Keeping it Together While Backing Up

Here are a few more ideas on how to keep teams from fracturing, individuals from defecting or worse devitalize a team. I had a friend and we were fortunate to get a great deal with the now defunct Eastern Airlines. I believe it was 8 days of unlimited mileage for 800.00. If I remember correctly I wanted to go to Mexico to see the pyramids. He was not to hype on it but willing to give it a go. Later on it looked like it might be a hassle coming and going with a passport that was foreign to the country I was residing. I was a German citizen but residing in the U.S. So we then changed our travel schedule to identify shared priorities. We also looked at the time we would spend. In places where one of us did not have an especially strong interest we weakened our personal goals so the travel plans that meant a lot to both of us could be strengthened. Essentially we lowered expectations on a goal we both liked, visiting places where we would have the most fun, to visiting places so we would enjoy. We choose to use less of our resource, money and time, on attaining a goal that would not give us as a group the same overall bang. Stated differently there were places I would have enjoyed more than the ones we visited, and the same was true for my travel partner. We choose to visit places less enjoyable to us as individuals so we could have a trip holistically enjoyable to us. The end result was we had a great time.

Teaching members on a team to do the same can reduce the chances of individuals or groups of being dissatisfied. Additionally the team may accomplish more in less time by allowing a tweaking of goals, rules, and priorities. How? As a project moves on more information comes forward. That information may make it plain that the current priority would not have the same wide-ranging beneficial impact as another goal deemed early on as less important. Being able to revamp plans takes some maturity. It can be difficult to be comfortable backing up to go forward. It can only be done in a positive way through consensus. A majority vote, or a pulling of rank, will simply leave some members feeling like they have been rode over rough shod (I believe the origin of roughshod is when the nails holding a shoe on a horse are not driven all the ways in, akin to studded tires.) Ouch!

Today’s post was short tomorrow’s will deal with properly breaking a new team in.