How to Build a Team on the Side of a Road

My daughter’s soccer coach treated the girls to slurpees after their first game of the season. They loved the slurpees, but that was not the best part of the after-game celebration for them.

For the girls, the celebration happened at the side of the road, among screams and shouts for excitement.

What happened?

With their slurpees, the girls sat on a small grassy hill next to the busy broad intersection. Cars drove by, but so did trucks, delivery vans and friends’ parents. Happy and having fun together after their first game, the girls gestured by pulling truck horns in the air, encouraging all drivers to honk back at them. They were hard to miss, all decked out in electric yellow team colors, screaming and laughing.

Practically every vehicle that drove by honked. The girls loved it.

But better than that, the team felt powerful. They felt empowered. The drivers gave them control by responding to their simple gesture. That control could have only been created because of teamwork, so spontaneous and so authentic.

Of course their coach treated them to slurpees to build the team. She knew what she was doing.

The sugar kick was a happy side effect that was hardly noticed … compared to the joy of having fun, together as a team, at the side of a road.