Team Building

I was reading Bringing Out the Best in People this evening and was so impacted by the chapter on How To Get People to Cooperate with Each Other that I thought I'd post some excerpts and notes. Hope this helps you as much as it has me.

cheers,
Rion

"What is it about some leaders that enables them to so construct their group or their family that there is always high espir de corps and a tight allegiance to one another? And why is it that others who seem to be inspiring enough in one-to-one exchanges always end up with groups that fracture and fight and can never get anything done efficiently?

"The leader who can learn the laws of group morale becomes a highly valuable commodity, for not only does good espirit de corps enable people to get the job done in half the time, it also draws in new people. Some of the most successful churches, for instance, are led by pastors who do not have magnetic personalities. Their success is due rather to the skill with which they build an enthusiastic, cohesive congregation. So in such cases people are drawn not so much to the leader but to the group feeling - the high-energy atmosphere. Good leaders set out to do far more than build allegiance to themselves, which is important, of course, but it is not enough. It is also necessary to build into the organization an allegiance to each other.

Place a premium on collaboration

"Organizers of successful groups base tehir work on a fundamental fact about the makeup of the human personality: most of us can function best when teamed up with at least one other person. I think, for instance, of the encouragement and solidarity that exists between many husbands and wives who are building something together. Writing is the hardest work I've ever attempted, and I quite literally could not do it without Diane...In the discouraging years when all my work was rejected by publishers, I simply would have quit had it not been for the cheerful, blithe confidence Diane continued to display. one person against the many is seldom a match. But two people! That is a different story. If you can find one other perosn who will join you in your quest, you have not doubled your capabilities, you have increased them exponentially.

"The same principle applies to losing weight, abstaining from alcohol, or leaning a language - there is power in numbers. Being in a group hardens your resolve, and gives you momentum for bursting through obstacles.

The Need to Belong

"In every person there resides a basic need that in the technical books on this topic is called "the affiliative motive." Each of us likes to belong to some group of tightly-knit people where we are known and accepted, where we are committed to each other, and where we know that the other members of the group will be loyal to us if we are in trouble.It is the old tribal instinct...The following [sections] detail some characteristics that high-morale organizations seem to have in common.

- Quality Control: The best groups always take a great deal of responsibility for their own standards. Poor leaders make the mistake of remaining the sole custodian of quality control, whereas good leaders encourage people to hold each other accountable for excellence...build a group-wide appreciation for excellence, then let the group maintain it.

- All for One and One for All: a second characteristic of high-morale groups is this: everyone believes that the leaders are putting the group's welfare first. There is always a large question in a person's mind when deciding how enthusiastically to join in any organization: Are these leaders out for themselves and merely trying to whip up enthusiasm for their projects, or will they make sure that this enterprise is beneficial for all of us?
...consider Andrew Carnegie, who took the position that "no man can become rich without himself enriching others," and built a high-morale organization that indeed made him rich. If we can convince a group of people that it is all for one and one for all, great power can be released.
...In his book American Caesar, WIlliam Manchester tries to analyze the remarkable loyalty which Colonel Douglas MacArthur elicited from his men during World War II. When it was all over, MacArthur won seven Silver Stars, two Distinguished Service Crosses, and the Distinguished Service Medal. Those medals were in part due to his bravery, of course, but they were also due to his ability to elicit a fierce loyalty from his troops. And how did he do that? Here is William Manchester's list: "He was closer to them in age than other senior officers, he shared their discomforts and their danger, and he adored them in return." That las phrase is the key - "He adored them in return." For all his egomania and emotional distortions, MacArthur had one redeeming virtue which fired his men's passions: he cared for them deeply. Highly motivated groups know that their leader loves them profoundly and will be loyal to them to the end.

- Promises: ...So a person can make a lot of mistakes and have certain weknesses, evidently, and still rise to success...one error, when committed, always led to tehir downfall..."the unforgivable sin - betraying a trust." Integrity here means more than simple honesty. It embodies consistency and predictability built over time that says, "I will do exactly what I say I will do when I say I will do it. If I change my mind, I will tell you well in advance so you will not be harmed by my actions."
...Some of us make too many promises to too many people and nothing demoralizes a group more quickly.
...It behooves us to go to considerable lengths to show people that we will make good on our contracts to them; otherwise they will keep brakes on their enthusiasm.

- Fairness: people's motivation collapses completely if they feel someone else is being compensated or rewarded differently...[in a study where paris were asked if they wanted to work separate for less or together where one made more than the other for the same work] fully 40% of people chose to work for less money than to accept the lopsided compensation..."Nice guys" often make poor bosses for a similar reason. If you bend the rules for certain people, it causes confusion among the staff and a drop in morale. By trying to stay on good terms with everyone and making too many exceptions to company rules, you appear to care more for the happiness of particular individuals than the well-being of the whole working group. It violates one of motivation's basic principles - fairness.

- The Preservation of the Individual: Another ingredient for good morale..the members must know that they will never get lost in the group. Here is a paradox. We can allow ourselves to be absorbed into a group most readily when we are assured that the leaders will value our individuality. Collectivism scares us if we think that people will become expendable for the sake of the larger group.

- Fun: high-morale organizations seem to have fun together...People never get to laugh as much as they'd like or have as much fun as they want, so if you can construct your class, your team, or your committee so that laugher breaks out frequently, you'll have people clamoring to join your group.

Steps to Building Espirit de Corps

1. Reward cooperation: if it is only the prima donnas in the company who get the strokes, your organization will respond by producing more prima donnas. If it is the team players who are rewarded, your organization will produce lots of collaborations.

2. Assign responsibility for group morale to the group itself. Peer pressure is always more successful than pressure from the top, so impress on the people in your committee or your family that part of their job is creating the right mood. That way everyone is accountable for the level of morale. In short, you have taught them to be motivators.

3. Plan occasions when people can be away together. A curious thing happens when you take a group of people away from their ordinary surroundings. They become more creative, more open to new ideas, and they form strong bonds with each other rather quickly

4. Assign a high value to communication. More often than not, when a group is fractured and people begin to fight each other, it is because of misunderstandings and small acts of inconsideration which have escalated into major grievances...Organizations fracture when information is dispensed primarily by the grapevine, for the grapevine is notoriously discriminatory - certain people will know and others will not, and the people who are left out are certain to be malcontents.

Management by Friendship

"We do business with someone who proves to be knowledgeable, reliable, and enjoyable to work with, and we build a relationship of trust, where we exchange favors and swap information. Over the years it turns out to the mutual benefit of everyone. The famous Dallas businessman John Stemmons, when asked for business advice said this: "Find some people who are comers, who are going to be achievers in their own field, no matter what it is, and people you can trust. Then grow old together."
"...Group loyalty is not blind allegiance, and it is not harboring incompetence. nor is it the sort of prejudicial blindness which supposes that everyone is wrong except our little group Rather it is open-eyed acknowledgment that the people within our group may have their failings, but because we are a group and because we have a history of mutual allegiance, we support one another. that is our contract.