It’s a challenging question – How do you know when all the people in your organization are really working in unison to move it forward? An analogy I like to use is a team engaged in a game of tug and war. They all need to be tugging at the same time, with equal effort.

Say you have 20 people on either end of a long rope, facing off and pulling hard. The ribbon tied in the middle moves a little in one direction, then the other. It appears as if everyone on your team is tugging with all their might. But a closer look reveals a common scenario.

One person has a really hard grip on the rope, but their posture is all wrong – they’re standing up straight, not leaning backwards or bracing with their legs, so they’re not ready to withstand a strong tug from the other side. Their heart and mind is in the right place, but the experience isn’t there.

Another member of the team has the right body posture and makes it look like they’re tugging hard, but their hands are barely touching the rope. For whatever reason, they don’t want to put in the effort.

Then, there is a person who has the correct posture and body alignment, a tight grip and is pulling hard on the rope. They’re giving it all they’ve got, but they’re at a disadvantage because they have to compensate for the others who are not.

Every once in awhile, an even bigger impediment comes along – someone comes up to the line, sees everyone tugging and sends a message like: “Hey, why are you tugging? It’s 5:01 p.m.!”

While the team may have had a lot of dysfunction, at least they were going in the right direction and the rope was moving…As soon as that bad apple arrives and makes them question the mission, the members are disrupted and lose momentum. They wonder if it’s time to give up.

Now, there’s a very uncomfortable, odd feeling that occurs between the bad apple and the team getting the work done. There’s going to be a clash of emotions. At that moment, the outcome is decided – either the team presses on to win, or the bad apple wins and the mission collapses.

When you get momentum going in the right direction, you need to recognize bad apples when they appear, because once you stop, it’s too hard to get the momentum going again, whether it be for a new invention, a new company or a game of tug of war.

Some bad apples may have had poor training or poor parenting. Some may be inexperienced. It’s a difficult mission to manage bad apples and remove the dysfunction, but it’s crucial because we all have to work harder to make up for their lack of effort and disruption. We’re always on a mission to get the dysfunction out.

It’s a big challenge – trying to get everyone’s mind and spirit moving toward a common goal, a shared mission. As adults, sometimes we need to draw on those childhood games, like tug of war, that were invented to teach us how to think right and get things done.

The lesson is simple – for a team to win, everyone has to put all their energy, experience and effort in and work together to accomplish the goal.

To me, one of the primary jobs of a leader is creating an inclusive work environment – It is vital to the success of any operation.

The number one question I would ask all executives is, “How good are you at fostering inclusiveness?” If you’re wondering what I mean, think back to a time when you felt like you were not included, when you felt like an outcast. How did that affect your actions? I remember a time in sixth grade when nobody included me; that made me feel like I couldn’t do the activity, so I didn’t.

You can’t have great leadership and take your vision to the top of the mountain unless your environment is all-inclusive because it takes a lot of people to climb that mountain. If you’re not making it clear that your environment includes everyone, at all levels, people won’t commit as much time and effort or be as creative as they can be.

Recently, we were pitching story ideas in our animation division. You could sense that some people felt no inhibition at all and weren’t overly concerned about what others thought of their ideas. Their enthusiasm and confidence let their creativity shine through. Others were not very comfortable in sharing their ideas, which dimmed their enthusiasm and their creative vision.

It’s a challenge when everyone doesn’t feel bonded enough to the group to open up. A good leader needs to know everyone in the organization and have an open and honest relationship with each one, so they feel comfortable in sharing their thoughts. Then, when a tough issue comes along it can be addressed in full, with a lot of smart minds focusing on it together.

A good leader also needs to be completely trustworthy and open with information. If not, you end up with a breach in trust, which leads to a non-inclusive environment and a high turn-over rate. How are you supposed to create something great if every time you turn around, another member of your crew has jumped ship to go somewhere else? The moral is – people are tough; they’ll grit it out with you through tough times if you include them and everyone gets to the goal together.

But how do you get people to bond and know you’re there for one another? You do it through creating and enforcing an inclusive environment. You need to bring the barriers down. Once your barriers are down, you expose yourself to potential criticism; you expose yourself to potential laughter. Guess what – that’s where all the gold is.

When people are uninhibited because they feel accepted, that’s when the fun really begins. It can start with just one person opening himself up to possible criticism or laughter. People might say, “Oh, my gosh – look at him go!” But the next thing you know, others are joining in, and then some more, until everyone is feeling included, confident and creative.

That’s when the storyboards and the product designs fly. It’s pure magic.