Some time ago, I heard the term – “lift where you stand”. The term came from the efforts of a team tasked with moving a baby grand piano some distance in preparation for a cultural event. The effort was made more complex by the piano’s tightly wedged position making mechanical means of moving the instrument impossible in the necessary time frame. As the team of movers tackled the vexing problem, one of the team members suggested that they should surround the instrument and lift the piano where each person stood. Agreeing to the suggested tactic, the team members together lifted the piano where they each stood, amazingly and successfully accomplishing the required objective (with no damage to the piano!).
This daunting task that challenged the intellectual and physical resources of an entire team, simply but powerfully illustrates the often obscured business principle that an organization’s greatest asset – its people – is the tipping point for business success (or failure). Success happens when people’s efforts are aligned and orchestrated in a collaborative effort to the organization’s strategy and culture.
The simple statement of “lift where you stand” embodies 4 powerful fundamentals that leaders need to instill in their teams to create a culture of engagement, innovation, collaboration and, ultimately, results-driven performance of a high performing team:
- Commitment to and engagement in accomplishing the organization’s objectives and strategy is paramount. Team members and individual contributors each must expertly execute their roles and related tasks and understand the value that each of their efforts add to achieve strategic objectives.
- Communication, transparent and timely, from leadership keeps everyone informed about where they are going, why they are doing what they are doing and keeps everyone rowing in the same direction. Necessary course corrections can only be made when employee communications are honest, instructional and frequent.
- Collaboration is the stuff that results in creative thinking and problem solving. The old adage that two heads are better than one is true when faced with the complex issues of today’s competitive marketplace. Effective collaboration improves the quality of work and fosters healthy and productive relationships among co-workers. Teams can align to and accomplish their objectives more quickly and effectively than people taking on projects of their own. Collaboration also speaks of engagement and a team centric and innovative culture.
- Cooperation is the key to making sure efforts are aligned and synchronized to the accomplishment of the organizational efforts. Cooperation denotes the importance of each person’s strategic role and the criticality of working together for the good of the whole.
“Lift where you stand” is an organizational imperative in achieving organizational results.
Prism Partners can help your organization achieve its strategic objectives. Through our proprietary organizational assessment model we can link and assess your employee’s individual and group performance to the strategy and culture of your organization to optimize results. We can isolate the areas for improvement and hold the employee and their supervisor accountable to make the necessary adjustments for success.
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