Articles

Leading Through Difficult Times

What if, “what if” happens?

Nick Conner
Senior Vice President, Program Development

You know we prefer to have our TeamBuilders WorldWide programs outdoors.  It’s great to get out of the meeting room and breathe some fresh air, but the weather doesn’t always cooperate.  What if it rains today?  We jokingly tell our participants that in the event of rain we will then default to plan “B”.  It looks a lot like plan “A”, but we are wet.  We’ll get a chuckle or two, but we always have back up space in case we can’t get outdoors.

I’m not going to sit here and write to you about the obvious.  No one on our team is an economist and can provide sound advice about the financial future of your business, but we do know the efficiency of work teams can minimize wasted cost and maximize profitability.

Not too long ago we all witnessed the historical Miracle on the Hudson as Captain Sullenberger and his crew performed the mother of all contingency plans as they safely landed their airbus and its passengers on the Hudson River.  Not a few, not some, but everyone survived. This and other contingencies are probably practiced and drilled over and over again for the moment of “what if.”  Many of you are experiencing some of the “what ifs” these challenging economic times are presenting.  Contingency plans are becoming the safety feature many businesses hoped they wouldn’t have to use, but are.  It’s like child seats and airbags; we don’t ever want to use them, but we would never go without them.

Today it is critically important that your people are able to work well together, to handle any “what if” that comes their way.  Unfortunately, it is during these difficult economic times that we often see organizations stopping the development of their people, stopping the the development of effective teams and sacrificing the best contingency known to humans…TEAMWORK.

Hope is not a plan and we must prepare ourselves for the worst to maintain our best.  Team efficiency is not a luxury we can only afford when the economy is good.  It is suppose to be one of the tools we rely on when confronted with challenges.

Remember teamwork is doing more, faster, efficiently.  Costs increase with lack of trust, poor communication, absenteeism, and the old “us vs. them” culture.
More gets done, faster and cost effectively with teamwork.  What if we had high performing teams all the time?  We would have a better chance of not a few, not some, but everyone surviving…thriving.