Shooting from the lip

the moving parts. The Plant: The problem-solver. The Monitor Evaluator: The impartial, logical one.

The Specialist: With specific, essential skills. The Shaper: Who gives the team drive. The Implementer: Who plots every practical step.

And the Completer Finisher: Who anxiously polishes and perfects.

There’s the Belbin Team. Every role carefully defined. Completing the whole.

Like a rugby team: Prop, Hooker, Prop, Lock, Lock, Flank, Eight, Flank, etc.

Most of us have had a chance to pick our team – even just in primary school, out on a muddy field. You look at the faces carefully. Evaluate the skill sets. Assess the nature of the opposition. And it’s not only the high-performers we want on our side. But those with a magic source of power: Courage. The “Lion-Hearts”. Some quotes explain: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what,” wrote Harper Lee, in

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel.

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends,” wrote JK Rowling in

And: “Courage is the most important of all the virtues – because without courage, you can’t practise any other virtue consistently,” said Maya Angelou.

This short column is written looking ahead to our dangerous future. At the team we’ll need.

And looking at the present. With deep respect for the thousands of Neighbourhood Watch team members who “walk the talk” through the storm. Last night, tonight, every night.

And, as the rains fell, this weekend: also reflecting on the past year:

At the team who manned the engine room during the “Water Crisis”. A team with many different talents. And courage. Every one. A team I’d go to war with. And for. Every time.