THE 1 7 INDISPUTABLE LAWS OF TEAMWORK WORKBOOK
Teams succeed or fail based on teammates' commitment to one another and the team. My friend Randy Watts, who pastors a church in Virginia, sent me a note recently after a conference where I taught the Law of Countability. He wrote,
Years ago, a friend of mine attended the Virginia Military Institute, known for its rugged physical, mental, and emotional training. He told me that all the incoming freshmen are separated into companies. One of their training obstacles is to race up House Mountain, which is very steep and more than a challenge. The motivation for climbing: If you finish last, you run again. Not you, but your whole company! This makes for team commitment. If a person in your company twists an ankle or breaks a leg, other members of his company carry him! It is not enough to be the first man on top of the mountain; everyone on the team has to make it.
That's the kind of commitment that real teamwork requires. When teammates can't make it, you carry them the rest of the way for the sake of the team. 4. Consistency
Every once in a while somebody comes along who defines consistency for the rest of his teammates. In the case of the Atlanta Braves, I believe that person is Greg Maddux. If you follow baseball, then you probably know about him. Maddux is a great pitcher and he has the awards—and statistics—to prove it. He's won more than 200 games, including 176 games in the 1990s, the most of any pitcher in majorleague baseball. He is the only pitcher besides Cy Young and Gaylord Perry to have won fifteen or more games in thirteen consecutive sea-
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