After reading Jaffe and Scott’s, “How to link personal values with team values”. (cover story). It brought me to think about my football team. At the beginning of the year, every player/coach is assigned a role on the team with one united goal together as a team, to win a championship. Not everyone always has the same background, priorities, or work styles. Some players only cared about their own personal success, some players had the team’s best interest all the time, and others were front-runners, only supportive when things were going well. During fall camp is where we the whole team was finally together right before the season. With the new portal rules team’s change every year, causing building chemistry to be tough. So, every player had to stand up and coach in front of the team and speak. We had to explain our “why’s”, background, hardships, and goals. After this the team began to mesh and you could feel the brotherhood become close. Practicing and games were going good because we understood one another’s values and backgrounds. Jaffe and Scott’s description of Levi Strauss’s managers discovering the “diversity of values” (p.1) reflects exactly what I experienced. I relate to the idea that people’s values and background shape how they work.
This concept immediately made me think of a movie I watched a little while back, “Society of the Snow”. In this movie, a rugby team’s plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. The only reason the survivors stay alive during the movie is because they learn to cooperate, communicate, and respect each other’s personal values. This relates to Jaffe and Scott’s idea that learning each other’s values creates a language and deeper understanding between humans. In situations described in both the article and movie, people bring unique beliefs and priorities, you have to learn how to merge the differences and work together.
In the real world Companie’s, who are strongly based in their core values tend to have a more committed public. Adidas has a slogan, “play to win”. This shows that adidas is committed to competitive excellence and has pride on ensuring the best gear for their athletes. This allows employees to understand the standard that is set even in the workspace.
Jaffe, D. T., & Scott, C. D. (1998). How to link personal values with team values. Training & Development, 52(3), 24–30