Some Thoughts on Building a Team
The thought occurred to me as I was recently reading, that most books are like skeletons in the graveyard. The flash of creative life that was genesis of the work (if there was any to begin with) is long gone and only the words, empty of that force, remain.
Words seem to mean something entirely different for each person. Sometimes I’m reminded of that Sunday school story of the Tower of Babel, (if I remember it correctly), where they were trying to build a tower up to heaven until God made them all speak in different languages at which time their work came to an immediate halt.
It seems that we are all still speaking in different languages even though we are using the exact same words – and we don’t normally realize it, and we get really upset with other people when they don’t agree with us!
It’s not surprising that there is so much discord in the world, if you look at it from this perspective.
One of the most important things we are working on here at Tanglewood is communication. The perspective that we have focused on is that of personality types. It seems that compounding the “language barrier”, (or maybe being part of it), is the difference in how each of us relate to the world based on our particular personality type. No matter which personality typing system that you use, the basic concept is the same.
It seems that people “see” and relate to the world around them through the particular color of their own “glasses”. We all come to the world pre-programmed in this way both by our heredity (nature) and our upbringing (nurture). Each personality typing system seeks build some sort of classification system that groups certain traits together and hopefully helps us understand and make some sense out of our similarities and differences.
The aim, I think is, if we can understand more objectively what and who we are and what and who others are, we might have a better chance (on a good day!) of communicating more effectively and less destructively.
One other thing about all this that I recently noticed is about working together in a group. It seemed to me that my own particular way of being connected to the world (my personality type) offers me up both a potential benefit as well as a trap. If I can learn what my strengths are, what I can rely on in myself to get right in a situation, I have a valuable, powerful asset. But, unless I can also see where my blind spots are, what do I continually, almost by nature, miss in situations, I will forever go round in circles.
This is where the study of personality types might be of some assistance, since if I can identify with a particular “type”, then I might be able to benefit from a more objective view of myself. I would guess that the best of systems would also come with some tools in addition,to help one build on ones strengths and mitigate one’s weaknesses.
If I can gain some degree of objectivity, then I might actually be able to “listen” more objectively to other people and find a benefit in their alternate perspective on a situation.
At Tanglewood, we are working in just this way to be able to build a team in which people understand the limitations of their own perspective and value the perspective of others. If we can do this, our team can become infinitely stronger and more effective because we have the potential to see an issue from many more points of view than just our own personal limited one (no matter how great it is).
We have seen breakthroughs here as a result of this process and continue to push forward building a truly great, world class company, and learning something about ourselves in the process.
Well, I didn’t really mean to talk about this when I started writing today, but there it is! I’ll get to the other stuff later.
Alan