A few years back, Deere hired me to design a coffee table book that would capture its rich history and more importantly, convey its core values. The title of the book was Genuine Values. I, along with the CEO and a few senior executives, built this idea around the following values: integrity, quality, commitment and innovation. We felt these words best reflected the core values exhibited by its founder and that have successfully guided Deere up to today.

In my new book, Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, I share the John Deere story from a different perspective… from its very inception. It’s easy to talk about the after effects… the success story that followed. But when you realize this international corporation started when one young man saw a “problem” as a solution… the story is even more amazing.

Let me take you back 173 years: For U.S. farmers in the eastern states, a cast-iron plow worked fine. But for farmers who tried using it to cultivate crops in the rich Midwest soil, it was a disaster. In fact, attempting to cut through tough prairie ground with a cast-iron plow was problematic to say the least. Trying to use one in the sticky rich soil without it getting clogged was nearly impossible.

Many knowledgeable people (experts) focused on this problem. Perhaps that was the problem. The more they focused on it, the bigger it seemed to become. In time, most people and experts alike concluded it was too big… they accepted the “problem” for what it was and gave up.

Then a young blacksmith (an outsider named John Deere) moved to the Midwest from out east. He learned of this “problematic” situation. But he was a “Pink Bat” thinker… so instead of focusing on the “problems,” he focused on solutions instead. He tried many different plow concepts and while none of them were successful, he learned from each failure and refused to quit.

One day as he walked to work, a glint of sunlight reflected off an old discarded saw blade. To the sawmill, this old blade represented a worthless, worn out piece of steel… a problem. To young John Deere, it was a beautifully honed piece of smooth steel… a perfect solution. After pulling it from the junk pile, he took it to his shop and created a plow that worked great in the rich (previously considered problematic) Midwest soil. The rest, so to speak, is history.

History is filled with Pink Bat examples (unseen solutions mislabeled as problems). What’s more important is that today’s world is full of them, too. They surround us every day. Often they are mislabeled as problems… but they’re really solutions just waiting to be seen. Like John Deere, we are each capable of turning problems into solutions… the key is seeing things for what they are and what they aren’t… and using our imaginations to see them for what they can be.

This content is based on my newly released book: Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, available at our store.

As we worked together, one thing became clear to me—what the Blue Angels consider “normal” teamwork is probably outside most people’s scope. To say it’s above average seems understated; better put, it’s abnormal… well outside the teamwork bell curve. The challenge: How do you convey this “abnormal” level of teamwork in a book?

My idea… Sigmund Freud believed by studying the abnormal, we could gain a better understanding of the normal. That’s how I approached The Power of Teamwork… perhaps by studying the Blue Angels’ model of teamwork, we could gain a better understanding of “normal” teamwork as it relates to our own lives.

One evening, about a week before the manuscript was to be sent to the publisher, I cleared my head and planned to re-read it from start to finish. In less than 25 pages, my brain started racing and I felt my heart sinking into my stomach… then I stopped reading.

Somehow, quite unintentionally, Scott and I had managed to transform our groundbreaking Blue Angels content into what sounded like the same old teamwork rhetoric. You know… the stuff we’ve all heard before… (think high school sports). How could this have happened? It didn’t make sense. We had been so focused on creating fresh, new, original content.

One thing was for certain… neither of us was interested in creating another recycled book on teamwork. Before I could finish dialing Scott’s number to inform him of my observation, another thought struck me. I hung up the phone and reflected on the day we met. What had impressed me about Scott during our first meeting was his demeanor. His words were direct, straightforward and honest… too often a rarity in today’s world. Suddenly it all started making sense.

Working with Scott affirmed what I’ve always known—the dictionary doesn’t define words—people do. Words are symbols. We each create the meaning they carry. Words mean different things to different people at different times and places. Words vary in degree, too. Some people have great credibility—others have very little. This point is critically important. People can use the exact same words—yet they can mean something totally different… that’s what was happening in our book. Words like trust, respect, integrity and accountability are value words… and we each give them their value. The weight these words carry for the Blue Angels is difficult for most of us to grasp.

Take the word trust, for instance. Trusting someone on your team to deliver a package on time, score a goal, or deliver a sales pitch, all represent a certain level of trust. Trusting someone to fly directly at you, and pass within inches of your aircraft at a combined speed of 1,000 miles per hour, represents yet another degree of trust. Imagine the trust a Blue Angels pilot must have for his fellow teammates… the mechanic who works on his plane… the techs who inspect his gauges… literally, everyone on the team. This degree of “trust” takes the word to a different level… to an abnormal degree.

It’s easy to spell and pronounce a word the same as someone else… but creating its meaning is another thing all together. I learned many things working on this book. I learned the same word can vary greatly in its meanings… and it’s our actions that define them.

I also learned… performance teams and healthy relationships share a common bond… their definitions align. Think about the team(s) you’re on… with your peers at work, in your relationships, and with your spouse and family. Do your definitions align? How do you define trust? In the end, we each define our words… what meaning do your words carry?