One Team
Building with Hope
They say hope is not a strategy.
I disagree.
Hope in the future gives you power in the present to take one more step today.
This week, I saw a family in Mexico have their hopes and dreams realized as a group of volunteers took steps to build their new home.
Their current home consisted of one room the size of a small office with one bed, a fridge, oven, no bathroom, and no running water for a family of four. Four people slept in one bed.
I was invited by Sean and Janet Lambert, the founders of
Homes of Hope, to speak to all their volunteers who consist of many business leaders, their families and teams.
Businesses and family's partner with Homes of Hope to build a home (they’ve built over 8000 around the world) and while I was there speaking, many of the business leaders told me it was the most powerful team building initiative they’ve ever done.
I decided I couldn’t just talk the talk; I had to walk the walk and join them in building a home.
You may think I’m handy because I wrote
The Carpenter but actually, I’m one of the least handy people on the planet. But I had hope I could contribute and so I put on a tool belt, grabbed a hammer and volunteered.
As a student and teacher of people and team dynamics, I watched and experienced CEO’s of companies, employees, spouses, kids, and Mexican Homes of Hope builders, all work together alongside the family to build their home.
Within minutes, I watched as titles, job status, corporate hierarchy, economic backgrounds and past accomplishments dissolved into one hope, one mission and everyone became an equal member of the team.
If someone needed help carrying sheet rock, you carried it with them. If someone needed nails hammered, you hammered. If someone needed sheet rock to be painted, you painted. And if the man whose house you were building needed help, you helped him.
There was a moment that will be etched in my memory forever. I could see the look in his eyes. This man was on a ladder, proudly building the new home his family would be moving into. It was the home they hoped for and now he was building the realty. He needed some nails and so I grabbed a handful and handed them one at a time to him as he hammered the sheet rock into the studs near the ceiling.
Each time he looked down at me and opened his hand I gave him a nail. In that moment I was his helper. Me dissolved into WE. I came there as a volunteer to help him fund and build his house, but now he was helping me become a better teammate. It was a moment of connection and oneness.
The same goes for your business, school, hospital, church or organization. When you become ONE team and lose your egos and status and past accomplishments, you become a powerful team that creates a future filled with hope.
- Jon
