Let’s Talk Seriously #1: “We’re a Team”
These past few weeks, work has consumed me, but amidst all that, it's made one thing clear: some phrases sound good and work perfectly… until you actually have to live them. “We're a team, we all support each other” is one of those. We've heard it forever, as if it were a universal truth, as if repeating it were enough to make it real.
From a young age, we're taught this idea. That we have to help, share, think as a group. But at the same time, you quickly learn that it's not always the best approach. In school, for example, the rhetoric was one thing, but the practice was another. The competition was there, silent but constant. Not everyone shared notes, not everyone helped, because deep down, nobody wanted to be left behind. We were a “team,” yes, but only up to a point.
Then you grow up and enter the working world, where everything sounds more polished, more professional, more convincing. They tell you that you can count on the team, that there's support, that you're not alone. And at first, you want to believe it. But it doesn't take long to realize that this idea has invisible conditions.
Because when you make a mistake, the concept of teamwork dissolves. No one talks about shared responsibility. No one says, “We failed.” Everyone just sorts things out, protects their position, and chooses their words carefully. The team disappears precisely when it should be most noticeable.
But when things go well, when there are results, when there's something to celebrate, then it reappears. Then the achievement belongs to everyone, the effort is collective, and the story changes. Suddenly, we were always a team.
And that's where it starts to feel strange. Because it's not that the idea of working together is false, it's that it's used in a convenient way. It's invoked when it's beneficial, ignored when it's uncomfortable. Mistakes are individual, achievements are collective. And the strangest thing is that we all understand it, even though no one says it directly.
We keep repeating the phrase, we keep acting as if it were true, as if at some point it will align with reality simply through persistence. But it doesn't. Saying it doesn't make it true.
It sounds good… but let’s talk seriously.
