Page 112 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

All for One and One for All 93

As both the team leader and an individual, John demonstrated tremen-
dous courage in his willingness to listen to complaints and suggestions in such
a public forum as this session presented. Encouraged to speak their minds,
team members expressed their anger about John’s lack of support and direc-
tion and his absence in spirit when the team hit a wall and needed a boost to
overcome a problem. John sat quietly, taking notes and listening intently.
After months of open communication and repairing some team damage,
positive results emerged. The team, with John on board, decided to meet
twice a week to discuss issues and to solve problems that were plaguing their
internal customers. Gradually the gloom that hung over the entire team began
to lift as their positive energy increased. Still the leader, John had become a
respected leader in the eyes of his fellow team members.
Over the next two years, this team grew both emotionally and profession-
ally. Completing their next round of self-observations, they found that they
had indeed become a team rather than a collection of individuals wearing the
same logos on their shirts. From top management to shop floor employees,
everyone saw the difference both in attitude and in performance. As for John,
his new leadership style received kudos from people inside and outside the
plant, and within one year he was promoted to the corporate office—not bad
for a guy who just a year or so earlier had reduced some of his team members
to tears. Now those same team members were singing a different song, prais-
ing not only John’s success but also their own for the progress they had made
as a team.
When we help to bring together members for a new team, we stress the
importance of the individuals functioning as a cohesive unit from the outset.
They must not think of themselves as a committee, with one person repre-
senting marketing, another there to protect the interests of the purchasing
department, and so on. Instead of someone saying, “Well, I’ve done my design
piece,” or “I’ve given my financial statement,” and then sitting back to wait for
someone else to produce the deliverable, the entire team must ask, “How can
we all do this together?”
To foster the necessary cooperative attitude and to increase productivity,
we emphasize the necessity of bringing teams together to work in a central
location, a process known as co-locating. Walt Disney often referred to these
locations as “planning centers,” and his company has found that its people are
much more efficient and willing to take the initiative when they can discuss
a problem or ask questions of someone sitting nearby. Brainstorming sessions
have a way of happening spontaneously under co-located conditions.