It’s Time For Action

Well it has taken almost 3 years before the President actually said something that I agree on. Pres. Obama asked the Congressional Black Caucus to “stop whining.” I don’t necessarily agree with the rest of the speech. But I find the complaints about paying way too much in taxes very interesting. We want to get the government out of our live yet we look for the government to:

• Pay for our retirement because everyone expects social security to cover our retirement.
• Pay for people who are not employed for almost 2 years!
• Pay subsidies to certain industries so that they can be competitive in the global market.
• Pay for development of advancement in technology or new technology.
• Pay for research for diseases.
• Pay for natural disasters.
• And I am sure there are much more.

I believe it is time for individual action. It time to stop saying:

• I don’t have time to…
• I don’t like to….
• I really don’t want to….
• It’s not my job….
• They don’t pay me to ……
• I shouldn’t have to….

We need to start taking PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY for improving yourself and your organization. If you are not working then you need to go out and get a job. I find it interesting that out of work individuals that I know could get a job but it isn’t the right job. So they would rather sit at home on unemployment instead of going out and working. That is not what the country needs.

In most companies I hear that there is a lack of trust in the organization. But I think that it goes deeper than that. No one wants to take responsibility for anything. Nor do they want to be held accountable. And as I pondered on the topic I began to think that maybe it is even deeper to that. Is it really a cause of lack of loyalty to anyone or anything?

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause. We have become a society that is not loyal to anything. We are not loyal to our spouse, our company and any more I don’t think most Americans are loyal to our country. 

I believe that if we were loyal then maybe the accountability would be easier to build. But without accountability I do not believe that we can develop trust. We have to be ready to fire people who are not accountable even if they are a good performer. Now you are probably wondering how that could happen. I have seen many times where individuals do not involve others in their work as they are directed to, or they are consistently late, but yet they get the job done. I don’t believe that behavior is good for the company. I would have trouble trusting that individual. I would question his loyalty to my organization. So I would have to let him go. 

I believe as businesses should set accountability structures and hold their people to it. 

Effective Teams: It All Starts With Me

Yes I know we have all heard this before right? But when I talk about starting with “me” I am referring to the fact that I really need to understand “me”. I know you are thinking I do know “me” but not to sound philosophical, can we really know all there is to know about ourselves? The reason I believe that we need to start with “me” is because that is the only member of the team we can truly understand and control.

I am not by any means a young person (I can remember the plate spinners and life before cell phones) but I believe I have learned more about myself in the last 10 years than I did up to then. I have learned about what motivates me, what I want to achieve, and what makes me happy. 

When I work with people I have to check on “me” so I know what I need to do for an effective conversation. This check includes answering the following list of questions so I am clear on what will impact me during the conversation.

• My views on the topic being discussed.
• My views of the other people involved.
• How I believe the group will and won’t consider my input.
• How does this fit in with the overall priorities in my current life. (yes current because our priorities can and do change frequently)
• How do I believe the other people in the group view me?
• What am I doing after the meeting?
• What has happened to me in the last 24 hours?
• What do I want to gain from this conversation?
• What do I have to lose?
• Who in the group has an agenda they are pushing.

I am sure that this is a partial list as I find new things that I need to understand. All of these items add bias to my conclusions.

I really thought about this after watched the movie “I Robot”. For those that haven’t seen the movie, he story takes place in the year 2035 in Chicago, in a world where robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. The robots were to follow the “three laws”. The “three laws” are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

But the controlling computer began interpreting the laws as its intelligence evolved. It decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, some humans must be sacrificed and some freedoms must be surrenders to keep humanity safe. The decision was purely logical and didn’t have any feelings or concerns. It was the best decision.

How many times to we hear that we made the best decision. With the robots they looked at the issue without any preconceived idea of what the best decision is. I am not sure that we can say the same thing when we make decisions. We way we are being unbiased. Yet I do not believe that we can be unbiased. We make decisions based on all of our history and experience. So how can we go into any interactions as an unbiased participant?

So what do you do to keep open to others ideas and information?

How Long Does It Take To Build A Team?

No one can say for sure. But what I do know is that it is not a task that you can check off and say it is done. That's why it's usually referred to as team "building". Let me give you an example for the sports world and the next entry will begin to look at how it applies to the work world.

I am a huge Indiana University basketball fan. The men's basketball program began to spiral from when Bob Knight (no matter what you view of Coach Knight is the problems started then) left IU and the completely collapsed during the2007-08 basketball season. Now regardless of what happened and why, Coach Tom Crean walked in as head coach for IU on April 1, 2008 with the following situation:

1.  The school was facing the possibility of severe NCAA sanctions based on the previous year's actives. The sanctions could include loss of amount of scholarships (Which for those that don't know D1 schools, those that you might see in the NCAA tourney, are allowed to give out 13 scholarships. These scholarships are what helps the school attract talented players to their programs. There are hundreds to maybe thousands of other schools that have very good sports programs but are not allowed to give this amount of scholarships for basketball.) to possibly not being able to play in any post season tourneys for a set period of time.
2. Crean came in with worse than a dysfunctional team  he virtually had no team (freshman phenom Eric Gordon opted to leave early for the NBA, DJ White graduated and was drafted, two players (including Jordan Crawford) transferred and three others were kicked off the team). As a result, Crean was left with a roster with only two returning players, only one of whom was on scholarship (the two players combined for 30 points in the previous season).
3. Coach started the 2008-09 season with one senior, five true freshmen, six walk-ons, Having one walk- is an oddity in many college basketball programs. So to have six in a highly regarded program like IU is unheard of.
4. The Coach and his team had very little knowledge of the players. He didn't know what their strengths were and what would be the best way to use them in the team.
5. Normally during recruiting Coaches are looking for players to help either fill a needed role or to provide skills that the team is lacking. Coach Crean didn't have a core team so any recruiting he was able to do was mainly to get talented players.
6. IU basketball fans are fierce. They not only follow their teams everywhere but they expect them to win. So not winning was not an option for the fans. So no pressure there right.

So needless to say the first season was really hard to watch for a fan but very interesting for me. I watched with great interest, admiration, and pride in how hard the team worked. No they didn't win the championship, actually they had the worse record in the school's history (6-25, 1-17conference). What I admired most was the guts and commitment the team showed for their team, their coach, and their school. The team came every night to play.

The next year was better but still not the caliber that the IU faithful expect (10-21, 4-14 conference). This year started with high expectations and hopes. The team started off fairly strong and they have had some strong showings yet they are 12-15, 3-11 conference at the writing of this entry.(including 2 wins against nationally ranked teams) But when you have fans that are expecting 20+ wins and a trip to the tourney it is a tough road. That is not going to happen this year.

Yet there are people who believe that maybe Crean needs to go. They believe that it is taking too long to get a winning team. How long should it take to build a championship team? Especially when you have nothing to start with.

I don't know about a NCAA championship team, but I do know that developing a work team takes a long time. So how do you build your teams? How long did it take? Next entry we'll start talking about how to build your team.