"The Ancient and Honery Order of Wood Chucks, Inc."

When I was growing up, there was an old television series (I think my parents watched it when they were growing up) that used to play after school on one of our local TV stations in Indianapolis.  I am almost certain that you have heard of it - it was called the "Our Gang" or "Little Rascals" and was a series of short movies produced from (believe it or not) 1922 through 1944.  There was a movie based upon the series that came out in the 1990's, but it wasn't quite the same.  The show was based upon a group of kids from the same neighborhood.  Most of them were poor, but they all seemed to come up with a lot of things to do to have fun anyway.  I used to watch the show almost religiously every day after school.

There was an episode called "Anniversary Trouble" that was particularly famous - it was made in 1935 and included cast members from the older years (Stymie and Jerry) as well as some of the most famous characters (Spanky, Buckwheat, and Scotty).  In this particular episode, the neighborhood gang decided to collectively pool all of their resources (i.e. money) so that they could purchase things that they wouldn't be able to buy individually.  They form a club, called the "Ancient and Honery Order of Wood Chucks, Inc." complete with a President (Stymie), a Treasurer (Spanky),and a secret "high sign" (see image below):


Sounds like fun, right?  As Treasurer, Spanky is given the responsibility to hold all of the club's money.  Here's the thing, though.  Nobody else in the club trusts Spanky with the money.  As the club meeting adjourns, one of the club members asks Stymie who is going to watch Spanky to make sure he "doesn't take all of our dough."  Scotty is tasked with watching Spanky.  Another club member is tasked with watching Scotty watch Spanky.  Yet another club member is tasked with watching the other club member watching Scotty watching Spanky, and so on, and so on.  In other words, no one in the "Ancient and Honery Order of Wood Chucks, Inc." trusts anyone else!

All teams, no matter the context or setting, are built on mutual accountability and mutual trust.  Without trust, there is no team.  If you watch the rest of the "Anniversary Troubles" episode, you will learn that the "Ancient and Honery Order of Wood Chucks, Inc." lasts for exactly one day.  The club disbands shortly after its founding.  The reason?  Lack of trust.  Everything works out in the end, and the neighborhood kids remain friends.  But the club (or at least the organization that was started to pool their collective monetary resources together) does not last.

Trust is absolutely critical to the success of any team, whether it is a neighborhood club, a sports team, or a group of health care providers.  If you don't trust each and every other member on the team, you don't have a team. 

At times, trust requires a leap of faith.  As the author Ernest Hemingway once said, "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."  And in most cases, the trust that you give is repaid in kind.  That's how groups of individuals become teams.