Successful Teams in Action:
Successful teams can be extremely rewarding to watch by many whether it’s your favorite sports team or just a group of successful entrepreneurs. In this article, we cover the 3 most successful teams in modern history that you probably have not heard of but have made massive contributions globally and to their respective industries.
General Pagonis’s Logistical Team
During the 1990s invasion of Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, General Gus Pagonis was assigned to be a leader of the team which was in charge of the logistics. This team was responsible for moving nearly half a million people and their possessions as well as vital resources such as weapons and food meanwhile keeping them all safe. This team of logistical support held such enormous responsibility with Kuwait’s fate, independence, and safety on the line. Should they fail, massive repercussions would happen which would result in massive casualties.
The scale of the work was so extreme to the point that 122 million meals had to be prepared and served. 129 thousand vehicles needed to be moved. 70 thousand contracts with different suppliers and contractors had to be established in order for Operation Desert Storm to take shape successfully. The importance of teamwork during this logistical operation was huge which needed to be established from the very start.
The war ended upending a lot sooner than expected which resulted in a more difficult situation in which General Gus Pagonis had to return all the resources needed back. This included everything the United States needed during the war back to the United States which essentially ended up taking twice as long. As a result of his great teamwork and team-building skills, General Pagonis was awarded a third star for his outstanding work which had never been performed on such a large scale and consequently saved thousands of lives. Nevertheless, his team’s work will go on down in history as one of the most successful teams ever in the military.
General Gus Pagonis’s team’s work will go on down in history
as one of the most successful teams ever in the military.
Source: Hoover – Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics
Bob Quinn’s Assembly Work of Art
Bob Quinn is famous for saying “I can’t quit trying (Excellence). Once I have experienced excellence, normal performance is just not good enough anymore. I can’t stand still and not strive for extraordinary results”.
Bob Quinn held the position of upper-level executive in which he found himself one day tasked with fixing a major issue on the assembly line of the manufacturing company he worked for at the time. The issue resulted in many staff members having to work overtime and long hours to fix the problem. Bob ordered lunch for all the staff to compensate and lift their spirits for all the extraordinary work they had put in which resulted in a representative from the finance division telling Bob that the company’s corporate policy states that it would not reimburse anyone for any food ordered.
This resulted in the above-mentioned famous quote by Bob Quinn which many have cherished for its genuinely, excellence and a great characteristic of his character, paying for that lunch might have been annoying at the time, however, it essentially fixed the issue quick which subsequently saved the company a lot of money and time. His teamwork-building skills and his status as a great team member are nonetheless critical in that moment and a true representation of himself and his team’s leadership and team dynamics.
The Influential Tallahassee Democrats Team
The Tallahassee Democrat is the last remaining major newspaper to stay and continue operating in Tallahassee despite all the other major newspapers leaving. That in itself is an extraordinary feat that demonstrates the excellence of the very team that orchestrated this masterpiece. This is how the so-called “Elite” team did it.
Fredd Mott who is the General Manager of the Tallahassee Democrat predicted a trend that would later fruit in which revenues and profitability amongst newspapers would decrease substantially over the next few years. Mott reshaped the Tallahassee Democrat to focus heavily on a customer-centered approach, the plan was to create a newspaper that customers would obsess over. This led to Mott forming the “Elite team” which was assigned the task of removing any and all errors from the newspaper.
The Elite team went far and beyond expectations which resulted in previous losses from errors in advertisements which would be as high as $10,000 a month to drop down to zero. Subsequently, this led to greater trust towards the organization from advertisers and a large increase in advertising revenues which kept the newspapers afloat.
The Elite team revamped the whole operations in which the Tallahassee Democrat operated in, sold, invoiced for advertising. Additionally, it fuelled the customer obsession goal that Fredd Mott had set when creating the team which elevated the whole newspaper’s customer service. The Elite team is largely credited with demonstrating the importance of team building, teamwork skills, group dynamics, and the overall importance of teamwork which ended up saving the Tallahassee Democrat.
What makes successful teams?
Having a great team that performs as efficiently and as successfully as General Pagonis, Bob Quinn, and the Tallahassee Democrat teams are no easy task that just happens by chance. We go over the 10 characteristics of high performing in detail and many of the principles these 3 high-performing teams share.
