Page 157 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

144B RE-ENGAGE

Our analysis of their work styles suggested the team was quite ef-
fective at identifying novel ways of solving problems. The team was
also able to act decisively and inspire people to action once decisions
were made. But these strengths, we warned, may be masking a team
blind spot—overlooking details related to how a decision might im-
pact other parts of the organization “downstream.”
Upon hearing this feedback the CEO leaned back in his chair,
raised his arms in the air, and exclaimed: “The consequences of the blind
spot you described cost us $6 million! We made a very ill-advised acquisi-
tion a few years back. We did a terrible job of thinking through how the
acquisition would impact other parts of our business, and it went so badly
we eventually shut down the operation and wrote off the entire investment
as a loss. How can we use what we have learned about ourselves today to
avert bad decisions like that again?”
Luckily, one of the new team members had an idea. Since one of
her strengths was exercising caution and anticipating practical longer-
term issues and problems, she believed she could help the re-formed
team avoid similar disasters in the future. She was charged by the rest of
the group to offer a healthy dose of skepticism to the decision-making
process, one that has helped the team members more carefully vet
decisions of all kinds. Having a more natural tendency toward details,
she happily offers her counsel on those matters. She is also apprecia-
tive of other members of the team who help her see “the bigger pic-
ture,” something that doesn’t come as easily for her.
The CEO later remarked: “It’s great when we can better utilize the
strengths of each team member to make decisions that serve the best interests
of our firm.”

: TEAMWORK—MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER

The importance of teamwork has increased in recent years as many
management hierarchies have been pared down, putting more pres-