I have been a senior level corporate manger for many years and am an expert at Team Building. The companies that employed me educated me in engineering, marketing and business management through programs provided by professional training companies.
In the mid 70's the concept of Matrix Management was the “in thing” but many companies struggled with the concept. Our consulting engineering company was among the top 50 in business volume with about 750 people. We won many awards for engineering excellence from government and industry.
To stay focused on quality and performance, we stressed employee participation. I provided an orientation program for new employees to explain to them how we used Matrix Management. This was always a challenge because recent college graduates had to have at least five years of prior experience. Therefore, they had already been exposed to a hierarchal style of line management where their manager (read boss) controlled their career. To suddenly operate in a matrix management company placed a new employee in a potentially difficult situation. His/her time was distributed among different projects. The employee reported to their own department head as well as to the executive managers on concurrent projects. All managers reported monthly on that individual employee’s job performance.
The new employees were not thrilled with the concept because to them it meant multiple bosses. Once they understood the principles of matrix management and worked within that framework for several months, they were able to perform well.
In the defense industry, I managed programs for the Strategic Defense Initiative. Here the employees were all senior people, most with advanced degrees and large egos to match. It was the world of rocket scientists.
The management style was different in that the Program Manager had two direct reports (Project Engineer & Financial Manager) and all the other employees were timeshared among projects from established departments - matrix management again. My Teams were very successful in executing complex programs because we applied the principles of Team Building that I taught.
One day I was asked to head up a companywide team of senior managers to improve company productivity using TQM (Total Quality Management). This assignment gave me a deep insight into what worked and did not work as we strove to integrate the TQM Team recommendations into all company operations.
The problem was that members of our TQM Team came from other Programs as well as the one I managed, so there were many concerns, hidden agendas and egos. This led me to the realization that we were all missing a vital component in Team Building. I deferred Team leadership to the Creator and told the Team.
We learned that we could change the perception of the Team members toward one another by including the Creator as part of our Team. Egos and conflict dissolved. The result was an instant change in mutual respect and performance among Team members that led us onward to rapid success.
After leaving the defense industry, I joined a company manufacturing computer control systems. The 386 and 486 processors had just been announced by Intel, but had not been designed into process control computers. I was tasked with developing the first control systems and was asked to make it happen within 60 days. We formed two hand-picked teams that had not worked together on a design project.
At our first joint team meeting three concepts were introduced:
1. No one would be allowed to fail.
2. Everyone had an equal voice prior to a final decision being made.
3. The Team would be exposed to my course on Spiritual Team Building.
Thirty days from that meeting we had our first 386 control system up and running. Forty-five days from that meeting we had our 486 system up and running.
Three to six months was the norm for rolling out such products. Both my teams received national recognition from the computer industry for their achievements and all of my people moved on to enriched careers.
As the years progressed in other companies, my Teams continued to apply Team Building principles and were very successful because we had quietly included the missing ingredient - our spiritual leader, the Creator of the universe.
People frequently ask me how to implement Spiritual Team Building. My answer is always the same. Ask the Team if they are willing to have the Creator lead the Team. Most will say yes. If someone says no, then go with the majority rule. If that “someone” on the team is not comfortable, they will remove themselves or they will stay and benefit by observing how those team members accepting the Creator’s leadership interact in a joyous and productive manner.
To examine my free Team Building course and see how you can implement Spiritual Team Building see: www.worldserviceinstitute.org/page12.html.
Author's Bio
Bob enjoyed a 40-year career as a Professional Chemical Engineer and Business Manager.
His original technical recognition occurred in the late 60's when he implemented the first computer controlled linerboard machine in the U.S. He went on to implement computer control systems in the chemical industry for plastic resin manufacturing.
During the 70's he was a respected consulting engineering manager and as editor-in-chief produced a widely acclaimed technical manual on water treatment for the Pulp and Paper Industry.
In the 80's he served as SAT (anti-satellite) Program Manager for the Strategic Defense Initiative program.
In the 90's and until his retirement, he continued to serve in various senior level technical consulting and business management positions in the Process Control Industry.
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