Do You "Get" Twitter?

For months I watched my friend and colleague Ron send Twitter updates such as "Leaving for work" or "Traffic really nasty today." As much as I really like Ron, I had to wonder: does anyone really care that he overslept this morning?

For six months I didn't get Twitter. Against my better judgement I started using it. And now I get it. Finally.

The idea of Twitter is remarkably simple: answer the question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less (each update is referred to as a tweat).

What seemed like an impersonal platform for the self-obsessed suddenly became a tool to bring me closer to people I care about.

Are there people you'd like to stay in touch with but there's no way you would call them or e-mail them daily?

My sisters come to mind. I got them to start tweating as well and now I've never been more in the know about what's going on with them and their families. In fact, I even call them more often. Even my dad in his mid-70's is tweating. By integrating Flickr and Twitter we're sharing memories more easily than ever.

Can it work beyond close family and friends? Absolutely. Imagine getting short updates from team members, particularly when you are not co-located. Business owners can use Twitter to develop closer relationships with customers. There are some intriguing possibilities.

I encourage you to try it. Sign up for Twitter for free at http://www.twitter.com/. Invite some people you want to stay in touch with. Keep in mind that they'll probably look at you funny and think you have way too much time on your hands.

That's OK. But once they get it, you'll be glad you started.

You can find me on Twitter with the user name "andy_kaufman". Happy Tweating!

P.S. As with any social networking tool, Twitter can be a major distraction to your attempts to manage your time. Contact me for some ideas on how to avoid that.

Another P.S. Click here to find out how Ron is doing. :)

Labels: networking, teambuilding, tools I love

posted by Andy at 1:56 PM

Killer Whale Sized Opportunities to Teach and Learn

What can you learn from "the new guy?"

I've been enjoying Andy Jordan's blog on the People Side of Project Management. In a recent posting he talks about interacting with "the new guy" and how we can not only help them as mentors but that we can also learn from them in the process.

In Amy Sutherland's book What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage she relates that killer whale trainers remember that "every interaction is training." (click here for a post I made about this book). Every time trainers interact with Shamu they are teaching, whether they realize it or not. Both Shamu and the trainers are learning about what is expected, how to treat each other, consequences for actions, etc.

I'm convinced that I miss killer whale-sized opportunities to learn each day because I'm not sufficiently paying attention. But when I do, those lessons can be more valuable than an expensive weeklong workshop.

I remember when I finally got that the dirty little secret of business is that it's all done on relationships. Previously I wanted to believe that the smartest one wins. Or that the best argument wins. Or that filling out the "right" paperwork and following the "right" process was the secret to successfully delivering projects.

But through the gift of a couple great mentors who modeled the secret of building relationships, I've been able to navigate situations that would have left me as Shamu Chow years before!

Our interactions with the new guy (and the old guys!) are modeling how to look at the world of projects and business and people in a potentially different way. May we all be forces for good as we teach (and have our eyes and minds wide open as we observe).

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Labels: leadership, learning, listening, managing up, mistakes, project management, project sponsors, teambuilding

posted by Andy at 1:46 PM

Does teambuilding work?

I had to chuckle when reading Lorna MacLaren's article "Can this really make you a better boss?"(from Scotland's "The Herald" Online).

As she's perched some 14 feet up on a wooden pole during a teambuilding exercise, she wonders how effective it can be for companies to be "shelling out small fortunes to scare the wits out of their managers and staff."

Last week I was facilitating a 3-day project management workshop for a well-known company in Wisconsin. When we got on the subject of teambuilding, multiple stories surfaced about people who got hurt during past teambuilding exercises. I don't recall ever hearing of someone dying during a teambuilding exercise but I can imagine it's happened.

I Googled "team building exercises" this morning, which returned around 143 million results. The options ranged from organized scaventure hunts to mental challenges to demanding physical activities. In Lorna's article she refers to some UK providers offering everything from sumo wrestling simulations to duck herding. Hmm...

Clearly companies around the world are shelling out a lot of clams for this stuff. But does it work?

The key from our perspective: whatever the teambuilding approach, it must help the team work better afterwards.

That may sound obvious but I've seen too many teambuilding exercises/offerings that were fun, but didn't necessarily build the team. Fun is fine and has it's place, but it's not always teambuilding.

The teambuilding workshops and exercises that we facilitate here at the Institute focus on helping participants learn more about themselves, their teammates, and the mission of their teams.

Here's my question for your comments: "What are examples from your career where you saw teambuilding done well? Or not well?"

Click the "Post a Comment" link below to share your story.

Labels: leadership, teambuilding, teams

posted by Andy at 8:18 AM