Members of successful teams put a tremendous amount of time and effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them both collectively and individually. This common purpose, when accepted by the team, becomes what celestial navigation is to a ship captain: it provides direction and guidance under any and all conditions. Like a ship following the wrong course, teams that don’t have good planning skills are doomed; perfectly executing the wrong plan is a lost cause.Teams should also agree on whether their goal is to learn about and master a task or simply to perform the task; evidence suggest that different perspectives on learning versus performance goals lead to lower levels of team performance overall. It appears that these differences in goal orientation have their effects by reducing discussion and sharing of information. In sum, having all employees on a team strive for the same type of goal is important