Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, gives excellent insight in the value of a team in this recent article in Success Magazine.
Excerpt: “without effective teamwork, without a cohesive group of people leading an organization, a company cannot begin to tap into the potential that it has in any other areas.”
Enjoy!
It is said that the human brain is immensely more powerful than even the world’s best computer. I wonder how much more companies spend on software than on training?
During this challenging economic time, the best companies will be spending money on ensuring they get the most performance possible from their people.
http://www.criticalpathfinders.com/activity_powerofcrisis.html
There is no question that new generations of workers present new challenges to managers. Team expert Tom Heck is presenting a free teleseminar about Generation Y in the workplace.
Click for more details about the teleseminar and how to register.
Dislike meetings? Me too. Unless they are:
- productive;
- enjoyable; and,
- focused.
In our organization, we’ve significantly reduced the number of meetings we have and we’re all much more productive. We now primarily share information by email and phone.
Seth Godin advises us to skip the next meeting. I’m not sure if you should just “not go”, but perhaps you should convince your manager or your team that you can share information in a more efficient way.
Here are the first three videos submitted to the TeamTube Video Team Building Contest. They were created by 3 teams at Evergreen, a Toronto-based non-profit. This is pure teamwork in action!
Nutty by Nature: Call of the Nature Nut
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c_-cT4xMyQ]
Evergreen Mulch Song
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04BOz5YfPQk]
Race to Evergreen Brick Works
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdRWVykxaA]
Enjoy!
A team with infrequent conflict is a team that does not know how to handle conflict. Here is a great example of how conflict avoidance can be disastrous. Read about it at The You In Team
Susan M. Heathfield, HR expert at About.com has a good collection of team building quotes. Could be a good resource if you are ever writing about team or team building.
My favourite: “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” - Andrew Carnegie
Enjoy!
Seth Godin blogs about how conflict arises from a perceived difference in judgement, when in fact the underlying cause of a conflict may be a difference in belief. Change the belief and you change the root of a conflict.
This is relevant to a team situation. We can get angry (or at least indignant) when someone that we work with seems to have bad judgement. Trying to understand the other person’s beliefs may be a quick way to dissolve conflict and negative feelings that may arise.
And just like Seth says the role of the marketer is to change the consumer’s beliefs, it is the role of a manager to (at minimum) investigate the underlying beliefs between two team members in conflict. Understanding these beliefs will allow the team members to understand each others’ perspective and perhaps lead to a successful resolution.
Do things need to change with your team? What is your vision for the future of your team?
In Full Steam Ahead by Ken Blanchard, he talks about creating a picture of the future as one of the key elements of a vision. Blanchard gives three key principles of a powerful picture of the future…
1. Create “a picture of the end result, something you can actually see, not vague.” How do you picture the future of your team? More collaboration? More teamwork? More communication? Actually create the mental picture of how a highly effective team would look.
2. “Focus on what you want to create, not what you want to get rid of.” Don’t can’t create a picture of “not”. So don’t try to picture your team members “not fighting” or “not backstabbing”. Rather, focus on the desired actions. Picture your team getting along instead.
3. “Focus on the end result, not the process for getting there.” At some point you need to understand how you will get your team working in the way you envision. However for the moment, just focus on the desired end state, like an athlete picturing him- or herself on the podium.
When you have a clear and compelling picture of the future for your team, then you can start to share it with your team with the goal of having them take it on for themselves. Having your team all working toward a shared vision is a key step in moving your team closer to being an enlightened team.
Research shows that babies react positively to collaborative behaviour. Check out Tom Heck’s post about this.
Here is a great example of teamwork in action. Southwest Airlines has a collaborative blog about teamwork. Employees post on the blog and the general public can comment. In this particular case the posting is about teamwork and how an airplane can be turned in 25 minutes with a focused team effort. Other airlines say they can’t turn a plane that fast…but if Southwest can, then it is obviously possible.
Where in your business could a focused team effort make a significant difference to your customers?
The Tragedy of the Commons is a phenomenon first identified by Garrett Hardin in the journal Science in 1969. He used the example of a communal pasture in which locals could freely graze their cattle. Provided that the number of cattle was kept under control, the pasture would sufficiently replenish itself, allowing for perpetual grazing. However, if each farmer acted out of self-interest and continuously increased the number of cows grazing the free pasture, the valuable shared community resource would eventually be depleted and destroyed. In this scenario, the pasture only serves its purpose if the farmers work collectively to use it in a sustainable manner.
How is your workplace like the commons in this example? Do people seek short-term gain at the expense of longer-term rewards? To what extent do you and your team compete for resources, ideas, jobs, promotions, salary increases, bonuses or more desireable offices? Or does everyone always work together for the benefit of the common good? We are trained from a young age to compete, yet most people would agree that working together toward the common good serves us all to a greater extent.
Think about The Tragedy of the Commons in upcoming interactions with your teammates. You can even tell them about The Tragedy of the Commons and work together to find ways to collaborate to a greater extent. Then consider how a higher level of collaboration would impact your work and/or your workplace. That is the essence of teamwork.
I’ve been in the team building business for 8 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve not determined if this was done by employees of Samsung or if the employees are in the audience. (If you know for sure, please comment on this posting.) Either way, it shows an amazing coordinated team effort. Imagine if your group/department/organization was able to deliver this level of teamwork!
http://www.thegenepool.nl/profkienstra/index.php/2007/team-building-to-a-new-level/
Enjoy!
My name is Andrew Long. I am an entrepreneur, husband, father, music lover and sometimes an athlete. My vision is a world in which everyone loves their work. Through the work of Critical Pathfinders and Scavenger Hunt Anywhere, I seek to bring enlightenment to the corporate world. More...