The David Elder post:
Dr. Ray has written about micro feedback so I’ll attempt not to bore you by being redundant. I’ll just point out that workers are influenced more by their peers than by their manager or leader. Most organizations and team developers do not embrace the idea of micro/horizontal feedback. Our […]
Most organizations organize themselves into groups of specialist’s i.e. operations, sales and marketing, human resources, legal, etc. Usually these groups have a leader at the top that has overall accountability for adding value to the goals of the organization. Most business writers describe this structure as organizational silos. Much has been written […]
A team recently took our on-line survey. Their scores showed that the team scored:
40% in knowing what the goals are
60% in motivation
55% in trust of one another
40% in trust of management
Now to put that in other terms. If this were a football team, only 5 players know which goal is theirs, 4 people […]
We recently redesigned our on-line Team Survey. It is easier to use and gives more information in the written report. Take a look and try it out for your team at this link: Team Survey
Find out what your team thinks on nine different dimensions like Team Motivation, Trust between team members, […]
It is easy to see how creating better teamwork within a group can help that group. The same thing applies when a whole organization learns how to work as a team. In many organizations there are small pockets that work well as a team but the whole organization may continue to perpetuate inefficiencies, […]
In the hype and buzz word environment of management theories it is easy to forget that the goal is to gain the most from the people who work in your organization. This can only be done in one way, treat people in a way that inspires them to do their best. You can’t […]
You may have noticed that in children’s sports, coaches are often right on the field with the kids teaching and coaching even as they are playing. After the first couple of years, coaches must get off the field. The children have gained enough skill to function without intense interaction from the coach. As […]
All organizations tend to perpetuate dysfunctional behaviors within certain perameters. As long as the behaviors are limited, they may not hurt the organization too much. When they take over or influence critical areas, they can become major problems in an organization.
Often, behaviors are functional for “getting along” within the environment but dysfunctional for […]
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is a good read for the leader of a leadership team. It is a simple story with a powerful message. It is well written and is accurate in terms of the way a leadership team actually works. The team assessment is quite useful. […]
While I was at South Central I asked several team members to contrast the behavior of South Central supervisors with supervisors they have had in other jobs. Everyone said something like,
They don’t act like supervisors here.
They don’t hide in their office.
They get out and work right beside us if needed.
They know what we do […]
It is tough to recognize that we create our own reality. We live in such a way that the bubble we create is quite real to us. That is fine most of the time BUT when our reality stops working for us or impedes us in achieving our goals we come to a […]
Only when something helps the team burst the bubble, can a team begin to create new beliefs and a new team reality. I worked with a team that had a belief that “Only a lead person can do work scheduling.? After the company implemented a team system, the lead person was promoted to […]
Think of reality as a bubble or shell the team creates for itself to live within. The bubble is generally quite helpful and functional for the team. It creates a safe zone where everyone agrees on the rules of the game, where beliefs about how the work should be done are well established, […]
The story of Roger Bannister who broke the 4-minute mile on May 6, 1954 is a case in point. Until that date, most if not all professionals in Track and Field sports thought the 4-minute mile was impossible for humans. After Roger Bannister broke it, several other runners broke it within a few […]
This is such an obvious question, yet so difficult to pin down. For example, what is real to a Republican might seem just fantasy or unquestioned belief to a Democrat. Have you ever been in an argument with someone who was convinced that what they believe was real while you could easily see […]