Archive for November, 2006

Before we talk about high performance teamwork, let’s talk about cars. I have always admired Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Mercedes provides an extraordinary driving experience. There is, however, a fairly significant obstacle to overcome in obtaining this extraordinary driving experience: cost. A Mercedes is expensive to buy and to maintain. But I really like the Mercedes driving experience.

So the other day, as I was driving through Motor City, I had an idea. Here’s what triggered my idea. At one of the used car lots, I noticed an ugly little car with a big SALE sign on it. Turns out the car was a Yugo. It wouldn’t start on its own, and when it did, it didn’t run well. It was uncomfortable to sit in and awkward to steer, and most of all it was horrible to drive. But it was really cheap. So I thought, “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll buy this little Yugo for next to nothing and I’ll have so much capital left over that I can put some serious money into beefing up the suspension system. Probably the steering, too. Oh yes, and even get some new seats. That way I’ll get my “Mercedes ride” without having to pay for a Mercedes.”

At this point you must be thinking, why in the world am I even reading an article written by this guy? First of all, he’s writing about cars in an article about obtaining high performance teamwork. But more importantly, he is obviously deranged. There is no way you could ever get a Yugo to drive like a Mercedes, I don’t care how much fix-up money you put into it. It would be like pouring money into a hole in the earth for all the good it would do you. And you would be right, at least about the last sentence!

So let me confess. I didn’t buy a Yugo and I didn’t seriously even contemplate putting money into such a vehicle in order to get the drive of my dreams. But I did invent the story because it occurred to me that the same sort of weird logic seems to explain the rationale used by many organizations today in attempting to obtain high performance teamwork. Let me explain the similarities in these two different situations.

Most traditional organizational structures are designed to control the activities of individuals in the workplace. While some variations have occurred since the heyday of the industrial revolution, the organizational structures, based upon underlying assumptions about individual work, are still largely in place today.

And this is at the root of the problems we find in organizations that are struggling to implement high performance teams. While there is, in almost every case, a genuine desire to reap the benefits of high performance teamwork, there seems to be tremendous reluctance to go back and redesign the structures that might actually result in teamwork as the natural outcome. In other words, we really like that Mercedes ride, but we just don’t want to put out the time, effort, and money to buy that Mercedes design and engineering.

The outcomes are similar in both situations. Having decided that teamwork is the best strategy to help us achieve our goals in the current environment, but having made at least an unconscious decision to leave our current organizational structures and systems intact, we find that teamwork is not happening very well, if at all, in our organization. So while still wishing for that Mercedes ride, we’ve essentially invested in a Yugo organizational structure. It just doesn’t work.

Enter the team consultants who advocate the need for corporate-wide team building workshops (at a very substantial fee). These guys are good—and they have access to high-ropes courses and river rafting and survival experiences and a host of other “team building” experiences. So off you and your teams go for a week in the woods and everybody comes back feeling good about themselves and good about their teams. But after a month back in the workplace, the magic of the outdoor week is gone and everyone is back into the patterns of before: individualism and competition have won out yet again over the forces of teamwork and collaboration.

Sound familiar? If you have had this or similar experiences, then I believe you may have dumped a lot of money into your organizational “Yugo” in hopes of improving a system that was never properly designed or engineered to give you organizational “Mercedes” performance. It is unlikely that you will get high performance teamwork from an organizational structure and organizational systems designed to manage and control individual performance. And while team building exercises have their place, it is futile to expect them to overcome inherent organizational design deficiencies. So if you really want high performance teamwork, don’t just wish for it—design for it.

Technorati Tags: leadership, teamwork, management, performance, business

Recent articles on leadership from around the web…

• Giving the Chinese the keys to the Golden Arches
  As McDonalds plans on handing control of Chinese restaurants to locals, Chicago Business gives us some insight into how they are developing the local talent pool for the job. “Having Chinese executives who understand the culture and politics of doing business in this emerging market is critical for McDonald’s future success in the country.”
• Better leaders make better burritos
  Motley Fool gives us a profile on how Chipotle leveraged good leadership in their rapid rise to success. “Beyond simple monetary gains, perhaps the greatest gain for Chipotle is its ability to improve its service to customers.”
• Opportunity in going where others fear
  We’ve all seen the tremendous profits collected by firms willing to dive into Iraq recently, so it should come as no surprise that similar opportunities exist in North Korea. The International Herald Tribune details how foreign entreprenuers are making a go at it in North Korea.
• Group therapy For alphamales
  n ‘When Top Dogs Need Leashes‘, Businessweek gives us a quick preview of HBR-essay-turned-book Coaching the Alphamale. “The top ranks of business are filled with highly intelligent, confident, and successful men who demand to be in control–but whose impatience and drive can also hurt their companies.”
• ‘Long resumes are impressive’ and other myths
  The Washington Post gives us a quick refresher on common misconceptions about job hunting. The ideas are straightforward but might give you a thing or two to think about.

Technorati Tags: Fast Food Management, entrepreneur, coaching, resumes, careers, leadership

Recent articles on leadership from around the web…

• Behavior more important than strategy
  WSJ’s CareerJournal profiles reluctant leadership and teamwork guru Patrick Lencioni while making the case for the softer side of management. “Business-literature trackers say books on topics like the psychology of leaders outsell tracts on hard-nosed subjects like supply-chain management.”
• What is a leader without the trust of their followers?
  All Africa has very blunt report on the advice a Rwandan Mayor gave local leaders. Extort money; lose trust. “Unless leaders develop a character that enables them win the trust and respect of the people, they will never succeed.”
• The rise and fall of trust
  It seems that ‘trust’ may be a bigger topic in Rwanda these days than in the US, where ‘trust’ has been traded for ‘accountability’. In The Decline of Trust, Washington Post Op-Ed columnist Sebastian Mallaby documents the shift.
• A downsized Jack Welch
  The New York Times featured a story on the how the former GE chief is spending his retirement. “Jack Welch, CEO” has transformed into “Jack Welch, LLC”, with a busy speaking and consulting schedule and a potential bid for The Boston Globe.

Technorati Tags: strategy, business, leadership, trust, jack welch

As you journey on your path toward achieving career and life success, you’ll need the right tools to help you stay focused, support your progress and lead you toward a thriving, balanced and happy life. In my seminars at Leader’s Studio and in my postings here at Leader’s Notebook, I’ll help you develop those tools.

Before we dive in, though, I want to share with you a few basic ideas that are critical to ensuring that you get what you want out of your life. In my book, How to Use What You Got to Get What You Want, I outline four principles that will ease your way to achieving your dreams.

In work as in life, I live by these four simple principles. These principles keep me on course and facilitate every business and social interaction I have. They free me to be creative and productive. They enable me to see and take advantage of opportunities. They are the first thing I share with the management team in every company I’ve managed and consulted with, and they form the basis of our working relationships. When we follow these practical principles, the flow of communication is smooth; productivity and morale are high.

These four simple principles are the most powerful, readily adoptable tool I’ve used in my career and in my life. I want to share them with you now. (more…)