Blog Post: Tribal Warlords or Executive Teamwork?

Survivor held its Samoan season premier last week.  If there's ever been a show that models corporate teamwork in its rawest form, Survivor is at the top of the list.  As tribe members, each individual works towards a common goal, at the same time operating with a bias towards intra-team alliances.  Each tribe member has a not-so-hidden agenda -- to win at whatever cost.  After all, nobody on the set is there to make friends.

I observed this in a leadership exercise conducted at my work.  We were all given pieces to a puzzle, and told to form a square.  The activity was not completed until everyone at the table had finished their square. 
The catch was, there was more than one way to make individual squares, but only one way to make all the squares on the table.  So there I sat, confident that I had completed my task, while the others on the table suffered interminable minutes as the facilitator intoned that there was more than one way to solve the puzzle, and that we weren't done until everyone was done.  When I noticed that someone needed one of my pieces to finish her square, I finally got the picture. 

Our natural instinct is a competitive one, to win at all costs.  We find that this may help us personally, but it can hinder an organization's common goal.  Ray Burch, the presenter at this month's ASTD-Orange County Learning Event, has noticed this as well.  In his presentation: Tribal Warlords, or Executive Teamwork -- Insights for Becoming a Legendary Leadership Team, Ray observes:

"Almost all organizations espouse teamwork as a cardinal value. Fortunately or unfortunately, the executives of these organizations very visibly model very good or bad teamwork. Too many executives—and other leaders across the corporate spectrum—behave like tribal warlords."

Ray pulls from his experience as a gold-medalist volleyball player to identify key tips for team building.  From victories at the U.S. Open and World Championships, Ray was inspired to synthesize his teams’ success into six key insights that help executives become legendary teams: focus, talent, change readiness, recovery, reputation, and passion.

So: invite your boss out to dinner this Wednesday (Sept 23, 6 - 8 pm), and treat him or her to a night with ASTD-Orange County.  Together, you'll be able to take to your organization a strong message to share with its executives and other leaders.

Details on our site:  www.astdoc.org.