Everyday Drills
Whether in a sport, at a job, or in a family, everyone everywhere is part of a team. The Everyday Drills blog is designed to create a moment each morning where we are intentional about becoming better teammates and team leaders. Subscribe for thoughtful ways for you and your team to be challenged each and every day.
The Long and Short Term
The concept of apprenticeship is one that helps teams invest in their future. Every person should train another person to do their job. This is great in the short-term because it allows a teammate to take a sick day without costing the team. It is great in the long-term because it allows the team to consider promoting since there is someone else to take that place. How many promotions don’t happen because the team cannot cover the vacancy left by the person being promoted?
Too Many on Too Few
When too many things depend on too few people, the team becomes a slave to circumstance. Life happens and the size of the team determines how resilient the team can be when it does. People get sick. People’s kids get sick. People go on vacation. People move on to other opportunities. These facts can be anticipated and should therefore be prepared for. The team must consider its ability to scale its effort in the worst and best of times. Teams are only as good as their back-up quarterback. To play with no back-up means you are not only walking the tight rope without a net, but you are also not investing in anyone else to pick up where the current person eventually leaves off.
Our pronouns say a lot.
I grew up near Los Angeles. I love basketball. I love the Lakers and hate the Clippers. Both of them are LA teams. They even play in the same building. When they play each other, I am not torn as to who to root for. When I talk about the Lakers, I tend to use the pronoun “we.” When I talk about the Clippers, I don’t. Even in today’s Laker dysfunction, I can’t bring myself to root for the Clippers over the Lakers. It doesn’t matter what the Clippers do. I won’t root for them because they are not the Lakers. This is what a non-fan is. Fan is short for fanatic. I am fanatically for the Lakers and that causes me to be fanatically against their opponents. That’s the thing about haters. They are not looking to have their minds changed. They see everything through that initial choice they made back when they decided to be a fan.