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Team work is a feature that helps the organization to attain its goals. Any
work can be attained with team effort in a more better way that individually.
When there is teamwork it will be because of cohesive forces. It may also
lead to synergy. Highest efforts of team effort will surely lead to synergy
which means something that could not have been achieved individually is
achieved collectively. Synergy by definition means that the results of
collective effort of team is more than the sum total of their individual
performances. Here a classic example has been taken of a real story of
escape of few officers from German concentration camps in World War II.
This real story of bravery, courage, excellent team effort was adapted for a
1960¶s famous movie µThe Great Escape¶. It has perfectly depicted the
spirit of team work, cohesion, and synergy. The plan was to make an
escape for 250 prisoners at one night. To achieve this daunting task they
had to build three tunnels. It demanded a continuous display of spirit of
cooperation, dedication and unity. The group of prisoners was capable of
building three tunnels and even escape. But many were killed on their way
to freedom. Only few could survive. Here we can see how their high spirit of
team work made it possible for them to challenge the Hitler regime.

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Having wasted enormous resources on recapturing Allied prisoners of war
(POWs), the Germans move the most determined to a new, high-security
prisoner of war camp. The commandant, Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger, tells
the senior British officer, Group Capt Ramsey, "There will be no escapes
from this camp." Ramsey replies that it is their duty to try to escape. After
several failed escape attempts on the first day, the POWs settle into the
prison camp.
Gestapo and SS agents bring Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (RAF) to the
camp and deliver him to von Luger. Known as "Big X," Bartlett is the
principal organizer of escapes and Gestapo agent Kuhn orders that he be
kept under the most restrictive permanent security confinement, which Col.
von Luger, disgusted by the Nazis and the SS, only makes a "note" of,
treating the command with complete contempt. As Kuhn leaves, he warns
Bartlett that if he escapes again, he will be shot. Bartlett is then placed with
the rest of the POWs, rather than the restrictive holding that Gestapo agent
Kuhn had demanded.
Locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", Bartlett immediately
plans the greatest escape attempted²tunnels for breaking out 250
prisoners. And this undoubtedly demanded the greatest effort of team.
Highest cohesion among them. And of course it was not possible to
achieve this objective alone and it was also a perfect example for synergy.
The intent is to "confuse, confound and harass the enemy" to the point that
as many troops and resources as possible will be wasted on finding POWs
instead of being used on the front line.
Teams are organized to tunnel, make civilian clothing, forge documents,
procure contraband materials, and prevent guards from discovering their
work.Flight Lieutenant Hendley, an American in the RAF, is "the scrounger"
who finds what the others need, from a camera to clothes and identity
cards.Australian Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick, "the manufacturer," makes
tools such as picks for digging and bellows for pumping air into the tunnels.
Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski and William "Willie" Dickes are "the tunnel
kings" in charge of making the tunnels. Eric Ashley-Pitt of the Royal
Navy devises a method of hiding bags in the prisoners' trousers and spread
dirt from the tunnels over the camp, under the guards' noses. Forgery is
handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe, who becomes nearly blind from
intricate work by candlelight. Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's
guide in the escape.
The prisoners work on three tunnels simultaneously, "Tom," "Dick" and
"Harry." Work on Harry and Dick is stopped so that more work can be
performed on Tom. The work noise is covered by the prisoner choir led by
Flt Lt Cavendish.
USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, "The Cooler King," irritates guards with
frequent escape attempts and irreverent behavior. His first attempt,
conceived in thecooler, is a short tunnel with RAF Flying Officer Archibald
Ives; they are caught and returned to the cooler.
While the British POWs enjoy a 4th of July celebration organized by the
three Americans, the guards discover tunnel Tom. The mood drops to
disappointment and hits Ives hardest. He is drawn to the barbed wire that
surrounds the camp and climbs it in view of guards. Hilts runs to stop him
but is too late, and Ives is machine-gunned dead near the top of the fence.
The prisoners switch their efforts to Harry.
Hilts agrees to change his plan and reconnoiter outside the camp and allow
himself to be recaptured. The information he brings back is used to create
maps showing the nearest town and railway station.
The last part of the tunnel is completed on the night of the escape, but is 20
feet short of woods which are to provide cover. Danny nearly snaps from
claustrophobia and delays those behind him, but is helped by Willie.
Seventy-six escape.
After attempts to reach neutral Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, almost all
the POWs are recaptured or killed. Hendley and Blythe steal an airplane to
fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails and they crash-land. Soldiers
arrive. Blythe, his eyesight damaged, stands and is shot. Hendley waves
and shouts "don't shoot", and is captured as Blythe dies. Cavendish, having
hitched a ride in a truck, is captured at a checkpoint, discovering another
POW, Haynes, captured in his German soldier disguise.
Bartlett is recognized in a crowded railroad station by Gestapo agent Kuhn.
Another escapee, Ashley-Pitt, sacrifices himself when he kills Kuhn with
Kuhn's own gun, and soldiers then shoot and kill him. In the commotion,
Bartlett and MacDonald slip away but they are caught while boarding a bus
after MacDonald blunders by replying in English to a suspicious Gestapo
agent who wishes them "Good luck". Hilts steals a motorcycle, is pursued
by German soldiers, jumps a barbed wire fence but becomes entangled in
another and is captured, he escapes execution as a spy by showing them
the airforce label on his shirt.
Three truckloads of captured POWs go down a country road and split off in
three directions. One truck, containing Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish,
Haynes and others, stops in a field and the POWs are told to get out and
"stretch their legs." They are shot dead. Fifty escapees are murdered.
Hendley and nine others are returned to the camp. Von Luger is relieved of
command of the prison camp and is driven away by the SS for failing to
prevent the breakout.
Only three make it to safety. Danny and Willie steal a rowboat and proceed
downriver to the Baltic coast, where they board a Swedish merchant ship.
Sedgwick steals a bicycle, then rides hidden in a freight train boxcar to
France, where he is guided by the Resistance to Spain. Hilts is brought
back alone to the camp and taken to the cooler. Lieutenant Goff, one of the
Americans, gets Hilts's baseball and glove and throws it to him when Hilts
and his guards pass by. The guard locks him in his cell and walks away,
but momentarily pauses when he hears the familiar sound of Hilts bouncing
his baseball against a cell wall. The film ends with this scene, under the
caption, "This picture is dedicated to the fifty´
."

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Conclusion
Thus we can see that team work made the impossible possible. They
prisoners could achieve what they could not have achieved if there had
been no team work. Though all the prisoners could not survive after
escaping but they could challenge the mighty German army and also
successfully built three tunnels which aided them to escape. The high spirit
of cohesion among the fellow prisoners, their spirit of team work and the
final result that they achieved is still remembered as µ!
 
!
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