Editorials
Teamwork
Jean-François ROULET DDS , PhD , Prof hc , Professor
Editor-in-Chief
Dear readers , When I was a dental student one colleague told me : “ Let ’ s do teamwork ”. I asked back : “ What does this mean ?” and got the answer ” You work , I team !”. Of course I declined , because this was a total misinterpretation , or in other words the abuse of the team idea . During my whole life I have seen the team idea working perfectly towards success . In a team there is a group of highly motivated individuals who have different knowledge and skills and are working together towards a common objective . To be successful , communication is key ! Open mind , open architecture or at least open office doors help a lot to develop the team function , which must be complemented by trust and openness . Say what you think and do what you say is the mantra . I will quote a few examples below . When I moved to Berlin to become chair of a new department in a new institution , we had to define the teaching philosophy , to create teaching materials and robust structures to run the department , in order to fulfill the task of the three basic duties of an academic department : research , teaching and service ( patient treatment ). This task was impossible for a single individual ( me ). Therefore I was able to create a team approach by having a group of very motivated young dentists who wanted to change things towards a modern and effective dentistry being taught to our students . The tasks and responsibilities were shared as well as the credit for positive accomplishments . After a relatively short two years the Dental Clinic North of the Free University of Berlin was known as an excellent institution . When I moved to the industry to become a manager , by definition the whole product development was performed by teams , where the best people for the task were selected from the different departments and assembled into a development team . With the high level of discipline and structure which is common for a well-functioning enterprise , we were successful year after year . Some years ago I had the pleasure to listen to Bertrand Piccard who in March 1999 together with Brian Jones was the first to surround the globe in a balloon . Both spent 21 days in the 5 m long and 2 m wide carbon composite capsule , suspended from a gigantic hot air / helium balloon . It was all about team work . The two in the balloon depended on a control center which helped them make the right technical decisions as well on two meteorologists that gave them directions for which altitude to get the best winds . I remember that he told us the following story when asked how foolish he could be to hire two meteorologists ( since no two meteorologists have the same opinion ) he rerouted the question to the meteorologists that responded “ It is the wrong question since we are 3 !”. Baffled , the person who had asked the question wanted to know who the third one was then . The answer was , “ We together are the third one !” Finally just a few weeks ago I was impressed by another great team which is very successful . Greg Sawyer , an engineer who suffers from a melanoma has joined the University of Florida cancer researchers . Merging their knowledge and his , they came up with printing soft scaffolds which can harbor real tumors in vitro . Using this system they can observe how cells of the immune system interact with the tumor in order to
6 Stoma Edu J . 2017 ; 4 ( 1 ): 6-7 . http :// www . stomaeduj . com