productive human activity possible. Every business wants to
harness this incredible energy, but achieving such a level
of motivation and esprit is not always easy.
A team is not just a group of individuals who work at the
same location or have the same logo on their business card.
A real team is made up of people who may be unequal in
experience, talent, or education, but who are equal in their
commitment to working together to achieve the goals and good
of the organization, each other and their customers.
If we are going to be successful, we can no longer look at
our organizations as departments, divisions, or branch
offices. We must look at the bigger picture and resolve to
work together in ways we may never have done before.
We may even need to cooperate with the competition. Think of
all the mergers and acquisitions in the past few years. Your
number one competitor today could be your partner tomorrow.
Futurist Bob Treadway CSP, from Littleton, Colorado often
gives the Mensa IQ Test to participants in his seminars. He
has found that many "average" people, when working as a
team, test at "genius" level or higher.
Participants contribute in different ways. Some brainstorm.
Some work alone and then report back to the group. Treadway
finds that a team "becomes a genius when everyone works
together."
Treadway also noticed that when a team is working at optimal
performance, it is hard to know who the leader is. In other
words, the team runs the team.
Such teamwork doesn't happen by accident. It requires
commitment and effort, a willingness to accept the
uniqueness of others, and an appreciation of diversity. We
build teams in our companies the same way we build
relationships with our friends and coworkers.
High-functioning teams establish us and our companies as
reliable, internally and externally. We then project this
image to our customers, vendors, competitors, and
communities.
With downsizing and restructuring, many managers today are
responsible for as many as 250 people. More than ever, these
managers need to build responsible and committed team
members if they want the best performance from them. But how
do they go about it?
A very dynamic, productive example was the team led by Mike
Powell, when a senior scientist at Genentech. Because of its
past successes, his ten-person team was given the most
important assignments. I asked Mike how he managed to keep
his people highly motivated in an environment with long
hours and a great deal of frustration.
"I keep them happy," he said. Now, every manager wants to do
this, so I pressed Mike for details. "Ten years ago," he
continued, "I told team members only what I thought each
needed to know. Now I tell everyone everything. It may slow
them down a bit while they are filtering through all the
information, but they get the big picture. Then they can
then decide what it is they need to know and do."
He added, "I also gave them lots of positive feedback via
email and voice mail. One group at Genentech lost their
leader, but they stayed incredibly productive. I left a
voice-mail message for one of them, saying 'Everyone in the
company is talking about how well you all are doing.' They
were really effective as a team and appreciated knowing it."
Building a real team gets real results, but it can't be done
with slogans and directives. Ed Stair, Senior Vice President
at Gap talks about 'Gap Heroes,' everyone who uses
innovation to find ideas to save money or improve
productivity.
Start by respecting each person's individual contribution,
showing appreciation, exciting them about their
possibilities for achievement, and sharing with them that
their group effort has the potential for real genius. Good
luck!
____________
Patricia Fripp CSP,CPAE is a San Francisco-based
professional speaker on Change, Teamwork, Customer Service,
Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the
author of Get What You Want! and Past-President of the
National Speakers Association. PFripp@aol.com, 1-800 634 3035
http://www.fripp.com
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