So far this year I’ve spent more hours than I care to remember trying to calm the nerves of fraught conference organisers. Often days before the event has even started.

A great team performing under the pressure of live TV

The other day I spent the afternoon on the set of a live TV show. With just two hours to air the production team managed to deal with numerous unforeseen crises calmly and confidently.

Much has been written about stress and its impact on individuals but this afternoon’s experience got me thinking about team stress.

It’s surprising how often we allow anxiety to build from within our teams, limiting productivity, stifling creativity and eradicating the fun from work.

The TV production team demonstrated excellent performance under pressure by following these 5 simple rules:

1 – Having clearly defined roles.
2 – Being empowered by their leaders to do what they do best without interference.
3 – Listening to suggestions from all team members regardless of hierarchy sharing the load when something had to be fixed quickly.
4 – Pride in the show they were producing.
5 – Maintaining a sense of fun throughout.

And finally after 60 minutes of prime time live broadcast we all gathered for a well deserved drink in the Green Room to celebrate a job well done.

Maybe we could learn a thing or two about teamwork from the luvvies in the entertainment industry.