“Who’s on my team?” goes right to the heart of what appears to be a verbal civil war in public discourse. So, how do we build a team back after deep division? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn has the answer. (Watch Now!)
Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, this is, as we do a couple of times a month, a special edition of the podcast where we’re on video. So if anyone wants to watch this instead of just listen to it, you can go to toughthingsfirst.com, find this podcast, and then click on Watch Now, and then you’ll be zoomed literally to Ray’s YouTube channel where you’ll be able to watch the video instead. And we look great on video, so check it out if you haven’t already. Today’s question, Ray, cuts to the heart of any organization facing division. Who’s on my team? Right now, I mean, not just in our organizations, but in our country, it feels like we’re in the middle of a verbal civil war. We have heated disagreements, fractured trust, and people questioning loyalties all over the place.
The tough thing is figuring out how to rebuild the team without papering over the real problems. So Ray, in your experience leading through tough times, what does it actually take to answer who’s on my team? And then bring everyone back together again in the end.
Ray Zinn: That’s a good one, Rob. This is one that I’ve been concerned about for some time. There’s just saying there’s no I in team, no I in team. And we talk about that a lot as we look at teams because a team that is focused on itself, we call those guys that are not team players. They’re grandstanders, they want to always have the ball and run with a ball, and they don’t involve the team. And the best sports teams are the ones that work well together. And I think it’s interesting that in the political environment, which is the thing that we’re focusing on today, there appears to be no team. Unless you look at the civil war that’s going on, the verbal civil war, the one group says, “Well, we are all working together.” And the other groups somewhat fractured, but they’re not a team in the sense of word pulling for the same goal or the same result. And that’s the thing we have to be concerned about.
So how do you pull a team together? How do you get the group dynamic to be together? Because you have to have a common goal. And I think that’s what’s missing is that defining what is the goal? No matter what the problem or issue is, we need to say, what is our goal? What is it we need to work together on? If we’re not together on the goal, then the result’s going to be chaotic. Again, going back to a sports team, if the goal is not to defeat the opposition, then what is the goal? Now, it appears that in the political environment, there’s a lot of, “Let’s defeat the opposition.” Instead of looking at, “We’re a team.” Even in a sports environment, if you say, “Well, our goal is to please the people that are watching the game.” Then you say, “Well, okay, can you please both sides?”
Because in a football game or basketball, there’s two opposing teams, but it’s called teams with an S, team. I found this true in running my company, Micrel, that if we don’t have cross-pollination, if there’s not a group dynamic where we’re all trying to achieve the same thing, we form these silos. I don’t know if all of us are rooting for the same team. Are we rooting for one political group or rooting for the other political group? But they don’t succeed in a common goal if they don’t work together. Going back to the sports example, if the common goal is to have a fun game for the audience, no matter what side you’re on, then you still work together. You still try to play your best, you do your best, but you don’t become antagonistic. The sports events that are at least attractive or fun to watch are the ones where there’s a lot of cheating, a lot of dishonesty, when people aren’t doing their best, when they’re just goofing off. That’s not going to be good for the audience.
And I see that in the political environment that we’re not trying to please the audience or the country as a whole. Whenever you’re running an organization, no matter where you are in that organization, you should seek to have a common goal, even if there is opposition between the two parties or the two silos or the two departments. So the first thing is define the goal. Okay, what it is that we want to achieve? And it should be common, meaning should be that we both want the same thing. Even though you may have differences, you try to find ways to work together so that the common goal is reached. So we’ll refer to this as the common goal. Let’s take, for example, this TSA thing. The common goal for that department, TSA, is to get the people through the line as quick as possible and onto their flight, not tying them up in endless lines and making it difficult and problematic for them.
That should be the goal. And then we say, okay, how do we accomplish that goal? Well, we have to have the staffing, we all have to have the procedures and everybody working at the same level, and then we try to move the people through as quick as possible. The common goal appears to be, and this is, again, using this example, the common goal for this TSA issue is to make the people who are trying to get to their flight angry and upset, but not necessarily at the TSA people but be upset at the leaders. So it’s up to the leaders, as you would, to see that common goal is to get those people through onto their flight as quick as possible. And if they don’t do that, if that’s not their goal, then they all should be fired. This is the situation that we face now. And the government especially, is that we don’t fire these people often enough.
We should have people that want to work together, even though they have differences. I think the key is to overcome the difference so that you don’t have this verbal civil war that’s going on. It’s very uncomfortable. I’m not enjoying it. I’m sure the people watching this podcast are not enjoying it. We need to find a way to have commonality in our objectives.
Rob Artigo: Yeah. And unfortunately, with the political environment, we have a lot of people who are very loyal fans of a very loud person, one loud person. And then over here, you have another group of people who are constituents of that or supposedly constituents of that person, and they make enough noise where they get all the attention, then they just move on. We’ll end this podcast, Ray, that was a great explanation of what was going on here. I want people to join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions, of course, listeners are always welcome, also your comments. And if you want to rate this podcast at your favorite platform, please do, because we need the attention and we want it, and we appreciate whatever input you have. Follow me up… Yep.
Ray Zinn: Rob, what we have to do is we have to get our audience to invite others to join because these are difficult things to achieve, are these podcasts. And we need our audience passing the word along if they think it’s valuable, and help us get more activity on our website for these podcasts that we’re doing. Please invite your friends, share these podcasts, talk them up so that people can benefit from them. So we need your help.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, Ray, and we also would like people to check out your books. We have The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. And that is a fantastic book by you. We have your flagship book, of course, Tough Things First, and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three. And what now, Ray? Zen of Zen Daily.
Ray Zinn: And what’s behind you, Rob?
Rob Artigo: Is my Tough Things First sign.
Ray Zinn: Yes. That-
Rob Artigo: Yeah. This is the Tough Things First cover for the book right here behind it.
Ray Zinn: And these are the Tough Things First podcast.
Rob Artigo: That’s right.
Ray Zinn: That Tough Things First is a very valuable book for you if you want to learn how to run a good company, that’s a good book to do.
Rob Artigo: Right. And we tackle some tough situations here and questions here at the Tough Things First Podcast, but you really expand on it in the books that you’ve written. And you’re always filling the world with some great wisdom, so we appreciate that. Thanks a lot, Ray.
Ray Zinn: Yeah, thank you, Rob.
