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Building Teams: A Nine-Step Approach
BUILDING TEAMS: A NINE-STEP APPROACH by Don Phin Follow these nine steps from Don Phin and you’ll build powerful teams. I’m often asked to facilitate what we will refer to as “team building.” This need usually arises during a merger or acquisition, in forming a new company, or in dealing with a dysfunctional business environment. Here are nine timeless principles that I employ in building teams: 1. The team comes first. Just ask the New England Patriots. All of us have seen sports teams loaded with superstars who fail to win the big games because they’re more focused on individual performance than the collective effort. If a partner or team member has a “me first” attitude, they can work elsewhere. This team stuff isn’t for everyone. 2. Engage in win/win thinking. Whether for good or bad, right or wrong, Americans are so competitive by nature that winning at all cost seems to be a perfectly acceptable mantra — sucking energy from others so that you can succeed is simply the nature of business. Not so if you want to have an effective team! Remember: “A rising tide floats all boats.” In his eye-opening book, The Case Against Competition, Alfred Cohen points out that when it comes to teams, we should focus on cooperation, not competition. We can compete against those outside the team, but certainly not within it. Again, this doesn’t mean that all team members have all the same responsibilities or the same compensation structures; it does mean that they should receive equal, and respectful, treatment. After all, they’re teammates! 3. Be clear up front about your commitments. Assuming that everyone will follow team rules is guaranteed to produce failure and resentment. For example, if you’ve played team sports for your entire life, your perception of what constitutes team play will differ from that of someone who has never played on a sports team. Build mutual rules, commitments, values, or understandings through dialogue and consensus. In game theory, there’s a classic story of the Prisoners’ Dilemma. For example, assume that two men are arrested for robbing a bank. The police separate them immediately and offer each one a deal, saying, “we’ll let you go or give you a lighter sentence if you rat out your partner.” Because the prisoners failed to define their commitments under such circumstances up front, they now find themselves wondering what the other guy will do. Inevitably, one or both will crack, believing that they’re more committed to the relationship than the other person is. If your team members are to trust each other, they must define and honor their commitments up front and in writing. 4. Treat every team member with equal respect. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, graduate students were able to define with 90% accuracy the success of a marriage by watching a couple during conflict for less than three minutes! These students focused on this “thin slice” of critical information: Whether or not one party was condescending toward the other during the conflict. Or, conversely, did they treat each other as equals who simply disagree? Although you wouldn’t treat a sibling or friend as “lesser than” just because they have a lower title or earn less than you, such treatment is often the norm in a business environment. 5. Make sure that the team is clear on its direction. Ask yourself if everybody is on the same page — whether you call it vision, mission, or goals. For example, in trying to strengthen a team among the staff of an insurance brokerage, I asked each employee what was the most important thing they did. Broker after broker gave a technical response. Then I asked the agency principal (who happened to out-earn all the other brokers combined) what he viewed as the most important thing that he did. His response opened my eyes: “The most important thing I do every day is make other people feel good about themselves.” When I asked him how he did this, he replied, “That’s easy! You just find the good in them. If you make a person feel good about themselves, they’ll work long and hard for you, or buy anything from you . Now, when we ask these brokers what’s the most important thing they do, they all have the same response — as do the customer service reps and the administrative staff. That’s a team going in the same direction. 6. Remember the “Rule of Seven.” Anthropological studies of everything from hunter-gatherer groups to military organizations have shown that it’s very difficult to create a cohesive team with more than seven members. Tom Peters often points out that no division of an organization should be more than 50 people, broken down into seven groups of seven. Ma Bell created seven-digit phone numbers because the human mind has a difficult time managing more than seven inputs at a time. So, when building teams, keep the magical Rule of Seven in mind. 7. Eliminate dysfunction and drama from teams. Begin by addressing everyone’s fears and concerns. For example, if the existing members of a team are concerned that the new folks won’t play by the same set of rules, you can reduce this concern by identifying the rules and asking if they have any questions about them. At the same time, the new folks might fear that the best practices they have developed will be ignored by the existing team because of their reluctance to change. Eliminate these fears by agreeing that the higher thought or best practices, not the existing way of doing things, will govern. Once you place such issues on the table, rather than keeping them buried, you can deal with them. As Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” 8. Conduct exercises that expose the challenges among teams. For example, I ask people what’s the most important thing that they do every day and then have them rank the top three or five. I then ask how others can support them in this effort. Doing this throughout the team creates an incredible awareness and support structure. Here’s another interesting exercise that I’ve done with everyone from partners, to couples, to work teams: First, I ask each person to write down all of those things that their significant other, partner, team member, or subordinate wishes that they would do differently. This list will probably be fairly accurate. I then ask the participants to exchange lists. Again, the chances are no participants would be missing much. The question then becomes, “If you know this to be the case, why don’t you feel that it’s important enough to try to make a difference? Or, if you are trying to make a difference, have you been as effective in the effort as you hoped for? Is it time to try something else?” 9. Finally, be sure to reinforce and reward team conduct. If your team is hitting home runs, make sure to celebrate them. If there are challenges, make it safe for people to come forward by inviting them and thanking them for doing so. The last thing that you want is for a team member to sit mired what I call a “culture of silence” because they fear speaking up for themselves. Follow these nine steps — and you’ll build powerful teams.

Ideas For Moving Forward: Putting A Stalled Economy Behind You
IDEAS FOR MOVING FORWARD: PUTTING A STALLED ECONOMY BEHIND YOU by John Graham If we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years, it’s that nothing is easy. No matter what the product or the industry, doing business and staying in business is no picnic. This situation might not change much in the next year or so. In spite of a few hopeful signs, most Americans seem to think that a cold economic winter will be around for a while. Although the state of the economy sets certain parameters, we do ourselves a disservice if we believe that it necessarily determines whether we succeed or fail. John and Peter Greene came back into the ground transportation business just as the recession hit and corporate travel was being grounded. Not surprisingly, many limo operators were in trouble. Yet, the Greene brothers’ new company, ETS International, which serves the Greater Boston market, went from zero to 60 in nothing flat. The reason for such success is clear incredible focus, in-depth experience, and a vision of what can happen if you work at it hard enough. Other qualities can make major contributions to business success, no matter what’s happening in the economy. Here are 11 of them: No one is exempt when it comes to performance. Few CEOs earned more respect than A.G. Lafley of Proctor & Gamble. For years, he was an icon of American business if there ever was one. During his lengthy tenure, the company’s revenues doubled, for example. However, when the numbers sagged, he was sacked. It’s the same story with Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis who literally built the first truly “national” bank in U.S. history. But when Boa hit the wall, he was history. The recession pushed performance to the top. Unsupported action leads to disaster. During the recession of the early 1980s, Coca-Cola panicked as its 52% market share plummeted to 24%. In response, the company threw out its 100-year old formula and came up with a taste more like that of its rival, Pepsi-Cola, in an effort to stop its losses. This is probably the dumbest decision a company ever made. After three months, the old formula was back it’s still known as Classic Coke and Coca-Cola was ready to regain the lead. The failure to think through the implications of decisions can be costly. Perceived value becomes real value. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, experts often advise against major price-cutting and advocate a value-driven strategy. Hyundai has amassed new customers with its value, safety and 100,000-mile assurance program. It was the same with Applebee’s restaurants. When their customers dropped down to fast food, business sank however Applebee’s responded with a value offering “two meals for under $20” that’s pulling back lost customers. Urgency is in. Not long ago, someone overheard an employee say, “Well, the customer just needs to understand that.” No matter what we might think, that’s a killer comment, as are these: “We can take care of that tomorrow” or “Do we really need to do that?” Urgency is often the edge that attracts customers. Never listen to people who think they have all the answers. Anyone wanting answers should spend their time listening to talk shows. What they won’t hear, however, is anyone asking questions and it’s questions that uncover problems and help make improvements. Doubt your perspective. When urged to change General Motor’s corporate deeply inbred culture, former CEO Fritz Henderson, is reported to have said, “But that’s all I know.” This candid response told the story. He and his management team were prisoners of their own perspective. Under a new CEO from outside GM, they were quickly replaced. To one degree or another, we’re all prisoners. To make meaningful contributions, we need to set ourselves free. Watch out for the subversives. These people are skilled at undermining and derailing action. They’ll do just about anything to avoid getting things done. Using clever delaying tactics, they put on the brakes and they always find an excuse for not getting around to reviewing a project, preparing a proposal, or following up. They’re in every organization, from top to bottom, and particularly in between. They call meetings, not to get things moving, but to stop anything from happening. The best solution is to help them find a job with a competitor. Encourage customers to pick your company’s “brain.” Every business has proprietary information that it needs to protect. At the same time, sharing ideas, insights, experience, and helpful information is one of the most effective ways to draw prospective customers into a company’s orbit. White papers, newsletters, and timely bulletins offer valuable tools for communicating value to prospects. Yet, companies turn off prospects without knowing it. Today, I received six e-mails offering reports or information that caught my interest. However, when I went to “click here,” the free offer was conditional. In each case, I was required to provide complete contact information, including a telephone number in several cases. The message was clear: the offer was simply bait to get what the company wanted which diminished its value. The goal is to impress the customer with what you know, not drive them away by taking advantage of them. There’s no need to hogtie prospects when the power of your information will pull the serious ones to you. Watch out for bandwagon thinking. A marketing consultant tells about a meeting at which the sales manager said the company needed to get into the social media or be left in the dust. Although he was making an important point, it’s also “bandwagon thinking.” This is dangerous because it’s seductive, taking our minds off reality-based issues. A few years ago, e-mail “blasts” were the “answer, with companies wasting billions of dollars on endless lists and frenzied distribution& all with little or no results Before that, it was fax “blasts,” which produced equally dismal results. Consultants often do their best to make us feel we’re out-of-date if we don’t move instantly and buy their services. To avoid embarrassment, we sign on. The way to avoid such costly traps is to do your homework first. Require transparency. Obfuscation is out and transparency is in. Whether it’s a company or a person, privacy is an illusion. There’s no way to hide. If we say it, do it, write it, e-mail it, text it or post it, someone will find it so never be surprised. Acting otherwise, can be a tragic mistake. This means that transparency is neither a moral nor an ethical issue it’s the new reality! We’re never maxed out. Although many people responded to the recession by learning new skills and taking on more responsibility, most just caved in and hunkered down, hoping to dodge a bullet. CONCLUSION While going through comments about “what the recession taught me,” several ideas stand out: “Leftovers make really great meals.” “Security is an illusion.” “There’s a difference between needing and wanting.” The recession is a “shake-up” call that has forced us to realize that maybe we just thought we were giving our all.