1: It was a brutally hot day in Las Vegas.
The conference room where the meeting was being held was freezing, however.
“The participants of my ‘Conscious Business’ workshop pulled their jackets tight and grimaced. They weren’t just cold; they were pissed off,” Fred Kofman writes in The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership.
“They looked at me icily,” Fred remembers. “I’ve been in situations like this many times. More often than not, typical managers welcome me as warmly as they would an onset of flu.
“It’s as if we’re all stuck in some Dilbert cartoon, and I can read the thought bubbles appearing over everyone’s heads.
“What the hell are we doing here? I’ve got work to do!” And: “Another BS workshop. . . I hate this stuff.”
2: Fred decided to play to their worst fears. “Let’s start with an icebreaker!” he said in his most upbeat voice. “Find someone you don’t know and introduce yourself. Be sure to tell your partner what your job is.”
He could almost hear their “mental groans” as the attendees turned to their neighbors.
After several minutes, Fred said, “Who would like to share?” in his sweetest voice.
Silence.
“You two, please,” he said, calling on a pair at the front of the room. “Tell us your partner’s…
“Her name is Sandra,” said John. “She runs marketing campaigns.”
“Wrong,” Fred interrupted. Sandra and John looked at him with a confused expression on their faces.
Fred decided to challenge the group to a wager. They were in Vegas, after all.
“I bet each one of you a hundred dollars that you don’t know what your job is. And that it will take me less a minute to prove it.”
More silence.
“Oh, come on,” Fred said, “you really aren’t sure what your jobs are?”
He pulled out a roll of bills with a $100 bill on top. “Take the bet. If you win, I’ll give you a hundred bucks. If you lose, I’ll contribute the money to the charity of your choice. Raise your hand unless you really don’t know what your job is.”
Several people raised their hands, but the expressions on their faces suggested they were still skeptical.
“Let me make it easier,” I said. “Let’s not bet money but time and energy. If I win, you stay in the workshop and participate fully. If I lose with more than half of you, we close this workshop and I’ll take the fall with your managers. I’ll tell them I just couldn’t do it. They’ll never know better; what happens here stays here. And to clinch the deal, you decide whether I win or lose.”
Fred finally seemed to have their attention. More people raised their hands. He turned to a woman in the second row. Looking at her badge, he said, “Thank you for playing, Karen. What’s your job?”
“I’m an internal auditor.”
“And what’s your job as an internal auditor?”
“To assure that the organizational processes are reliable.”
“Okay, Karen, let’s begin. Everyone, please look at the clock. Karen, did you play any sports in school?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I played soccer.”
“Great! As an Argentinean, I’m wild about soccer. What position did you play?”
“I played defense.”
“What was your job?”
“To stop the other team from scoring,” she said.
I turned to the rest of the managers. “The job of a defensive player is to stop the other team from scoring. Does anyone disagree? If so, please raise your hand.”
No hands went up.
“So now, somebody else answer me, please. What’s the job of an offensive player?”
“To score goals,” a couple of people shouted out.
“Great, it seems we’re all on the same page. My next question is, what’s the job of the team?”
“To win!” came a voice from the back of the room.
“Bingo!” I replied. “The job of the team is to win the game. Anybody disagree with that?”
People shook their heads, but several rolled their eyes, still annoyed. Fred saw someone pretending to yawn. “His thought bubble read, What’s the big frigging deal?” Fred recalls.
Fred pushed on: “If the job of the team is to win, what is the primary job of each and every member of the team?”
“To help the team to win,” someone else said.
“Right again! Do you all agree?
More nods.
3: “Here’s my last question,” Fred said. “If the primary job of each and every member of the team is to help the team to win, and if the defensive player is a member of the team, what is the primary job of a defensive player?”
“To help the team win,” someone said softly.
“Yes!” Fred replied, pointing at the person who said it. “Please say that louder.”
“To help the team win,” he repeated.
“Okay. Please check the time. It’s been fifty-two seconds since we started this discussion.”
Huh? People still seemed
People still were not following, so Fred continued. “What is the primary job of a defensive player? Is it to stop the other team from scoring or to help the team win? You all agreed with Karen a minute ago that it was to stop the other team from scoring. I hope you’ll agree with me now that it’s to help the team win.”
“What’s the difference?” another participant shouted out.
“Imagine you are the coach of a team that’s losing one to zero with five minutes to go. What would you tell the defensive players?”
“To go on the offensive and try to tie the game,” someone asserted.
“Exactly! So how would you react if they told you, ‘Sorry, Coach, but that’s not our job’?”
“I’d fire their asses.”
“Why? Doesn’t that make it more likely that the other team could score a second goal in a counterattack? If the defensive player’s job is to help the team to win, then going on the offensive is the right thing to do. If his job is to minimize the goals scored against his team, it is the wrong thing to do.”
A few people were now smiling. Fred could feel the energy in the room shift. He continued: “So what’s the job of the offensive player?”
“To help his team win.”
At which point, another person said, “I still don’t get the point about our jobs.”
“In 1961, President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time,” Fred stated. “While touring the facility, he introduced himself to a fellow who was mopping the floor, and he asked him what he did at NASA. The janitor replied proudly, ‘I’m helping put a man on the moon!’ “
Fred paused and then asked, “How many of you told your partner in the opening exercise: ‘My job is to help my company win?’ How many of you realize that your primary job is to help your organization fulfill its mission ethically and profitably? How many of you heard your partner describe his or her job as ‘contributing to increase the value (and the values) of my company’?”
“In the now-not-so-icy silence,” Fred writes, “you could hear the proverbial penny drop.”
More tomorrow.
_______________________
Reflection: What is my job?
Action: Discuss with my team or with a colleague.
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