Make Teamwork Happen

In the April 2008 issue, Meetings & Conventions magazine reported on Personality Hotels’ “Emergency Resources Kit” - given free for planners who book meeting space at certain properties. The article then suggests that “other planners might want to create their own.”

Whether you are a meeting planner, team leader or facilitator, carry your own caboodle of supplies. Here’s my list that I keep stuffed in a briefcase/bag, ready to go for my next meeting:

• Advil, Tylenol or other pain remedies.
• Alcohol swabs
• Bandages (especially finger band aids!)
• Hand sanitizer
• Kleenex tissues
• Low tack masking tape (drafting or painter’s tape)
• Marking pens (Watercolor & Dry Erase)
• Mints, candy, gum, cough drops
• Name tags/name tents
• Index cards
• Paper clips
• Post-it flags
• Post-it notes
• Post-it correction tape
• Power strip and/or extension cord
• Push pins or upholstery “T” pins
• Rubber bands
• Scisssors
• Shout wipes or a Tide pen
• Stapler and staples
• Straight edge ruler
• Tape measure/level
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• 3 Prong adapter

Question: Do you keep a fully stocked kit that will save your caboodle in a pinch?

Guy DuBois, Vice President of Operational Technologies and Solutions for Raytheon Company’s Intelligence and Information Systems business doesn’t have a blackberry. And it’s not because he’s a Luddite either. He sets aside a few hours each day to answer his emails. But he refuses to carry a blackberry.

Why? Because Guy wants his team to be proactive, to make on the spot decisions without always having to check in with him. PDAs - whether it’s a blackberry, palm or Q create 24/7 accessibility that may hamper effective decision making at the lowest level. Guy says he doesn’t want his people to “flush up” their decisions to him.

Question: Are you managing your email or is your crackberry managing you?

I was talking with Jim Blasingame this morning during the Small Business Advocate Show about his “Strategic Look at Critical Components” within a small business. There are seven key areas to consider when making your plans for the new year: Financial, Human Resources, Management, Marketplace, Technology, Public Policy, and Personal.

Over the next few several weeks, he’ll be discussing each category in more detail in his newsletter. And, as he discusses, and you think through the possibilities (either alone or with your leadership team), you are going to come up with a veritable cornucopia of ideas!

But you can’t (nor should you) do all of them. So try using this little matrix to help you sort out the ideas:

Take each idea and determine the level of effort expended (low/medium/high) compared to the expected payoff (low/medium/high). Depending on where you place the idea, you will get a good idea if it’s a waste of time, a “quick win”, a business opportunity or a special effort.

Definitely cross off the time wasters! You may want to make the quick wins a tactical “to do” with a deadline. But the business opportunities and the special efforts…now those, by definition, will take more effort. Pick just a handful of these (I suggest no more than five), and make these your resolutions for the new year!

During the snowstorm last week, I flew from Reagan National Airport to Toronto and then on to Charlottetown (in Prince Edward Island). As the plane was being de-iced in Toronto, I kept thinking about the phenomenon, Captainitis, as explained in the Harvard Business School Management Communications Newsletter :

Captainitis gets its name from the sometimes-deadly type of passivity exhibited by crew members of multipiloted aircraft when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision. Accident investigators have repeatedly registered disastrous instances when even an obvious error made by a captain was not corrected by other crew members.

Consider the following exchange, recorded on an airliner’s flight recorder minutes before it crashed into the Potomac River near Washington National Airport in 1982:

Copilot: Let’s check the ice on those tops [wings] again since we’ve been sitting here awhile.
Captain: No. I think we get to go in a minute.
Copilot: [Referring to an instrument reading] That doesn’t seem right, does it? Uh, that’s not right.
Captain: Yes, it is.…
Copilot: Ah, maybe it is.
[Sound of plane straining unsuccessfully to gain altitude]
Copilot: Larry, we’re going down!
Captain: I know it.
[Sound of impact that killed the captain, copilot, and seventy-six others.]

Question: Do your team members blindly defer to the boss or do you engage in a healthy dialogue before the final verdict?

I’m in Prince Edwards Island, Canada hovering over a tall mug of steaming mocha with whipped cream. I’m drenched to the bone with rain while watching the renowned Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) “Musical Ride” at the Crapaud Equestrian Centre. Everybody on the island declares the Musical Ride is is quite the spectacle. And well, there really isn’t that much else to do on the island, so we go see thirty-two boot-black Hanoverian broodmares and stallions prance in formation. The show’s finale culminates in a colossal stampede that comes to an abrupt halt at the end of the arena. I had been hearing about this amazing feat for the entire week!

Unfortunately, it started raining a few hours before showtime, and really started pissing down rain just a few minutes before the Commander, John Gaudet, led the troops into the outdoor arena. It was a nice show, but didn’t quite live up to the Islanders’ hype.

Afterwards, Joseph (my partner) insisted we stick around to say hello to his childhood friend – who is none other than the Musical Ride Commander John Gaudet! A gracious Mountie with a warm smile, John explained to us that they needed to slow the pace of the Musical Ride to ensure the safety of the riders as well as the horses. They only cancel a show when there is lightening or other danger. Guess rain doesn’t count.

When weather and/or other conditions sour on your team, do you adjust the pace and tempo to meet the conditions so that everyone can still participate safely and surefooted? Or, do you go full speed ahead like nothing is happening?