Teams and Families

Over the last couple of days I’ve been reading a really fun book about the business history of Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. For me it’s been a worthwhile read with lots of great nuggets.

However, I have to take exception to his understanding of how corporate culture should simultaneously be defined as both a team and a family: Hsieh clearly states that his company is “both a team and a family.”

As I see it, family and team are two different things. A good team is working hard to get the win, and as part of the very definition of a successful team, anyone who can’t contribute to that win needs to be cut.

On the other hand, you are stuck with family; in a healthy family even the non-contributing members must be unconditionally accepted as a part of the tribe.

A great team will certainly have characteristics of a family, but ultimately the rules that govern the team cannot be the same reality that sustains a family.

At work, we really shouldn’t confuse the two. I may have an authentic family bond with my teammates, but that close relational connection can have nothing to do with my continuing place on the team. Family is about unconditional embrace; team is about the win. When we get those mixed up we end up with either weak teams that lack success or dysfunctional families that require contribution as a condition for ongoing relationship—I don’t want to be a part of either of those.

However, the church exists in an interesting vortex of organizational culture and family dynamics. You may argue that it’s all about family, but if your church consists of more than a couple of dozen people and/or has any staff or leadership, make no mistake: there is organization happening.

Now, as members of the Body of Christ, we all are family. We love each other, and even the person with little organizational purpose or limited potential carries intrinsic value as an integral member of the body (see 1 Corinthians 12).

Still, church leaders must contribute to forward motion. According to what we read in 1 Timothy 3, Overseers are given a task, and they must function in it well. If they can’t handle the requirements of the job, they can’t keep being allowed to do it. That doesn’t mean a leader stops becoming a vital part of the family, but it does mean that they need to step out of their particular role on the team.