For many months I have been reading this blog. Ok, well there was a break in posts that left me wanting more, but that was because Randy was moving across the country- so understandable. I have had the great privilege to work with Randy and I am fascinated by the way his mind works and his passion for understanding and improving process. Sometimes I am convinced he is the Yin to my Yang when it comes to working with groups- but more often than not we are aligned in thought. I can remember one of my first "real" interactions with him after a few team meetings- he looked troubled. When I asked him about this, he shared with me that he thought a lot of the meeting was a waste of time as it was not focused on specific project work. Disclaimer- I am sure that this is not exactly what he said- but this is what I heard. I believe very strongly in the power of a team and I feel that a team that shares work and personal experiences grows closer together, is more prepared to be a strong team if good and bad times, and generally creates an atmosphere where people want to work. However, I have thought many times about what I heard from Randy and use his observation to ensure that I am balancing soft meeting agenda/discussion and specific project work. To be fair- this interaction occurred very early in our working together. I cannot write about his observation of my meeting style once he lived it for a good period of time. What I can say is that I was impressed by his honesty and ability to communicate his position (which seemed opposite to mine at the time) in a way that did not make me feel like I had to go on the defensive.
I want to thank Randy for the opportunity to be a guest poster on his blog. I am currently reading the book, "Death by Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni and will have a review shortly.
Doug
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Grateful to have you aboard, Doug. And I'd almost forgot that incident. As I recall it, you were put in a tough spot to manage a team of capable people with varying skill sets and an even broader spectrum of personalities and levels of enthusiasm about the job at hand. I couldn't get a read on the first few meetings: they seemed to be all about chit chat and little about the project. I soon learned that was the right approach for the situation. Charging in ignoring the people dynamics and focusing too much on tasks would probably have pushed the team members farther apart and frustration levels up. Approaching it as you did was making an investment in the relationships and building trust so we could have open, frank conversations (later on, I'd wager we had the most open team discussions of any team in the company).
It reminds me of a couplet from Covey: "With people, slow is fast and fast is slow." What I take that to mean is that taking the time to make the deposits into individual emotional bank accounts is, in fact, the most efficient way to get something done with another individual--even though it seems ponderous at the time. Going fast with folks and trying to rush a relationship, almost always backfires and creates more friction and slows things down.
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