Last night I’m watching the World Athletics Championships and BAM – Noah Lyles knocks out 19.51 seconds in the 200m. Very impressive.

After doing some googling, I come across an article that really has made me think and develop an important insight to reflect on in my own life – team.

Teamwork makes the dream work – who the hell is my team?

“You’d ask in an individual sport, ‘what is a team?’ But let me tell you it’s my family, my management, my coach, my agent, my doctor, my chiropractor, my massage therapist, my regular therapist, my sports therapist.

I read this in the article and it kind of struck me how life is also an individual sport but in the sport of life I don’t know what my team is or what it looks like. Noah knows what his team looks like. I don’t. Yeah I’m in a ‘team’ in my job but my life is so much bigger than just my workplace. I need a team for life. I need people around me who want me to succeed. I need guidance. I need people around me to help maximise the probability of experiencing joy in life. It’s a team effort and a team success.

The team members may change, the roles required may change, some teammates may cost money and some may not, but the team continues to exist. I think there should be clearly defined roles and responsibilities. I think there are roles to be filled on my team that I didn’t even know I needed to fill, and further people that are doing roles right now that are probably better not done by them.

Why do I even need a team?

Sure. I can do it all. The only thing is I can live one version of my life where I do it all, but I could also live another version of my life where I don’t do it all. I’m constrained by time. I’m constrained by what I like doing vs. what I don’t like doing, which means skewing my time spent on what I like doing vs. what needs doing. I’m constrained by my own experience, by not knowing what different experiences look like. I’m constrained by my specialisation and knowledge. I’m constrained by my energy levels. I’m constrained. A lot.

There’s a whole literature on how you can achieve so much more as a team than as an individual, and if you look at any organisation in the world, you can appreciate the power of that. Side note: that literature is all good but I’ve never really related that to my own life.

Also, conceptually, I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I already have a team in place (unless I was stranded on a desert island). I just don’t know it.

The Lyles team

I’m assuming every top level sportsperson has a big team around them, but seeing as I’m fanboying on Lyles right now, let’s use his team as a template (with my assumptions of what these people do – might be inaccurate):

1. Himself – executor, executive
2. Family/friends – provides emotional support, cheerleads, provides love/warmth/cherishment, informal mentors, provides downtime and play
3. Management – Organises and coordinates the logistics of his program and life
4. Coach – Guides executor specifically in their pursuit (what to do, how to do it)
5. Agent – Deals with the business side of things (media, contracts, money)
6. Doctor – Guides/practices on physical state
7. Chiropractor – Guides/practices on physical state
8. Massage therapist – Guides/practices on physical state
9. Regular therapist – Guides/practices on mental state
10. Sports therapist – Guides/practices on physical state

What’s the common goal of this team? To get Lyles to be an awesome world-class sprinter.

How do I apply this to my life?

So I basically need to do a writing exercise. A few key questions for me right now:

• What does my current team look like?
• How much do I do myself?
• What would my ideal team look like?
• How do I adapt my current team to make it better?
• Do I need to invest money in people who are going to take away the tasks I don’t want to spend time on (admin staff)?
• Do I need to invest money in people who are going to maximise the probability of joy (mentors, physical maintenance stuff)?
• What would be ideal frequency of team play?
• Do I sit on other people’s teams? What role do I fill? What are their objectives?

Okay. Time to take my responsibility and start executing by working on team design.

Hands in. Everyone in one, two, three. TEAM!