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A couple years ago I read a great book, from the New York Times Best Seller list, called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni“. Lencioni uses a fictional setting to discuss very real issues that anybody in Middle and Upper management would immediately recognize assuming they had any degree of perception during a typical staff or team meeting. The issues are not clear cut (again realistic) and can easily favor one function or department over another. The team leader patiently takes them through a team building process.

In this fable Kathryn Petersen has been tapped as the new CEO of DecisionTech, Inc. This start-up company is well funded and well staffed with quality personnel, but for the past two years has been unable to produce meaningful results. Sound familiar? As if that task wasn’t daunting enough, Kathryn has to deal with the complexity of working directly with the former CEO. He is now heading up business development and is an integral member of her team. I’m sure you have similar dynamics going on at your level of management don’t you?

At the core of the book is a model related to creating high functioning teams. The pyramid below summarizes the 5 key areas that you need to address starting at the bottom and over time, working your way up in order to build a high functioning project or management team.

Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust

These quotes of Kathryn’s, the CEO, seemed to clearly define this dysfunction:

• “Trust is the foundation of real teamwork.”
• “Great teams do not hold back with one another.”
• “They (team members) admit their mistakes, their weaknesses and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”
• “I see a trust problem here in the lack of debate that exists during staff meetings and other interactions among this team.”

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, idealogical conflict.” Failure to do so results in:

• No collaborative solutions.
• Solutions that lack the input of all team members.
• A team with “artificial harmony” – skin deep team approval. Tacit agreement followed by people pursing their own interests anyway – sound familiar?

Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment

Essentially this is failure to buy in to decisions.

• Share Opinions: “It’s as simple as this. When people don’t unload their opinions and feel like they’ve been listened to, they won’t really get on board.” Weigh in before they buy in.
• True Consensus: “Consensus is horrible. I mean, if everyone really agrees on something and consensus comes about quickly and naturally, well that’s terrific. But that isn’t how it usually works, and so consensus becomes an attempt to please everyone.” And when this happens you have a weakened solution that probably will not work well.

Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability

The pyramid continues to build on itself. There must be commitment before there can be accountability.

• “People aren’t going to hold each other accountable if they haven’t clearly bought in to the same plan.”

Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results

“Our job is to make the results that we need to achieve so clear to everyone in this room that no one would even consider doing something purely to enhance his or her individual status or ego. Because that would diminish our ability to achieve our collective goals. We would all lose.”

If there is going to be ego, it should be collective ego that is greater than the individual egos. Similarly, people are going to look out for their own interests. However, the team’s interests (results) should be more important than individual interests.

Id’ recommed this book to any senior leader or person responsible for a group of people tasked with meeting a common set of goals. It doesn’t matter if you believe the group is currently dysfunctional or not, it would help you take that group to the next level either way.

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In my Leadership MBA class we have been studying many of the issues put forward by the Global Strategy Institute. In particular I liked this visualization or mapping of the future that they presented. Click on any node on the map to read more information about a particular event that the future has in store.

The CSIS Global Strategy Institute is dedicated to promoting long-range thinking about the big global issues that loom before us. To this end, they created a “map of the future” for the years 2008 through 2012. Public and private sector leaders across the country (and the globe) will have to contend with certain inevitable events, unstoppable trends, and predictable developments over the next four to five years. GSIS’s goal is to paint a picture of what the landscape will look like and to identify the major signposts we can anticipate. They have grouped these coming events into seven categories: science and technology; politics; major conferences; forecasts; construction; sporting and culture; and important dates.

Today’s leaders function in an environment marked by rapid change, ever higher levels of complexity, and ever shorter decision time frames. This map is the CSIS Global Strategy Institute’s modest attempt to help us all elevate our thinking beyond today’s headlines and to anticipate the competing obstacles and opportunities we can expect to navigate in the future. As we retreat to higher ground, the hope that we gain clarity and a sense of direction for the years ahead.

Central Desktop 2.0 adds great new features like:

• Great New Dashboard – far more usable an flexible
• File Previews, Download Files as PDFs and File Views
• Added Wikis for Knowledge Base work
• Web 2.0 Social Stuff – Avatars, Blogs and Forums
• Workplace, Company and People Tab
• Time Tracking enhancements
• Enhanced Tasks Features

To see all the new features go here:
http://www.centraldesktop.com/cd20?all-features

Rumor is that Apple will be releasing the iTablet perhaps in March – announcement should be in late January and that they will start around $1000 price point according to Techcrunch. I can hardly wait to see it. Below is a video that shows one of the things Apple could do with such a device besides making the Kindle and Nook look like a pager by comparison. Given Apple’s roots in education and their recent foray with higher ed. podcasts, I’d say textbooks on the iTablet will be a VERY real possibility.

And here I thought the macbook air was the only computer capable of fitting into an envelope. Behold an alternative for those so stuck in the MS World they could not think of making the switch . . . . Continue reading »

Feedburner just announced the ability to integrate Google AdSense into your Feedburner blog emails, RSS, etc . . . you just login and go to the “monitize” tab.

Chad can you test this out with our blog and make sure we know how to do it. We definitely need this on the rv.net bog.

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

The #1 thing you can do to help ensure that you get more done is to put your goals on paper. Seriously, only 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. When you compare these folks to their equally educated peers they accomplish 5 to 10 times more. Do you know what your goals are? Figure them out and try and get as much clarity around them as you can. Write them down, share them with others, etc . . .

I belong to a group in Nashville called Vistage and they have a “Probability of Completing a Goal” model they share with people to help them understand how important it is to write down your goals, share them and meet with someone to review them on an ongoing basis.

• 10% complete a goal when they simply hear it as an idea or suggestion from another.
• 25% complete a goal when they consciously decide to adopt and write it down
• 40% complete a goal when they decide when to do it – in other words, make it time bound
• 50% complete a goal when they plan how to do it – this means writing down specific tasks, tactics, milestones, etc . . .
• 65% complete a goal when they commit to someone else that you will do it
• 95% complete a goal when they have ongoing reviews, an accountability appointment if you will, with the person that they made the commitment with

Brian Tracy, in “Eat that Frog” suggests the following seven steps for dramatically increasing the likelihood of achieving your goals.

Step 1 – Decide exactly what you want. If you use this for work goals, discuss with your boss. What exactly is expected of you and in what order?

Step 2 – Write it Down on Paper. As indicated above, something happens when we write our goals down on paper. It’s as close to magic as you will find at work. Writing it down, will help make it more real. If you want to take it a step further, share you goals with others. That will further increase your likelihood of achieving them.

Step 3 – Set a deadline (or sub-deadlines). This is a key part of having S.M.A.R.T. goals. Set a deadline and hold your self accountable for the date. Without this, your goals and tasks will lack urgency.

Step 4 – Make a list of everything you can think of you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. Keep adding stuff to the list until it is complete. It is a living list that grows and shrinks as the project/goal moves forward.

Step 5 – Organize the list into a plan by priority and sequence.

Step 6 – Take action on your plan immediately. An average plan executed vigorously is far better than a brilliant plan that lacks action. Or as Guy Kawasaki said, “Don’t worry, be crappy!”.

Step 7 – Resolve to do something everyday that moves you toward you goal.

Clearly written goals have a stunning effect on your thinking, they motivate you, create energy, release creativity and stimulate action. What are your goals, both professional and personal? Who do you talk to about them? Do you discuss them regularly?

Here are a some additional plug-ins I think we should be considering for the future blog of rv.net.

• Subscribe to Comments -Subscribe to Comments 2.1 is a plugin that allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog
• Popularity Contest – This plugin will help you see which of your posts are most popular. Views, comments, etc. are tracked and given configurable point values to determine popularity.
• Word Press Mobile Edition - A PDA friendly interface for your blog.
• Landing Sites - When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, they are definitely looking for something specific – often they just roughly check the page they land on and then closes the window if what they are looking for isn’t there. Why not help them by showing them related posts to their search on your blog? This plugin/guide lets you do that, works with a long list of search engines!
• Encourage Subscriptions –

Anybody want to step up to chase these down?

Everybody needs their own personal mission statement. Fortunately there are resources available on the internet to assist us in creating one without having to actually think about it. Mission Statement Generator by Dilbert

Sample mission examples:

Our challenge is to seamlessly provide access to emerging opportunities while maintaining the highest standards

or

We interactively leverage other’s parallel paradigms and assertively maintain high-payoff benefits to stay competitive in tomorrow’s world

or

It is our business to professionally enhance prospective products and services so that we may quickly create timely deliverables to exceed customer expectations

or

It is our mission to interactively create high standards in intellectual capital as well as to competently disseminate virtual deliverables

It’s addictive, seriously, go create your own. Enjoy, David