I just recently finished my first season of broomball — what a fun and crazy game! Running around on an outdoor ice rink in your tennis shoes trying to swat a small ball into a net with a stick resembling a modified broom, playing for a team named Pull My Finger.

I was hesitant to commit when I was first invited to join the team (and nearly quit after minorly injuring my shoulder during warm-ups before the first game), but I'm glad I did and stuck with it. It's been a long time since I've played a team sport — like, since seventh grade little league long — so it was a bit of an adjustment and kind of stressful at first. A couple of games, a few beers, and a handful of goals later and I was over my nerves, having fun, and just trying to help the team get the next win . . . or the next loss as it turned out.

The experience got me thinking a bit about teams and team-work. It seems really hard to get a team to come together and work towards a common goal. But I'm not sure it's the team-building part that's hard. The hard part is defining the common goal. With broomball it's easy — get the ball in your opponent's goal more times than they get it in yours. In business it's not so easy. Before you can start building your team you have to invent the game and clearly define the objective. Figure that out and I think the team might find you.