team

Writing Prompt — No “i” in “Team”

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“I don’t think your approach will work,” Jason said. “There are too many potential pitfalls and the risks are too great.”

“You don’t think?” Carl, the team captain, said. “Who the hell do you think you are, Jason?”

“I am a member in good standing of this team,” Jason responded. “I have been a member almost as long as you have and I think we need to reconsider what you are proposing or we’re going to fail.”

“I, I, I,“ Carl said. “Don’t you know that there is no ‘i’ in team?”

“It sounds like you’re the ‘i’ in this team since you’re the one who unilaterally came up with the plan,” Jason said. “How about we put it to a vote?”

“Look, I am the team captain and I get to make the final decision,” Carl said. “If you don’t like it, you can quit the team.”

“There may not be an ‘i’ in the spelling of team, but there is a very dominating ‘e’ in the spelling of this team, and it stand for Carl’s ego,” Jason said. “Good luck, guys. I quit and I sincerely hope that Carl isn’t leading the rest of you right off a steep cliff.”

Written for Esther Chilton’s Writing Prompt for this week, where the prompt is “team.” Image credit: yourstory.com.

I Know, I Know

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“Have you picked your crew yet?” Drew’s boss, Aaron, the college’s athletic director, asked.

“I’ve spoken with ten guys so far,” Drew, the men’s crew team coach, said, “but I need to narrow it down to the best eight.”

“Well, you can’t just bring anybody on board,” Aaron said. “You mustn’t allow yourself to get all mawkish about it. There’s no room for sentimentality here. You’ve got to wield the proverbial ax and make sure you have a topnotch team.”

“I know, I know,” Drew said.

“And please make sure you that you review the blood tests results before eliminating anyone,” Aaron said. “Last year one of the crew members you selected had a serious bacterial infection and ended up bringing the whole team down before the season even began.”

“I know, I know,” Drew repeated.

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (crew), MMA Storytime (ten), The Daily Spur (anybody), Word of the Day Challenge (mawkish), Your Daily Word Prompt (wield), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (bacterial).

Tenacious Tina

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FDFF0B9C-EFA9-4A47-8562-EA961BB67E41Her name was Tina and she was tenacious, which is how she earned the nickname “Tenacious Tina.” She was a project manager in charge of a small team of analysts and was the always the first to jump in when new challenges were thrown their way.

She would schedule a team meeting, usually in the small conference room that doubled as the company library. Tina would introduce the latest project to her team and discuss whether or not it would be a good match for their skillsets.

Tina was very forthright in expressing her opinion, but, at the same time, she gave everyone the opportunity to contribute their own thoughts. The one thing that got under her skin, though, was a lack of seriousness; she didn’t truck foolishness from her team.

After about an hour of discussion, she would end the meeting and instruct her team members to noodle on the pros and cons of the potential project overnight.

They would reconvene the next day and Tina would, with input from the team members, ultimately make the go/no go decision. Of course, once she made the decision to pursue a project, Tina would live up to her nickname and she and her team would work tenaciously to successfully bring the project home.

Written for Paula Light’s Three Things Challenge, where the three things are “truck,” “skin,” and “library.” Also for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (tenacious), The Daily Spur (schedule), Ragtag Daily Prompt (match), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (forthright), and Word of the Day Challenge (noodle).

The Harmonizer

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“The harmonizer,” Fred said. “Definitely the harmonizer.”

The group of five MBA students had gathered in a conference room they’d reserved at the business school library for a meeting of their team as part of their Organizational Dynamics class competition. The professor had given each of three teams of students a project to complete and had asked them, in addition to successfully completing the assigned project, to pay close attention to roles each individual within the groups played, and how each member’s behavior within the group either contributed to or detracted from the successful completion of the project.

“What does that mean?” Mark asked Fred. Mark preferred to think of himself as the team’s leader.

“Your role is to harmonize,” Fred replied. “When you see conflicts arise between team members, you seek out ways to achieve consensus, to get to yes.”

“As any good leader should,” Mark said.

“Ha!” Clark exclaimed.

Mark shot Clark a dirty look. “What do you mean by that?”

“You’re no leader,” Clark answered. “You couldn’t lead your way out of a wet paper bag.”

Then Clark spun around to face Fred. “And you are an obstructionist. “Without contributing anything at all, you block anyone who has any ideas or suggestions.”

“Don’t be an asshole,” Fred said to Clark.

“Boys, boys,” Sally, the only female in the group, chimed in.

“The bitch is back,” said Jeremy. “Go back to the kitchen, honey.”

“Fuck you, Jeremy! Fuck you all,” Sally screamed.

Mark, “the harmonizer,” shook his head and thought, “There goes my grade.”

This post was written for today’s one-word prompt, “harmonizer.”