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Monthly Archives: February 2009
The Art of Building a Team
Over the course of the last twenty years I’ve been part of and put together dozens of teams. Over the last few years I’ve been putting together teams more often. I’ve found that it is important to recognize that teams evolve. They take on an identity. They have a culture. At the beginning of a project they are a collection of individuals, at the end of a project the team is far more than the sum of its people – in ways that are difficult to predict. At its essence, teams are organic entities which are grown as opposed to assembled or built. Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Management, Process, Technology
Tagged goals, team, values, web2.0, workforce dynamics
1 Comment
Keeping Proper Perspective
Two of the weblogs I follow had interesting posts recently. The fist post by Seth Godin was titled Do You Have 16 Boxes?. In this post Seth elegantly describes a method of keeping perspective by (and I paraphrase here) imagining 16 boxes with each box representing a part of your life. As one box is doing very well, others may be doing poorly. By looking at the bigger picture, meaning all 16 boxes, it is much easier to stay in balance. Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Management, People / Talent
Tagged balance, focus, Management, perspective
2 Comments
Cautious Steps Make Little Progress
I read an interesting saying the other day, “People who take caution with every step make little progress.” In my experience as a management consultant I have seen many people who require a tremendous amount of information before they make decisions. In some cases there are many uncertainties which need to be worked through and in others it is simply a management style. Continue reading
Posted in Management, People / Talent
Tagged action, caution, decision, Management, progress
2 Comments
Bet the Company Thinking
Business 101 starts with defining a business model that solves a real problem for a set of people, and doing so at a price which people will pay to address their need. This business model will account for risks, and a conscious decision is made to pursue the business (or not) based on these risks.
In some cases, the risks are very high and the potential rewards correspondingly high. The most extreme of these are called “bet the company” decisions – and rightfully so, the risks are realized it could destroy the company. The fundamental concept that both extremes are possible serves as an internal regulator for decisions Continue reading
