Leadership ConneXions - Issue 8
Welcome to Leadership ConneXions Issue 8 and welcome to all our new subscribers. Leadership ConneXions currently reaches out to more than 1000 subscribers.
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The Lazy Way to Success Has to be Better Than the Hard Way!
I read a review of a book the other day and it really got me thinking. First of all, it got me really keen to read the book. Secondly, but more importantly was the fact that it got me motivated to write this little piece for Leadership ConneXions!
The book is “THE LAZY WAY TO SUCCESS: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything” by Fred Gratzon.
To summarise the book in one line, the reviewer (Michael Neill at http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/public/MNCT.php) said it was “How to succeed in business without really working!”
The author, Fred Gratzon, argues that he is lazy and “the most unemployable man on the planet”. Despite this, he managed to launch two highly successful businesses – The Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company and Telegroup (with a turnover in excess of $300 million a year) without doing a lick of work. Not bad for someone who is lazy!
Gratzon believes that work is “anything you do when you don’t want to be doing it”. He also suggests that the “impulse to find ways to avoid work drives all progress in civilization”. He calls this laziness. Others have called this innovation. What ever you call it, it is about finding new and better ways of achieving the desired outcomes.
In his book, Gratzon makes a strong case about the perils of attempting to succeed by working hard:
“Now I will readily concede that if you achieve something in one hour, you will achieve two somethings in two hours. If your desiring limit is 16 somethings, then you have found the right, mindless formula. But what if you want a million somethings? Then you need a new math.”
The basis of this new math is the pure, simple and elegant truth – SUCCESS IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO HARD WORK. This means as effort and hard work become less, success becomes more. As you move towards effortlessness, success moves towards infinity.”
This is not really a new concept, but my circumstances at this time caused the quote make a direct hit on me.
How often do we continue to do more and more of the same thing only to find the work continually piling up, deadlines missed or only met by more and more hours? I am surrounded by people and I suspect you are too, that continue to put in extremely long hours and considerable effort to get their work done – to produce as many “somethings” as they can. (Maybe you aren’t just surrounded by such people, perhaps you are even responsible for setting the example???)
Recently, a colleague of mine who was putting in far more than was required, had a heart attack. Luckily he survived. Now our project, which was extracting such dedication, effort and passion from this man, will be without him for several months. He couldn’t work any harder and his body told him so.
I do not want my body to tell me it is working too hard. From now on, I will always be considering how I can leverage the work I do to gain maximum benefit and I will be reading the book.
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How can we effectively communicate electronically in teams?
Email communication in teams frequently lets us down. It frequently fails to get the real message across adequately and all too often we get bombarded by emails meant for other team members but sent to all members “just to keep them informed”. This problem prompted Leadership ConneXions member Robert to ask, “Has anybody had experience with electronic communication for an existing project team or trying to form a team. I am interesting in basic rules and possible pitfalls.”
Pamela replied:
I haven't tried to run a project by communicating by email. However, I have completed an electronic communication course and developed Online Communities using websites, which I imagine have similar hazards to using email.
What I learnt was, in setting up the electronic process, it is important to identify, agree on and maintain some 'working guidelines' up front. These could include email etiquette (plenty of stuff about this on the web), plus some general guidelines about working in teams regardless of whether its face-to-face or electronic.
All our teams make time for evaluating of the meeting at it conclusion, "did we achieve objectives? what worked well? what didn't? what will we do differently next meeting to improve outcomes?"
The favourite team I work with deliver Continuous Improvement and Innovation 'training'. Our end of meeting evaluation includes measuring a whole range of indicators for achieving supportive meetings. Good intentions and supportive behaviours are powerful behaviours for building teams.
What behaviours have you noticed create the disharmony in your 'e-team', and what behaviours would you replace the destructive ones with?
List them and each participant could give a score out of 10 for how well the group displayed the positive behaviours. It is good to start the meeting by stating the outcomes of the meeting - I would include that group cohesion and motivation is stronger at the end of the meeting than it was at the beginning. If it's not, then decide what will be done differently next time to improve that outcome.
Best wishes - and thanks for contributing to Leadership ConneXions.
ngami niginda yilaalu (see you later)
Rudolf replied:
A PhD student just finished in my organisation a detailed study on the subject of purely electronic communication for a variety of project teams with interesting results. Essentially the quality of collaboration was better for those business areas that by nature operated in reflective ways - such as software developers, analyst etc. Operational people faired definitely worse, right up to a stage at which no collaboration occurred. The ease-of-use and variety of collaboration tools and associated infrastructure did also have a significant role to play.
Barry replied:
The following on the subject came to me in the form of and Email tip from Corporate Team Solutions.
People who work together at the same time and place are decreasing in numbers. In many instances, your employees do not have to be in the same place at the same time to get the work done. Nevertheless, you want them to work together effectively as a team; thus the emergence of a new type of team -- the virtual team. Virtual teams have emerged as a legitimate business strategy for organisations of all types and sizes. A working definition for a virtual team is:
A group of people working from a variety of geographical locations on interdependent tasks. Final output is a combination of individual and collective performance.
Two factors are critical to success: communications and connections.
1. Communications
An absolute key to virtual team success is the quality of communications that
occur. These communication questions must be considered:
· Who needs what?
· What do they need?
· What is the best method to use?
· Who will assure the communication happens at the right time, in the right way, and reaches the right people?
Communication mechanisms are essential to a virtual team. However, don't rely on the mechanisms themselves. Whether it is your weekly telephone conferences, net meetings, or an e-mail system, build adequate communication systems. No matter what system you use, include:
· Reasonable frequency to maintain task focus and to nurture relationships.
· Methods to note the urgency and importance of each piece of information.
· Clear communication guidelines.
· Ways for team members to get to know each other.
· Easy vehicles to ask questions and have on-line discussions
Think through your options, plot out a workable system and implement it. Your hard work will help the virtual team reach high performance levels. In addition to communications, building and maintaining strong relationships and connections are another key success factor for virtual teams.
2. Connections
Strong relationships help erase or minimize the impact of physical distance. Systems and structures help a virtual team stay connected and allow team members to function as a team. The leader must build and maintain the team. When determining the best methods to connect the physically separate team members together, consider these strategies:
· Periodically bring all team members together -- it is an essential investment and will help maintain, build and keep energised the virtual team.
· Make the role of the home office to support, respond and help the virtual team member.
· Maintain the right technology and other infrastructure. Use the Web -- and train everyone to use it well (see e-mail protocol tips at the end of this article).
· Encourage virtual team members to connect with others -- make it part of their job
Whether you are now forming your first virtual team or improving the one you already have, “out of sight, out of mind” or hands-off management are not good options. Virtual teams offer many benefits, but their unique aspects must be thoroughly understood and managed to assure their success.
E-mail protocol: 10 tips
1. Answer messages promptly.
2. Send simple, straightforward messages
3. Send group mail when all recipients need it
4. Remove people from your distribution lists
5. Ask to be removed from distribution lists
6. Use subject lines in e-mails and be specific
7. Use attachments sparingly
8. Use Websites to communicate large documents
9. Update your outgoing message when you are out of the office
10. Forward messages with care and consideration
Corporate Team Solutions can be contacted at and you can subscribe to team tips at http://www.cot.com.au/. Their email address is: cot@cot.com.au
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