We Work When the TEAM Works

Monday, July 20, 2015

teamworklegos

Each Friday, our team spends some good, quality time together learning about elevated service techniques, personal development and the latest happenings in our industry.  We find that investing in this TEAM time really makes a difference for each person on an individual basis as well as for the TMC team overall.  This past week, we participated in an exercise that highlighted the need for a real TEAM thought process- WE PLAYED WITH LEGOS! 

Now before you think it was ALL fun and games, let me share the main takeaways from the meeting

logoman 1-  We hire STRONG and capable staff members here at TMC.  The beauty behind a team of strong individuals is that there is literally nothing we cannot accomplish.  The potential downside is that each of us can tend to rely more on ourselves than we do on the other members of our team.  During our LEGO exercise, we realized that we really do need each other in order to run a more effective and efficient company.

logoman 2-  We have a GET THE JOB done mentality here at TMC.  The beauty behind this thought process is that our team is able to solve challenges, deploy equipment and complete tasks QUICKLY.  The potential downside is that plowing through those challenges, deployments and tasks TOO QUICKLY might actually cause us to spend more company resources than necessary.  Slowing down and having a solid PLAN can significantly impact our results.

logoman 3-  We ALL have room for improvement.  The strongest of teams, with the very best of results can still fine tune their individual efforts to make the team even better. 

Here is the nutshell version of how the LEGO exercise unfolded.  Please feel free to borrow this idea for your next staff meeting!  (You can also call us if you need any additional details!)

legos(Before we began  logoman)

  • Each Member of our team was given a baggy that contained some of the steps and some of the pieces necessary to put the lego set together.
  • Immediately after receiving their baggy, MOST of our HIGHLY self sufficient team members began putting 'their' part of the lego set together.
  • After several minutes, we realized we would need to rely on other members of our team to actually put the lego set together (since most of the lego sets require that you start at step one and go in order so you can end up with legos that resemble the picture on the box!).
  • We then had the person with the first step- GO FIRST (a couple of pieces were needed from another member of the team).  Once that step was done, we proceeded to the next step- and so on and so forth- until our lego set was complete.
  • A member of our team inspected the finished work and corrected a couple of pieces for accuracy.

We QUICKLY realized that working together and relying on our team was the only way to get from step #1 to step #21.  Since each member of the team had a baggy with a different step (and pieces) in it, we needed to rely on each other to get the task accomplished (or else it would have taken WAY more time than we had available!)

legotmc(FINISHED PROJECT  logoman)

'I GOT THIS' is not as strong as 'WE GOT THIS' and regardless of the type of business you are in, you need to be able to rely on the various members of your team to get your job done efficiently!  Yes- we took an hour to play with LEGOS and we walked away with a renewed committment to:

  • Bringing our individual A GAME to work everyday
  • Engaging the members of our team SOONER rather than later
  • Relying on the team instead of trying to do everything on our own

Time well spent- we hope  your team will try this amazing (and fun) exercise!

 

P.S.  A Special shout out to HOPE SANDUSKY- Hope put together an incredible team meeting!


Cheri Perry 7/20/2015