Team (Part 2)
Belief Is All You Need
“A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried
to read a map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn't injured, his car was stuck deep
in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.
"Warwick can get you out of that ditch," said the farmer,
pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the haggardly mule and looked at the farmer who
just stood there repeating, "Yep, old Warwick can do the job." The man figured he had nothing to lose.
The two men and Warwick made their way back to the ditch.
The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins
he shouted, "Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!" And the mule pulled the car from the
ditch with very little effort. The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule and asked, "Why
did you call out all of those other names before you called Warwick?" The farmer grinned and said, "Old
Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he's part of a team, he doesn't mind pulling."
As seen in Bits
& Pieces: The Magazine that Motivates the World.
Adapted from Some
Folks Feel the Rain... Others Just Get Wet by James W. Moore
In TEAM (1) we indicated that to change a group into a team requires “special training
and the time to develop.” Peter Grazier is President and Founder of Teambuilding, Inc. and
has been providing services intended to facilitate team building and transitions to more participatory management
for over 20 years. Mr. Grazier has developed what he identifies as the 6
Key Learning Points necessary to convert a group into a team. My synopsis of those points is as follows:
- Everyone has something to contribute… and will if the environment is right. Mr. Grazier states
that: Most people have a great deal more to offer than we realize. And if we can just create an environment that
is safe, reassuring, and encourages contribution, more of that talent will be directed toward the organization.
When a leader finally understands this, employee involvement becomes less of a task that one must do and more of
a philosophy that one does naturally.
- The human element of performance is more important than the technical element. Mr. Grazier relates
that: Organizations spend a great deal of time concentrating on the technical features of business: technology,
administrative systems, financial controls, scheduling, research, inspection, equipment, maintenance, sales, inventory,
legal, and so on. Human Resources has been relegated to an administrative science by developing and administering
policies and procedures for staffing and recruiting, compensation, benefits, career development, regulatory compliance,
health and safety, employee assistance, organization development, industrial relations, and so forth. We, in our
structured, logical workplace seem more comfortable with technical and administrative tasks than the psychological
principles of performance. Yet in my experience, whenever performance in a work group or organization soared or
slumped, it could almost always be traced back to issues that impacted motivation… not technical issues. Each of
us has worked with or for someone who could excite and energize us, or, conversely, blow out our candle. When executive
management finally understands the link between these two extremes and the bottom line, training in human dynamics
will take on a whole new importance.
- Most decisions can be significantly improved through collaboration. Mr. Grazier states that:
Even though the principle is simple, it is difficult for us in the American business culture to actualize. Almost
all of our training from childhood on has reinforced individual thinking and decision-making, making it harder
for us to move to a collaborative approach in the 1990's. With all this prior conditioning, my own decision-making
process tended to be unilateral. However, when I entered the world of employee involvement, and was forced to collaborate
and involve others in work-related problem solving, it slowly became clearer that the ultimate decisions resulting
from this process were better. It took a few years of working intensively with involvement concepts before I finally
"got it." Today, I rarely solve a problem or make a decision, either professional or personal, without
first seeking out the knowledge and opinions of others.
- People Need Leaders - Good Leaders Build Trust, a Higher Sense of Mission, and a Sense of Worth. Mr.
Grazier states that: With much of the emphasis today on expanding the role of the front line employee, innovations
such as employee empowerment and self-management are moving to the forefront. This devolving of the leadership
role at the work group level, however, does not mean that people don't need leaders. What I have come to learn
over the years is that work is more than just this task we perform each day. It is an activity that provides dignity
and meaning to our lives. Our workplace is another world and another life--- a community of people working together
toward a common purpose. Such a community looks for guidance and approvals that are best provided by a leader.
Leaders typically have more expertise and the ability to point the direction. However, real leadership is in the
eye of the follower. One cannot be a leader without followers. In today's workplace, there are many heads of organizations,
designated as such by virtue of their position. How they behave in those positions will determine if they become
true leaders, or simply temporary caretakers of the organization's administrative processes. People cannot give
their best in a system where trust is absent. Good leaders understand this and work diligently to build it. Good
leaders seem to understand that people needed more than administrative processes to guide them and understanding
that people need to see and believe their leaders. Such leaders, with simple personal contact, can make you feel
that you were the most important person in his life at that moment, communicating a real sense of worth. Good leaders
seem to understand that within each person is a spirit that wants to make a contribution to a higher purpose. Thus,
they link what might appear as an ordinary task to a meaningful outcome. Could the lowest level employee (example:
a Janitor) comes to understand that sweeping the corridor where guest traffic is high is contributing too “customer
satisfaction” without the corresponding motivational effort of that good leader?
- Employee Involvement is NOT a Program, but Rather a Leadership Philosophy. Mr. Grazier relates
that: Many of us mistakenly created "Employee Involvement Programs" (such as the Idea Box) whose sole
purpose was to involve more of the organization's people in improving the work. As such, these "programs"
of participation were overlaid onto traditional management systems with disastrous results. Most are stacked up
with all other current programs and then relegated to some subordinate position in the priority listing. That what
he has learned is that involvement is really an internal belief about people and their ability and desire to contribute.
This belief translates into leadership behaviors that involve the organization's people more naturally in the thinking
and decision-making processes. In other words, involvement becomes a natural way of operating rather than forced.
It begins with a belief in the potential of people. Participative management without a belief in that potential
and without convictions about the gifts people bring to the organization is a contradiction in terms. When leaders
model employee involvement it becomes a foundation principle or underlying philosophy. It is not a tool or program
unto itself. It becomes a normal way of operating that supports the quality strategy.
- Continuous Improvement is Beautifully Simple. Mr. Grazier states that: It became very obvious
that front line workers possessed a brilliance of simplicity in the ideas they were bringing to the forefront.
This simplicity is really at the heart of continuous improvement. Focusing on continuous improvement raises our
consciousness of the thousands of tiny improvement opportunities that surround us each day, most in our own workspace.
That also promotes the notion that one thousand improvements each contributing a 1% gain in performance is the
same as one improvement contributing a 1000% gain. The fact is that the 1000 improvements are of far more significance,
because they give more people a chance to feel ownership, which then results in other benefits usually not counted
in the analysis of benefits. Understanding that encouragement of these ideas is not some supplemental activity
that the organization undertakes, but is a significant part of good leadership behavior. Good leaders, therefore,
become enthusiastic cheerleaders for continuous improvement concepts.
Mr. Grazier states his belief that most humans tend to underestimate their capabilities. That somewhere
in our early programming most of us failed to develop high levels of confidence in our ability to excel. As a result,
we tended to become more cautious when expressing ourselves, not wanting to expose ourselves to criticism, ridicule,
or embarrassment. This environmental conditioning is a powerful driver of behavior that holds us back from reaching
our full potential. He asks this question: “How many of us have a "big idea" every few days that would
save the organizations tens of thousands of dollars?” He indicates that by changing the focus to small, daily improvements,
confidence in one's ability to contribute is raised. That good leaders teach their people that the world of continuous
improvement is nothing to fear, but actually enjoy. That people truly enjoy making a contribution, and it is fun
when the result is easier work. As improvements begin to flow, confidence will build and the process will feed
on itself. Mr. Grazier reminds us of one caveat, Remember… Don't complicate something that is, at its essence,
beautifully simple.
If we learn these 6 points then we are way ahead of most when it comes
to teaching a group of employees or associates to become a team.
The college football season is about ready to start and there are many factors about
successful college football teams that would be beneficial to other developing teams if we could find ways to apply
them. “All winning teams are goal-oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with
them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract
them from achieving their aims.” Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach
Everyone that follows football knows that, year-in-year-out; certain college programs
are always in the top 20 or so teams in the nation. Think of Penn St., Nebraska, Ohio State, Miami, USC,
Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida State, and LSU just to name a few. These teams are always among
the best and they are so, for similar reasons. They have these reasons in common.
FUNDEMENTALS. These constantly great teams begin each year going over,
time and time again, the fundamentals, the whole team, not just the starting defense or offence. Most often we
go over the fundamentals with a staff member when the are new on the job and by the end of the first 90 days all
such training is done and over with. Most of our staffs would be offended if we asked them to practice the fundamentals
over and over again. If we are going to develop strong teams we cannot forget the fundamentals. See:
With Regard to Training
GAME TAPES. These constantly great teams have whole crews that videotape the
entire game from several different perspectives. After the game the coaches spend hours upon hours going over those
game tapes looking for anything short of perfect so they can fix it during practice the next week. They look at
every play and every player as well as what’s happening on the sideline, then each player is graded for their performance
during the full game. This kind of effort is the epitome of being proactive – dealing with the situation before
it happens again. We in turn tend to place all of our activity on being reactive to situations. No game tapes for
us. If we are going to develop strong teams we cannot forget that review is one of the seven (or eight) functions
of management. See: With Regards
to Control
THE FORGOTTEN OFFENSIVE LINE. These constantly great teams usually have players
who receive all of the media attention. The quarterback is a good example. If this player has a good, even
great, game it usually makes headlines in the next day’s paper. Little attention is given to the offensive line
by the media or the fans when, in fact, without great performances from these players the offense would have ground
to a halt. The great quarterback always knows that his success was because of these players and goes out
of his way to make sure that they know how much he appreciates them. We really have a poor track record of giving
positive feedback to those who labor in the trenches everyday for us. See: With
Regard to Visible Support
NO BREACH IN THE DEFENSIVE LINE. These constantly great teams usually have
great defenses. These defenses keep the opponent’s offensive team on the bench and work toward having a positive
turnover ratio. Each of the 11 players on the field know their assignments and they are usually three deep on the
bench for each position with players who know the assignments for any of the players they would be sent in to replace.
All of the players are adept at reading the opponent’s formations and adjusting on the fly. Team members need to
know how important their individual role is in the success of the team. If they feel that their performance doesn't
matter to the success of the team they will start blowing coverage’s and missing tackles that will allow the competition
to score. See: With Regards to Coaching
FINAL THOUGHT
Each August the Arizona State Sun Devil football squad and their coaches converge
on the mountaintop retreat Camp Tontozona to begin the process of becoming a team. There are typically a
few seniors who are expected to provide leadership, there are several underclassmen expected to emerge as major
contributors, some Jr. College transfers looking to prove that they belong, some individuals who red-shirted, the
incoming freshman recruited class with wide-eyed anticipation and the walk-on’s willing to make any sacrifice for
a chance. Spending 11 days together, in spartan-like conditions, isolated from most of the rest of the civilized
world, thinking football 24-7, cannot help but bond a group of young men (and their coaches) and bring them closer
together than they were before camp started. The whole idea of this preseason effort is to get some understanding
of which individuals are going to make what contributions and to begin laying the foundation for the game plans.
With any success, both the coaches and players begin to have a vision of what kind of team they are going to become.
ASU’s head football coach Dirk Koetter went to camp with the idea that:
Tontozona was the right environment to prove that everyone in camp had something to contribute. Given
the opportunity, the human element of performance would prove to be more important than any technical element.
Collaboration between coaches and players would provide the way for significantly improved decisions. Several
leaders would emerge to help build trust; a sense of the upcoming seasons mission and a sense of worth by become
part of the effort. The ASU Athletic Department and his coaching staff supported the philosophy of involvement
concerning the best interest of the individual as player and student. When camp was over and the team was set to
return to the Valley, coach Koetter realized that the system had worked in its beautiful simplicity and once again
the Sun Devils would compete effectively for a spot at the top of the Pac-10.
To insure that vision, the team would continue to go over the fundamentals again and
again. After each game they would review the game tapes looking for areas of improvement as well as areas of performance
in need of praise. They would never forget that the team is made up of individuals whose performance is fully dependent
upon the collective effort, and finally, that every individual on the team must perform their part to perfection
if the goal is to be crossed.
"Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!" Yea!
Team…
JS 09/05
