Johnny Carson was the host of the television game show Who Do You Trust? in 1957. To play, couples were separated, and the husbands were given a category of the question they were to answer next. They had to either answer it or “trust” their wives to answer it. Ironically, that show aired during the quiz show scandal era, when it was discovered that the popular game show The $64,000 Question had scripted the loss of a contestant to allow a more popular contestant to win. The whistleblower? The losing player.
There it is. It’s finished. It’s your project.
You poured in your heart, your sweat, and totally emptied your pockets to make your work a masterpiece. You even threw in the pocket lint. But here comes Nancy. She’s bound to tell you it’s wrong. She’s bound to tell you it’s incomplete. And, if nothing else, she’s bound to think your project is quite simply a bad idea.
One of my favorite things to do as a manager is to take a team that’s not functioning and make it function. There are many reasons why a team isn’t producing what it could, from limited resources, negative personalities, personality conflicts, individuals in bad-fit roles, demoralized members, to lack of direction (or too much direction) from a supervisor. + Read More
Team building events can be great for fostering teamwork within the workplace, but they don’t have to be all about trust falls and rope climbing. In my experience, these sorts of team building activities can actually have the opposite effect. And while I’m not an HR professional, I am a manager and ultimately, an employee—the people for whom team building activities are organized. Trust falls and rope climbing aren’t always going to get employees excited about working together, so try thinking outside the box for team building activities.
Kraft was in the business of selling processed cheese long before the blue box ever hit your cabinet. However, during the Great Depression a smart salesman began attaching bags of cheese to boxes of macaroni and selling it as a “dinner”. The combo was an immediate hit, which soon became known to the world as Kraft Dinner.
“What confronts every company, large or small”¦ is learning to thrive in a world where change is discontinuous, unrelenting and pitiless… companies are much better at optimization than they are at rule-breaking, game-changing”¦ radical innovation—and yet, that is exactly what is required in turbulent times.” - Gary Hamel
Leaders within every organization face the challenge of moving the company forward with measurable innovation, cost reduction, and increasing profits. But these objectives cannot be accomplished without a clear strategy and strong team member engagement—people willing to help move the organization forward.
Your grandmother taught you not to put your elbows on the table. Your kindergarten teacher taught you the alphabet. And Suzy Jensen taught you how to slow dance. But didn’t anyone ever teach you how to ask for advice or ideas?
So often in the workplace, team members are timid about asking for input, help, or ideas because they fear it is a sign of weakness. However, the opposite is actually true. Asking for input actually engages people into your project. It allows for an open flow of ideas and offers new perspectives. Asking for advice does not mean you think your work is marginal or sub-par. Instead, it shows you want your work to be as good as it possibly can be—that it actually can be Great Work.
Ready for this week’s team challenge?
Teamwork, something that used to be so much fun as a young child is now a necessity in the business world. With a new push for more collaboration, promoting teamwork in your office is integral.
Not only does teamwork encourage creativity, but it helps employees communicate more effectively, be more productive, and ultimately have higher job satisfaction. There is more than a seed of truth in the popular acronym for TEAM: Together We Achieve More. Consider how teamwork can bloom in your office.
