Innovation Lessons from Moneyball

October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last Thursday I indulged in one of my favorite guilty pleasures, an afternoon movie. I chose Moneyball because Brad Pitt is in it and I like baseball. Other than that, I really didn’t know much about the film. It was an exciting surprise to discover that it is probably the best leadership movie I’ve ever seen and, in particular, a great study on the process of innovation.

The movie is based on the real Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s General Manager, and the A’s challenge of competing with the Yankees & Red Sox who had four times their payroll.  During the 2002 season, Billy Beane, with help from his young assistant, Peter Brand, challenges the traditional ways of building a team and introduces a new and controversial approach, sabermetrics.

Here are the lessons I saw about innovation:

  1. Think differently – Beane is acutely aware that the A’s don’t have the same payroll as other teams, and so they can’t build a team around highly paid superstars in the same way as richer teams. They need to think differently in order to compete, but this means challenging traditional wisdom and the “way things are done.” In an early scene, while the scouts are talking about the connection between looks and skill, Beane says, ” You guys are talking the same old nonsense like we’re looking for Fabio. We have to think differently.” and one scout responds with “Who’s Fabio?” while the others look at him blankly.  Thinking differently requires the ability to let go of the old ways of doing things, and embrace the ambiguity that might go with that.
  2. Be open to insight from unlikely places – While Beane knew he needed to think differently, he didn’t necessarily know how he did need to think.  During this time he encounters Peter Brand, who has been working with sabermetrics.  Brand is a young economist with absolutely no experience in baseball, and little work experience overall who challenges Beane to “buy runs, not players”, a very radical departure from traditional scouting wisdom. Research is starting to reveal that people who know nothing about a particular industry or product can make significant contributions to innovations in it.
  3. Don’t let the past determine what you can do in the future – This is as much a general leadership lesson as an innovation one.  Beane himself was scouted at an early age and did not end up being the superstar everyone thought.  Getting past previous failures seems a hallmark of great leaders and innovators.
  4. Be willing to risk alienation – Beane did not garner any support from anyone in the A’s organization with his new vision; in fact, he was ridiculed and his head coach refused to cooperate.  Fans and sports commentators also started to question his competence.  In Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod suggests that “Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.”
  5. Continue to believe in a vision in the face of failure – While Beane was successful in recruiting players using the new approach, the A’s lost almost all their games in the first half of the season. It would have been easy to give up on the dream, but he continued to pursue, going so far as to trade “star” players thereby forcing his manager to use his approach.  Those who innovate know that failure is a part of the innovation process. As Dave Kelley, CEO of IDEO, a design firm in California suggests, “Fail often to success sooner.”

My favorite quote of the movie from Billy Beane which really summarizes the nature of innovation, “If we pull this off, we change the game.  We change the game for good.”

What is your experience of innovating?  Does it line up against these insights?

Written by Tammy.

Filed Under: Creativity, Leadership, teams Tagged With: ,

Top 5 Tips for New Teams

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Thanks to http://thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Thanks to http://thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

While some teams stay together for years, others need to come together and deliver results quickly.  These top 5 tips are taken from our Teamwork cards.  Each of the following tips also has a full blog post to support it, should you need more detail.

  1. Ace of Hearts – Develop a Shared Vision – There is no one right way to develop a shared vision but sometimes approaching it indirectly can be easier for people. Have each member of your team answer the following questions. Once everyone has identified their responses, have a team discussion and see what emerges as a result. This can lead to a vision statement in a more concrete way than just asking people to describe their vision. Think back to a great team experience. Describe that experience. What was it about that experience that was so positive? How did it differ from other team experiences? How can this team create that kind of experience? What would we commit ourselves to? What values would we demonstrate?
  2. Jack of Spades – Play to your Strengths – Everybody performs better when they play to their strengths. Make sure that individuals’ strengths are taken into account when roles are assigned and tasks allotted. One way to do this would be to have the team discuss what strengths would be needed to accomplish a role or task before it is allotted. Also check out Gallup’s Strengths Finder book for a more formal approach to discovering your strengths.
  3. Ace of Spades – Accountability – Knowing who is responsible for what is vital to a team’s success. It’s very easy for these accountabilities to be too vague, especially when there are changes in team membership. Who is responsible for what is the most important thing to have documented at the end of any team meeting.
  4. Ace of Clubs – Deciding how to Make Decisions – One of the most important things a team leader does is decide how best to make any particular decision. There are numerous decision making strategies such as democratic, consensus, and autocratic, but knowing which to use in any particular context is the real key to successful decision making on teams. Leaders should pay particular attention to the number of people involved and the magnitude of the impact of the decision when selecting a decision making strategy.
  5. Nine of Hearts – Be Present –People have become accustomed to being constantly connected to email no matter where they are. While some people can be effective multi-taskers, sometimes this pre-occupation with mobile devices can be a way to avoid unpleasant conversations and/or distract you from important activities and conversations. Monitor your “presence” and that of your team members, and use technology wisely. What message are you sending with your Blackberry use?

This blog post is inspired by Teamwork Explorer – an iPhone app. Along with this “winning hand” for a new team, the app features 12 other common team challenges and offers solutions for each.

Filed Under: communication, Leadership, teams Tagged With: , ,

No More Boring, Bad Meetings

July 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

Be honest … are you guilty of leading boring or bad meetings?  I know I have been even though I should know better.  Many years ago now, the brilliant (and much younger!) John Cleese dramatized his meeting sins in a now famous training video:

  1. failing to prepare himself
  2. failing to inform others of what a meeting was about
  3. failing to plan the agenda
  4. failing to control the discussion
  5. failing to record the decisions

This shortened YouTube version of the original 30 minute training video, Meetings, Bloody Meetings, is worth a watch.

A more recent and complementary take on this topic is Patrick Lencioni’s fable Death by Meeting.  Lencioni suggests that most meetings are bad because they lack drama, context and purpose.  Given that the majority of important work needs to get done in meetings, he suggests team leaders become more accountable and address it in the following ways:

  1. Take a lesson from the movies.  Hollywood movie makers know that they need to introduce some confict or high interest into the movie within the first 10 minutes. Likewise, leaders should put the most controversial or engaging topic at the beginning of their meetings.
  2. Schedule more meetings! Seems counterintuitive but Lencioni suggests that most leaders try to put every type of task or purpose into one meeting (probably to get away from spending too much time in meetings!) and in so doing, almost doom their meeting from the get go.  He suggests teams set up four types of meetings:
  • Daily Check-in – as its name implies a quick 5-10 mins “how are things going?” Avoid the temptation to spill over into the next two or this meeting won’t work!
  • Weekly Tactical – This meeting should be no longer than one hour, and deal with the discussion and resolution of issues that affect the team’s short term and tactical objectives.  The team should quickly decide which items should be discussed in this meeting and avoid the temptation to spill over into strategic issues.  For this to work, the team needs to be crystal clear on its priorities in order to spend its time on the right issues.
  • Monthly Strategic – This is the meeting for discussion of topics that will have a long term impact on the business. These meetings should be longer and include time for exploration, brainstorming and open dialogue. Limit discussion to a few topics and allow 1-2 hours for each topic.
  • Quarterly Off-site Review – As the name implies these meetings are for people to step away from the day to day business, take a time out and reflect upon the entire big picture – how the team is doing, morale, engagement, the company’s strategy, trends affecting the business and so on.  These reviews can last anywhere from half a day to two days.

In our work with many teams, we see a few patterns. One is the team that has a difficult time discussing strategy even when they are in a strategy meeting.  This can be because people on the team lack expertise or the tools to discuss strategy. Two is the type of team who, as Lencioni suggests, tries to accomplish every task at every meeting. Three is the team that doesn’t ever take time away for an off-site review or retreat because they don’t have time. Ironically, the less time they spend on these types of off-sites the more time they spend frittering their time away on the wrong kinds of things and/or getting into interpersonal conflict.

What strategies have you used to ensure folks look forward to meetings instead of dreading them?

This blog is based on the 9 of Spades, When to Meet and When to Work, taken from our Teamwork Explorer. Written by Tammy.

When to Meet, When to Work

Filed Under: Leadership, teams Tagged With: , , ,

Are Mobile Phones Derailing Difficult Conversations?

June 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Photo thanks to the Next Web

Photo thanks to the Next Web

The idea that Blackberry usage can actually lower your IQ and curb creativity has been around for a few years now.   Linda Stone calls this continuous partial attention and suggests that people engage in it because they don’t want to miss anything.  I think the reverse is sometimes true – people will use their Blackberries TO MISS something.

I became aware of this a few years ago while working with an executive team. The team was comprised of executives from two different companies and they were going through a challenging merger.  Whenever certain topics would surface, the CEO would grab her notebook and write furiously. The CFO soon followed by becoming completely preoccupied with his Blackberry. After watching this for half a day, I commented on it and asked whether this pattern of behavior meant anything.  Turns out it did and the conversation that unfolded led to some great insights for the team and a request that the team “be present” with each other at meetings from then on.

What role do mobile devices play on your team?   Do team members engage in any other distractions (like writing in a notebook, thinking about tonight’s dinner, cracking a joke) when uncomfortable or unpleasant conversations come up?  What would it mean to “be present” on your team and how might that enhance your team effectiveness and creativity?

This blog is based on the 9 of Hearts, Be Present, taken from our Teamwork Explorer. Written by Tammy.

Be Present

Filed Under: communication, Leadership, teams Tagged With: , ,

It’s Time for the Adult to Take Over

June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Sandbox with thanks to lowlmagination

Sandbox with thanks to lowlmagination

“I feel like I’m playing in the sandbox with a bunch of misbehaving kids,” lamented Pat, a very successful CEO of a large company.  She was a collaborative leader who involved her executives in decision making, but the team was under stress and acting like a group of little kids in the sandbox.

“Perhaps it’s time for the adult to take over,” I suggested which led to a fascinating conversation about the challenges of being a collaborative leader.  I had learned this from IDEO, a very successful design company, whose innovation teams are very collaborative, creative and emergent, and also, at the right times, directed by a few of the “self appointed adults” to complete certain tasks to ensure that they don’t spin off into complete chaos.

You know it’s time for the team leader to be the “adult” and take over when:

  1. Problem solving processes have run their course and you need to move forward. Some teams can get into “ideaphoria” and resist closure because they are not confident about their ability to deliver.  The team leader needs to force closure on the team and help the team with its confidence.
  2. Timelines are critical and short and there is no time for collaboration. The team leader needs to provide the plan and delegate to get the task done.
  3. Some (or all) team members do not have the skills.  The team leader needs to provide direction and suggestions about how to tackle the problem at hand.
  4. The team is not functioning well as a team. Once again, the team leader needs to provide direction and suggestions or delegation of tasks to get things done.
  5. If a team is under extreme stress, the leader needs to help the team take a time out, regroup and get back on track.
  6. If there has been a major emergency or catastrophe that is likely to cause chaos, confusion, or strong emotions, the leader needs to step in and provide stability and direction for the team.

The key to switching between a collaborative and autocratic style is to let your team members know, ideally before, but certainly at the time, why you are using this particular style.  If you don’t, you risk breaking trust with team members. If you are on a team where there is no formal leader, have the conversation about who the “adults” will be in the above situations. It will save your team time and heartache.

What style do you use?  Are there times when you’ve used a more autocratic style?

This blog is based on the 10 of Clubs, Autocratic, taken from our Teamwork Explorer. Written by Tammy.

Autocratic Decision Making

Filed Under: decision making, Leadership, teams Tagged With: , , ,

What do Cartoon Thought Bubbles Have to do with Teams?

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Implications of Thought Bubbles

Thought Bubbles in Action on a Team

“I feel like Switzerland and I just want to bash their heads together.”  Sarah was exasperated with two members of her team and was telling me how tired she was of listening to their stories and how awkward team meetings were becoming.

“What would happen if you told them that? Perhaps not about bashing their heads together but about how you feel? How might that change things for you and your team?” It had never occurred to Sarah to do this and there was quite a long silence. By the end of our conversation she realized how her silence had been contributing to keeping the unhealthy dynamic between her two colleagues going. She also realized that there was some risk in actually letting them in on her “real” thoughts, but that the potential gains could outweigh the risks.

It’s pretty common for people not to reveal their true thoughts in team situations. Sometimes it relates to being conflict avoidant, sometimes to groupthink, sometimes to an overly “politically correct” culture on the team, and sometimes to fear of being vulnerable all of which are demonstrated in the cartoon above.  Whatever the case, if you find yourself going over situations long after they’re over and feeling unsettled, it may be time for you to examine the role that your “thought bubbles” are playing.  Here’s one of my own examples and how I dealt with it:

I’ve worked with many co-facilitators over the years to deliver various training programs and inevitably the program has some sort of evaluation form. Most times the form lists each person’s name and then asks for an individual rating of each person. This has always bothered me in that if we are working as a team and co-delivering a program, I think we should be rated as a team, not individuals. Inevitably, if rated individually, one member’s ratings will always be the lowest and one member’s ratings will always be the highest. It sets up a competitive and uncomfortable dynamic. So, I have been dealing with this for years and finally (sometimes I am a slow learner too!) I followed the 4 steps I recommend to others:

  1. What role have your thoughts and feelings in your thought bubble played in the situation unfolding as it has? Whenever the topic of evaluation comes up on a team, I get uncomfortable and a bit cranky and end up not participating meaningfully and saying things like “I hate evaluations … we get feedback along the way so what’s the point?” I end up having a conversation that doesn’t really capture my true thoughts and probably frustates my team members.
  2. What are the risks and opportunities of sharing your thought bubble? The risk is that someone might disagree with my suggestion to do a team rating and think that I am insecure about my own abilities, that the real reason I want a team rating is so I don’t end up at the bottom. The opportunity is that at least I can be more honest and authentic about why the topic of evaluation bothers me and perhaps even have my team agree with a team rating.
  3. What would need to change in order for you to share your thought bubble? I just need to be more confident about my own opinion, that I have given the matter some thought and that it’s not a suggestion I make lightly. The other thing that needs to change is to bring up the topic when we have time to more fully discuss it instead of at the last minute during a program.
  4. What’s a small step you can take to bring more of your thought bubble to team conversations? I can suggest that the next time we do a program that we add the evaluation form to our initial planning sessions.  I can also then preface my comments with “I’ve been thinking about this a lot and was wondering if we could …?

I’m pleased to report that I did indeed bring up this topic and that the outcome was positive. It allowed me to be more authentic and it allowed my team members to get to understand my perspective a bit better.

While this was a positive outcome, sometimes your reflections might lead you to conclude that it is simply too risky to share your thought bubble. If this is the case, then you need to find a way to let go of the issue and not let it continue to permeate your thoughts and, therefore, your presence and interaction on the team.  How to do THAT is another blog post …

This blog is based on the 10 of Diamonds, Sharing Thought Bubbles, taken from our Teamwork Explorer.

Sharing Thought Bubbles

Sharing Thought Bubbles

Filed Under: communication, Leadership, Risk, teams, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Motivate your team with 2 simple words and 5 strategies

May 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Thanks to woodleywonderworks

Thanks to woodleywonderworks

Those readers who know me know that I have become a doting aunt to an adorable 4 year old niece and 2 year old nephew. Given that I have no children, hearing them say please and thank you (and in particular to me when I happen to find that perfect gift!) has been one of my greatest joys in the last few years. It seems to be the most common and universal lesson taught to children.

And it is the most common and universal lesson forgotten in the workplace. We adults start to take ourselves way too seriously, get overly preoccupied with our own stuff, and forget that many people are connected to OUR overall success and pleasure in life.  It’s no surprise that the most common and universal finding on employee engagement surveys is feeling unappreciated.

So here are 5 strategies to help you say thank you to your team and keep them engaged and motivated:

  1. Set a goal of saying thank you to at least 1 person a day. Be specific saying what it is they have done and the impact it’s had on you.
  2. At team meetings, monitor your “critical comments” vs your “thank you or appreciative comments”.  Get the balance right!
  3. Write your team’s vision/values on blank business cards. When someone on your team lives a particular value and/or really demonstrates the vision, write a note on the back of it saying thanks (and again be specific!).
  4. Use an electronic greeting card to say thanks if you are working on a virtual team. My favorite is Jacquie Lawson … for $12 a year I can send unlimited animated greeting cards that I can customize for any occasion.
  5. Pay attention to small wins during a long and complex project. Saying thanks to people throughout the project can keep people motivated, engaged and able to handle challenges that do arise.

What strategies have you used to say thank you and motivate your team? I’d love to hear them!

Today’s blog comes from our Teamwork Explorer, 10 of Hearts card.

Say Thanks

Filed Under: communication, Leadership, teams Tagged With: , , ,

What your Team can Learn from JFK

May 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Amid much controversy, The Kennedys is now showing in Canada (well, at least the 2 episodes that I have taped on my PVR!). The reviews have certainly been mixed but I simply cannot help myself. I love a good story and I have been especially intrigued by the Kennedys for many years. I watched the episode highlighting the Bay of Pigs on the weekend and was reminded of the work of Irving Janis on groupthink.  Groupthink is a phenomena he coined which describes the tendency of  some really cohesive teams to ignore alternative pespectives and courses of action. The symptoms of groupthink according to Janis are:

    1. Illusion of invulnerability – the team thinks that they can do no wrong or harm.
    2. Collective rationalization – the team discounts alternative views and doesn’t challenge their own assumptions.
    3. Belief in inherent morality – the team thinks they are the moral compass for everyone.
    4. Stereotyped views of out-groups – people or groups with different views are made to be the “enemy”.
    5. Direct pressure on dissenters – anyone who disagrees with the team is greatly pressured to conform.
    6. Self-censorship – people do not express contradictory views.
    7. Illusion of unanimity – silence is assumed to be unanimity.
    8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ — stronger team members will filter out contradictory views.

I am especially interested in groupthink because I have been guilty of it myself and relate to the above 8 symptoms.  As someone who values harmony and cohesiveness, I need to work hard at hearing alternative perspectives.  I work on many faculty teams to deliver intensive leadership development programs and in our desire to deliver a high quality learning experience, I think we sometimes filter out feedback that challenges our particular philosophy of leadership.

Some remedies for groupthink include:

    1. The team leaders being aware of their power over the group and holding back on their preferences until other team members have spoken.
    2. The team assigning the role of critical evaluator or devil’s advocate to team members and/or bringing in expert, outside opinions to challenge the team.
    3. The team setting aside regular time to surface and assess their assumptions, as well as surface and consider alternative perspectives.

While the Bay of Pigs was devastating, some have suggested Kennedy learned from that mistake and avoided groupthink during the Cuban Missile Crisis by inviting outside experts to share their viewpoints,  dividing the group up into various sub-groups, and being deliberately absent from the meetings, so as to allow others open expression of viewpoints.

Has your team had a Bay of Pigs disaster?  Which remedies might work for your team?

This blog is based on the Jack of Clubs, Groupthink, taken from our Teamwork Explorer.

Groupthink

Written by Tammy

Filed Under: Leadership, teams Tagged With: , , ,

Wisdom of Crowds

April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Queen of Clubs (decision making) – Wisdom of Crowds. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Wisdom of Crowds

Queen of Clubs – Wisdom of Crowds

One of the reasons we work in teams is to have input on an issue from various different perspectives. In Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki, suggests that optimum solutions are found when all these diverse opinions are incorporated into the decision.

How do you ensure that you hear all voices on the team, even the unpopular ones? Obviously this is very much dependent on the nature of the team, and there’s no one right answer. However, my work with teams suggests that some of the best ways to elicit diverse opinions would include setting clear ground rules that encourage the non-judgmental sharing of ideas. You also have to ask the right questions. Sometimes team members can have valuable input, but fail to share it because they don’t think it’s been asked for, or that it will add value. “Does anyone have anything else to share (no matter how crazy it may sound) regarding this issue?” or something similar is a great question to ask before moving to decision making.

Of course, the next big challenge, once all the diverse opinions are shared, is to incorporate them into a decision. The Jelly Beans in the Jar example is very straightforward.  Fill a glass jar with jelly beans and ask people to guess how many there are.  Then calculate the mean of the answers. I’ve tested this with several groups and the mean is almost always the best answer in the room.

It gets more complex of course when the problem at hand is something more realistic that the team really needs to move forward on. An approach I find useful when opinions are so diverse (perhaps even contradictory) that they can’t be incorporated into a single solution, is scrap the idea that there is one best solution. Once teams start looking for multiple, good, potential solutions, rather than the one best solution, they can move forward with testing prototypes rather getting stuck in what is often called “analysis paralysis”.

Finally a word of caution. Not all decisions lend themselves to a Wisdom of Crowds approach. The decision about which decision making approach is the most appropriate, is of course, the most important decision!

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Find out more!

Posted by Dave

Filed Under: Leadership, teams, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Baby in Back Seat

March 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the King of Diamonds (communication) – Ladder of Inference. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Ladder of Inference

What does a baby in the back seat have to do with teams and our communication tip this week?  Well, read on …

Despite the fact that I value learning and know that patience is a large part of learning, I am not a patient person.  A story I read in Anna Maravelas book helps me slow down and communicate better with those around me.  It’s the story of a man who stopped behind a woman at a red light. The light turned green and the woman ahead didn’t start moving, so he (being like me) got impatient and started blowing his horn.  Not only that, but she actually turned around and was fiddling with something in the back seat and THEN she actually got out of the car and was trying to get something out of the back seat. Well, the driver lost it at that point, blowing the horn, yelling through the window, just in general carrying on.  Well, we’ve all been there haven’t we? Stressed out, thinking that we are running short of time, etc, etc. Turns out that the woman was trying to stop her baby from choking. That’s why she got out of the car … to save her baby and thus baby in back seat or BIBS as Anna calls it in her book.

And this is the essence of Peter Senge’s ideas (based on the original work of Chris Argyris) in the Fifth Discipline around the Ladder of Inference. We take in information and select certain bits of it to pay attention to, attach meaning to and base our actions on.  Because so many drivers don’t pay attention to what they are doing, this man ran up his ladder to actions (blowing the horn, etc).

How often do we do this on teams?  I see it all the time and I do it all the time.  Remaining open and curious about what is REALLY happening for people takes time, energy and commitment, but if you really want to improve the communication on your team, you need to do it.  I try to remember BIBS when I find myself getting angry or stressed … we have a few other tips below in our teamwork card, King of Diamonds.

King of Diamonds – Ladder of Inference (Peter Senge)

To make sense of the world, people have short-cuts or ladders of inference for their beliefs and actions. Analyzing what has led to a particular belief and/or asking others what has led to their beliefs often improves communication.

  1. What are some of your ladders of inference?
  2. How have these worked for or against open communication and building positive relationships?
  3. How might you use the ladder of inference model to check your assumptions about team members and/or help your team members check their own assumptions?

What other tips do you have for suspending judgments and watching your assumptions? I would love to hear them!

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Then download the free Teamwork Explorer iPhone app now! More interested in the actual paper based set of cards?  Visit our store!


Filed Under: Leadership, teams, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,
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