Last year, several of us attended a team building workshop. We played a game called the “Amazing Maze.” Given 10 minutes to read, digest and question a set of very complicated rules we then had 40 minutes to complete a task. While the game might have seemed like nothing but fun mixed with a little frustration, McElroy got to know each other better as a team, and how we can come together to solve impromptu problems. A recent example of extreme teamwork in action arose last month, as all of Texas seemed to be flooded, and even the option of telecommuting seemed endlessly frustrated by the rain and other technical problems.

As an internal customer and on behalf of all of my clients who need me to be functional, I’d like to take a moment to give credit to the following people who expended effort, applied ingenuity and great problem solving and patience to get me back up and running in the midst of a string of impossibilities (after a business trip, I was already behind on tasks, my hard drive then failed, the weather forced me to leave before repair was done, and continuing weather problems prevented me from getting back to Austin).

Rob Krpoun labored on Tuesday to transfer my data to a new hard drive on Tuesday, giving me updates so that I could make a decision whether to wait or dash. Ultimately had to head home to beat the flooding. He then assisted me in setting up Outlook on my home computer and installing wireless software to make work feasible. Meanwhile, the rain continued to challenge productivity by knocking out my alternate phone line and forcing my cell phone into roam mode again and again. Rob then offered to pack up my now-repaired laptop to deliver to me via Fedex, since getting out to Austin and back was an impossibility. He packed it up carefully and delivered to....

Vicki Wunneburger, who arranged the delivery, sent me tracking information, dealt calmly with my customary whining and stress level, and kept me laughing anyway (especially when I discovered I was trapped with my last pack of cigarettes). Vicki also handled urgent client issues that I could not, while...

Carol Moya was out of the office on training. Carol then assisted as well in clearing out some problems I couldn’t handle without network access, which also meant that....

Vlada Kuznetsova and Cathy Pyrek put in extra effort by sending me estimate spreadsheets and filing my quotes; they also combed through the quotes from Tuesday and forwarded anything that might have slipped through the cracks (since I had no access to already-downloaded messages and was on the road to home office by deadline), which meant that....

Lisa Sicilaini and Evan Norman completed the legwork on an RFP that HAD to be delivered on Tuesday—got it to client and got us in the running.

I have sent separately a testimonial to Fedex regarding my fearless delivery person, Diltra Kelley, who crossed the running water to deliver my laptop; and last but not least, my sweet husband Kenn, who guided her back across and offered her a place to sit and watch TV and drink coffee if recrossing wasn’t possible.

Now that’s a village.