Collaboration is Key!

Originally posted 12/12/07

“Where there is convergence and focus, individual mediocrity may well sum up to collective brilliance. In their absence, individual brilliance may well sum up to collective mediocrity.”
Hamel & Prahalad, Competing for the Future

Collaboration is quickly becoming a “key” word not only in business but also throughout the world. As competition intensifies due to technology and globalization, businesses, countries, and even communities are fighting for precious resources and economic growth. Thus, leaders are starting to realize they must learn to collaborate with others to succeed. Leaders see that simply working harder isn’t enough anymore, but that they must also work smarter and together. What does this mean for us? This means we have to be not only willing but also an active participant in collaboration.

Becoming an active participant means we work with others in our businesses, schools, and communities to solve problems in the most efficient and effective way possible. This means communicating, effectively strategizing, compromising, and working with others to create win-win situations. This means putting aside any bad feelings, regret, hatred, discrimination, or negative perceptions we may have toward others. This does not mean we give up what we want in business, life, or in our community; but on the contrary it means we look for ways to support others wants and ideas while at the same time helping them to support us with ours. If we take what we are trying to accomplish seriously, to have the greatest outcome and to be the most effective, we must find ways to collaborate.

Often we are put in tough situations where what we are trying to accomplish is in contrast to what others are trying to accomplish. This often can lead to tension and uncomfortable situations that pit us against others. To handle these situations, be frank in discussing why what you are trying to accomplish is important, because often there is misunderstanding of what each party wants. From there, find similarities and common ground on what each group is working toward, and try to find ways to collaborate and work together. These will be perfect opportunities to find new and smarter ways for both groups to work towards their goals.

Also, as you work with others who are difficult, frequently use the words partner, teamwork, and collaboration in your conversations and written communication with them; it will surprise you how many doors this will open. As we collaborate together in our businesses, schools, and communities we will be able to have excellent outcomes, and we will be able to achieve our goals. By doing this we will remain afloat in our increasingly competitive world. Seek ways to collaborate today!!

Lastly, the following are some ideas of how to take a better and more collaborative approach to problems or issues:

*Set-up a brain storming session where all are able to express their opinions.
*List the pros and cons of each solution or idea.
*Offer to implement a solution for a certain time period, and then meet back to assess its usefulness.
*If you are able to and if necessary, leave the issue for a short time period before readdressing the issue.

When the Game Stands Tall

When the Game Stands Tall by Neil Hayes is one of my all-time favorite sports books and movies. It is the incredible story of football’s longest winning streak by De La Salle High School that expanded over 12 seasons and resulted in 151 wins in a row.  It is not just a sports story however.  It is a story of grit, hard work, dedication, sacrifice, discipline, and love.  It is a story that goes well beyond the playing field as it teaches the reader applicable and important life lessons.  Today I’d like to share 5 lessons we can all take from this remarkable story to become better individuals. 

#1 “The key component to any success is the most basic of human emotions—love.”

When you boil it down to the most basic element, life is all about love.  This book and story teach us this.  The interesting thing is that you can take just about any action and if it is done out of love, it will have a long-term positive affect.  Often times we think of love as being something that is always soft, gentle or kind.  The De La Salle story teaches us that love can be tough, direct, and hard at times.  No matter what we do, if our hearts are right, if we do it out of love for others, no matter what it is, it can be received well by others and can influence their life for good.  When we have love, our ability to encourage and influence others is tremendously multiplied. 

#2 Stand for something more than winning 

Winning provides a certain level of motivation and satisfaction.  It can inspire and push people to great heights however when we represent something, or dedicate ourselves to a cause, our efforts and motivation grow beyond what we believe is possible.  De La Salle didn’t focus on or even care that much about winning.  For their program, it wasn’t about the winning per say, but was about who they wanted to become and what they wanted to represent.  As leaders we need to set a vision higher than just competing and winning.  We need to establish a vision that stands for something.  At De La Salle, they represented and cared about something greater than winning and that is what inspired and lifted them to unimaginable success.     

#3 Success=Effort

De La Salle’s remarkable success is defined by their extreme discipline.  Their philosophy centered on the notion that success was based on their individual and collective efforts rather than on the outcomes of the game.  They strived to give a “perfect effort” in every moment and that is how they defined success. 

Establishing a similar measuring stick, one that is based on the amount of effort rather than the final result will push all of us to become our best individual selves.  Not everyone can be the best in the world at everything or win every time, so if that is our goal we will be disappointed, but each of us can be our best selves by always putting forth our maximum effort.  The coaches at De La Salle taught that we will all one day eventually regret not putting forth our best effort; thus every situation in life requires our personal best. 

#4 Decide Now

Rather than wondering what type of effort we will give today, tomorrow, or a year from now, the De La Salle coaches encouraged their players to decide now, before the games, practices, or the season even started.  They had to decide from day one what kind of effort they were going to give, and what kind of season they would have. 

Waiting to make decisions in the moment, when the pressure is on will cause us at times to make unwise choices.  If we make our decisions before we ever face the pressure moments, it will be so much easier to do the right thing.  Like the De La Salle football players, making the decision now on what type of effort we will give and who we will become will lead us to better outcomes. 

#5 Peer Accountability 

Once someone starts holding themselves accountable, or peers hold each other accountable, than a leader knows his efforts have paid off.  Peer accountability is so much more meaningful and powerful than accountability coming from a designated leader and this is proven in the book.  Part of De La Salle’s magic is their ability to influence their team members and hold each other accountable.  We must strive to create and foster similar environments wherever we may find ourselves.

I love the book When the Game Stands Tall because I believe there are so many important lesson we can learn from the De La Salle football story.  As we apply even the basic principles listed above we will become much better leaders and people. 

To see how I rate this book click here

How the Mighty Fall

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins is another really good read for all business leaders and its principles can also be applied to everyday life.  Some key points from the book are the following. 

#1 Success breeds Entitlement

Most successful people work hard to gain their success but once they have it, some turn away from what got them there in the first place, and they eventually lose it.  I love sports and you can see this with star athletes from time to time.  A talented athlete will reach a point in their abilities were they are told they are “elite” or “the best” and after hearing this over and over again they begin to believe they can maintain their status while stopping the work that got them to that point in the beginning.  And before you know it, a promising sports career turns in to a bust. 

This “fall” or change in direction is often not dramatic or quick but more normally it is a gradual eroding of those things that got us to the top.  The point is, once we stop doing the core things that helped us gain success, we put ourselves at high risk for a fall.  The book refers to this attitude as hubris or having excessive pride. 

Truly successful companies and people hold fast to the principles that brought them success in the beginning, knowing that success could all be gone tomorrow.  They find ways to keep their fire lit and avoid feelings of entitlement that deceive so many in to believing that they’ve “earned” or “deserve” a life of being on top or a life of ease.  Instead the truly successful consistently keep doing those things that breed success.    

#2 Entitlement blinds Risk

Once we’ve succumbed to entitlement or hubris we fail to appropriately see and weigh the risks we are taking or are considering taking.  We begin to blindly do what we never would have done prior to our success.  As proven in the book, many successful companies begin to over-reach and expand or grow with the idea that they are too big or successful to ever fail.  They essentially become blind to their own vulnerability to falling and find ways to justify any decline in performance or reason to worry.

Again, successful organizations and successful individuals fight against the feelings of entitlement knowing that doing so keeps them grounded and helps them to see risk for what it really is.  This allows them to avoid unnecessary and unwise risk-taking while taking action when decline is present.      

#3 Changing Courses can happen

As you can image, the way to beat these problems are recognizing that we have a problem and then changing courses which often means reverting back to those things that brought us success in the first place.  This can be a humbling process but the comforting knowledge gleaned from the author is that “falls” are almost always self-inflicted and therefore can be avoided or turned around.  Those that are able to believe this, see that they are headed for disaster, and still have the discipline to change courses can save themselves from a catastrophe and can get back on the road to success.  

At the end of the day, I feel this book reinforces and emphasizes Collins previous book “Good to Great” with the crux of the matter centering on discipline.  Having disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action is what led good companies to become great.  Likewise, organizations or people that can have and maintain the discipline required to achieve success will avoid a mighty fall and enjoy tremendous results.         

To see how I rated this book, click here

True Love & Effective Time Management

Today I’d like to share two very different and simple thoughts that have been on my mind from the well-known leadership book called “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. 

#1  “Love is a verb, not a feeling.”

My only daughter started middle school two weeks ago and with this age comes the beginning of a wonderful world of boyfriends and girlfriends and thoughts of “love.”  Much of the media we consume inaccurately portrays love as a feeling that comes and goes.  It shows that we “fall” in and out of love almost haphazardly and that love is something we have no or very little control over.  It is normal to feel love for someone today and then not tomorrow.  This type of love is not really love at all. 

True love is a verb, it requires action.  When we love someone we sacrifice for them, we look out for their best interest, we help them, support them, serve them, stand by them, etc.  For this reason we don’t really “fall” out of love.  If we feel we’ve lost love for someone it is because we have stopped doing those loving actions that demonstrate our love and produce loving feelings.  We have made the choice to stop loving.  Therefore, if we want to feel love, than we must take actions that produce it. 

#2  “Focus on what is important and not urgent”

Everything we do falls in to one of four categories or quadrants.  We have things that are (1) urgent and important, (2) not urgent and important, (3) urgent and not important, and (4) not urgent and not important.  Most of us spend our time in quadrant (1) and (3) with things we feel are urgent.  This causes us to constantly run from fire to fire doing urgent things that we eventually get burned out and spend the little bit of time we have free in quadrant (4) which adds no value to our lives at all.  This is pretty typical for most of us. 

Highly effective people however have the discipline to spend a lot of their time in quadrant (2), on things that are important but not urgent.  This are typically the most important items that bring value to our lives such as spending time with our children or family.  Though this is extremely important, it rarely ever becomes urgent. 

The problem with spending most of our time in quadrant (1) and (3) is that we end up sacrificing what is perhaps most important to us.  We never get around to those very important items that are never urgent.  We must remember that when we make a choice to say “yes” to something, it also means we are saying “no” to other things that we could be or maybe should be doing. 

Think about how you spend your time and if the things you are doing are in quadrant (1), (2), (3), or (4).  Learning to use our time wisely and focusing on those items in quadrant (2) will help us be more effective and more successful people and leaders.