Back in 1940 a man by the name of John Gallo, an assembly worker at Ford Motor Company, was fired after being "caught in the act of smiling". He had been warned on a previous occasion for "laughing with others". At that time Ford's workers weren't allowed to hum, whistle, or talk with other workers, even during lunch. Henry Ford believed that work was for work and play was for outside of work. He believed the two should never be mixed.
Southwest Airlines has a completely different philosophy. They believe that "people rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it". If you review their website you see comments like “our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring longterm competitive advantage.”
Part of Southwest Airline's mantra is to:
Have FUN
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Maintain perspective (balance)
Celebrate successes
Enjoy your work
Be a passionate team player
What is the culture look like at your company? Are the employees excited to come to work or do they dread coming to work? Remember, if you and your team aren't having fun at work you aren't doing your best work.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Groups, Values and Toxic Turkeys
I really liked George Carlin's last book; "Last Words - A Memoir". In it he wrote the following, which I find very scary and very profound all at once.
"The worst thing about groups are their values...you will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own...because you’ve lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that’s bigger than you are and that controls you.
What are your group's values? Honesty, trust, cooperation, respect, or get it done at any cost?
Project management is about groups of people working together to bring to realization the project's objectives...and doing it on time, on budget and with expected quality and scope.
In my experience, most project teams are staffed with decent, cooperative, competent people, but many times there can be one or more toxic team members bent on steering the group to service their personal agenda. These toxic turkeys don't care about the project's objectives, they only care about themselves and their own agenda (usually hidden). When you see this type of person on your team remove them or get your sponsor to remove them before they poison the rest of the team and stop your project's progress.
Remember what Carlin said about large groups, "the larger the group, the more toxic it is, and the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought."
Click here to purchase George Carlin's last book from Amazon.com.
"The worst thing about groups are their values...you will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own...because you’ve lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that’s bigger than you are and that controls you.
What are your group's values? Honesty, trust, cooperation, respect, or get it done at any cost?
Project management is about groups of people working together to bring to realization the project's objectives...and doing it on time, on budget and with expected quality and scope.
In my experience, most project teams are staffed with decent, cooperative, competent people, but many times there can be one or more toxic team members bent on steering the group to service their personal agenda. These toxic turkeys don't care about the project's objectives, they only care about themselves and their own agenda (usually hidden). When you see this type of person on your team remove them or get your sponsor to remove them before they poison the rest of the team and stop your project's progress.
Remember what Carlin said about large groups, "the larger the group, the more toxic it is, and the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought."
Click here to purchase George Carlin's last book from Amazon.com.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Technology Questions
Marshall McLuhan said “first we shape our tools and then they shape us.” Sometimes how we are "shaped" by technology isn't pleasant or what we were expecting. We need to keep in mind that technology for technologies' sake will never deliver anything of lasting value. When thinking about implementing a technology ask yourself a couple of very important questions.
Can we or should we do it?
Will it make our situation simpler or more complex?
Will it help us to solve a problem or cause a problem?”
Should we do nothing?
Also, when implementing technology remember these three rules:
The customer is your partner
The customer defines the requirements
Open systems beat closed systems
The customer defines the requirements
Open systems beat closed systems
Remember it isn't the technology that matters, it is what the technology makes possible.