Unless your business is a sport Spring is in the air and I can almost hear consultants and HR people planning this year’s team building events. Maybe not this year. That’s one positive brought to us courtesy of enforced social distancing. (Not so long ago you, like me, might have wished for a bit of…
All posts in Teamwork
Fire Everyone Except Your Star Performer
Or fire your star performer and see others shine … … Oh, for Pete’s sake. Will this star gazing never end? I am so tired of individual players being worshiped as if they “built this themselves.” If star players are really so good and the other players so useless, then fire the non-stars and let…
You Will Be Subtracted When the Value You Add Becomes Negative
What every manager must explain to every employee … … What do you do when an outstanding employee is actually bad? Someone can be good at the job, but the cost of doing is too high. I’m talking about the emotional price co-workers pay. We all want star performers, which is why we tend to…
To Succeed, Don’t Play Nice at Work
In nice organizations, nice managers tend to be too nice to poor performers … … Do you work for a nice organization? You do? I’m so sorry to hear that. Nice is not always successful. Here’s why. In organizational life, nice normally means nice to work with. And nice to work with too often means…
#33: When teamwork means specializing in nonsense
Here’s nonsense at work. Some time ago Adam Smith explained why the division of labor leads to greater productivity. It enables people to specialize and thus become very good at what they do. Today we take it for granted that specialization, created by the division of labor within teams, will result in productivity gains. But…
Bonus #1: Dumbfounded by teamwork
Bonus = many more words than needed for 60 second podcast or radio recording Subtitle: What has me dumbfounded and keeps me flabbergasted about amazing, astounding and astonishing teamwork. As the date for the first match of the 2019 Cricket World cup approached (like the run-up of a fast bowler?) I began to worry. How…
