As a middle manager in a large firm, and later, owner of a small one, I know how important team effort is to success of any business or business plan.
And I also know how difficult it is to achieve.
The strength of any business, regardless of size, is its pool of employees.
For a long time employers have been encouraged to think of their employees as a team.
And in any team, there is diversity. There are the quick workers with short attention spans, the steady plodders with stamina to see long jobs through. The specialists you call on for particular jobs and the generalists who can be thrown a variety of tasks. Those who readily bark out opinions; those who give considered input.
Ideally, they'll complement each other, make up for each other's weaknesses, learn from each other's strengths.
When all work together toward the same goals, and appreciate and respect one another, things can hum along famously.
While there's strength in diversity, there's a danger, too. It's easy for a conflict to arise between those with different talents; those with similar strengths can compete for dominance; those who don't understand or disagree with goals can become passive-aggressive hurdles. And it seems somebody's always willing to pull rank.
Even if the goals are accepted, there can be no consensus on how to achieve them.
Teamwork is what saves the day - and it's the manager's (or owner's) job to make it happen.
In the large workplace, I went to constant management-training seminars where it was drilled into us that our employees should work like a team, and sports metaphors abounded: You're the leader of the football team, drumming up excitement before the big game; you're the cox in a rowing boat, getting everyone to paddle in unison.
Alas, I found the sports metaphors did not fit my experience. In fact, the whole image was offensive to some and it did nothing to build trust among my staff or get competing prima donnas to respect one another's talents and contributions.
When we put our staff through training exercises, we could see the resignation - one more hoop management asked them to jump through - and when they returned to everyday work, the effects shortly wore off and soon old habits and behaviours reasserted themselves.
This, of course, made constant team-building exercises necessary.
Owning my own business slowly changed my perspective - I realized I wasn't so much a team coach as the conductor of an orchestra - as each of my employees became confident in their own strengths, I encouraged them to be respectful of one another's talents, and together our separate voices blended into a nice choir.
Switching from a sports to arts paradigm for team-building allowed me to break down all sorts of barriers.
It helped my employees understand my business goals and their role in achieving them, to respect one another's talents and contributions, to be open with each other (so advice was helpfully offered and cheerfully accepted), to become decision-makers instead of order-followers.
It's obviously an idea whose time has come, judging by the number of arts-based team-building experiences available across Canada - art projects at Beyond the Box in Toronto (www.beyondthebox.ca), drumming with The Drum Cafe (www.drumcafe.ca) in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec; and cooking with the Cordon Bleu (www.lcbottawa.com), to name a few.
"The typical corporate team-building experience doesn't generate enthusiasm to pass beyond that day," says Ralph Chiarot, customer team leader with Unilever Canada, one of the world's largest consumer products companies with brands including Becel and Lipton.
It struck him while participating in a jam session with League of Rock in Toronto that "99 per cent of people have got music in their blood."
Even if they can't play, they enjoy music - and most people CAN play, but don't know it. "Everybody 'gets' music."
So, when he heard League of Rock also offers team-building programs, he decided to try it out as an exercise for the Markham sales staff of about 90, of all ages, experience and authority levels.
"This is not karaoke," explains Terry Moshenberg, League of Rock's CEO.
"It's not a bunch of people pretending to be a rock star for a day. We produce real music; we make serious demands on people."
And no, participants don't need to have musical experience - those who can't already play an instrument are taught how to play a hand drum and join the rhythm section.
In a one- to three-day session, ranging in cost from $250 to $500 per person, participants rewrite lyrics for a song (with help from a professional songwriter), then help perform it (with the help of a professional band) - and have a CD at the end of the process.
In longer sessions, participants can get involved in staging and lighting.
"At first, people were worried they didn't have music experience," says Chiarot. "But within one minute they got the group in a groove - everybody, from guys in their mid-50s to the ones 30 and under, senior guys and young people."
And those with - and without - musical experience.
"There's a role for everyone," says Moshenberg.
The Unilever staff were broken into groups to rewrite lyrics to Lighthouse's One Fine Morning, which was performed by Dan Clancy, lead singer for the band.
Those with musical experience were invited to play with the band - and everyone else provided percussion (on small hand drums).
But did the event result in long-lasting changes?
"You bet," says Chiarot.
"We're a very competitive company in a very competitive marketplace. The first benefit was stress release. It was a very relaxed group that came back to work. And they were buzzing the next day."
Long-lasting effects include a willingness to work with one another and volunteer to help one another - a willingness that cuts across age and position boundaries, even boundaries between departments.
In the boomchickawowwow environment of the studio, employees learned they had to listen to each other, to entertain all good ideas and choose the best one, regardless of source.
"They learned to slow down, and to recognize the talent and ability" in the group. "There was a permanent breakdown of some barriers."
The program was so successful, it's going to be used for team-building in other areas in the company.
"Now I have confidence in my individual team members that they will say what's on their mind, and discuss and participate in events," says Chiarot.
My final word on the subject?
Managing is an art, not a science.
And a well-run business?
Well, it's a work of art.
(Sharon Adams can be reached at sharon@businessedge.ca)
