Go Doggies (but not at the expense of the Cats!)
If you are a footy follower you will know that the Western Bulldogs have vastly improved their game this season. I know they lost against Carlton on the weekend – and to Geelong a few weeks ago. But they have been playing well and they are now third on the premiership ladder. Their coach and fans would have to be pleased with this after last season’s dismal finish where they did not win a game after round 15. Today I received the Leading Teams Newsletter and discovered that since December last year they have been working with the Bulldogs (you can read about it here). So what, you might say? Well, last year Leading Teams worked extensively with the Cats – and look where it got them. I wrote about this here, after reading an article in The Age that told of the positive effects on the Geelong players on hearing ”home truths” from each other. On their web site, Leading Teams state their mission as the following:
to improve organisation performance by aligning teams and developing leaders. We develop leaders who behave in a manner that will have a positive impact on their peers and their organisation.
You have to wonder what their secret to such amazing success is. I bet it has to do with changing the culture. Understanding it, first. Then knowing how to change the parts of it that dont help and how to work with the parts that do, to bring improvement. One of the favourite maxims of this office is “Culture eats strategy everyday for breakfast”. It hardly matters what the plan is, if understanding the effect of the culture of the organisation is not taken in to account. Understanding “the culture” is not easy because it is usually hidden – it’s the taken for granted way we do things around here, the unwritten code that everybody kind of knows. It is usually accepted, unquestioned and unreflected upon.
More insight into what Leading Teams do with groups they work with came from another article ( theleadingmen1 )from The Age where it was revealed that the first thing that is done to help teams re-define their cultures is to nut out a “trademark”. This becomes the reference point for the work that follows. A team states how it thinks it is viewed and then how it wants to be viewed – what sort of team they want to be? From this standards are set. Peer assessments, where team members and leaders tell each other what they want each other to start doing, keep doing and stop doing are also an important part of the process. I wonder what trademark your team would choose? For that matter, I wonder what my team, the MRN would choose as our trademark? Think i’ll go and ask.
Posted by Louise
Working to keep warm
It’s a cold and sunny winter’s day here in Adelaide so those of us that are in the office are working hard to keep warm. Rob and I have just been to a meeting to plan an “emerging church” event for March next year. It is all very exciting and it wont be long before all will be able to be revealed so keep your ears to the ground. Ian, our team leader is in Texas learning how to reign in his team (see picture). That’s him on the huge horned beast. We are a wild bunch so I’m not sure that his latest training will actually do the trick. This week for example, Lyn and Ernest are living it up in the Phillipines. Cant wait to hear their stories. One of the places they visited was the community who live on a rubbish dump on Smokey Mountain. They are accompanying the Big Year Out group and making sure that they have plenty of adventures to freak the already anxious parents out (like sleeping with scorpions). Matt’s gone AOL (that’s like AWOL only he does have leave). The Rural Ministry Team are busy plotting their next weekend away – I think they call it a School of Ministry. The next one will be in Minlaton on August 2nd. Who knows what the rest of the team are up to but you can be sure it will be good!
posted by Louise
