Monday, September 26, 2011

TeamWork or a Team?

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

Greece: Problem? Solution!

Greece has been around a long time. Greece predates Europe. The Greek citizen invented the Senate. The Senate did not invent the Greek citizen.

The current state of affairs in Greece is due, in part to Government ownership--In part. The other part is the notion that when the Government owns everything, everyone owns everything. This is the failed Soviet Style of Communism. The reality is that when everyone owns everything, no one owns anything.

With the Greek Citizen—with no vested interest, there is no interest.

Do you dispute me? I shall refute you.

How hard is the Greek worker fighting for his benefits?

Very hard.

Why?

Because his benefits belong to him.



Privatisation is not a dirty word.

While every plan for Greece has involved a bailout, none has involved any capital investment or economic development.

In a recent NY Times article, “The IMF “traditionally” said cutting budget deficits is the solution to the problem. Mr. Summers said Mme Lagarde’s reversal is a welcome change in thinking, emphasizing that we should be establishing a basis for growth.” I assume Mme Lagarde and I are the only two people saying this. Or, perhaps Mme. Lagarde is the only person reading my blogs. Madame goes on to say, “…the markets realize that commitment to cut spending cannot survive a lengthy stagnation.”

The best option for Greece (I have a project not a plan.) is a major economic development project that changes the process.

Let us be honest. The EuroCrats are intelligent, educated, and experienced. Why then have they failed to solve or even mitigate the damages or ameliorate the problems? By the process of elimination, the problem is the process. That must change. In Greek: Δ

The first startling example is that what the EuroCrats are doing to the Greek People can be called “poverty programmes”. The Greek People need “Prosperity Programmes”.



As an aside, I thought that warning of a move to the “right’ would be a consequence for Greece if the problem can’t be solved soon was an overstatement. Then I remembered some American political math. It is analogous.

Dems control Congress + Jimmy Carter = Ronald Reagan.

Dems control Congress + Bill Clinton = Republican turnover in Congress.

Dems control Congress + Barack Obama + Massive GOP turnover in House of Rep.

Okay, I concede. The Greek people can fix the problem now while it is small (by comparison) or wait till there is a real disaster. But I digress.

The difference between the aforementioned Soviet Style Communism and Chinese Communism (Aside from the failure of the former and the success of the latter) is China’s Middle Class.

The divestiture of Greece’s State Owned Assets is crucial to the turnaround in Greece. A limit on foreign ownership of shares in the newly minted, publicly traded companies is also essential.

Some of those assets may include but are not limited to:

Transportation

Energy

Media

Communications



With the Greek Citizen owning the asset, the Greek Citizen will have a vested interest in its success. There will be a profit incentive.

Greece; Influx of Tax Revenue without increasing taxes

Relief from Debt and the crushing interest rates

Benefits of the multiplier effect

Reduction in Lenders: Increase in Investors

Increased Capitalisation of Banks



What has been the alternative so far?



The Greek Government

Raised Taxes

Slashed Pensions

Cut State Salaries

Plans to cut jobs and cut pensions again.

Greece still has problems. Why? Because The Greek Government

Raised Taxes

Slashed Pensions

Cut State Salaries.



Someone then told the Government that by lowering wages tax revenues will fall. The Government solution to this was to fire people. This caused a further decline in revenue. To address this, the Government increased property taxes on the unemployed and underpaid. And all of this is the result of Austerity measures imposed on Greece by the EuroCrats who were working to solve the problem. Call me a flawed human being, but I believe the EuroCrats have failed in their mission.



Union busting will not solve the problem.

Labour strikes will not solve the problem.

Firing people will not solve the problem.

Taxes will not solve the problem.

[No country ever taxed its way to prosperity. The mantra during the first two years of Bill Clinton’s first term as President of the United States.]



For further information, please read my blogs on the matter.

Bon Chance!



Sincerest regards,



Slim



Slimfairview@yahoo.com



Copyright © 2011 Slim Fairview


Economic Stimulus:

The Multiplier Effect:

the Future of the G 20 in Good Times and Bad

China: The economy and a word beginning with the letter P
http://slimviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/china-economy-and-word-beginning-with.html