Fishing & Business

by | Aug 18, 2008 | Observations

My good friend Richard Scruggs, Director of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Texas A&M, wrote an excellent article for the CNVE newsletter that I would like to share with you.

Here is an excerpt from his article

“Ever seen a situation where there is a disconnect between management and the field? Can you imagine a situation where leadership thinks they have made a simple change but the people charged with implementing the change think direction just changed 180 degrees – again?

During a recent trip, my fishing buddy and I were discussing why a client’s team seemed dysfunctional. We knew management was frustrated that employees didn’t grasp the vision and know what to do next. From talking to people in the field we knew they wanted to do the right thing but they felt like direction was changing so often that they couldn’t keep up.

We knew the answer involved setting a vision, articulating it and sticking to it. It included setting clear expectations and giving people the resources they needed to do their job. It also meant trying to bring management and team members closer together so that there is clear communication, mutual understanding and freely flowing information.”

To read the whole article click here.

He makes several good points. My team and I recently took the proactive approach of taking The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team training class.  I wanted to make sure my team and have an open line of communication.  It was a good way to strengthen an already great team.

Have you faced the same issues as the company he describes? What did you do to overcome them? How were the channels of communication opened?

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