My Thoughts on Teamwork from a Recent Trip to Italy
We live in a society that venerates work. American workers take fewer vacation days each year than do workers in any other developed country. Likewise, we all know people who take great pride in their ability to put in long hours, weekends, and even “power through” bouts of illness. (You may even be one of them!) But countless studies tell us that taking extended time away from the daily grind can actually help us return to work more productive, creative, and energized than had we put our heads down and kept pushing through our physical, spiritual, and mental exhaustion.
All of which is just my way of justifying the long-anticipated Italian vacation my family and I took this summer. I can think of no other country with so much great art, history, architecture, music, food, and wine all packed together in such a convenient and easily accessible package. From the towering monuments of Ancient Rome to the rolling hills of Tuscany to the Renaissance treasures of Florence to the cutting-edge fashions of Milan, Italy is a nation offering something for everyone. (Oh, did I mention the food and wine?)
While I highly value vacation time as a chance to unplug and get away from it all, I’m as big a workaholic as anyone, and never stop thinking about people, management, culture, pay, and related topics—even while I travel. For instance, during a trip to Virginia and the Carolinas I took last year, I snapped pictures of hourly rates and sign-on bonuses being offered at fast food spots along our route to document the state of local economies. Of particular note was an Asheville, N.C. McDonalds that was offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses to new employees. Think about that: a one-thousand-dollar bonus to work at—McDonalds!
But I digress. Back to our trip to Italy…
One highlight of our visit was a guided tour of the Vatican Museums. Founded in the early 16th century by Pope Julius II, this is actually a complex of several buildings including the main museum which opened on the ground floor of Vatican City’s Lateran Palace in 1991. The museum contains a priceless collection of more than 70,000 treasures that the Catholic Church has amassed over the centuries, some 20,000 of which are on permanent display. These include paintings, sculptures, maps, and other works of art, most of which contain religious themes.
Our delightful museum tour guide was incredibly informative. She was a font of arcane knowledge and never failed to drop an obscure “fun fact” about Italian history that opened our American eyes to the deep and complex story of this ancient land.
Of the dozens of rooms we visited, the Map Room, aka the “Gallery of Maps” was one of my favorites. According to the Visit Vatican Info website:
The maps were created by Ignazio Danti in the 16th century. He was instructed by Pope Gregory XIII to paint these exhibits to be displayed in the Vatican. The maps were painted as frescos onto the wall panels.
The Hall of Maps Vatican is a great representation of the view of the Italian region in the 16th century, especially since Italy did not exist as a country at the time.
The Gallery of Maps is more than a bunch of boring maps. They provide an amazing perspective of the Italian states.
Pope Gregory wanted to see “the boot” without having to travel, and it’s interesting to observe the land via the eyes of 16th century artists.
Of perhaps even more interest to visitors is the amazing ceiling within the gallery. It’s jaw dropping. Famous artists—amongst them Cesare Nebbia and Girolamo Muziano—contributed their paintings.
Here, you can see some amazing scenes depicting the history of the Italian states. In fact, the view is said to be so spectacular that some mistake it as the Sistine Chapel!
I can attest the ceiling of the Map Room is indeed stunning. I was in fact taken more by the Map Room ceiling than even Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Perhaps even more remarkable than the beauty of the Map Room ceiling is that the intricate, 131-yard-long work was completed in only a year-and-a-half. To meet the project’s deadline, Vatican supervisors assembled a team of five or six landscape and portrait specialists and focused their combined expertise on completing this daunting task.
Such is the power of teamwork.
When we identify the specific, unique gifts of individuals, give them the tools they need to succeed, and bring them together with those individuals they complement, amazing things can happen. Initiatives typically thought to take much longer than we would normally expect can be brought to fruition in record time and with extraordinary results. The Gallery of Maps ceiling stands as an unequivocal testament to this.
Your company may not have the power, prestige, or budget of the 16th century Roman Catholic Church, but it still can accomplish great things when you leverage the power of teams. As a veteran corporate culture specialist, I can show you how. Just drop me an email at laura@conoverconsulting.com, and together we can create a masterpiece for the ages.