It’s a cliche, but it’s true: there’s nothing like suffering through a rough experience together to help team members connect and “bond” with each other. Assuming the organization survives it, a bad experience can turn out to be a very useful thing for the team. Last weekend, my mountain rescue team was caught out overnight during the evacuation of an injured hunter. We had descended a very steep, slippery, rocky 1000-foot slope to reach our patient, and once we got there we decided it was neither safe nor practical to go back the way we’d come. After hours of looking at maps and trying to figure out an alternate route, we decided that spending the night where we were and being flown out by helicopter the next morning was the best option we had. The problem was, it was very cold and most of us were not well prepared to spend the…
When you ask someone to list the characteristics of an effective team, most will come up with a fairly standarized list. An effective team has a mission and…
I’d like to think that I have always fought the good fight when it comes to “corporatese”, the disease that makes managers think using complicated language and a sterile…
Gervase Bushe, in Clear Leadership: Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work lays out such a convincing image of the interpersonal mush that derails most organizations that I…
We all talk about the many ways to motivate our teams: recognition, workplace perks, a feeling of connection to the mission and vision, etc. But isn’t there really…
A thought-provoking article by Chuck Shelton in Diversity Executive Magazine, “Engage and Equip White Men to Lead Diversity,” makes the point that our diversity efforts have often not included white…
I was a member of Linkedin for a long time before I finally learned to use it. But that was the least of my hurdles. I was downright…
Sometimes teambuilding just doesn’t work. We’ve all had this experience. What’s interesting is to realize how many different explanations for the failure we might need to look at;…
There are two things in life that I find annoying: people who leave dirty dishes in the sink, and discussions about “work-life balance.” It’s not that I don’t…
I read an interesting article recently by Gervase R. Bushe, called Managers Want Tribes Not Teams: an Invitation to Rethink Teambuilding. Bushe says that people identify with groups that…
When I first became a “corporate dropout” and went out on my own in 2001, friends were alternately envious and incredulous. They wondered how I could give up…
Last Friday, a man named Kevin was hiking Quandary Peak with his fiance. Just as he approached the summit of the 14,000 foot Colorado peak, he collapsed and died…
I did battle with an enduring stereotype in generational diversity workshops this week. Hard to say whether I was successful or not, but when I put up this…
I was leading a workshop in generational diversity for a group of Generation Y military interns last week, and my PowerPoint presentation began to act up, advancing slides on…
I remember working for a hotel management company and applying for the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year. I suspect I did what most…
When my pager went off this Sunday and I heard the call for an injured hiker on Quandary Peak, the natural reaction would have been to groan, curse, and…
I worked with a dysfunctional team recently that had a remarkable ability to self-diagnose. One of the team leaders, early in the session, said, “The problem is simply…
I always ask candidates in an interview to describe the best team they’ve ever been on. One answer from a few years ago sticks in my mind: a…
The best lessons in teamwork usually come from unexpected places–places outside the classroom, beyond the traditional workplace walls. For me, they’ve come from my volunteer search and rescue…
I sat in Rescue 3, pouring over maps with Mark Svenson for perhaps the third time that morning, frustrated that I couldn’t seem to find a job for…