Publication Date 7-24-08

In my current line of endeavor, I have to do a certain amount of dumb stuff.

That's taken some getting used to.  As a farmer, doing dumb stuff was fairly limited.  Everything I did mattered and if it didn't matter, I didn't do it.

But now, as a public servant, I'm part of a team.  And that means every now and then I have to participate in team-building exercises.

I don't really get ‘em.  I don't get the Helium Stick, the Fall of Faith, the Great Egg Drop or any of those other things that involve consultants and embarrassment. .

I suppose it's my own fault.  Years ago a friend of mine, a guy who's climbed a lot further up the ladder of success than I have,  told me about a team-building exercise at his company.  Everyone in his group was given instructions to show up at Lake Minnetonka on a Saturday morning.  They all showed up - a bunch of office guys representing about a three-decade age range.  They were shown a houseboat to climb onto and each one was handed a lime-green Speedo – and told to put it on.

For those of you who haven't been paying attention, a Speedo is a tiny men's swim suit worn by…I actually don't know who wears them, but I do know that they shouldn't be worn by a bunch of middle-aged Minnesota office workers.

“I wouldn't have done that,” I said.

“It's what the team did,” he said.

“Then,” I said, “it wouldn't have been a team that I would be on.”

“I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have been asked,” he said.

Be that as it may, I'm not convinced a team building exercise that teaches you that complete humiliation is a small price to pay for being one of the guys is really useful.

Over the years I've been a part of one useful team building exercise.  I was with a group of people who were given a bundle of balloons and pipe cleaners and told we had five minutes to make a chair.

No - I don't know why.

Anyway, I took charge, came up with a plan and got everyone working toward our common goal.  And you know what we did?

We made the worst chair in the world. 

I'm telling you, it was just awful, and it was all my fault.

That little exercise was actually very useful. It taught me that even though I always have an idea, sometimes it's a really bad idea, and that occasionally it's wise for me to just shut up until I hear everyone else's idea.

The chair-building assignment was the exception, though. Usually we're just talking dumb stuff.

Another friend of mine was part of a team that was instructed to work together to give someone directions from the airport.  I suppose the theory was that everyone would learn that there are lots of different ways to do the same thing and cooperation is important.

My friend said, “You mean the six of us are supposed to sit around all afternoon debating and deciding how to give someone directions from the airport to the office?  Let's say we skip this, tell the guy to catch a cab and we can all go get a cup of coffee.”

It wasn't the way the team was supposed to solve the problem.  It was better. 

She's got “consultant” written all over her.

Copyright 2008 Brent Olson www.independentlyspeaking.com