Business Think Tank

Business Think Tank

Rated number one company in all aspects and categories on the WORLD STOCK EXCHANGE 2030

Please note: All numerics are in African dollars (A$)

Assets of over 300 trillion A$
Annual Profit after tax and community upliftment: A$500 billion
GDP Growth of 12% year on year
92% employment
0% poverty

Can this really happen?

For those who think every African comment is based on tribalism, racism, pessimism, colonialism, communism …there is only one ism that counts and that’s OPTIMISM.

So, those who see Africa as a place of optimism, this is for you.

Optimism only exists if one can see the light at the end of some chasm, without the light we just get the negativity of dark thoughts and the gut wrench of frustration.

Those who have lived for a long time on this continent, have ALL possibly experienced exasperating thoughts about a variety of popular subject matters ranging from potholes, viruses, political incompetency, corrupt officials, Ebola, HIV, wars, desperate plights, emigration, immigration, hungry eyes, greed, policeonomics, flowing street sewers, failed schemes/cities/countries, plastic bag flowers and senseless deaths. It makes me feel despondent every time I read a paper, look on facebook or watch the news, so guess what we do, watch it even more and now we soon become back room facebookers and eternal pessimists…eish, I hate others’ who perpetually whinge and hate myself every time I go there. Sharing points of view does not necessarily make you a proponent of the message but it does taint you with the message and I have been a culprit of this. We share negativity as if it will somehow change everyone’s actions, but sadly it doesn’t, it just enhances the justification of another “ism”.

Is there a solution, a light that we can actually all see, or don’t we all see light the same?

Bubble bath thinking allows us to switch from the realities of real life to the sanctity of warmth, cleanliness and open free thought. As I came up for a breath, I swished the bubbles and froth from my forehead and a thought of immense optimism hit me.

As a business sort of guy, I have 4 companies that somehow miraculously work and give 40 odd people a meaningful job, allows me to ride my bike in weekends and drink a few ales with mates, provides the Tax Man, the Vat Man and the ANC celebs with a few bucks to fix our roads, educate our children and enhance a country for the benefit of all. I pay several commercial suppliers including Telkom and Eskom and whatever other “koms or cons” are out there, to provide the juice to keep us going. I was even given some BEE brownie points by my Government for educating my black son…wow life is full of amazement.

But how did all this happen?

Was it a fluke, my heritage, inheritance, skin colour, education, personality, beastly good looks, diet, my tribe, my skills, my mates, my mother, my luck?

This got me thinking and like most businessmen, we tend to look back and start to preach to our staff and especially children about how we made it in those harsh post war days. We all know how this ends up!

The reality of personal or business success comes from the simple ability to have good idea and make sure you implement it properly. Of course, other people (customers) must also believe in and see some value in your grandiose ideas, otherwise it’s just another orbital pie in the sky.

Another learning we mostly have from business is that, the only way to create a bigger success than the one you originally thought of, was to grow an idea or a business exponentially by partnering with other smart people and allowing them to do what they do, better than you. This is the art of skillful delegation/cooperation/collaboration and allows the synergetic momentum to get people to help create a common dream by applying their contributions to the business model.

At this point, as I emerged from the bubbles and thought of Africa and how to turn it into the most successful business in the world. What a challenge, what optimism, what a dream, where is the light?

Let’s look at this quite simply, as any form of complexity tends to irritate me. Let’s break this down and see if this thought hasn’t got some meat attached (sorry vegans, a bit insensitive)

What’s the light that we all want to see?

This would seem easy as we see it in every NGOs vision statement and even in most political parties “promise statements”. Let’s try a few of the ones we observe while driving down memory lane….

A country where everyone has a valued and meaningful job. Some, however (not all) would get rid of the valued and meaningful jargon and just settle for a good paying job.
A country where we have freedom.
A country where everyone has education
A country where everyone is healthy
A country where….yawn, yawn

This is the never-ending list that most African political aspirants subscribe to and sadly most of it is based around western values, especially $$$$$

What is the real light for Africa, the vision that would grab 600 million people to want to be part of anything?

What gets your staff, your friends, your brothers to pitch up every day and give it “horns”…yes $$$$ will be there, but what do they need the $$$$ for?

A comfortable place to live, better known as a home
A couple of good meals a day
A facility where my offspring learn cool things
A job where I can express my competencies and be appreciated by earning some $$$
Mates that enjoy my company and support me
A sports team that wins more than it loses
A reliable way of getting around to cool places, visiting mates, getting to work and to watch my team
Our country winning some Gold medals at the Olympics and worldly events.

There may be a few more but that’s being greedy and I am a firm believer that if all 600 million could see this as the “light”, there would be a unified approach and effort to get the African Team (600 mill) to respond. As long as a man has a dream, keeps the dream and believes in the dream, he will chase that dream. As an employer, I believe that if your staff has that dream and if you can provide opportunity and facilities to allow that to happen, then most will fight the good fight.

MY LIGHT MOMENT

I am a firm believer that if you can’t do the job or haven’t got time to do the job or believe someone else could do it better…it’s simple; delegate it to those persons who can do it best.

This simple business philosophy fails if you delegate to idiots, but I’m thinking that within the 600 million participants, there has got to be at least 500 million smarter than me, so it shouldn’t be difficult to delegate appropriately on this massive continent.

I am however, not stupid enough to fall into the supremacist approach of going into the drama of African failures and disappointments, but let’s look at what causes failure in most businesses and relate this to our African Motherland.

Non-existent or poor vision. Without something that excites us we don’t get out of bed and participate. When you cannot see the reason or purpose in something, it becomes a chore, a purgatorial act that irritates sensible and active persons. The current Africa Unincorporated has many “visions” that are probably wish lists or more likened to glorified shopping lists, if the inhabitants lived in a world of “wished for freebies”. You ask most successful CEOs the principle reason why their EXCO Boards are committed and it’s not always about the money, but about what they can achieve or aspire to achieve, that matters most. Companies without a meaningful vision or purpose don’t last, they take the short-term profits and run, no one remembers them for the right reasons and they are like some hyena-like acquaintances you meet in life, they take but never give back.

Poor leadership. If the navigation and running of the ship is left to a bunch of “know-all’s”, you’ll hear a lot of theories and excuses, but nothing that actually makes sense. Great leaders know how to communicate their meaning to others and influence the right behaviour. They don’t chop and change, they are humble, clear, committed, sensible and never give up on what’s right.

Poor management. The company rots from the head! The best ideas badly managed results in chaotic and spasmodic busts of effort and success. Nothing becomes sustainable, and the company/country has sporadic bursts of wins but mostly embarrassing mishaps. How do we get best management? I suggest get onto Linkedin or whatever and get professionals who know how to attain results from willing resources (mostly people), respected for their integrity and able to know the difference from right and wrong and act on this.

Poor systems and processes. Even the most competent management and enthusiastic staff will fail if 1 + 1 always ends up less than 2. Give the population a benchmarked standard operating process to follow, something that easy to understand and work with. Part of the processes is to supply a proper induction and ongoing job-related training. It will be critical to setup practical academies and apprenticeships to supply the population with clarity about the jobs and skills required to participate.

Short-term thinking and CYA behavior. When an organization rewards short term gains and not long-term efforts, it creates a culture of “look what I did boss…what do I get for this?” The sad reality is that most MGT are under the whip to give instant results and a good Board should allow a MGT team appropriate time to develop a proper long-term strategy and allow for short term budgeted downside occurrences. This will allow a management team to do what’s right and not what’s popular.

A communication process that conveniently shuts out and ignores the majority of the 600 million stakeholders. Ever worked in a company where no matter what you say, no one acts or they just say…”yea, that’s so right” and then drift off? Apathy is one of the most disengaging behaviors that we humans have. Think about your relationship and how important it is to listen properly and actively to your spouse and children and trusted friends…say no more.

So, how does this affect our United Africa, “the wealthiest opportunity yet to be unleashed”. It is clear that the Africa right now has a lot of questionable leaders and managers, some trying to do a good job but mostly out of their depth, when it comes to dealing with growth strategies and creating adequate returns on assets available. It is clear that if we don’t invest in a management team of the highest quality to lead and manage all of Africa’s abundant assets and resources, we will eventually (and in some cases, already are) be in liquidation and spend the rest of our African lives groveling around our Western and Eastern “bankers” asking for handouts to survive.

Well, my thinking is based around the simple philosophy that Africa is a company, yes a very big one; it has 600 million employees, dependents, children, learners, complainers, protesters, pensioners, dreamers, entrepreneurs, capitalists, communists, socialists, vagrants and some criminals. They all live and work for the best company every created:

Africa Incorporated:

A company where ordinary people live extraordinary lives

SHAREHOLDERS: All Stakeholders living on the African Continent

VISION: To dominate the WORLD! (sorry this was taken from someone else’s vision)

OUR VISION: To have all 600 million Africans and our many tourist and business visitors happy, energized and proud of being part of our company and continent (work place).

STRATEGY: To run Africa as a successful and world leading company, with strong values and a strong desire to deliver on diverse stakeholder expectations.

MISSION: Run a social welfare-based system for 5-10 years and grow this into a more Market and Green/Sustainable system thereafter.

GOALS:

To have 85% employment, the balance will receive socialist benefits to live a respectable life until they can work. (We respect that not everyone can work, but we will ensure they are respected and given an opportunity to actively participate in our country)
To have 100% of our children educated and employable
To have 100% of our people above the poverty line, every person will have access to 2 meals a day and a place to live with a bed to sleep in and a second set of clothes to wear.
To have 85% of our people in their own homes, the rest in subsidized community sponsored homes
To have 100% of our people given access to the world’s best health and hospital facilities
To have 85% of our population transported to work by efficient public transport
To have a carbon friendly transport network that allows all our people to get to work.
To have communities being autonomous but not exclusive
Police stations that are community help and service centers
Prisons that are empty

ACTION PLANS

Wow…how long have you got?

STRUCTURE

One United States of Africa (USA…oops!) or Africa Incorporated
No borders and free mobility of people.
Only residential land can be owned, all other land falls into the capitalized assets of Africa Incorporated (AI ) and fairly distributed according to best use and best user.
The assets of Africa are incorporated into AI who then leases these assets out to the respective members of the AI collective (previously known as countries).
The leases are auctioned and given for limited periods of time as long as each AI member pays their lease and provides the agreed returns on the assets engaged.
Failure to pay for the lease will result in a default procedure and result in a re-auction to another AI team that can best comply with its terms and returns.
Define the AI culture by setting up an AI constitution, values, defined work ethic processes, diversity policies, performance evaluation measurements and incentives.
Each country must give up its sovereignty and become a member/division/department/contributor of the AI
Each member has an internal Management team (elected internally) and the MD and FD each are represented on the main AI Board/Parliament
Each AI member is given contributory targets to achieve and contribute to AI
Each member will have autonomy with regards to operational processes but must comply with the Constitution of AI
Each member has 2 representatives on the Board of AI (MD and FD) and these have to change every 5 years

In conclusion, I have not really thought this through in to the deepest depth but, as I am still in the bath and it’s getting cold, I will delegate the deeper thinking and planning to those best trained in such things.

“Over, but not out”

John Ingram

Director of the HiSide Group

john@teambuild.co.za

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

MY LIGHT MOMENT

I am a firm believer that if you can’t do the job or haven’t got time to do the job or believe someone else could do it better …it’s simple; delegate it to the person or persons who can do it best.

This simple business philosophy fails if you employ idiots into your business, but I think that within the 600 million there has got to be at least 500 million smarter than me, so it shouldn’t be difficult to delegate on this massive continent.

I am, however, not stupid enough to fall into the supremacist approach of going into the drama of African failures and disappointments, but let’s look at what causes failure in most businesses and relate this to our African Motherland.

Non-existent or poor vision. Without something that excites us, we don’t get out of bed and participate. When you cannot see the reason or purpose in something, it becomes a chore, a purgatorial act that irritates sensible persons. The current Africa Unincorporated has many “visions” that are probably wish lists or more likened to shopping lists if the inhabitants lived in a world of wished for freebies. You ask most successful CEOs the principle reason why their EXCO Boards are committed and its not about the money but about what they can achieve or aspire to achieve, that matters most. Companies without a meaningful vision or purpose don’t last, they take the short-term profits and run, no one remembers them and they are like some hyena-like acquaintances you meet in life, they take but never give back.
Poor leadership. If the navigation and running of the ship are left to a bunch of “know-all’s”, you’ll hear a lot of theories and excuses, but nothing that actually makes sense. Great leaders know how to communicate their meaning to others and influence the right behaviour. They don’t chop and change; they are humble, clear, and sensible and never give up on what’s right.
Poor management. The company rots from the head! The best ideas badly managed results in chaotic and spasmodic bursts of effort and success. Nothing becomes sustainable, and the company/country has sporadic bursts of wins but mostly mishaps deluxe. How do we get the best management? I suggest get onto Linkedin or whatever and get professionals who know how to attain results from willing resources (mostly people), respected for their integrity and able to know the difference from right and wrong and act on this.
Poor systems and processes. Even the most competent management and enthusiastic staff will fail if 1 + 1 always ends up lost. Give the population a process to follow, something that is easy to understand.
Short-term thinking and CYA behaviour. When an organization rewards short term gains and not long term efforts, it creates a culture of “look what I did boss…what do I get for this?” The sad reality is that most MGT are under the whip to give instant results and a good Board should allow a MGT team appropriate time to develop a proper long term strategy and allow for short term budgeted downside occurrences. This will allow a management team to do what’s right and not what’s popular.
A communication process that conveniently shuts out and ignores the majority of the 600 million stakeholders. Ever worked in a company where no matter what you say, no one acts or they just say…” yea that’s so right” and then drift off? It’s one of the most disengaging behaviours that we humans have in not listening. Think about your relationship and how important it is to listen to your spouse and children and trusted friends…say no more.

So, how does this affect our United Africa, “the wealthiest opportunity yet to be unleashed”. It is clear that Africa right now has a lot of questionable leaders and managers, some trying to do a good job but mostly out of their depth when it comes to dealing with growth strategies and creating adequate returns on assets available. It is clear that if we don’t invest in a management team of the highest quality to lead and manage all of Africa’s abundant assets and resources, we will eventually (and in most cases we already are) in liquidation and spend the rest of our African lives grovelling around our Western and Eastern “bankers” asking for handouts to survive.

Well, my thinking is based around the simple philosophy that Africa is a company, yes a very big one; it has 600 million employees, dependents, children, learners, complainers, protesters, pensioners, dreamers, entrepreneurs, capitalists, communists, vagrants and some criminals. They all live and work for the best company ever created:

Africa Incorporated: A company where ordinary people live extraordinary lives

SHAREHOLDERS: All Stakeholders living on the African Continent

VISION: To dominate the WORLD! (sorry this was taken from someone else’s vision)

OUR VISION: To have all 600 million Africans and our many tourist and business visitors happy, energized and proud of being part of our company and continent (workplace).

STRATEGY: To run Africa as a successful and world-leading company, with strong values and a strong desire to deliver on diverse stakeholder expectations.

GOALS:

To have 85% employment, the balance will receive benefits to live a respectable life until they can work. (We respect that not everyone can work, but we will ensure they are respected and given an opportunity to actively participate in our country)
To have 100% of our children educated and employable
To have 100% of our people above the poverty line, every person will have access to 2 meals a day and a bed to sleep in and a place to live and a second set of clothes to wear.
To have 85% of our people in their own homes, the rest in subsidized community-sponsored homes
To have 100% of our people given access to the worlds best health and hospital facilities
To have 85% of our population transported to work by efficient public transport
To have a carbon-friendly transport network that allows all our people to get to work.
To have communities being autonomous but not exclusive
Police stations that are community help centres
Prisons that are empty

ACTION PLANS

Wow…how long have you got?

STRUCTURE

One United States of Africa (USA…oops!) or Africa Incorporated
No borders and free mobility of people.
Only residential land can be owned, all other land falls into the capitalized assets of Africa Incorporated (AI ) and is distributed according to best use and best user.
The assets of Africa are incorporated into AI who then leases these assets out to the respective members of the AI collective (previously known as countries).
The leases are auctioned and given for limited periods of time as long as each AI member pays their lease and provides the agreed returns on the assets engaged.
Failure to pay for the lease will result in a default procedure and result in a re-auction to another AI team that can best comply with its terms and returns.
Define the AI culture by setting up an AI constitution, values, defined work ethic processes, diversity policies, performance evaluation measurements and incentives.
Each country must give up its sovereignty and become a member/division/department/contributor of the AI
Each member has an internal Management team (elected internally), and the MD and FD each are represented on the main AI Board
Each AI member is given contributory targets to achieve and contribute to the AI
Each member will have autonomy with regards to operational processes but must comply with the Constitution of AI
Each member has two representatives on the Board of AI (MD and FD), and these have to change every five years

In conclusion, I have not really thought this through into the deepest depth but, as I am still in the bath and it’s getting cold, I will delegate the deeper thinking and planning to those best trained in such things.

“Over but not out.”

John Ingram

Director of the HiSide Group

john@teambuild.co.za

Curiosity killed the Cat?

March 20, 2020

Business Think Tank

We often live in fear of what could be around the corner, or what’s hiding in the unknown. This is mainly based on us wanting to maintain the status quo, especially when its’ not causing problems or it’s the reason why we have our current success. All businesses strive to create some order to have a level of consistency and reliability in what they do. This is mostly based on the Law of Pareto, where we know we can’t excel at everything, so let’s focus on the 20% of things that give us 80% of our success. Many managers are scared to tamper with this for the obvious reasons.

Today with the many disruptions we face in our events markets, we cannot afford to wait for the disruption, we go out and find it before it hits. This brings us to one of our principle values in the HISIDE Group…CURIOSITY.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Curiosity

Noun

1.A strong desire to know or learn something

“filled with curiosity, the HISIDE team stalked the web for international trends.”

2.An unusual or interesting object or fact

“Through its curiosity, the HISIDE Group realised the impact of AI in the RSVP domain.”

In the past, this fear of the unknown has kept most from being curious. Often it’s a case of not really wanting to know what’s on the other side. It might be expensive, and it might be dangerous; it may mean having to act or do something! This curiosity has to be permitted and encouraged as it’s not for everyone to voluntarily try or do.

For this reason, we have learned to force the issue of curiosity in two ways:

After every event, we complete a compulsory debrief where the good, the bad and the ugly are exposed and discussed. We look at what was planned, communicated, understood and executed. From this, we extract not only what we need to fix but more importantly, what opportunities exist if we do something differently.
The company brainstorm is something everyone looks forward to, as follows unless of course you are not being invited! The process is simple, we take any regular processes or system, and we hypothetically ban its use, which means we have to find another way. This opens the field from the banal to the bizarre. There is no wrong answer; there are only answers which provide us with opportunities.

Most companies or teams will agree, this is a “no brainer”, but why does it not happen as a standard in most companies?

Sadly, the culture of the company is often driven by careful Management who only understand that “Curiosity killed the cat” whereas we can easily change this age-old quote to be “Curiosity allowed the cat to become a Lion.”

Quick Tips

Allow your team to challenge the status quo by setting up formal times and meetings to do such.
Introduce dysfunction into your business thinking
Acknowledge new ideas
Get rid of the “Yes…But” work vocabulary

John Ingram

Director of the HISIDE Group

Teambuilding or Team Development?

February 4, 2020

Business Think Tank, Teambuilding Tips, Teambuilding Trends, Training Trends

Both phrases are tossed around the market like a grenade with a pin missing. As an organisation that does both, I thought it helpful if I pass on my limited words of wisdom to help others who may not be able to distinguish between the two.

Think of Teambuilding as an activity or exercise that allows the delegates to engage with each other, have a few laughs (usually at the expense of others), and walk away with a feel-good and relaxed demeanor. Such terms as Survivor, Challenge, Competition, and “the winner is” are often used during such events. On the positive side, these activities allow the team to see another side to their delegates, see how people behave in non-threatening non-hierarchical and non-KPI driven environments. You will often see creativity from admin people, leadership from quite people, problem-solving from those least expected, and decision making from the underbelly of the team. All good as long as someone takes notice and uses the behavioural upliftment to enhance the team’s ethic. On the negative side, you may often see excesses of everything, including shouting, blaming, confrontation, career “hari-kari” actions and statements, demoralising, blaming, and showmanship of the highest order. This is usually due to the fact that the behavioural aspects of the event are not being facilitated nor managed.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Hence, Team Development or Teambuilding with a catch. That “catch” involves using the activity to create an outcome that the delegates can learn from. For example, Our Ball Game, a simple event to get the team to pass a ball through the group, progressing from slow to being able to do it faster than the speed of lightning. It starts off slow and ends with a total transformation of energy and input from the team members. It basically follows the Tuckman model, and after the activity, when everyone has finished patting each other on the back and throwing wild “high fives”, the facilitator steps in and says the magic word “WHY?”.

This debrief or review allows the team to reflect on what they were doing and, more importantly, WHY they were doing what they did and WHY they made critical changes in their behaviour. This is the key to team Development and the journey to becoming better at what we do, as everyone gets a chance to reflect and can relate to how they felt along the way.

While I agree, it’s not rocket science, if done well, the benefits of both team building and its upmarket cousin, team development, can make significant changes in the internal development of your team and the individuals within. It’s the journey to becoming a high performance-focused team, moving from average to a world where customers start to brag about their relationship with you.

John Ingram

Director of HISIDE Training

Mindful Management

September 4, 2019

The following forms some feedback from a 3-hour session with a Management Team whereby we reviewed feedback for a Team Climate Survey and discussed the impact on management and what simple steps we could take to add more value to the role we play as Managers.

Why Management?

We need to understand what is expected of us in a Management role. Management is only required if a team is unable to manage itself. Why is a team unable to manage itself?

No clear goals or defined deliverables.
No processes to follow.
Not trained or enabled to follow processes or do the jobs required.
Inconsistent expectations of quality.
Uncomfortable working environment.
Inappropriate work environment.
Unruly or badly-behaved work colleagues.
No support or trust.

There are more but these are the things Management needs to ensure are in place, consistently applied and supported. This also defines WHAT Management should be doing.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

We then went onto the HOW?

For all intents and purposes, text books are full of the HOW to Manage, so I suggest read, read and read some more. We used the feedback from the Survey to look at more specific HOWs.

The survey is a means to allow Management to understand what the concerns of the team are. Most concerns are not real but are perceptions as to what people ‘think” are real. If Management acts proactively, most of the perceptions can be eradicated long before they become problems.
The team does not have one focused concern or even weaknesses, and it appears as if there is an environment of either individualism or “cliques” within the organisation.
Openness in communication will only occur when we create an environment where there is NO FEAR. Staff should not feel that they cannot express their opinion without being belittled or blamed, or speak or report the truth without being “targeted”. This has to start with Management asking for the truth, asking for opinions and actively listening and showing appreciation for such behaviour. When staff sense that such openness is appreciated and will not be punished, it will become a work ethic and become your culture.
We spoke of the Conflict Sandwich as a means of dealing with issues of misguided behaviour, poor or inappropriate performance and differences of opinion. We identify the act or behaviour that we feel does not fit our culture, be very clear of this and don’t mix it with others. Deal with this in a linear mode.
1. Ask the staff member to meet in a non-threatening area (not opposite your desk where you impose a threat to start with).
2. Start the conversation with a positive statement about the persons contribution to the company or a compliment to their relationship with you in particular. This will take away the perception that there is going to be a blaming session.
3. After the appreciation, bring up the issue and explain how it affected you both as a Manager or as a fellow worker. Ensure you give the person a chance to clarify the issue as factual or not. You will not be able to correct a situation if the staff member is in denial about the situation. Once you have this “fact” don’t dwell too long but move straight into the correction.
4. The correction should not be you telling but should be you asking how you think it could be resolved or fixed. If a person owns the solution, they tend to be more responsible for its implementation.
5. Don’t leave until you agree, once you do agree, thank the staff member and offer your support.
6. Follow this up in writing and do a recap soon after to ensure all is corrected.

When identifying anything that doesn’t agree with you, make sure you are not making a mountain out of a mole hill. Check with your peers about how important that issue really is, what is the worst that could happen to you or the organisation, the latter being the more important.
Where possible, invite the full team in to give ideas or find solutions to internal issues. You are merely the catalyst to discussion and ideas, you are however responsible for the implementation and successful role out of agreed processes or initiatives. Always give feedback of the success or not of agreed internal ideas.
TRUST is a problem in all teams as it forms the basis of our ability to delegate and request or give support to others. Without trust we become an organisation of DIY people with no synergies resulting from teamwork or collaboration.
1. To trust someone, they need to be both smart / competent and reliable. It has to be both because they go hand in hand. It is not good to be someone who is extremely competent to do a job but they don’t bother pitching up or don’t deliver.
2. How much competency and how reliable will depend on the RISK of failure and the consequences of that failure. As a Manager, you need to apply your thought process to this all the time when delegating work to staff. If not, you will be relying on “blind faith!”
3. TRUST is not mutual! Just because I trust someone, does not mean they have to trust me. Trust is dependent upon the task or challenge at hand.
4. To be of value to an organisation, you need to be trusted more and by more. An individual’s worth increases exponentially when they are deemed “the only person I can trust for this!”
5. If given TRUST, remember it has been earned by being and doing the right things, don’t destroy it by being inconsistent or by having an “off day”. TRUST is very difficult to get back once lost.
6. A title gives someone an indication as to what they should expect from you. So, if your title is that of MANAGER, revert to WHY MANAGEMENT and ensure you are all these things and more.

Decision making is something Managers and staff are actively involved in every day. The better the decision the more likely the outcome will be favorable. However, in order for a decision to be favorably implemented, it needs others who need time, information, training, motivation and skills to actually do this!
1. If we delay a decision too long, this places pressure on the implementors. This is unfair.
2. If we decide too early, the decision may be missing some logic and again could result in a poor outcome.
3. It is important again to understand the consequences and risks involved in the decision and resultant outcomes as this will guide you in the level of trust you place in the information gathered and the people who need to implement such.
4. When in doubt just communicate your concerns and await opinions.

Look for telltale signs of “busy for busy sake”. People don’t like looking idle so they can and will fill up the day with stuff that can look good but is often unnecessary and time filling.
1. As a Manager; get into the habit of engaging staff about their work.
2. Don’t come across as threatening. E.g. Don’t say “what the hell are you doing?” Rather, “Hi Bill, I sense that what you are doing is pretty important, talk to me about what it is?” As the conversation engages, you can move to discussing WHY we do this specific job? Then move towards asking “Bill, if I asked you to do this job the smartest way possible, how would you change it?” And then you listen and you will be amazed at what transpires.
3. Sometimes you will be frustrated by “but why didn’t he say that before?” Again, fear of change, fear of upsetting what is perceived as Managements way!
4. Acknowledge smartness and do it regularly.

Dealing with a person’s worth.
1. Most people believe they deserve more.
2. The challenge for a Manager is to give staff that opportunity without destroying their dreams or aspirations.
3. G. if a person earns R 10 k but thinks they deserve R 20 k per month, firstly ask them why they believe they are not getting the R 20 k. This will either result in a Manager not seeing their worth or having a misperception of their worth. At this stage you do not challenge the reality as this will destroy the productivity of the conversation.
4. Next discuss what the staff member thinks the Employer would need to see more of to see the value in the R 20 k per month?
5. Next ask them what steps they think they could introduce to their own work repertoire that would help them become that R 20 k person. Also ask what support or input they would need from others to get to this pinnacle in their career.
6. Be honest with the staff member in that if there is no need for that R 20 k person in the business, don’t lead them along. Rather ‘cut them loose’ so that they can grow, there is no sense in trying to keep them motivated in a constrained environment.

Turn meetings into open discussions about things more important than just RESULTS and DELIVERABLES.
1. A Manager is responsible for both Results and the Engagement of its people.
2. The results are an operational day to day functionality and usually looks after itself.
3. Be prepared to spend more time discuss how to become more engaged, what stops us being engaged and use these discussions to strengthen your internal culture and work ethics.

There is more, lots more……

John Ingram

Director of Training

HISIDE Group

Attract The Best

May 7, 2019

Business Think Tank, Training Trends

We have all heard about “personal branding” and how to make yourself have incredible value in the eyes of those offering employment. But the other side of the coin is that companies are vying for a limited resource called Human Capital. This in effect means that your company better be on the “best place to work top ten list” so that those talented humans out there go out of their way to be in the queue for meaningful employment at your offices.

It is extremely painful to attract the wrong people to your organisation and even worse, to let them in! Firstly they won’t fit and will cause internal strife for all and sundry and secondly, it will cost you further to get rid of them.

There is a big difference in what you sell and market to the world of consumers and what actually happens in your work place, and often a job candidate can become very confused in this process.

A prospective employee should not choose to work at your organisation because you sell great baked beans or have funky adverts running on the television. They should be attracted by your culture and your reputation. These are created by yourself and transmitted into the market by suppliers, current and past employees.

Thus, if your brand is not seen as a positive attractor, your recruiting efforts will be both challenging and very costly, and the best talent will search for companies with better reputations, because they can.

It’s not necessarily about facts but more so about perception. A good example is the perception of Google being a sexy, fast paced, entrepreneurial environment where you work exclusively with A-players and get to change the way people access information around the world. We’ve seen the intern movie and we are led to believe this is what you get when you arrive.

If you get a job at your “Google” and the workplace is as expected i.e. the brand delivered on their brand promise , it’s happy days for all.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Regardless of whether you can afford the best, if you want to attract the best then you may find this helpful:

1. Match the external brand with your internal brand. If there is a disconnect between your external image and your internal reality, it will cost you dearly in losing good people. Potential employees and “newbies” are smart enough to see through the glitz and glamour of commercials and marketing campaigns if they are not mirrored internally. The real future challenge will be to ensure your internal brand and the external brand are integrated and speak to each other.

2. The internal brand must be developed. A huge part of developing an sustainable organisation is to create a corporate culture whereby, values practiced, work ethics and corporate behaviour are all real and actually practised by all, especially management. This is one of the primary responsibilities of the leadership within organisations today, not the numbers, not the short term deliverables, but the long term sustainability of the organisation’s attractiveness.

3. Understand Millennials. Those attracted to your business are hopefully smart, can be empowered, and can be of all ages and diversities. This creates a new challenge for management. Where the management is Generation X or even Baby Boomers, they will find it somewhat “interesting” when young and demanding millennials come knocking on the door. There is not enough ink or paper to write the book on successfully managing millennials, but I suggest you go get one, or await my next blog.

The challenge of attracting the right talent is “Game on”, just getting a podium place won’t be good enough if your competitor’s attract the Gold.

John Ingram

Director of Training at the HiSide Group

Getting your ducks in a row!

May 3, 2019

In today’s terms, we refer to this as a means of sorting your life out and getting it into some orderly manner. The origins of this statement, however, take us back in time to a few devious theories which I will leave you to decide upon.

There was the theory of the bowling pins which back in the 1930s were known as “ducks”, and which had to be manually put in line to play the next ball.
Then there was the Mother Duck and her offspring all in a line to signify an orderly departure or movement. The only problem with this theory is that baby ducks are ducklings or chicks?
The last is the theory of the shooting gallery at the carnival where you had to shoot little ducks in a row to win a teddy bear.

In today’s terms, when managing your life or your business, there is a very meaningful interpretation of this term and if not appropriately applied, could lead to more than losing your way, your ducklings or winning a teddy bear.

Every day we arrive at our work station with some idea as to what we are going to do, what’s most important and what has the most value. Or do we?

In my work with teams, it has become very evident that we are actually more aligned to habitual behaviour and this behaviour is not always akin to getting your ducks in order.

Check this behaviour out and ask yourself if you or your team don’t fall into this trap now and again?

Out of bed
Gym or shower or both
Breakfast on the run
Sit in traffic, listen to other people’s opinions of life and politics
Get irritated with other drivers
Arrive and straight to coffee machine
Get to computer
Straight to emails
Go to latest email and start working backwards deleting the rubbish and spam
Go back and start responding to emails
Check time: it’s 11h00, and we are at behaviour 11.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

So, what have we just done? Some may argue they have been busy, some responses to emails were really good, and some even slipped a meeting into this process. Sadly, we are creatures of habit, and some of our habits don’t really add value to our life or work.

If we were to reflect on what we do each day, a lot of it is questionable.

We need to periodically STOP and go back and ask the BIG question as to WHY?

Why am I getting out of bed, have I got something meaningful to do, do I know what it is, or is someone going to tell me what it is later? Getting out of bed sounds easy but people who get out of bed with a purpose do it differently, with gusto and enthusiasm. They cannot wait to get showered and into the next phase.
The Gym is there because I really do want to live longer, be there for my kids and actually be able to share some of their life actively with them. Or am I there out of conscience as I want to look like someone else?
Do I see or speak to anyone at breakfast, do I know my daughter is also having breakfast, are we both chatting to a phone?
I am spending 45 minutes in traffic, do I allow others to impregnate my brain with their politics, their music, their thoughts, or do I plug into my journey, my mentors and my vision? Use the 45 minutes to prepare your mind for combat.
Irritations come from other people doing what conflicts with your mindsets. One such, are taxis and their selfish and lawless driving on the road. Yes, it’s frustrating, until I looked at Taxis as a means to get 16 persons to their work whereas I only had 1 person. This certainly meant they were contributing more to economic growth than myself, so I always give them right of way. I feel they deserve it and now I don’t get as mad!
Arrive and say a meaningful hello to your work colleagues, then get a coffee. Call a 5-minute recap with your team, ensure you are in sync with their priorities and the support they need from you.
Don’t open your computer unless it has your “To Do” list which should have been prepared long in advance, should have items that are critical, important and nice to do. Revert to your previous day’s notes and reminders and schedule into your day. Now open the computer.
Ask yourself:
1. “What do my customers need most from me now.”
2. “What do my staff or colleagues need most from me now. ”
Take these answers from point 8 and add to your To Do list.
Emails, do a quick scan, start at the bottom and move towards the top flagging where possible. Go back and put into the order you need to respond, decide by when and then add into your days’ schedule.
Now start applying that wonderful mind to what you do best.

Workers day

May 1, 2019

Business Think Tank

I am a worker, have been a worker since the age of 13, and now a business owner/capitalist and worker combo sort of person. I have always been at loggerheads to understand the true meaning of this Workers Day celebration and often just saw it as another manipulated “holiday” in our somewhat cluttered holiday calendar. Once you become a business owner, you somehow end up on the other side of the fence, and are constantly wary of workers taking advantage of your good nature! It’s a smug approach to entitlement, but it exists and is easy to justify. Only by reading up on the various versions of history of the worker movement did I truly get to understand the depth of the struggle, a struggle that by no means is yet over.

In our modern societies today we can take so much for granted, then we witness the abuses to workers, some children, some mere slaves, which are still happening in our own emerging economies and even in some so-called developed economies.

When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labour only to be beaten down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current situation cannot be taken for granted – people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people cannot be forgotten, or we will end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we celebrate May Day.

Maybe it’s not just another holiday after all, and like all such recognition, I hope our so-called civilisation actually takes the time to understand its relevance and not just jump on the populace bandwagon and use these days for popular political gain.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Regardless of whether you can afford the best, if you want to attract the best then you may find this helpful:

The challenge of attracting the right talent is “Game on”, just getting a podium place won’t be good enough if your competitor’s attract the Gold.

John Ingram

Director of Training at the HiSide Group

Management Made Simple

April 13, 2019

The following forms part of some feedback from a 3-hour session with a Management Team whereby we reviewed feedback for a Team Climate Survey and discussed the impact on management and what simple steps we could take to add more value to the role we play as Managers.

Why Management?

Need to understand what is expected of us in a MGT role. MGT is only required if a team is unable to manage itself. Why is a team unable to manage itself?

No clear goals or defined deliverables
No processes to follow
Not trained or enabled to follow processes or do the jobs required
Inconsistent expectations of quality
Uncomfortable working environment
Inappropriate work environment
Unruly or badly-behaved work colleagues
No support or trust

There are more but these are the things MGT need to ensure are in place, consistently applied and supported. This also defines WHAT MGT should be doing.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

We then went onto the HOW?

For all intents and purposes, text books are full of the HOW to manage; so I suggest read, read and read some more. We used the feedback from the survey to look at more specific HOWs.

The survey is a means to allow MGT to understand what the concerns are of the team. Most concerns are not real but are perceptions as to what people ‘think” are real. If MGT acts proactively, most of the perceptions can be eradicated long before they become problems.
The team does not have one focused concern or even weakness, and it appears as if there is an environment of either individualism or “cliques” within the organisation.
Openness in communication will only occur what we create an environment where there is NO FEAR. Staff should not feel that they cannot express their opinion without being belittled or blamed, or speak or report the truth without being “targeted” This has to start with MGT asking for the truth, asking for opinions and actively listening and showing appreciation for such behaviour. When staff sense that such openness is appreciated and will not be punished, it will become a work ethic and become your culture.
We spoke of the Conflict Sandwich as a means of dealing with issues of misguided behaviour, poor or inappropriate performance and differences of opinion. We identify the act or behaviour that we feel does not fit our culture, be very clear of this and don’t mix it with others. Deal with this in a linear mode.
- Ask the staff member to meet in a non-threatening area (not opposite your desk where you impose a threat to start with)
- Start the conversation with a positive statement about the persons contribution to the company or a compliment to their relationship with you in particular. This will take away the perception that there is going to be a blaming session.
- After the appreciation, bring up the issue and explain how it affected you both as a manager or as a fellow worker. Ensure you give the person a chance to clarify the issue as factual or not. You will not be able to correct a situation if the staff member is in denial about the situation. Once you have this “fact” don’t dwell too long but move straight into the correction.
- The correction should not be you telling but should be you asking how you think it could be resolved or fixed. If a person owns the solution, they tend to be more responsible for its implementation.
- Don’t leave until you agree, once you do agree, thank the staff member and offer your support.
- Follow this up in writing and do a recap soon after to ensure all is corrected.
When identifying anything that doesn’t agree with you, make sure you are not making a mountain out of a mole hill. Check with your peers about how important that issue really is, what is the worst that could happen to you or the organisation, the latter being the more important.
Where possible, invite the full team into give ideas or find solutions to internal issues. You are merely the catalyst to discussion and ideas, you are however responsible for the implementation and successful role out of agreed processes or initiatives. Always give feedback of the success or not of agreed internal ideas.
TRUST is a problem in all teams as it forms the basis of our ability to delegate and request or give support to others. Without trust we become an organisation of DIY people with no synergies resulting from teamwork or collaboration.
- To trust someone, they need to be both smart/competent and reliable. It has to be both because they go hand in hand. It is no good if someone is extremely competent to do a job but they don’t bother pitching up or bothering to deliver.
- Competency and reliability will depend on the RISK of failure and the consequences of that failure. As a manager, you need to apply your thought process to this all the time when delegating work to staff. If not, you will be relying on “blind faith!”
- TRUST is not mutual! Just because I trust someone, does not mean they have to trust me. Trust is dependent upon the task or challenge at hand.
- To be of value to an organisation, you need to be trusted more, and by more. An individual’s worth increases exponentially when they are deemed “the only person I can trust for this!”
- If given TRUST, remember it has been earned by being and doing the right things, don’t destroy it by being inconsistent or by having an “off day”. TRUST is very difficult to get back once lost.
- A title gives someone an indication as to what they should expect from you. So, if your title is that of MANAGER, revert to WHY MANAGEMNT and ensure you are all these things and more.
Decision making is something managers and staff are actively involved in every day. The better the decision the more likely the outcome will be favorable. However, in order for a decision to be favorably implemented, it needs others who need time, information, training, motivation and skills to actually do this!
- If we delay a decision too long, it places pressure on the implementors. This is unfair.
- If we decide too early, the decision may be missing some logic and again could result in a poor outcome.
- It is important again to understand the consequences and risks involved in the decision and resultant outcomes as this will guide you in the level of trust you place in the information gathered and the people who need to implement such.
- When in doubt just communicate your concerns and await opinions.
Look for tell-tale signs of “busy for busy sake”. People don’t like looking idle so they can and will fill up the day with stuff that can look good but is often unnecessary and time filling.
- As a manager get into the habit of engaging staff about their work
- Don’t come across as threatening. E.g. Don’t say “what the hell are you doing?” Rather, “Hi Bill, I sense that what you are doing is pretty important, talk to me about what it is?” As the conversation engages, you can move to discussing WHY we do this specific job? Then move towards asking “Bill, if I asked you to do this job the smartest way possible, how would you change it?” And then you listen and you will be amazed at what transpires.
- Sometimes you will be frustrated by “but why didn’t he say that before?” Again, fear of change, fear of upsetting what is perceived as managements way!
- Acknowledge smartness and do it regularly

Dealing with a person’s worth.
- Most people believe they deserve more
- The challenge for a manager is to give staff that opportunity without destroying their dreams or aspirations.
- G. if a person earns R 10k but thinks they deserve R 20k per month, firstly ask them why they believe they are not getting the R 20k. This will either result in a Manager not seeing their worth or having a misperception of their worth. At this stage you do not challenge the reality as this will destroy the productivity of the conversation.
- Next discuss what the staff member thinks the Employer would need to see more of to see the value in the R 20k per month?
- Next ask them what steps they think they could introduce to their own work repertoire that would help them become that R 20k person. Also ask what support or input they would need from others to get to this pinnacle in their career.
- Be honest with the staff member in that if there is no need for that R 20 k person in the business, don’t lead them along to be that person and then deflate them with no opportunity to get a position to compliment that effort. Rather ‘cut them loose” so that they can grow , rather than try to keep them motivated in a constrained environment.
Turn meetings into open discussions about things more important than just RESULTS and DELIVERABLES.
- A manager is responsible for both results and the engagement of their people.
- The results are an operational day-to-day functionality and usually look after themselves.
- Be prepared to spend more time discussing how to become more engaged, what stops us being engaged, and use these discussions to strengthen your internal culture and work ethics.

There is more, lots more……

John Ingram

Director of Training

HiSide Group

STRESSSSS

February 27, 2019

In our work with teambuilding and especially working with the behavioural issues in a team, we are often confronted with the stress issue.

“I was under immense stress!” and sadly this becomes a very convenient excuse for inappropriate behaviour.

It is a huge subject, but my beginners’ guide to stress follows three very simple understandings;

1. Stress is not good for you; you don’t want it, you don’t need it.

2. Stress is created by yourself

3. Stress is a killer.

Ok now I have your attention, let’s look at how stress arises and how to not catch this terrible disease.

Phase 1: I have an unsolved problem, I have something to do, and I can’t get it done, so I start to carry it forward till tomorrow. This is the start and usually results in the first symptoms being comments like “I’m too busy”, “I have a lot on my plate”, and you will find staff working late and tending to rush.

This is a critical stage and management needs to intervene and provide staff with the support to get things done, time management, closer support, redefine procedures and processes and training all help the staff member get back into control.

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Phase 2: The getting out of control phase where things are backing up, and the staff member starts to feel they are alone with no support. You will notice the blaming approach and acts of denial such as “no one understands around here” and worst of all you will start to see behaviour that’s not typical of that person, such as anger, short temper and aggressiveness.

This is the time for one-on-one counselling, relooking at the job description, ensuring there is clarity in the job functionality and helping the staff member better plan their day and their tasks. It is important to ensure the staff member does not feel “incompetent” as this will fuel their denial and need to blame others.

Phase 3: This phase is the last straw and often results in either highly emotional outbursts or acts of total strangeness to the opposite where the staff member literally hides from the world around them. This is a phase where only a professional can help, and the staff member can be a danger to themselves and others around them. It’s time to cut the umbilical cord and say goodbye and let them find a more simple job. Keeping the pressure on someone at this stage can result in non- reversible hurt and even death.

Management can create stress…but what for? My suggestion to all managers is to avoid it at all costs and try to keep everyone within phase 1 where it’s challenging but not beyond them.

10 Lessons on Strategy, Execution & Teamwork

February 13, 2019

Rowing is recognized as the ultimate team sport. The Boys In the Boat, tells the amazing story of a university rowing crew during the great depression of the 1930’s

– the national champion University of Washington men’s crew – who went on to win gold for the United States at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.Boys in the Boat is chock full of inspirational quotes by George Pocock that put rowing into perspective. Pocock is the spiritual guru of the story – the legendary racing boat builder – much like South Africa’s own John Waugh – whose workshop was in the attic of the Washington Boat Shed.

Pocock said, “Every good rowing coach imparts the kind of self-discipline required to achieve the ultimate from mind, heart and body. Which is why most ex-oarsmen will tell you they learned more… in the racing shell than in the classroom.” Now for those students who might read this, don’t take this literally and drop your studies for rowing, rather excel at rowing and you will find you excel not only at your studies but in your everyday life as well.

As a tribute to The Boys in the Boat, their coaches and George Pocock, what follows is a summary of 10 lessons in strategy execution and business leadership to help lead any kind of team to collaborative greatness.

Pocock: “In a sport like this – hard work, not much glory… well, there must be some beauty which ordinary men can’t see, but extraordinary men do.”

Beyond Teambuilding pride ourselves in creating events, activities and challenges that push any team past mediocrity, allowing them to express themselves in a way that unleashes a team synergy that is often lying dormant. Our teambuilding is done in two definitive ways; formal and informal. Both have merit and are used to create the specific objectives of your particular team’s needs.

Lesson 1: A great team must share a vision. As a leader, it is your responsibility to impart this to your team. To inspire them to want to bring this vision to come to fruition regardless of the challenges ahead. When you can create that kind of shared, aligned sense of vision among a team of like-minded and talented people, greatness follows.

Pocock: “It is hard to make that boat go as fast as you want to. The enemy is the resistance of the water… But that very water is what supports you and that very enemy is your friend. So is life: the very problems you must overcome also support and make you strong in overcoming them.”

Lesson 2: Overcoming adversity makes the team stronger. No great success happens without rising to overcome challenges. Each time a team does this, they get better and better. Especially when you set out to accomplish big things at the start.

Pocock: “Rowing a race is an art… rowed with head power as well as hand power… all thoughts of the other crew must be blocked out. Your thoughts must be directed to you and your own boat.”

Lesson 3: Excellence comes from focus. Anyone who has ever rowed will back this up. When you take time to glance at the crew racing next to you to see if you are beating them, you lose. It throws off the balance of the boat. The crew had an acronym they’d repeat to themselves: MIB, “Mind In Boat.” It holds true in business too. Keep your eyes on what you’re doing. And an eye on where your customer is going. When you think too much about your rivals, you risk second-guessing your own path to greatness.

Pocock: “Rowing is perhaps the toughest of sports. Once the race starts, there are no time-outs, no substitutions. It calls upon the limits of human endurance. The coach must therefore impart the secrets of the special kind of endurance that comes from mind, heart and body.”

Lesson 4: Don’t micromanage. Provide guidance, inspiration, leadership at the start and whenever necessary. But give people responsibility while the race is in progress. Let them push themselves to their own limits. This will bring out the best in them. Just like in business: give your employees visibility and alignment to the strategic plan and empower them for excellence in strategy execution.

Pocock: “A boat is a sensitive thing, an eight-oared shell, and if it isn’t let go free, it doesn’t work for you.”

Lesson 5: Empower your team with the courage to change strategy. The crew learned this first hand. On their way to the Olympics, they need to win a few major US University races first. In one decisive race, coxswain Bobby Moch hangs behind rival California State University for the bulk of the race, waiting to strike as they close in on the finish. Coach Al Ulbrickson didn’t tell him to do this, it was definitely not part of the race plan, but Moch read the situation as it unfolded and changed strategy on the fly. The result; stellar strategy execution and a huge win that led to Washington’s Olympic berth.

Pocock: “One of the first pieces of advice of a good rowing coach… is ‘pull your own weight,’ and the young oarsman does just that when he finds out that the boat goes better when he does.”

Lesson 6: Hold people accountable. Once you set your plan in motion, hold people responsible. Accountability is highly correlated with strong strategy execution. Reward them if they deliver. If they can’t, replace them with someone who can. The Boys introduces us to ‘seat races’ where two boats race, stopping to trade rowers to see who makes the boat go faster. When you find out, they win the seat. That’s how high-performance teams are created.

Pocock: “When you get the rhythm in an eight, it’s pure pleasure to be in it. It’s not hard work when the rhythm comes – that ‘swing’ as they call it. I’ve heard men shriek… when that swing comes in an eight; it’s a thing they’ll never forget as long as they live.”

Lesson 7: Plan, execute, monitor, repeat. A team that plans well, and executes well against plan, becomes a well-oiled machine destined to achieve objectives and win repeatedly. When you build and empower a team to do this, there is no limit to what they can achieve working together.

Pocock: “To be of championship calibre, a crew must have total confidence in each other… confident that no man will let the crew down…”

Lesson 8: Goals must be aligned across the entire team. This is true in many team sports. Anyone who can’t see or support the shared vision or goal can bring the entire team down with them. But when there is true transparency, and when they realize that all the other members of the team are aligned and counting on one another, it brings out the best in each member of the team. This holds true in business: if employees can’t see or support the strategic plan, strategy execution is bound to fail.

Pocock: “My ambition has always been to be the greatest shell builder in the world…I believe I have attained that goal. If I were to sell the business, I feared I would lose my incentive and become a wealthy man, but a second-rate artisan. I prefer to remain a first-class artisan.”

Lesson 9: Goals must transcend attainment of wealth. It is fine to want to get rich. But the path to riches is faster when people have a larger goal in mind. When you wish to be the best at something first, wealth follows. The reverse of this story is not often so certain.

Finally, Lesson 10, Let it run

Lesson 10: Let it run. Along with the “swing” Boys in the Boat talks about, there is another great Zen-like experience in rowing called the run. It occurs when a crew rowing at full speed stops rowing and holds their oars just above water level and lets the boat glide. A great crew will find their boat runs like it’s flying. Some of us have been lucky enough to have rowed in a boat where we were able to get that right. The experience translates well to business. When a leader empowers their team to be their best, and then steps out of the way to let them do it, great things happen as a result and the business just flies.

There are of course lessons to learn about strategy execution, teamwork and leadership excellence from all sports. But not many that inspire the kind of fanaticism that being in a great crew does. It becomes ingrained in the psyche and the lessons can be taken to work every day. And now, thanks to the story of The Boys In The Boat, and the inspirational words of George Pocock, you can, too. The opportunity is yours, take it.

by Mike Scott