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One of the exercises that Authentic Transformation uses in business workshops helps participants understand the differences between management, leadership and team work. It is called leadership football, it is a game played in three halves in a space that resembles a conventional football pitch. In the first half everyone plays for themselves trying to score as many goals as they can and to prevent anyone else from scoring. As you might imagine it is pretty chaotic, only those who are prepared to be most aggressive tend to get stuck in and much talent goes under used. The ones in the thick of it find it quite exciting, the ones left out find it intimidating and not very interesting. It is quite easy to draw parallels from this to work situations; in some organisations that are highly political the majority are left to fend for themselves while the "players" fight it out. Neither the "players" or the others get to use their true talents and everyone, including the organisation, looses out. In the second half we have two teams and two non playing managers. None of the players are allowed to take any initiative, they may only act on an explicit and specific instruction from their manager. The game is quite stilted, the managers generally struggle to keep up (although a very few are scarily good at it) and again most of the players end up being left out of the action most of the time. Most of us will have experienced this at one time or another, probably as the under motivated staff member, or maybe as the harassed and over stretched manager who is expected to know all of the answers. In hierarchical structures where people feel under involved there can be a real tendency to fall into a parent/child relationship - where the staff abdicate an unhealthy amount of responsibility to their manager and the manager takes on an unhealthy amount of responsibility for their staff. In the third half we have two teams and no managers. The two teams confer at the start and then play as a team. Leadership (and followership) flow dynamically around the team and vests temporarily depending on a variety of criteria - it might be the player with the ball, it might be the one near the goal, it might be the one with the best kicking or tackling skills and so on. In that moment the other players are ready and willing to follow the lead. All of the players are clear about the overall objective, are involved in achieving it and optimum use is made of the available skills. Everyone feels motivated most of the time and the teamwork will enable those who need a break to take it as well. Again we will have experienced this kind of situation, but only a fortunate few of us will have experienced this as a normal way of working. The ultimate expression of leadership is to create a team where everyone's brilliance can gain full expression and where there is also a clear and authentically shared direction. One of the things Authentic Transformation does is to help organisations and leaders create outstanding team and leadership pursuing their authentic purpose. For help with team building see www.authenticis.com
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"Authentic Transformation is the most effective team building exercise I have been on in 13 years with the company". CTO Microsoft Public Sector EMEA "The most important value is teamwork and to have teamwork, you need to have loyalty, respect, communication and commitment. If you have those things, you have teamwork. That's how you can fulfil our philosophy at Team CSC; that's what we are working a lot on here; spending a lot on. That's what we are. It's about not just having (teamwork) but using it in the right way to be a team." Bjarne Riis - CSC Cycling team The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay. Steve Jobs Ultimately, the only thing that prevents us from embracing teams is ego. The challenge, for the strong to let go of the idea of control and the weak to let go of the idea of not having to take responsibility, may be the real only barrier. Neil Crofts - Authentic - How to Make a Living by Being Yourself
Stephen Covey |
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