

The people putting out forest fires comes to mind. Yes, there are a ton of boots on the ground doing physical stuff, but there is so much tech and coordination involved. They're not out there just spraying water. They're planning well in advance where to put break lines, where to let the fire burn, if the weather will allow planes to drop fire retardant or helicopters to drop water, and whether it's safe for those boots to even be in various places.

They're trying to predict where and how fast huge fires will travel all while keeping as many people safe as possible. That involves specialized knowledge of fire behavior, of course, but also weather, geography, satellite imagery, skilled communication, and on and on. All these experts need to know how to talk to each other and someone has to know how to talk to the general public. I can't imagine how many different types of specialized knowledge are involved, nor how many points of data need to be gathered and interpreted and communicated back at every moment.

Lives literally depend on hundreds of people working together in extraordinary circumstances, often making split second decisions. Despite the size and sometimes the speed of these fires, there seems to me to be relatively little loss of life or even property. It's astonishing.

If you want some very dramatic examples, look into the Labor Day fires of 2020 in Oregon. The wind was blowing so fast from the east that the fires blew up overnight and overtook a massive amount of land in just one day. The Holiday Farm Fire alone covered over 100,000 acres in 24 hours. Because so many huge fires flared up across the state (and in WA and CA), resources were stretched incredibly thin and there was literally no time for a warning other than someone banging on their door for many folks that they had to evacuate. And yet, so many people and homes were saved.
posted by tllaya at 2:23 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Musketeers?
posted by Enid Lareg at 2:33 PM on October 1, 2021

The Martian's Ares III crew
Habitat for Humanity International
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:11 PM on October 1, 2021

FDR’s Brain Trust?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:46 PM on October 1, 2021

At one point in my life, I spent a bunch of time around biology research labs in a major university. In most cases, the people in the labs got along well with each other and respected each other. And even though there was a hierarchical structure (principal investigator -> post-doctoral fellow -> graduate student -> technician -> undergrad doing a research project), there was also a sense of egalitarianism – more so than in any other place I've ever worked.

Another example that fits your criteria is the Manhattan Project.
posted by alex1965 at 3:54 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ocean Conservation Namibia

A crew patrols a few beaches in Namibia where fur seals hang out and rest, rescuing seals who have gotten entangled in fishing line, nets, and other human detritus and castoffs. They stand at some distance from groups of a hundred or so seals typically, and scan the group with binoculars to identify their often multiple targets, and then sneak up as best they can until the seals are alarmed and start humping for the safety of the surf, then they sprint for the entangled seals, who are babies more often than not, netting some and capturing others by hand, and then cut them free and release them. Tremendous levels of cooperation and coordination among the crew are required to accomplish their difficult and often very delicate task.

There certainly is a physical aspect to this, but the cognitive demands on the crew are huge; they must identify the seals who are entangled through binoculars, usually, and the variety of entanglements is huge and are often difficult to see; multiple seals are often entangled and the plan of attack has to encompass saving as many seals as possible and set priorities; different entanglements require different equipment, and some of the equipment must be chosen in advance; some entangled seals are huge, far more powerful than human beings, can be very angry, and the leader of the crew is clearly assessing whether the risk to himself and the crew is worth it, though I haven’t seen that made explicit, but they tackle seals I probably wouldn’t get within ten feet of; maybe one in ten to one in twenty rescues fail; equipment often breaks or is inadequate and somebody has to run back to the truck for an alternative; the seals themselves treat the crew as predators, of course, growling and snapping and doing everything in their power to get away.

But then they’re rescued, and it's fascinating that some seals whip their heads back and forth looking around at their rescuers as they com out of the net, and seem to to realize that something really good has happened to them, and it's amazing to see them try to adjust their view of the world to take this into account as they scamper into the surf. It never fails to be thrilling to see freed seals embarking upon a renewed life.

There are scores of these videos — more than a hundred by now, surely — and I can only remember a handful that reach ten minutes. If you were to watch some with vicissitudes your own team has faced in mind, I'd be surprised if you couldn’t find examples of problems they overcame that mapped pretty closely onto issues you and your team have had to deal with.
posted by jamjam at 7:22 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am surprised this hasn't been mentioned so far, because it is one of the primary reasons that I like the film - the team of people who work together in Twister. This and Apollo 13 are possibly my two favorite films of the type you're looking for.
posted by TimHare at 9:22 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think of all the great "caper" films where teams come together to accomplish incredible things; sometimes, it's a one-off the Great Escape); others, it's something they do over and over (like Leverage, even though that show definitely plays with reality). To me a caper film is not always about crime. It's any sort of "gathering disparate people with special skills to work together in pursuit of a seemingly non-accomplishable goal." And maybe thy hone those skills, and develop a method, and keep doing it over and over again?

As noted above- compensation is key. In movies, there's always a payoff (whether financial, moral, whatever). In real life, it's got to be... real. And worthwhile. Not just pats on the head and a pizza party every quarter.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:27 AM on October 2, 2021

Perhaps a musical band. There are plenty of "how this song was written and recorded" videos out there showing each member of the group making a contribution to the finished product.

Also, the book The Boys In The Boat about a crew preparing to row in the Olympics.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:24 AM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

All the teams who plan and execute space expeditions - I'm most familiar with the NASA teams (not just the Apollo teams, but watching the Sojourner team erupt into joy when Sojourner landed is one of my strongest memories, and of course, other nations have amazing space programs, like India).

Also, wedding planners and their teams - I enjoyed the four smart, hard-working women in Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet series.
posted by kristi at 11:41 AM on October 4, 2021

There are a lot of examples of teams like this in the book The Culture Code.
posted by Professor_Fancypants at 7:30 PM on October 4, 2021