Triangle - 2003 May

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2003 May

THE EXPONENT: Volume 2003, Number 5

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him." -- Abraham Lincoln

Welcome:

I remember trying to wrap my mind around the concepts of relativistic physics. At first, I didn't have much success. I mean, come on. It doesn't make a lot of sense when you've grown accustomed to Newtonian physics. You've seen the Newtonian sphere all your life and you can't "touch" or "see" the relativistic stuff, after all. Some would say, even including me, that I have yet to really understand relativity, but after working at it, at least I can say that I finally have an inkling of how it works.

Roger Bannister, the man who first broke the "limit" of the 4 minute mile, didn't get up one morning and instead of going to his desk job go to the track, throw on some sweats and smash the "barrier." He worked at it, practiced, and toned his body for it.

In today's world of instant gratification, it's really easy to think that there's an easy way to just about anything we want. Heavens knows I used to think that way -- looking for the secrets to the quick path to understanding things like calculus, rather than trying to really understand what was going on. I'd like to think I've realized now that it takes drive, hard work, and perseverance to accomplish what I want to achieve, though.

What about you? What do you want to achieve? Is it rejuvenating your active chapter? Maybe it's starting a business. Perhaps it's rebuilding your family. Maybe it's even making your first million by age 30 (or 40, 50, 60, 70, etc).

Are you willing to work at it? Windfalls aren't very likely -- so unlikely, in fact, that you can't plan for them. The good news is that a realization that you CAN be in control of your destiny is wrapped up in that concept. All you have to do is take charge of your life.

Contents

Ten Ways to Create a Winning Team: Lou Carloni, "Business: Ten ways to create a winning team", The Industrial Physicist 9(2), 2003, pp 28-29

In today's world of downsizing, doing more with less, and working smarter-not-harder, teamwork is more important than ever. No individual or group of people working separately can do as much as several key individuals working together as a team. In fact, one definition of a winning team is one in which "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." Synergy is essential but elusive.

Want to develop a winning team? Try the following strategies.

FORGET THE PAST
Many companies avoid team building because of past experiences that have left employees jaded and cynical. This situation often results from one too many faddish "innovations" in management. Change never comes magically. Any significant change in your organization requires a fundamental shift in the way you think, act, and do business. It can't be another program- of-the-month. To succeed, you have to start thinking in terms of your real customers and what they want. If you are a manager or owner, then your real customers are your employees. You must think of their needs first, and let them think of the needs of the external customers.
BECOME A LEADER
Industrial psychologists Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus tell us in Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge (Harper and Row, 1985) that you need only two characteristics to be a leader:

You must use your strengths (whatever they are) to bring out the best in others. You must focus only on your strengths and stop focusing on weaknesses. Your people need you to be their leader. Think about what your strengths are and how to use them to bring out the best in others. Ask your people what they think your strengths are. You will get remarkably different answers than the ones you listed. Then get about using your strengths to build your winning team, and let it bring out the best in your customers.
INSTILL THE FOUR Cs
Commitment: it is necessary that you live the mission and expect the whole team to follow your example.
Cooperation: the whole must become greater than the sum of the parts.
Communication: provide all necessary information, and let the team members know that it is okay to ask for information and to share data with each other, fellow workers, and sometimes even customers.
Contribution: participation is not optional in a teamwork situation. You must require and support it.
MOTIVATE THE TEAM
People do exactly what you reward them for doing. They don't respond to promises, requests, cries, screams, threats, or kindness. They respond to action. Reward the individual members and the team for the results you really want, and only for the results you really want.
PROVIDE MEANING
Each member and the team as a whole need to feel that they are making a difference in the lives of others. The efforts they make are not just about business success; they are about pride, about having their work mean something to someone. You must discover what that meaning is and magnify it. Let them clearly see the value of what they are doing and why it matters. Let them feel the pride in their success.
SHOW THE RESULTS
Teams need to feel a sense of accomplishment; they need to see the end result of a project. Assign your teams whole projects, not pieces. Assign results, not specific tasks. Let team members carry the project from start to finish. And make sure others know about the finished product and its importance. That will help team members feel the accomplishment of completing something significant.
TRAIN WITHOUT LIMITS
You must provide training for the team members and the leaders because it is a necessary ingredient for team success. Allow training on any topic that the team wants (regardless of whether it is job-related) using videotapes, audiotapes, seminars, books, and professional trainers. Studies show a return of 10 to 30 times the initial financial investment in training, and it doesn't matter what a team or its individual members learn. So keep everyone engaged in learning. Any voluntary expansion of their abilities is a good thing for your organization.
CHALLENGE THEM
Everyone has limits. But how will your team members ever know what their limits are if you never give them a project that is more difficult than they thought they could accomplish? They need to learn and grow, to develop and improve. They need you to challenge them, and to believe in them. Once you issue the challenge, you must confidently assure them that you have faith in them. But always keep an open door and encourage the team to come to you when they feel ill-equipped to handle a problem.
EMPOWER THE TEAM
Give full control to the team -- responsibility, authority, and accountability. This means full delegation. Don't look over members' shoulders, don't question their expenses, and don't ask them to explain every decision and every action. When you give them a project, you also need to outline their boundaries -- budget, timetable, scope of responsibility, and authority. Then let them carry the ball. Meet with them at agreed-upon times, and keep your door open in case they need to call on you. Other than that, get out of the way and let them impress you.
GIVE RESPECT
When they rise to the challenge and accomplish something truly outstanding, you must show your appreciation for their efforts, and reward the team accordingly. Let them see the respect you have for their significant accomplishments, and make certain others see it as well. The sweetest sound in the world is one's own name being spoken in a complimentary fashion by someone else. Let them hear their names and the name of the team from your lips to every ear in the organization.

Biography: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it is president of SMBC, Inc., a training and consulting firm, in Odenton, Maryland.

Reprinted with permission from The Industrial Physicist, Copyright 2003, American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded or copied for personal use only. Any other use requires permission of both the author and the American Institute of Physics.

So You Want To Be Successful: Tim Eiler minn87, Exponent Editor

I'm not going to talk much here about what the defition of success might be. Mostly that's up to you. If you want to come up with a definition, I encourage you to read our Ritual.

Otherwise, let me summarize some critical ideas that Guy Kawasaki gave in a commencement speech at Babson College a few years back. I think these are really excellent and, even though Mr. Kawasaki intended his comments for newly-minted MBAs who wanted to be entrepreneurs, they apply to all of you Triangles, in my opinion.

Embrace the unknown.

Interestingly, none company that cut ice for consumer use made the transition from ice harvester to ice factory to refrigerator company because they resisted the unknown and accepted the known. Do the opposite: Love, embrace, embody, and create the unknown.
Don't ask people to do something that you wouldn't do.

Ideas are the not the key. How you implement the idea is the key, and furthermore, the key to implementation is building a great team.
Don't be paranoid.

Successful people are the ones who share their ideas, share their equity, share their dreams, and bare their souls. They are the ones who seek to maximize success for everyone, not just themselves. It's only a cutthroat world because some people are too stupid to see beyond tomorrow.
Pursue [success] for the right reasons.

People, more often than not, perceive happiness -- the possession of things and monetary definitions of wealth -- as "success." Happiness, as defined this way, however, is fleeting and temporary.

Joy is the right goal. Joy, by contrast, is unpredictable. It comes from pursuing interests and passions that do not "obviously" result in happiness. It comes from building a great team, from family, from friends and inexpensive if not free things. It comes from making the world a better place.

So create products or services (Triangle?) that you love; that make the world a better place. At the end of your life, God's not going to ask about your market cap. She's going to ask how you made the world a better place.
Continue to learn.

Learning is a process not an event. You learn a lot while you're in school. You learn to learn a lot more once you're in the "real world," though, in order to be able to do all this success stuff!
Be brief.
Obey the absolutes.

Things change from absolute to relative. When you were very young, it was absolutely wrong to lie, cheat, or steal. As you got older, and particularly when you rise in corporate hierarchies, you will be tempted by the "system" to think in relative terms. "I didn't cheat as much on my taxes as my partner." "I don't pad my expense reports as much as others." "I didn't cook my books as much as other companies."

This is wrong. There absolutely are absolute rights and wrongs. An entrepreneur is an admired position in society. Therefore, you have the moral obligation to set a high standard.

Think of your graduation as your IPO. All the world is watching, so set a good example. (I think the failure to obey the absolutes is, perhaps, the major reason that Greeks have such a bad reputation. -- Ed.)
Play to win.

Play to win and don't let the bozos convince you to do anything less. Indeed, the more bozos tell you that you can't succeed, the more you may be on to something. Playing to win is one of the finest things you can do. It enables you to fulfill your potential. It enables you to improve the world and, conveniently, develop high expectations for everyone else too.

And what if you lose? Just make sure you lose while trying something grand. The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining. Make sure your life is worth examining.

(Playing to win, without all the other things here, can have a tendency to lead to cutthroat behavior. One doesn't win unless one wins more than a short term battle -- win the "war" instead.

I think this one is also very pertinent to Triangle actives who've been called upon -- by themselves, others, or just the situation -- to rebuild or even just to carry on a tradition of success at their chapters. To paraphrase Nike, I think Guy simply means: Plan it and then do it. -- Ed.)
Enjoy your family, friends, and colleagues before they are gone.

'Nuff said.