Etiqueta: team development

The personal process of transforming daydreams into real

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I have written in this blog a lot about uncertainty, how averse or inclined we are. Without regard of what type you are, we all go through different stages when starting something new.

These last weeks I have rediscovered mines. Projects and adventures, have driven me through this kind of rollercoaster. Many people has drawn similar curves. This is my personal view of fun, mistery and effort.

Uncertainity can make the peaks bigger or smaller but each of us, individuals, teams, … go through similar phases. If you like starting from scratch, moving in a chaotic environment, embracing uncertainty.. you might well feel these phases.

These days are days of rapid changes, volatility… shorter cycles of ups and downs. You will, eventually, get used to it and how to lead with them.

Sailing, freedom and discipline

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Did you ever find yourself wondering how did you end up somewhere? Like, if you had gone out for sailing, apparently knowing what your destination was and all of a sudden…. in the middle of the sea, with no clue of at what point did you loose your way or how to rectify to be back on track.

On the long run, when you realise that you are completely on the opposite site of where you wanted to be it’s because (let’s think that) you set your goals, your milestones, … but you didn’t check how were you doing, maybe the wind’s direction changed and you kept doing the exact same thing, you let the time go by, you got carried away. Had the right idea, the wrong execution. What you thought would give you freedom, keeps you captive. But, when you are not navigating alone, if you are the ship’s captain, you have a responsibility towards your crew.

On the short term, the feeling is a bit different. You feel there is never enough time, you are always running behind schedule, slave of your agenda, dependant on your team’s response time. And again, this time if you are the captain, you can not subordinate your crew’s time to your agenda.

We always think about freedom as: time off, financial freedom to do whatever we want (when enjoying our free time), the space to create, to experiment, to have leeway with design delivery, …

There is no Freedom without Discipline. Do you want to be sure you are following the right course? Be disciplined to check the progress, to correct if necessary. Do you want to have free time in your agenda? Be disciplined, respect timetables, respect the others agenda’s. If you live in chaos, you will be always trapped. If you live in chaos, you can drag your team into your chaos, invading their time management.

Each of us is responsible for being self-disciplined, for establishing our rules. If we have discipline, we are «free». Then, it’s easier to define our limits, what we allow and we don’t to others do with our time.

You can read this interesting post (on one of my fauvorites blogs.. ):  A learning day (discipline equals freedom) or listen/watch the  Interview (Jocko Willink)

If you want to read about my view on Who owns your time?  you can find it in this old post.

Thanks Peter, it’s always nice chatting with you.

 

Board games and team culture

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What could Organizations, teams and board games have in common?

Starting a new job is like buying a board game. One you have never played to. One you might have heard about or you suddenly saw, read its description, liked and bought. This game, is the company, the organization.

You open the box and you find different stuff: A paper (or where to look at them on the internet) with the rules, indications to know how to get started, the game pieces you will need, and of course, the board.

Let’s talk about «rules». Written Rules are the organization culture, how things are done, what you can and you can not do. If you want to play by the book,to fit, you need to learn and apply them.

What about the «unwritten rules»? Lots of time not everything is on a paper. At some point there was an agreement, what to do when… it was kept for that group of people, for every team they played. This is the team culture. How do we do things around here, what we didn’t know and what we adapted from the written ones. If you want to play, you will need to know them and apply.

When playing in a different group, questions need to be asked, you need observe how others behave, accept or refuse to play under different rules, use your usual strategy or completely change it. And… always have fun. If you don’t, if there is no fun at all, change your partners or play a different game.

Christmas time has been awesome, now we are back to work with new challenges and possibilities.

Enjoy everything that is ahead. Good stuff is just around the corner.