I saw this National Lottery booth the other day on Charing Cross station and it made me smile because it reassured me that even when the external incentive to ‘do the right thing’ is almost completely absent (no bins), people will in general still try to make good decisions.

Not a bin in sight but resourceful commuters had stuffed their wrappers in the booth’s microscopic receptacle rather than throwing them on the floor. Now I know that I have no way of knowing how much did end up on the floor but…

Bin there, done it

There’s something in there for you if you are planning to run some sort of management development or leadership growth event. Something about trusting people and not only staying out of their way but making it a key leadership job to keep obstacles out of the  way of one’s team. No mean feat in this climate I image.

How many times have you gone to an event, undergone some management development or some sort of self-improvement only to return to normal life to find that every bugger seems to want to want to get in your way. The Board who won’t think creatively, your team who hate change, your colleagues who just don’t want the jip – especially not now.

The leadership and team-building question of the moment: Whose way am I getting in today?

The lights with no hole.

It’s been 10 days since the first trucks pulled up from the gas company. Well, lots of trucks arrived on that day. One with a digger, one with the lights, one with the signs and one with the blokes to do the digging. And then they went again. Over the next 9 days they dug up little bits, put them back again and dug up some other little bits. Now the’ve gone. The lights have stayed. Well, not of their own accord, you understand, they just got left behind, protecting the hole and the men and barriers that are no longer there. Someone forgot to make the call or thought someone else had or thought “Sod it, It’s not my job, Dick should have done that” Or maybe they’re a present to the village. Just think, our own traffic lights… now we just need a junction and we’re away.

Such a simple operation all set up to get screwed up by the sheer number of different agencies involved. It looks like they each decided that communication with the rest was futile; hardly worth the bother. The trail of devastation out of shot is also impressive. Traffic signs smashed by drivers who couldn’t quite judge the distance between their cars and said signs, chewed up verges, mud, hubcaps etc.etc.

It looks like you just can’t keep it simple enough. Make a complicated plan and you’re doomed to your own version of traffic lights with no hole. I just hope that they switch them on or take them away before it gets dark – could be very nasty indeed. Alternatively, we could get Ebay involved and put the proceeds towards… a hole of our own.

Does it really exist?

Waiting for the hot water to come through in my hotel room. First a trickle, then a sputter, then nothing, then lots of gurgling, a breathy hiss, another trickle then final silence. Replace water for action and the hissing for talking and you have what mosty happens when companies employ consultants to help them to ‘team build‘ in the name of ‘doing management development’. Management development is a sticky business to begin with since most organisations don’t seem to want managers at all – especially now. They want thrusting, brave, articulate, sensitive, tough, creative, steady, ‘business-aware’ gods who can save the day. If that sounds batty, try getting a whole collection of these unicorns together in the same room (you’ll find them in any branch of Woolworths between the packets of Hen’s Teeth and the Fairy Wings).

The reality (according to me): team-building is to improving corporate performance what trying-for-a-baby is for family expansion. Have you ever ‘tried for a baby’? It’s horrible and the very act of trying kills much of the will to undertake the act that results in the conception of said baby. Why not just do the right things, naturally and the baby will come (IVF cases aside – apologies if you are one of those, of course).

So… If you want to build a team out of a group of individuals be very clear about what you are hoping for. It may be, for example, that if you just want people to talk to each other more, or relate to one another more warmly that you can do that for yourself and spend the money that you had earmarked for some sort of rope and barrel swinging exercise in the Dales to buying your team lunch somewhere once a month.

Bottom line: (does anyone else still say that?). Be clear about what you want to achieve in building your team, explain it to yourself in behaviours, think ‘common sense’ whe it comes to making the new behaviours happen and then get them to tell you how to do it. Hey presto – that’s team-building!

If your dreams still remain unfulfilled after many attempts then you may just need someone to come in. At least then you will know what you are asking for.

But the PEC’s rules for team-building consultant shopping are thus:

1. Be specific about what you want (“I want people to stop arguing about everything in meetings”)
2. Be precise about what you want instead (“I want challenge without the nasty stuff’)
3. Be conservative (“I want everyone to like one another” – is not realistic)
4. Be sure that you know who wants what (not everyone will want what you want just because you are the the boss). Check for REAL buy-in as you go along.

Good luck