I work with an incredible group of people. So far I've been very lucky to be involved with groups that don't have much in the way of politics. We work well together and get lots done. Respect for what everyone does helps immensely to keep a smooth running group. When a new machine comes out, out team works on showing off the new machine the best it can be.
Creativity rules our group.
Our group has a neat mix of artists and engineers. The artists make the engineers try to make things work that they might have considered impossible had someone not insisted that it should work that way. Everyone gains a bit of the other's disipline. At the very least, everyone gains a respect for the abilities of the other people in the group. The hacker group has individual specialties, but each one of us has really had to understand every discipline to some degree.