Make Teamwork Happen

I am very proud of my Dad and Mom. Mom (Mary Ann Wahlner) just forwarded an article from the Alzheimer’s Research Forum about their participation in a clinical drug trial.

“Each day for one and a half years, 78-year-old Alan Wahlner popped four pink pills—two in the morning, two in the evening. Diagnosed with Alzheimer disease in early 2004, he was hoping the tablets were Flurizan, an investigational treatment for mild AD developed by Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The retired Hughes Aircraft purchasing agent was participating in Phase 3 clinical trials of the small-molecule compound at the University of California, Irvine—a 40-minute drive from his home.

Wahlner will never know whether he had gotten Flurizan or placebo pills throughout the 18-month trial that ended in late 2007. Yet he and his wife, Mary Ann, dutifully participated in what many hope is the final stage of testing for the Myriad drug thought to work by reducing levels of Aβ42 peptide. Before enrolling in the trial, the Wahlners signed an agreement stating they would not find out what was in the pills they took home. “That’s why most Alzheimer’s patients I know don’t participate—they don’t want to have the placebo,” said Mary Ann, 75, a retired research manager for California’s Employment Development Department. “My response is, how are you ever going to know if a drug actually works if you don’t have in the trials people who are not taking it? I understand the process and rationale behind double-blind studies, and I’m willing to be one of the participants.”

Bravo, Mom and Dad! You volunteered because it’s the right thing to do….not just for Dad, but for all the other Alzheimer’s patients who will benefit from the knowledge gleaned from the trials.

Question: Do you volunteer to do things for the greater good of the team, community or even the world?

CNN’s Cafferty Report yesterday posed the intriguing question: “Can Hillary Clinton muscle her way into the V.P. slot?”

My ears perked up when Jack Cafferty mentioned that “Jenny from Rome, Georgia says that He [Obama] seems to have surrounded himself with an excellent team and Hillary is not a team player.”

I wonder, what would give the impression to the American public (Jenny specifically) that Clinton is not a team player?

Question: What signals are we sending to the general population that we are (or are not) a team player?

I am in Las Vegas working with Choice Hotels International and had the pleasure to hear Deepak Chopra speak about “Spiritual Leadership”.

Aside from his Liberace/Elton John red rhinestone studded reading glasses (not seen in this picture), Chopra talked about happy people. He said, “Happy people are more successful, have better relationships, enjoy better health and live longer.

It is not the other way around.” You don’t become happy once you acquire success.

Chopra continued, “And people are as happy as they make up their mind to be. The best way to be happy is to make someone else happy.”

Question. Do you make other people happy?

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?

I have been looking forward to jury duty ever since I saw the movie “Twelve Angry Men” with Henry Fonda.

After being eligible for 30 years, my name finally came up to serve on the (ok, you do the math!).

Now that the civil personal injury trial is over, I can blog about my experience!

I was most impressed with the process known as “voir dire” where the plaintiff and defendant’s attorneys are able to question the jury candidates - and from that small pool of resources, select the best candidates who will serve their clients well. Our voir dire took 45 minutes. Most companies don’t even take 4.5 minutes to consider the best candidates for their team.

Question: Do you do a fair job of to “voir dire” the people you select to be on your team?

As a high stakes meeting facilitator, I go to a lot of meetings. Really important meetings where you believe “leadership” is highly supportive of the team’s work. At least that’s what is said….but may not look like it to the participants.

At the very least, show up to start the day. I don’t care if your plane landed late last night, there is a crisis back in the office, or your belief that your involvement might hinder full team participation. If that’s the case, then LEAVE after your initial words of encouragement and support.

Your team needs to KNOW that you are not only behind the initiative but in front of it, leading and inspiring extraordinary things to occur.

Question: How do you show your support for your team’s work?

Here are some of my ideas to start the session with a strong opening:

- Give them your personal perspective as to why this time together is important as well as the organization’s perspective and how it fits in with the strategic direction of the organization

- Describe what is at stake and what can be gained when the team is successful

- Describe what success looks like (outcomes)

- Encourage a spirit of openness and that their comments are valued and (only if it’s true) will be held “confidential”

- Encourage creativity and why (again, only if you mean it)

- Express your commitment to follow through - on whatever the team decides (if this is a problem, then you need to participate in the discussion - so that your contributions will be part of building a consensus.)

Check out the debate between Obama and Hillary and the pronoun “I”.

My dear friend, , author of Branded Customer Service, has a unique insight: Janelle noticed that Barack rarely uses the word. “I”. She says, “Hillary uses it all the time. It’s subtle and impact that it has on the audience, namely me, is that I feel invited in by Barack. Even the thank yous from Hillary were about “me” helping her. From Barack, the thank yous were about “me” helping a much larger idea. Barack feels as if he is talking with you; Hillary feels as if she is talking at you.”

Question: What language do you use to include people?

Coming to you from Philadelphia, PA, I am chaperoning my daughter (Marina)’s high school club at the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference. Mr. Bill Mansfield of the United Nations Environment Programme addressed the opening plenary session to 2,000 high school brainiacs…and lost them in the first two minutes.

Pity. He’s an older gentleman who just didn’t connect with his audience - admittedly, his staffers told him that he needed to “get on Facebook and MySpace.” Okay, so he got a slight laugh, and then went into Dilbert blah, blah, blah.

Mr. Mansfield was talking about one of the hottest topics for this generation - sustainable living. And he killed it. Literally. Let recount the ways:

1) The audience was HUGE. 2,000 people is a lot of people - especially without an IMAG.

2) He read from a script. Boring!

3) He spoke too far away from the lectern microphone, which made it hard to hear.

4) He gave his standard stump speech, with a small reference to his aides in the beginning and then a reference to “you young people” in his call to action at the end.

5) Blah, blah, blah, bureaucratic speak.

6) At the end, he asked the audience to sharpen awareness, create an action plan with a timetable….all the things Al Gore asked the nation to do in the Inconvenient Truth.

Such a shame. Great topic. Dead speech.

Question: Are you connecting with your team?

A few careers ago, I was on a panel to interview and select officers into the U.S. Coast Guard Direct Commission Program. A rather grueling process, we went through an applicant’s file and interviewed him (or her), trying to elicit stories of past behavior that would meet our specific criteria for selection…lifted directly from the CG Performance Appraisal Form.

After a few years of grading these candidates, I noticed an interesting pattern in the results: The Board scored Eagle Scouts exceptionally well - and those candidates who received their commission, did very well as a Reserve Officer.

Only 5 percent of Scouts achieve Eagle rank by age 18, when Scouting ends - and usually, it’s only one or two from a troop.

When I read the Washington Post today about ELEVEN members of Troop 681’s Viking Patrol achieving their Eagle Scout at the same time…that’s a testament to teamwork.

Question: What is every member on your team collectively striving to achieve?

I was just talking with my client about who needs to be in a crucial strategic thinking meeting. We want to limit the number of invitees to a small, intimate (and manageable) number of folks….but he has over 150 people in his organization!

Rather than inviting the usual suspects (top management), I suggested that he look for “two-fers” - people who fulfill at least two, three or four team objectives:

1) Content - the invitee will participate and make valuable contributions and/or provide perspective

2) Commitment - you will need their buy-in and commitment in the implementation of whatever the team is going to come up with

3) Teambuilding - you would like to use the event to develop mutual bonds of trust and patterns of communication among the participants

4) Diversity - the invitee represents a specific demographic of the organization (race, culture, gender, geography, age, longevity within the organization etc.)

While the research on optimal team numbers is not conclusive, it tends to fall in the five to 12 range (see my article in my newsletter) - so make sure each team member is at least a two-fer!

Question: What’s the composition of your team?