The Building Great Teams Project. Here we are standing at the doorstep within the 2008 economy knocking hard to come inside. Only, the door remains shut with no answer. We continue to knock, and knock hoping that someone would open it for us to be let in. The problem with this scenario is one that has so many of us being brought to our wits end, presented with few options of achieving our goals. Not unless a door is opened for the entry to be achieved, or so you may think. What am I referring you may be asking? The answer to this question lies in a word and it is one that offers a change to your life – “opportunity.”
The scenario also lays the foundation for what most people in America may already be thinking, “we have gone from a first class country to a third rate community.” I know that it may sound harsh and might even upset some of you with the profound statement, but I am only telling the truth. The United States of America is a great nation; however, we are one that is on a slippery slope heading in the wrong direction FAST!
We are currently facing economic and political crisis at proportions that for most people alive, this is the absolute worst it has been. Just as common folk didn’t see the shock of September 11th coming that held most of us frozen in time, unless we understand how to identify with the word opportunity, we will again be frozen in shock when terror strikes – and for most working Americans, it is already upon us with sky rocketing fuel prices (planes, trains, and automobiles…oops, let’s add one more here and say, our homes).
With our failing banking institutions, busted brokerages, toppled corporate giants, bankrupt cities and school systems, states in default, the news of killer asteroids heading towards earth, and foreign creditors cashing out U.S. securities, it seems to me that the stage may already be set and the biggest scare yet is on its way.
I believe that we can, as the most resilient nation in the world, overcome the doom and gloom we are facing. We can head it off with persistence and opportunity and to do so, we must ban together as great teams do, look adversity in its face and smile, and win at all cost. That’s right; the opportunity that I am referring lies in our abilities to ban as one to build small pockets of great teams at every level of our society. If we look back to our earlier days, WWI and WWII, Americans banned together as a team and we became a nation that could not be beat during some of the toughest times we had to face in those times. We simply need to do it again, only this time, we must move our teams from being good to becoming great.
In building great teams, there are a few things to consider just to get started:
- Team Basics & A Team Defined!
- People and Champions of Change
- Perspective (Lessons from the Wizard of Oz)
- The Future Picture
- The Ninefold Earth
A lack of opportunity may be knocking and for some people, it goes by its original name, “tough times.” But, for those who have the know-how for making the absolute best of a tough situation, slamming the door in the face of tough times is not a problem. It requires us to ban together as one – in our homes, on the job, and across organizations at every level to become a GREAT team.
I know that you have heard the saying, “tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” The problem with this statement is that although you might be that tough person, even you will fall to the perils of life’s burdens. This is the reason for this text, to provide a means of not falling, but if you do, having a failsafe for getting up. This brings me to the first consideration: Team basics and what is a team? Building great teams hits at one of the most discussed topics within business media and the workplace: Organizational Behavior, leadership & process, and inter-office politics.
The day of the individual worker is over, as our life style in today's households and corporate arena demands that workers possess the ability to effectively work as team-led associates within an organization. Everyone needs someone. It is a scenario all top leaders and managers knows well: The organization, their people, and their systems all require efficient and effective processes to remain constant in its approach to move quickly toward new and innovative ways of reaching mission-critical objectives. This is a task that is directed by the senior leadership, and they must be committed to draft and manage the right team of commandos to lead the effort.
Yet, in most cases, team leaders never hit their goals – not because they lack talent within the associate ranks, but because they are naive to the complexities of team dynamics. Smart leaders and managers understand what type of team model best suits the task, what key skills to look for (and which to avoid), and how to coax top performances from everyone starting from day one.
This text is another part in my Building GREAT Teams project. If you would like to receive a full copy of the text, please send me an email at: Damian@BuildtheTeams.net. Also, please reference “The Guidebook” in your subject line in order for our team to process your request in a timely manner. You can also visit www.BuildtheTeams.net to learn more about the project.
The Building GREAT Teams project includes the publication bundle: “Building Great Teams: Charting the Path of Organizational Politics” (ISBN# 978-1-4196-7603), “The Monograph: How to Build and Manage the Process of Teams” (ISBN# 978-1-4196-9172-0), “The Guidebook: Essential Traits of a GRAET Team Player,” a series of performance management assessment instrument, 40-hours of instruction using strategies from the United States Marine Corps, and dynamic hands-on exercises. The project offers a systematic philosophy for excellence that achieves a philosophical paradigm for greatness; one offers liberation through process that ultimately leads to a reconciliation of practice. The publications area available at www.amazon.com, www.booksurge.com, or by emailing me at: Damian@BuildtheTeams.net.
Those who adopt the project are poised to learn how “not” to resist, but work with, the forces and paradigms of change, how to chart the path of organizational politics, how to build and manage the process of teams, and learn the essential traits of a GREAT team player!
The project offers an essential guidebook for building your team’s transformational resilience, providing the needed coaching to your team members, and driving performance management for optimal results.
In closing, I hope that you explore the many offerings from this project. Here’s a sampling from the project that is titled, “The Five Fundamentals.” There are Five Fundamentals – for this deliberation, for the making of comparisons and the assessing of conditions: the way, heaven, earth, command, discipline. I wish to explain only one; “the way,” causes men to be of one mind with their rulers, to live or die with them, and never to waver! (Definition) A team must stand firm on one vision with the ruler being the mission – to live by a creed and never falter and/or waiver on an issue that can stop the execution of the necessary steps within the established mission you are reaching.
Don’t ever fail within “the way!” This Guidebook helps you to define the other four for your life, team, and organization.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Seven "T's" of Oz to Your Personal Transformation
A Long Walk On A Short Path
Keeping in the tradition of providing clever and entertaining instruction for people to grow their lives, I have teamed up with a new author, Leslie Ann Smith, to help develop an outstanding leadership project based on one of our film classics, "The Wizard of Oz."
The film's plot is easily condensed and allows for an immediate organizational behavioral approach that anyone can identify with: lonely and sad Kansas farm girl Dorothy Gale (her complete name) dreams of a better place, without torment against her dog Toto from a hateful neighbor spinster, so she plans to run away. During a fierce tornado, Dorothy is struck on the head and transported to a land (Munchkin Land) "beyond the rainbow" where she meets magical characters from her Kansas life transformed within her unconscious dream state. After travels down a Yellow Brick Road to the Land of Oz (Emerald City), and the defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy and her friends (the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion) are rewarded by the great Wizard of Oz with their heart's desires - and Dorothy is enabled to return home to Kansas by locating the depths of her inner self. This brings me to our project and its valuable and entertaining perspective for us all to learn from the cast of characters.
When we think about the reasons that one must take better care of their life, it would be smart to begin thinking outside of the norm for your way of accepting the perceived. This is your first step to a new you - personal prosperity - and freedom from the chains of bondage. There are seven principles that each of us must take to begin the “long walk on a short path!” This text offers a transformation through my hunger for knowledge and my thirst for instruction. Yes, there is a difference between “hunger” and “thirst” and the seven inherent principles will not only define them for you, they will prepare you to accept your right to choose the future that is awaiting your new transformation into greatness.
The seven principles, if they were an apple, would allow me to take a bite to quench my hunger for change.
They are outlined as:
1. Think (the Future Picture)
2. Tongue (Words of Wisdom: Voice)
3. Transition the Mind (the Scarecrow)
4. Transform the Heart (the Tin Woodman)
5. Totality of Courage (the Cowardly Lion)
6. Tortuous (Full of Twists and Turns)
7. Toxic (Leadership, Behaviors, Values)
As we seek to experience change for our lives, we must first try to construct our future picture. This means that we must already know what we want our future to look like when we get there. This form of thinking allows each of us to examine a word that for some is the opposite of what they may be using (your actions) in life now; proactive, the opposite of procrastination. Being proactive places you on a path that limits negative things from happening.
Using the characters from the Wizard of Oz and over the next few weeks, Smith and I will use this Blog as a vehicle to outline the seven principles for change that anyone can use to make significant deposits in their life. You’ll see glaring similarities between your life experiences and those of Dorothy Gale from Kansas, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Glenda -the Witch of the North, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Emerald City, and Munchkin Land. Your will be required to think “outside-the-box” for learning a new series of guiding principles.
Beginning with the first principle and throughout the entire text, it’s actually quiet simple. In order to plan a better future for yourself, like Dorothy Gale, all you have to do is think.
This text also offers a transformation that prepares you to accept your right to choose the necessary tools for finding your voice. It will inspire you to help others with finding theirs. The future awaits those who are proactive in their search for knowledge. Smith and I will attempt to entertain and prepare you for a significant walk into greatness.
Practicing her own principles, Smith released a “Monograph” version of her upcoming book, “A Long Walk On A Short Path,” for anyone who is seeking to make an immediate change. To get your copy, simply email me TODAY or contact Smith at lwsp@leslieasmith.com!
Publication Release Date: August 2008
Published by: Book Surge Publishing Company
Smith does an outstanding job and remains clever throughout her text keeping with the theme of Oz. Be prepared to learn, have fun, revisit your childhood, and GROW. This is one "NOT TO BE MISSED" and you will not be disappointed.
Keeping in the tradition of providing clever and entertaining instruction for people to grow their lives, I have teamed up with a new author, Leslie Ann Smith, to help develop an outstanding leadership project based on one of our film classics, "The Wizard of Oz."
The film's plot is easily condensed and allows for an immediate organizational behavioral approach that anyone can identify with: lonely and sad Kansas farm girl Dorothy Gale (her complete name) dreams of a better place, without torment against her dog Toto from a hateful neighbor spinster, so she plans to run away. During a fierce tornado, Dorothy is struck on the head and transported to a land (Munchkin Land) "beyond the rainbow" where she meets magical characters from her Kansas life transformed within her unconscious dream state. After travels down a Yellow Brick Road to the Land of Oz (Emerald City), and the defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy and her friends (the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion) are rewarded by the great Wizard of Oz with their heart's desires - and Dorothy is enabled to return home to Kansas by locating the depths of her inner self. This brings me to our project and its valuable and entertaining perspective for us all to learn from the cast of characters.
When we think about the reasons that one must take better care of their life, it would be smart to begin thinking outside of the norm for your way of accepting the perceived. This is your first step to a new you - personal prosperity - and freedom from the chains of bondage. There are seven principles that each of us must take to begin the “long walk on a short path!” This text offers a transformation through my hunger for knowledge and my thirst for instruction. Yes, there is a difference between “hunger” and “thirst” and the seven inherent principles will not only define them for you, they will prepare you to accept your right to choose the future that is awaiting your new transformation into greatness.
The seven principles, if they were an apple, would allow me to take a bite to quench my hunger for change.
They are outlined as:
1. Think (the Future Picture)
2. Tongue (Words of Wisdom: Voice)
3. Transition the Mind (the Scarecrow)
4. Transform the Heart (the Tin Woodman)
5. Totality of Courage (the Cowardly Lion)
6. Tortuous (Full of Twists and Turns)
7. Toxic (Leadership, Behaviors, Values)
As we seek to experience change for our lives, we must first try to construct our future picture. This means that we must already know what we want our future to look like when we get there. This form of thinking allows each of us to examine a word that for some is the opposite of what they may be using (your actions) in life now; proactive, the opposite of procrastination. Being proactive places you on a path that limits negative things from happening.
Using the characters from the Wizard of Oz and over the next few weeks, Smith and I will use this Blog as a vehicle to outline the seven principles for change that anyone can use to make significant deposits in their life. You’ll see glaring similarities between your life experiences and those of Dorothy Gale from Kansas, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Glenda -the Witch of the North, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Emerald City, and Munchkin Land. Your will be required to think “outside-the-box” for learning a new series of guiding principles.
Beginning with the first principle and throughout the entire text, it’s actually quiet simple. In order to plan a better future for yourself, like Dorothy Gale, all you have to do is think.
This text also offers a transformation that prepares you to accept your right to choose the necessary tools for finding your voice. It will inspire you to help others with finding theirs. The future awaits those who are proactive in their search for knowledge. Smith and I will attempt to entertain and prepare you for a significant walk into greatness.
Practicing her own principles, Smith released a “Monograph” version of her upcoming book, “A Long Walk On A Short Path,” for anyone who is seeking to make an immediate change. To get your copy, simply email me TODAY or contact Smith at lwsp@leslieasmith.com!
Publication Release Date: August 2008
Published by: Book Surge Publishing Company
Smith does an outstanding job and remains clever throughout her text keeping with the theme of Oz. Be prepared to learn, have fun, revisit your childhood, and GROW. This is one "NOT TO BE MISSED" and you will not be disappointed.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Monkey Dance & Great Teams
SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2008
COOLEST BOOK TRAILER EVER!!
http://youtube.com/user/bisongroup
I’m not kidding. I’ve watched this book trailer at least a dozen times, and I still can’t get enough of it. The music is excellent. They video is simple and feels very organic. I love this thing! I have had the pleasure of speaking with the author, and I know a little bit about his passion and commitment to helping businesses building great teams, but who knew he could take that passion and make such a cool book trailer. If the video is this innovative and creative, it leads me to believe his book and concepts are equally as compelling. Nicely done and Semper Fi, Skipper. Kudos to your entire team. - R.W. RIDLEY, BLOG,
http://www.selfmarketingforbooks.com/
COOLEST BOOK TRAILER EVER!!
http://youtube.com/user/bisongroup
I’m not kidding. I’ve watched this book trailer at least a dozen times, and I still can’t get enough of it. The music is excellent. They video is simple and feels very organic. I love this thing! I have had the pleasure of speaking with the author, and I know a little bit about his passion and commitment to helping businesses building great teams, but who knew he could take that passion and make such a cool book trailer. If the video is this innovative and creative, it leads me to believe his book and concepts are equally as compelling. Nicely done and Semper Fi, Skipper. Kudos to your entire team. - R.W. RIDLEY, BLOG,
http://www.selfmarketingforbooks.com/
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