Good Teamwork

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Its nature

Good teamwork is recognized as being necessary for any winning athletic team. It is also necessary for every successful business, non-profit agency, governmental body, military unit, family, or other social group. A team is a group of individuals who are committed to working together for the achievement of a common goal that they believe is worthy of a high level of their personal effort. It is different from a group that just gets together to discuss topics of common interest. They expect to have to work hard to achieve their objective, and to submit their personal incentives to the task of being trained in the personal disciplines of behavior that are required by the particular tasks that are required for the effective achievement of their common objective It may be winning athletic contests, manufacturing and selling a good useful product, providing a necessary personal service for others, making wise political rules for the conducing of personal civic operations, getting along with a spouse in the raising some dependent children, defeating an enemy in violent military conflicts, or just achieving a worthy objective with a group of associates.

It is usually assumed that a good team has a specific coach, or boss or supervisor, chief executive officer, or ranked military officer, or family head, or chairperson. But, the operation of a good team cannot be managed by one single person. It must be done by each of the team members sharing the functions that are required for the achievement of their common objective in an ongoing process of shared leadership that involves every member of the team, not just its stars or most talented individuals or most experienced workers, or even the owner of the business. Good teamwork cannot be purchased with a big budget, and it cannot be commanded by a line of officers or supervisors. It is a quality of cooperative work in which each member of the team automatically implements the appropriate function that will enable the team to achieve its objective and to maintain its organized effort. This is a process of shared leadership that is the mark of any successful team and a demonstration of good teamwork.

Task functions

These task functions are specifically designed to enable the team to clarify and to solve any emerging problems that they encounter in their cooperative efforts to achieve their common objective. The first task is one of initiating, which is proposing subsequent tasks or goals, defining the problem, and suggesting a procedure or ideas for solving a problem. Then next task is one of information or opinion seeking, which is requesting facts, seeking relevant information about team concerns, and asking for suggestions or ideas. The next task is information or opinion giving which is offering facts, providing relevant information about team concerns, stating beliefs, and giving suggestions and ideas. Then the next task is one of clarifying or elaborating, which is interpreting or reflecting ideas or suggestions about the team’s concerns, clearing up confusions, indicating alternatives and issues before the team, and giving examples. Now someone can provide the task of summarizing, which is the function of pulling together related ideas, restating ideas or suggestions that have been discussed, and offering a decision or conclusion for the team to accept or reject. Then someone can provide the task of consensus testing, which is sending up “trial balloons” to see if the team is nearing a conclusion or how much agreement has been reached. Finally someone can implement the task of testing feasibility, which is applying suggestions to real situations to examine their practical ability to work in their situation. It should be evident that these functions have a natural sequence to them in the work of a team, and they are best implemented by the automatic cooperation of every member of the team rather than being implemented by any single “leader”.

Building and maintenance functions

These task functions are designed to enable a team to maintain the productive way in which its members work together and to enhance their loyalty to each other and the team. The first task is to be encouraging to each other by being friendly, warm, and responsive to them for their contributions and giving them more opportunities to be recognized for their helpful participation in the team’s work. The next task is one of expressing team feelings that express the ongoing moods of the team regarding the relationships that are being established between the members of the team. Then the next task may be one of harmonizing any emerging disagreements by reducing any tension between members and getting them to explore their differences. The task that can do this is one of compromising by getting members to admit any personal errors when their ideas were not apparently helpful in achieving their common objective and their status in the team became one of conflict rather than one of mutual cooperation. The task of gate-keeping, which is working to keep the channels of communication between all of the members open and facilitating the participation of each member rather than falling into the pattern of having one member take charge of the team’s work. The task of setting standards for the member’s work together as they seek to achieve their common objective will help them to build and to maintain the positive qualities of their teamwork. The final task in this set of functions is one of following, which is just agreeing to accept the decisions of the team by listening carefully to contributions of each member and the decisions of the team that are being made. These functions should enable the team to preserve its identity as a group of cooperating individuals rather than just the expression of one “star”.

Non-functional behavior

This is self-centered behavior that is focused more on the achievement of individuals on the team than on achieving its common objective. The first of these behaviors is that of blocking, which is interfering with the progress of the team by going off on a tangent, such as one’s personal experience that is unrelated to the team’s objective or arguing too much on a personal point that the teams has resolved or even preventing the team to take a vote. Aggression is acts of behavior that are critical of other team members without relation to what has happened in the work of the team. Other acts of behavior that are non-functional are seeking recognition to one’s self by excessive talking, suggesting extreme ideas, or boasting about one’s accomplishments in an unhelpful way. An example of this is special pleading that one’s idea or suggestion should be considered by the team because it represents the opinion of a recognized larger popular group of individuals. Another non-functional type of behavior is personally withdrawing from the ongoing discussion or work of the team by just becoming passive to its work or whispering to other team members or giving your attention to more personal matters of concern.. Dominating the work of a team by attempting to manipulate its discussions by “pulling rank” or constantly interrupting other team members in their efforts to participate in the work of the team is very non-functional behavior in teamwork. Unless these expressions of non-functional behavior are eliminated from the ongoing work of the team, they will destroy its efforts to accomplish its common objective.

Conclusion

Good teamwork is basically the cooperative effort of various individuals who are personally committed to the achievement of a common goal to which they will give their thoughtful attention and selfless energy and personal insights and skills. It cannot be ordered by any authoritative leader or purchased by any wealthy “boss”, but all of its task functions and building and maintenance functions must be implemented by members of the team as they work together in the process of shared leadership to eliminate any non-functional behavior that will destroy their efforts to accomplish their common objective.

Let’s talk about this. What is your positive and negative experiences in working as a member of a team? Which of these functions do you recognize as being most essential in good teamwork?

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Happy New Year

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Where is it?

If you didn’t have a calendar, how would you know when it arrived? If you listened to the news from the world’s media platforms, where would you go to experience some “happy” days? There doesn’t seem to be much happiness being announced anywhere these days. Various political authorities who are in charge of the civic operations of the different forms of government in place in our world don’t seem to be offering any positive solutions to the “old” social and personal problems that confront the residents in their countries. All of their strategies seem to be the same “old” forms of government power and control that have been demonstrated by the historic systems of communism, socialism, democracies, dictatorships and their various economic forms of doing business that are right now not providing any real practical daily benefits to anyone anywhere. Efforts are being made to establish “global” systems to establish civic forms of government that can provide some benefits of “happy” days to the different residents of cooperating nations in this world, but they only seem to be drastically dividing people in accord with their different personal agendas rather than their abilities to provide real positive solutions to the common problems that we all face every day. Dictators are seeking to maintain and to expand their personal power over the residents of their “realms” of authority in spite of some popular protests for civic reforms, and they are even seeking to take over more areas of possible resources for their wealth and power by the violence of military wars and civic agreements. There are almost no areas of secure “peace” and daily happiness for individuals and their families in this world.

With God

The only source of a happy new year and daily “peace” in your life is with God. History has demonstrated over and over again that He is basically in charge of what happens in this world that He has created and which operates in accord with His absolute authority. God’s Spirit is the only authority that anyone can trust to provide them with any “happy” days in this world. God is the creator of this world, and He is the only one who knows what is “good” for any of its residents. Any daily choices that human beings make for what they seek that they hope will provide them with a “happy new year” that is not in accord with God’s wise loving guidance will separate them from God and cause their days to be filled with various personal struggles and deadly consequences. For some resources that are “good forever” and could provide anyone with a “happy new year”, I invite the interested readers of this post to check out this website at https://www.christianityetc.org. I will be glad to answer any questions that anyone has about any of these resources and statements. Let’s talk about this. A “happy new year” is available to anyone through the choices that they make to spend their days with God as they trust Him for His wise and loving guidance in their daily choices.

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Good therapy

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What it is

Good therapy is the application of physical, medical, and spiritual treatments for the relief of those who are suffering from an injury or illness or spiritual disability. Such treatments would including the use of physical activity, the administration of appropriate drugs, and the use of such spiritual disciplines such as prayer and Bible reading and spiritual counseling by a trained Christian therapist. These treatments would be designed to provide relief from the physical pain of the person’s affliction, the mental stress of his or her disability, and to enable the person’s body to return to its normal condition of good functional physical and spiritual health. The therapy would be continued until the patient’s physical and mental and spiritual condition has been sufficiently improved to the point that the patient is feeling well enough to manage his or her daily activities and responsibilities without feeling an abnormal level of physical discomfort or mental stress or spiritual hopelessness.

Its ongoing personal necessity

One’s physical body has been basically designed to be functionally healthy, although some disabilities and sensitivities to harmful items may be inherited and require regular care to prevent serious harm from them. God’s initial design for human beings was for them to personally exist in the world where He had placed them in personal relationships with Him that would provide them with what would be “good” for them physically and spiritually and would enable Him to protect them from any “evil” or harmful elements that could destroy them. But this relationship of loving care was broken and severely corrupted by the initial choices of Adam and Eve, God’s initial human beings, to disobey God’s commandment to not seek “the knowledge of good and evil” for themselves, but to trust Him for His care in regard to these matters in their existence. So all humans beings have inherited the deadly spiritual disease of “sin” that hampers their personal relationship of loving care and health from God their creator. And they may not be sufficiently motivated to consistently practice the necessary physical and dietary activities of exercise and balanced nutritional meals along with daily periods of refreshing sleep and positive mental attitudes to keep them healthy and totally free from the germs and other causes of sickness and stress that hamper their normal conditions of functional health. There are too many “enemies” of good physical and mental and spiritual health present in the human situation to make the maintenance of good health an easy process of personal management.

My recent experience with good therapy

I recently experienced some very helpful sessions of good therapy that saved my life from the possible deadly effects of a blood clot in my lung, the stress of my poor physical condition, and the spiritual crisis of my selfish choices in my daily life. Physical and occupational sessions of therapy have enabled me to improve my ability to move around without extreme pain in my joints, medicine has opened up my lungs to the proper flow of air and blood through them, and some spiritual guidance from a Christian guide has enabled me to experience God’s forgiving grace and transforming love in my life as I dedicate more of myself to Him in my personal choices. I am very thankful for the good care that I received in the hospital, the ongoing care of therapists who came to our home to continue to help me to improve my health, and the prayers and words of spiritual guidance and encouragement that have been expressed for my welfare by fellow Christian servants and friends. How have you experienced good therapy in episodes of physical and mental and spiritual crisis in your daily life? Let us talk about this. Your experiences may help some of the readers of this Post in my Blog. Good therapy is designed to produce the benefits of good physical, mental, and spiritual health in us human beings who live on this battlefield in which we are frequently engaged with powerful “enemies” who are constantly seeking to destroy us or to inflict us with physical, mental, and spiritual conditions that will hamper our efforts to function as healthy individuals in this world. Let us talk about this.

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Cultural healing

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Issues that divide us

The people in these United States are practically divided by their personal issues of politics, race, gender, age, religion, work, education, and bank account that tend to establish their personal culture for their behavior. . Individuals experience various levels of “abuse” from others in their communities, neighborhoods, work places, schools, home, and public places that they expect the laws of this nation to protect them from. When these laws and their enforcement by various legal authorities fails to protect them from being “abused”, they live each day with an undercurrent of anger and frustration from this persistent culture of personal behavior and “abuse” that they face every day.

Laws are limited

The passage of new laws and even the enforcement of existing laws often doesn’t seem to relieve these feelings of being “abused” and frustrated, because even when their abuser are brought to some level of judgment for their behavior, it is not practically perfect or complete or enduring in its benefits, because the underlying personal quality still remains in the life of the individual who can’t change his or her race or gender, and the changes that he or she makes in the other issues don’t seem to make any practical difference in the personal level of “abuse” that he or she experiences every day. Laws and protests cannot force individuals to love, to respect, and to be kind and considerate of others who are “different” from them. The best benefits of law are to define what is illegal behavior, but they can’t do anything against abusive attitudes and even speech, like name calling which is a very popular strategy for dealing with personal feelings of anger and frustration that come from living in such a divided, abusive, and unjust culture.

Only love can heal our abusive culture

Jesus states a basic law that we should “love our neighbors as we love ourselves”. The acceptance of this law of behavior and attitudes in our daily lives would go a long way in healing our culture of personal abuse in this nation, but such love in our personal relationships and attitudes cannot be legally established. It can only be established by the sacrifice of our selfish desires and prideful attitudes. It can be taught in our churches, but it has to be modeled by our parents who are initial and primary teachers for the formation of loving character in the culture of our personal lives. Love cannot be required in others. It can only be implemented and demonstrated by one’s own choices. Let’s love our neighbors and see our culture become healed. Let’s talk about this.

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Online security

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It’s Necessity

If you do any online shopping or work from home on your computer, you recognize the necessity of having some software for online or internet security installed on your computer to protect you from possible invasions of viruses or spyware or malware into your computer that can steal personal data or hamper the operation of your computer or cell phone. Maybe you have already experienced such an invasion, so you really understand the problems that they can create with your computer, phone, and your sources for your personal financial funds, like your bank account and credit cards. Some of these problems may have cost you some funds that were stolen from your financial accounts or the costs of professional repairs to remove the intruders and to fix the problems that they create.

Possible resources for online security

Your operating system for your computer and phone probably come with some basic software for online security already installed on these devices. They are usually well designed to protect your devices from the basic online threats. There are many others that you can choose to add that could create different levels of protection or protection against specific threats with their specific filters for your chosen fields of operation. You just need to make sure that all of the installed programs will work well together without creating new problems. Another thing that you can do to prevent such intrusions is to carefully handle phone calls from strangers who may call you about some possible problem with any of your online financial accounts or business. If any of these callers ask you click on the key “1” to get connected to another clerk to help you with the possible problem, hang up. Such a simple action on your phone could give them remote access to your computer and control over its files and access to your personal data, unless it is well protected. It is a good policy to never give any personal and particularly any financial data to any stranger over the phone, even if they claim to be from a legitimate business or financial or government agency. Such businesses or agencies will usually not expect you to conduct such business over the phone

Your experiences and recommendations regarding online security

If you are willing to share some of your personal experiences with us regarding online security and the problems that you have encountered from intruders to your devices, your reports of these experiences might be helpful to others. Please share any recommendations that you may have, in addition to those above, that you may have for effectively dealing with online security. This is a very important personal matter for many of us these days. Your help with online security will be greatly appreciated. Let’s talk about this.

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A bad back

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My accident

In 1945, when I was a freshman in high school, I suffered a severe fall in a gymnastic practice in the gym after school. It knocked the wind out of me, but I was able to stand up and move around without any severe discomfort or limitations. When I went to a orthopedic physician to be checked for my condition, he put me in a girdle for several weeks just to give my back some support. I was able to return to my gymnastic team and to engage in their practices and displays and contests for the remainder of my high school years.

My early years of life and Christian service

I was able to proceed with a normal daily life of further education and work after I graduated from high school. In 1950 I chose to enlist in the navy, after I had completed a year of college, and was able to pass their physical examination, excepted that it was noted that I had asthma, but no other problems were noted. I persuaded the examine board to accept me, which they did. When I arrived in boot camp, I had at usual attack of asthma, which I had often had in the course of my childhood and youth, but they hadn’t kept me from being very active in swimming and other athletic activities. Anyway, I was discharged from the navy in two weeks and was free to pursue other interests in my life at the age of 19. Before I returned home to continue my education in athletics for a career in aquatic management and safety, I received a call from God to become a Christian minister and my asthmatic disease was miraculously removed from me. I returned home to complete my education with a new emphasis on preparing to become a minister. I got married in 1953 and began preaching in a local Baptist center that year after my local Baptist church had licensed me. I graduated from college in 1960. During these years of further education and work I had not experienced any severe discomfort in my back or limitations on my mobility in my daily activities. I was puzzled that my right leg appeared to be shorter than my left leg when I was dressed in pants, but I didn’t know why. I graduated from seminary in 1960, was ordained by the American Baptist Convention of churches for service in their agencies until in retired in 1996 from my professional ministries. I then developed a personal ministry of service through a website of Christian resources for other ministers and children of God and those who seek to relate to Him, which I continue to manage every day on the internet through the Spirit’s enabling power and guidance.

Discovery of my severe spinal injury and its early treatment.

Years later when I started having some pain in my lower back, I went to a chiropractor for some treatments for this discomfort. The X ray of my back discovered a severe dislocation of the lumbar vertebra that was causing the pinching of some nerves. I continued with his regular adjustments for several years, getting relief from the minor pain in my back with the help of some minor pain pills from time to time, as necessary. Eventually I was able to discontinue the treatments and even able to stop with the pills through some supplements that kept the nerve damage under control so that I could move around every day without any severe discomfort or limitations.

Recent increase in pain and immobility in my left leg and lower back.

About the beginning of August 2020, I began to experience pain in my lower back, so I decided that it might be helpful to resume the chiropractic treatments to get some relief. But before I could arrange to start them, a new pain was experienced from the tighten muscles in my left leg that was now being caused by the damaged nerves in my dislocated lumbar vertebra. So in addition the chiropractic treatments I am getting, I am now getting some medicine from a orthopedic specialist in the treatment of joint pain.

Current condition and concern

As of the middle of September, 2020, my pain levels are less as long as I don’t try to move around very much or walk without a walker. The medicine is helping to reduce the swelling and inflammation in the tissue in the lumbar area of my back to relieve some of the irritation on these nerves which should enable me to resume some normal mobile activities for my daily responsibilities. But I’m not sure that these present course of treatments and medicines are going to be able to give me the relief that I need in order to take care of my severely handicapped wife and myself in our home and to continue to operate my personal website with its spiritual resources and guides for Christian ministers and God’s children and seekers around the world. I don’t think that I could manage my website from a small room in a long term assisted living care facility. I can operate my laptop from a small table, but I need more resources of books and files of papers to assist me in this service that would have to be moved into my our living space. I don’t have a personal partner who is able to take over the management of my website and this special ministry, so unless I get sufficient relieve from these physical problems in my back and leg to allow me some range of normal mobility in my daily life, I will probably have to close down this website and remove these resources from the internet. I know that the Lord can heal individual cripples from their particular problems, but I’m not sure if He through His Spirit is ready to give me the relief that I need in order to continue with this ministry. Your prayers for the Spirit’s guidance in my ongoing efforts to treat these problems in my back and leg and to continue with my website ministry will be greatly appreciated. I will keep you posted regarding the Spirit’s work in my life and ministry regarding these matters. I know that God is good and that God has called and gifted me to conduct a very special ministry, and I’m willing to trust His Spirit for the enabling strength that I need to continue to serve Him from day to day. Amen

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It’s a good time to

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  1. Avoid any personal close association with any possible sources of infection from the coronavirus or sinful attitudes and choices of behavior.
  2. Give your serious attention to any symptoms of a physical disease or a spiritual condition of personal sin.
  3. Repent of your poor choices and seek immediate help from health professionals or the Lord Jesus, who has secured the resources for your spiritual salvation.
  4. Make your home where you and your wife can protect you and your dependents safe from this virus by daily habits of cleanliness and spiritual righteousness through the enabling guidance and transforming power of the Lord’s Spirit who can radically change your daily lives.
  5. Begin to have your wife and the mother of your children to home school your children in the basic courses of personal knowledge and skills for them to be able to effectively function as independent persons in this world. I’m sure that the resources for this educational service are readily available from appropriate publishers after decades of such service in thousands of homes.
  6. Make your home a center for the worship of God and the encouragement of your relatives and neighbors and friends in healthy living and spiritual faithful daily living. You don’t need a professional “pastor” to do this for you in some distant facility.
  7. Tune into the wise and loving guidance and instructions of the Lord’s Spirit through a personal discipline of daily prayer and meditation upon the goodness of God in your life rather than upon your fears and confusing personal opinions and foolish choices. Turn off your TVs and cell phones and open your Bibles.

Let’s talk about this, particularly how we should respond to the deadly effects of sin in our world. The coronavirus is giving all human beings a wake up call regarding the possible deadly effect of a single unhealthy organism, which is very similar to that of sin in our communities and jobs and schools and homes in this world. And it is not too late to make some radical changes in how you respond to this disease of sin.

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Good help

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What it is

Good help is providing practical assistance to someone who is requesting your help in order for them to meet a current need or want in their life. You may be a relative or a friend or a stranger to the person requesting the help, but you seek to provide the requested assistance as soon as possible with sincere compassion for the person making the request.

What it is not

Good help is not a request by someone to evaluate the cause of their need or them in regard to their situation. Regardless of who you are in your relationship with the person, you will probably not know them well enough to really understand what is causing them to request some immediate help from you. If someone comes to you on the street of a city and asks you for directions to a local site, good help will not be provided by you seeking to evaluate what has caused them to get “lost” or disoriented in regard to where they are and where they want to go. Good practical help cannot be provided to another person by seeking to evaluate or to make judgments about the cause of that request or the person making it.

Summary

Good help is seeking to provide someone else with immediate practical assistance without making any judgments about their current situation or person. It would be OK to ask them questions in order to clarify exactly what they feel that they want in their current situation. Once the specifics of the help that they are requesting has been clarified, it would also be OK for you to indicate that you cannot provide them with any guidance or resources that you feel would not help them in their current situation without making any judgement about their situation or them as you sincerely care for them in their situation.

Let’s talk about this

When have you requested some practical help from someone else? How was your request handled? How do you usually respond to such requests? How do you define “good help” to others in our daily lives in this world?

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Our serious problem to establish Fair elections in the USA

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My concern

I am really concerned that the Republican and Independent citizens in the USA do not have enough time to secure Fair elections in the USA. There doesn’t seem to be a way to prevent the radical Democrats from imposing enough legislative controls over State and Local voting procedures for individuals in key voting districts to secure a sufficient majority of electors that when certified by the States will have their cited Democratic representatives installed without any effective legal objections. even by a majority of the States., from any action by Congress, any department of our civic bodies, state or local judges, or even the Supreme Court.

Election fraud

The Democrats have been very successful in demonstrating that they can “steal” elections with numerous fraudulent ballots in key voting districts that cannot be effectively discounted by any critics of the state and local voting procedures that were legally established for individual voting procedures. Democrats have a demonstrated history of showing that they don’t really have much interest in vetting their candidates for elected political office or the identity of those who vote for their cited political representatives. They have allowed millions of “foreigners” to invade this country, and they are working to get them registered as legitimate Democratic voters in the key election districts where they can be placed without too much State objections. Republican and Democratic voters who are concerned about this matter may just be outnumbered by the number of individuals who will have been registered as legitimate voters by the radical Democrats in our civic order of elections in the USA Our citizens are too divided in their personal political agendas to prevent the radicals from conducting their fraudulent elections again in this seriously divided USA,

Let’s talk about this.

I would be glad to publish any comments from any interested viewers to this Post that might offer some practical legislative procedures that citizens could take to establish fair elections in the USA and to prevent election fraud by the radical Democrats.

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