This is true. However, witness a football team.
When the Quarterback gets the ball from the Center, there is no consensus building. Each member of the team has a job to do. Each member of the team does his job, not someone else's job.
The Guards guard. The Tackles tackle. The QB decides whether to pass, run, or hand the ball off to someone in the backfield.
There is no discussion, shared vision, visioning process, concern about group-think, or consensus building.
There is a goal. Sometimes things are too obvious for people to see them.
The actions of the QB are based on rapidly changing conditions. There is no discussion and certainly no committee.
Corporate America has spent Millions on Team Building
And how is it working out for America? Millions invested....and a vested interest in protecting the turf.
Consensus does not take place in the huddle. Before the huddle, each member of the team has a job to do. That individual responds to the conditions he is confronted with and whatever the QB said in the huddle becomes irrelevant. More on this in a moment. After we discuss...
Trust
Trust is important. However, this goes to the underlying basis of that trust.
You may trust me completely, however, if I am a bad football player, an opposing team member will get past me and tackle you. There must be a basis for that trust and in football as in business that basis is the ability to do the job.
Back to the individual having a job to do. His job to do. This is Delegation of Authority. The quarterback does not stand there directing you: Watch out, watch him, block them. Again, the delegation of authority is based on the ability of that team member to do that team member's job.
Back to the millions spent by corporations on team building.
America has spent millions, if not billions, over the decades on diet books, get-rich-quick books, and self-help books. On that basis we should all be skinny, rich, and well-adjusted. We are not. We are fat, poor and dysfunctional. [Well, except perhaps for the people who don't buy diet books, get-rich-quick-books, and self-help books.]
The basis of millions if not billions spent, the credentials of those authors writing those books, and the reception of the public has not justified the pursuit or the expense.
[NB: While the defence of many is that American companies have spent millions on team building may prove seductive, it is actually taking attention away from what the real message is: Companies have made millions selling "team building" to American Corporations and are not about to watch the cash cow get grilled.]
We no longer use the empirical method of scientific inquiry. Now, we come up with a theory and seek data to support it. We write a book, prey on gullible people, and use credentials, bogus science, and financial success as compurgation, justification, and validation
Now, how is America doing? How are the EuroCrats doing? Perhaps it is time we abandon the Process. Change the Process. To start:
Everyone who goes around with consensus on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding....! The same goes for those using the word Committee.
If you want team building in your company, buy the book, How to Play Football. Start a company football team, and build a lot of good will among your employees. If you want to succeed in business, run your team like the football team on the field.
As Yogi Berra once said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
Watch what happens on the football field. That is what is going on in the business world.
Sincerest regards,
Slim
Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview
slimfairview@yahoo.com
