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How Did a Single, Simple Idea Give Birth to a Great Nation?

Despite the fact they had no centralized government, no army, and no navy the American colonies defeated the strongest nation in the world by being united by a powerful idea: Independence. . .

. . . a single simple idea spurred a nation to rise up and win against the most powerful nation in the world.

America was built by revolutionaries, based upon the shared vision and simple motto of a group of great leaders: E Pluribus Unum: "Out of Many, One"

George Washington, John Adams, and Ben Franklin proposed this simple Latin saying in 1776 to represent their shared vision of united group of independent yet organized states.

Teams fulfill our core human need to belong, yet remain independent. We need to be our own sovereign part of something bigger than ourselves.

Many times people like us: independent free-thinkers, get reputations for being rogue agents and "problem-children" in a team setting.

As a result, just hearing the words "team building" conjures up thoughts of "assimilate or die."

I squirm at the though of all the "team building" workshops and trainings I've slogged through, where my personality and values were trampled, violated, managed. . . ughhh!

I know I'm not alone.

Do you ever feel like you can't have a unique character or personality on your team or at your workplace?

You Don't Have To Be a Buttkisser or Mindless Automaton To Be Part of a Great Team!

At its core every team is made up of two simple elements:

• Values
• Purpose

If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do. . . How would I be? What would I do? - Buckminster Fuller Improve Your Team's Communication

Team building is rarely looked at from its core: Forming the connections that need to be made --between-- people before team performance can happen.

Typically, people are "managed" re-actively, their behaviors, right and wrong, are ignored, punished, or praised in response only to their actions. Building a great team starts when you start seeing your team members as individuals.

Often, team leaders ignore their obligation to help others, they fail to urge their group toward synergy, or inspire people to mediocrity.

Even on good teams, changes to strategies and tactics comes constantly as the environment surrounding you shifts.

Good teams are flexible, their members are able to think and speak freely.

This is why the best teams are those whose Values and Purpose are so ingrained into the culture of the team that as change occurs, the team's identity never waivers.

Great Teams Begin as Powerful Ideas

Too often a team's lack of defined values and purpose becomes a problem in and of itself.

Developing an effective team building process is about organizing values and purpose as a shared vision across all ranks of your organization. . . creating "One, from many."

This is the difficult process individuals face when setting out to create or re-build their team.

We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquinted with the designs of our neighbours. - Sun Tzu Discover the Business Strategy of "The Art of War" (opens as Pdf)

We build teams:

• To solve problems
• To gain competitive advantages
• To focus and leverage our money, time, resources, and energies
• To achieve specific goals.

But, before people can align themselves toward accomplishing a common endeavor they must know themselves as much as they know the people they work with.

To build a great organization we gather human capitol from diverse backgrounds and strengthen ourselves with those we believe give us the best chance of succeeding, and we get to know one another.

Only when we insure these elements are taken care of can alliance happen.

There are shortcuts you can take toward reaching your ultimate destination quicker, but there is no easy way.

Too often our shared vision and competitive advantage is sapped by unseen events, unfocused team members, unclear expectations, and unhealthy work environments.

True teamwork is a difficult thing to come by.

That is the purpose of this website, to discover how to build the right team for your needs by finding and influencing the right people.

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