All of us are smarter than each of us.

1 + 1 = 3

. . . are just two common phrases that reinforce and prove how pervasive our belief in teams is.

And that belief is justified.

Sometimes.

There are many times in our civic or church groups, and in our businesses and professional associations that we need teams of people to work on an issue or a project. And sometimes we would be better off without a team - with individuals contributing as individuals.

What?

No team?

You got it.

At least not the type of team you probably think of, when you think of a team.

Two Basic Types of Teams

To keep things simple, I believe there are two basic types of teams. There are basketball teams and there are track and field teams.

Basketball Teams

Basketball teams (or soccer or hockey) are teams that require, by the nature of their task, that everyone play as one unit. On teams in these sports the players are interdependent. At any moment of any game, in order to be successful, the entire team needs to be working in harmony. The role of each player is designated by their position (which takes into account their innate strengths and acquired skills). However, the situation at any moment during the flow of the game, may require any player to take any role.

And on good teams of this sort, all players are willing to be flexible, to assist, to change roles, to “do what it takes”. Because they know that without working together, they can’t achieve their team goals of victory. The nature of the game forces interdependency among the team members.

Track and Field Teams

Players on track and field teams on the other hand (except in a few relay events) are not interdependent, they are independent. Shot putters have a skill set that is largely unrelated to the sprinters. And the high jumpers can be personally skilled and successful without any tangible help or support from the distance runners.

At the end of the day (or meet), the team can win if enough of the individuals do well. In other words if enough individuals win, the team will win. The most successful of these teams will have highly talented individual contributors, supporting each other to reach their common goal of winning. In this way they are definitely a team. They may feel allegiance to the group. They certainly can have pride in being a part of the group. They want each other to be successful. They know that they can all be more successful when each individual is more successful. They can have a common goal (to win the meet or championship). But the fundamental relationship between the players isn’t the same as it is on a basketball team.

What This Means to Us

In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that work in a process flow or project where the outputs of one person directly affect the work of the next - where the work and the people are highly interdependent.

We also have teams that look more like the track and field team. In these situations people are working toward a common mission and goal, but their work doesn’t intersect in nearly the same ways as for the highly interdependent teams.

Fair enough you say.

But in my experience, we tend to want all teams to think they are basketball teams. If the work or project dictates that focus, great. But if you have a track and field (independent) team, you don’t need the same focus on interdependence and traditional “team building” activities.

What Do We Do Now?

If you lead a team or form teams or are just a member of a team, you need to think about and talk about this distinction. Determine across the team (or future team) what type of team you are. Once there is agreement on the type of team you are, you can begin to set the right kinds of expectations for each other and for yourself. You can build more appropriate plans for training, development and team building.

Knowing which type of team your work or project dictates is the first step towards helping that group of people be more successful and the work being done successfully.

So maybe it isn’t really, “to team or not to team?”, but “which type of team?”

. . . that is the question.

Answer that one first. And, using the answer as a guide, watch all of your teams be more successful.

Kevin is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on Unleashing Your Potential go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

All those people who are barely above the poverty line or are at best lower middle class really need to make cheap conference call to communicate with their near and dear ones or carry out their professional lives. They simply can’t afford to spend blindly over conference calls and the like. They simply can’t afford it! Thankfully with an increasing number of companies providing conference calling, the plummeting of rates comes as no surprise. After all, this is what competition is all about! Conference calling is cheap, it is affordable and it is time it gets it due. After all, we need it more than it needs us!

For more info click here

During the industrial revolution business and industry grew and expanded rapidly across continents. With the coming of automation, everything was done on a larger scale. The ability to manage projects in the way of budgets, supplies and labor at various or secondary locations was crucial and motivated the investigation of new ideas to streamline methods.

The Father of Scientific Management

In America in the early 1900’s a pioneering scientist named Frederick Taylor tested his theories on worker productivity by creating a methodology for the measuring and performance of certain tasks by workers in steel mills. He was interested in discovering new and better ways for workers to perform a job rather that by simply insisting that they work harder and longer. Taylor died in Philadelphia and the inscription on his tomb stone assures his place in history: “the father of scientific management.”

Taylor’s friend, Henry Gantt was the first to design charts and diagrams to document and measure the processes involved in Navy ship building during WWI. By charting and analyzing each step in the ship building process he was able to see the big picture and an extract information about the relationships between functions. The Gantt chart became an important tool for project management and has been used for the last 100 years.

Another Milestone

In the 1950’s when the U.S. government discovered that the Russians were developing missile technology it became crucial that the “missile gap” be filled. Since the safety of the nation was at stake, the U.S. Navy wanted to build a system of their own immediately. To manage the building program Willard Fazar’s PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) was used. PERT uses critical path methodology to control projects that involve massive tasks and logistics. PERT is still the standard for all Navy projects today.

Tools for Project Management

Project management in its present state is a highly structured process. It involves initiating, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling and completing a plan or project as specified. It involves expertise in estimating costs and resources, procurement of resources and supplies, organizing teams and work loads, directing and assigning roles, status reporting to upper management, risk assessment, time management and communication at all levels.

The expansion of businesses worldwide has helped fuel the need for better project management tools. New and more sophisticated tools to accomplish complicated project management functions have come on the market in the form of web based project management software.

Because it is web based this type of software allows teams to communicate in real time in the office or off-site, virtually from anywhere in the world. Many programs have feature rich options and are customizable and flexible enough to meet sophisticated project management requirements.

Project management software is probably the single most important tool a project manager will use to keep the project on track and on time.

OK, that line hooked me! No matter what you thought of either candidate, how you voted, where you stand on the political spectrum, you would certainly join me in the following refrain, I’m sure: “Say what? Gore and Bush socialists? Excuse me?”

The local leader who said this had her reasons of course, even making a bit of sense in the context of her views but, nonetheless, it was a way-out-there, totally unreasonable thing to say, especially as all manner of other sober intonations kept plodding their way about the conversation. And what it did for me was unmistakable: It caused me finally to want to read that article.

I spent the next fifteen minutes doing so, though by skipping to the parts where this “crazy” leader offered up more insane opinions, and eagerly absorbing how her fellow participants reacted to them. For the most part I was not disappointed, reactions to her getting stronger and more pointed with each passing page. Emotions flew, the discussion got heated. In the article (and the debate itself) the “crazy leader” became everyone’s reference point. In the end I had read every other leader’s comments in the article, if only in search of their reactions. The crazy leader was leading us all.

Did it matter that her crazy statements often seemed to make no sense? Not a whit. In fact, that they often did NOT make sense to me was exactly what kept capturing my attention. The truth is this is precisely what all of us need sometimes, helping us get our juices and brains wrapped around something or other that desperately needs to be discussed. Whether managing a staff, leading a company or serving customers, when we grab attention, we stimulate ideas which in turn fosters effective dialogue, interaction and satisfying, ultimately sensible solutions.

Have you been all too reasonable lately? If so, try being crazy and attracting a little attention. Then settle back and watch yourself begin taking the lead.

Ken Lizotte CMC is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group inc. (Concord, MA), which transforms consultants, law firms, executives and companies into “thoughtleaders.” This article is an excerpt from his newest book “Beyond Reason: Questioning Assumptions of Everyday Life”.

Visit ==>www.thoughtleading.com for more info.

You can manage yourself in relation to time. What does that mean? Understand your personal relationship to time. You can do this in two ways.

1. Know what organizing methods work for you- how do you best meet deadlines and manage to get things done?

2. Strive for balance

The first way you can manage yourself in relation to time is by understanding yourself and what organizing methods work for you. Believe it or not, there is a behavioral pattern called Chronic Disorganization. To find out if you are chronically disorganized, ask yourself these questions (Kohlberg):

Has getting organized been a challenge for you most of your adult life?

Does being disorganized negatively affect your quality of life in some way every day?

Have you been unable to sustain organization?

Many of the organizing tips and tools you see in print and in office supply stores do not work for people. That is because they are written by traditional organizers for traditional people. If you are chronically disorganized, (ask yourself the 3 questions above or check out the National Study Group for Chronically Disorganized, nsgcd.org), accept and value your differences and move on to understanding what works best for you. There are professional organizers out there who are very familiar with chronic disorganization.

Time is one thing that is especially hard for the Chronically disorganized due to its abstract nature. One thing you can do is to “touch” time. For example, using post-it notes instead of linear to-do lists is helpful for some because you can give yourself a task and move it around on your calendar or from place to place. It is a way of making time more physical. Another way to “touch” time is to use landmarks around the room you want to organize.

Say you want to organize your office. You can put a bronze lion paperweight on top of a stack of memos from your boss reminding you that these memos are from “the king of the jungle”. Or you can use real travel landmarks, such as a Yield sign, on top of projects you need to delegate. Or at home, write tasks you need to complete on post-it notes. Place them around the house onto the actual areas needing work. On the drawers, put a note, “empty out and wipe down.” Alternatively, if you are an auditory learner, use a tape recorder to record tasks you need to complete.

Again, these atypical methods are suggested for anyone and especially for those who nothing has worked for before.

The second way for you to manage yourself in relation to time is to strive for balance.

Picture a table with several legs. If any of those legs are shorter than the other, the whole table is thrown off balance. So too, in your life, we all have several “legs” or vital categories we want and need to spend time on, namely: self, family, spirituality, education, financial, social, health. In applying the table analogy to time and life balancing, you do not need to spend an equal amount of time on each category, rather enough time on each one. Otherwise, everything gets thrown out of balance.

For example, a person pulls all-nighters for a work deadline. He/She becomes tired and crabby, upsetting the family, and comes down with a cold because of the jeopardized immune system. See how the whole “table” is thrown off?

It is important to make sure your daily, weekly, and monthly schedule reflect your vital categories in life. If you are spending lots of time on things that are not one of your table “legs”, your tasks are not reflecting your life goals and priorities. No wonder you feel stressed and out of balance!

So, take a deep breath and assess your life as it is now. Are you spending your time on the areas you value most? If not, delete, delay, delegate and diminish these tasks. Always consider the 4 Ds.

By learning more about yourself; understanding what organizing methods work best for you and what your goals and priorities truly are- it is my hope that you will experience the meaning and balance in your life that you seek.

Rebekah Slatkin is a professional organizer dedicated to getting people organized through hands-on decluttering sessions, teleconferencing, coaching, and her website http://www.best-organizing-products-superstore.com Visit http://www.best-organizing-products-superstore.com and subscribe to Organewz, her ezine dedicated to organized living and get organizing tips and downloads- free.