If you are like me, you find many business books to be quite boring. By 2009 I believe the business book – for better or worse – has been turned into a “brand component” that powers an Author’s website traffic; book sales; speaking engagements; audio/visual sales and consulting.
Do you ever notice how three basic business thoughts can be stretched into 500 pages bound in hardcover? Cliches abound like think outside the box, there’s no “i” in team, and enterprise-wide solutions. That one has always cracked me up: enterprise wide solutions. Oh, you mean we should develop a strategy that benefits the entire company, not just Joe in custodial services? That’s freaking brilliant!
And I have always believed there is an “i” in TEAM. In fact, a bunch of “i’s” – a bunch of disparate individuals and personalities make up a team. How do you mold the disparate opinions and energy into a team? Of course, that’s the magic question that I know we all struggle (no matter how big or small) to make work.
Many Human Resources departments work hard to customize work solutions to individual team members with issues like: tele-commuting, job sharing, and maternity/paternity leaves. I also believe there is a way to foster individuals and team through your recognition and promotional product selections.
One example is Prospera Financial (www.prospera.ca) who give employees lots of well designed schwag proudly bearing the team mark and a chance to buy their own merchandise as desired. Many organizations give team members something bearing the company brand but also is personalized. In particular I designed leather jackets for over 50 Dynamic Specialty Vehicle (www.dynamicspecialty.com) staffers – each jacket was custom tailored to their fit, had their name embroidered inside and a special message of thanks.
If you’d like help putting the “i” in your team, please call me.
Comments 1
We used to joke in bobsleigh that there is no “i” in team but there is an “m” and an “e” and that spells “me”.