I'm lucky to have four kids. I didn't teach them to walk. They didn't teach each other. They just got up and had a go. First of all they started to figure out how to pull themselves up to stand against the furniture. Then they made one or two steps. A few weeks later and they were walking.
We all first learnt by trial and error.
Later in childhood, we start to learn from others. We are taught. We go to school. It's quite amazing to have my eldest daughter read a book to me. She's six. 6 months ago she couldn't read.
We are taught.
There's a third phase. Once we know how things work, we can go figure things out for ourselves. Some kids spend hours playing tennis, some spend hours programming, others spend hours and hours making things. Some of these kids will become the best in the world at what they do. Literally the best in the world. In this phase we practice. We seek guidance, we practice some more. We put hours and hours in. We make mistakes and learn from them. We practice some more.
We are self-taught and we practice.
But then - we become adults. Some people continue with trial and error (It's called 'learning on the job' in the business world. Some are taught (it's called 'training' in the business world). Some practice, work long hard hours, push themselves and become the best in the world at what they do. I'm not sure what we call these people, but I admire them.
I am more thirsty for knowledge now than I have ever been in my life. The more I learn the more I realise there is to learn. And I want to be the best in the world at what I do. Why? It's simple. There's very little in life that beats the feeling that you get when you say 'today I did what I do best!'
Today I will do what I do best. Will you?
Imagine a team where every person can say that. Can you imagine what that team would be able to achieve? It would be extraordinary. World beating. In fact just writing this makes my hairs stand on end - it really is something special. It's like watching the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race and seeing the winners win. It's awesome.
The thing about great teams is, 1 plus 1 equals 3. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Only it's not guaranteed. Sometimes two egotistical geniuses equal less than two because they haven't figured how to collaborate well.
So - on a practical note then, how do we build great teams where every person does what they do best and on top of that build a winning team?
How do we make that team possible?
Here, I think are the 5 main ingredients;
1. Allow people to make mistakes.
If we make more mistakes, we learn more. I'm not saying that we should aim to fail. Rather we should always be 'doing'. Doing something means you have the opportunity to learn. If you don't do anything you won't make any mistakes, but then again you won't learn anything. This is the thinking behind the phrase 'fail faster'. It's not that you should aim to fail - instead, you should 'do more faster' - because that's how you'll learn.
Fear holds us back though. We are afraid to make mistakes in case it's not seen as successful by our peers and egos.
My wife and I were talking the other day about why she is successful at what she does. She does business development for a recruitment firm and she needs to figure out how to book meetings with HR Managers and then persuade them to use her firm's services. She said that you can't book meetings without making phone calls, so she has to be very persistent to keep calling until she gets the meeting. She will keep calling way long after other people have given up. Most people fear the rejection, whereas she doesn't.
Her motto is "if you knew you wouldn't fail, what would you do?" Great advice indeed.
So - as a manager, I will always say to my team, 'make decisions and do stuff. Better to do lots and be right 95% of the time than to do a little and be right 100% of the time'. You'll learn faster and so will I.
2. Trust your colleagues and help them to learn from their mistakes
You can only truly build a successful team if there is true openness. I need to be open with my intentions, emotions and reasoning. By doing so, my colleagues can help me identify what I'm doing well and what I can do better and I will learn faster. If I do this though I am opening myself up. I am doing exactly the opposite of what most people do in business. It needs mutual trust, respect and willing - and it needs to start at the top.
3. Design learning structures
A great example of this is how we used to run our software development cycles in one of my previous companies. We planned our work in two week cycles. This was pretty effective in terms of getting things done. The important ingredient I think that actually made it successful was that after every cycle ('sprint') we set up a 'retrospective meeting'. This was a simple meeting where we simply asked, 'what went well, what didn't go so well and how will we in future do more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff?' Doing this systematically requires a regular meeting slot in the diary, an agenda and a habit. It requires structure.
Good teams consciously create these structures to become learning teams.
4. Hire people that can handle this culture
This is critical. If you believe that you want to build world class winning teams you need to hire accordingly. Sure you need talent and experience. I say they're over-rated.
Just because someone has knowledge and ingredients to make a great cake it doesn't mean that they will. And just because someone was motivated to bake great cakes in the past doesn't mean that they will do so again in a different kitchen.
What really matters is
- does this person know how to apply themselves to a challenge?
- is this person willing to open themselves up and be fully transparent with their emotions, reasoning and intentions?
- are they able to give feedback to others in a helpful way?
- are they thirsty to be the best in the world at something?
5. Go with the flow
You cannot tell people what motivates them. In my experience, people do best what they are interested in, not necessarily what they are good at. I might be quite good at filing and organising paperwork, it doesn't mean I'm interested in it. Give me a reason to be interested in it or find me something to do that I am interested in and I will do it well. Really well.
So - as people develop in your team, find opportunities for them and help them where possible to grow in your organisation to do what they do best. Build the team around the capabilities you have and seek out new team members to fill the gaps if they exist (and make sure you follow the points in point 4).
To conclude
Great parent allow their children to make mistakes, they teach them all they can, and they give them wings to fly and pursue their own dreams.
In a team, we must think of ourselves as parents of each other.
And every day, if we strive to be the best we can be in what we do we'll need to push ourselves to the limit and make a few mistakes. It's the mistakes that lead us to truth.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote,
'Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified'
Fail faster. Act like a child and a parent at the same time. Be the best in the world at something every day.
1 comment:
Great post! I need even more kids to get this wise!
Post a Comment