Welcome to Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips!
by Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D.
August 6, 2003
Read by 3058 professionals in 50 countries.
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Subscribe or unsubscribe in the last section, below.
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TeamWisdom(TM) Tips promotes individual actions that create
responsible and productive relationships at work.
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This week's line-up:
1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
2. Welcome Notes
3. OUTCOME THINKING
4. 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch
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1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
Your thoughts attract your results. Are you creating
outcomes deliberately or by default?
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2. Welcome Notes
I'm back. Where've I been? Glad you asked. I took a few
months off from TeamWisdom TIps to work on a book, develop
some new business ideas, and goof off too. Thanks to those
who emailed asking if you'd been booted off the list or
something. It's good to be missed.
Every 500th subscriber gets a fee book. I'm sending a copy
of "The Leader Guide" to Shannon Hancock who was the 3000th
subscriber. Shannon works for a fleet leasing company near
Chicago called Wheels. Shannon's passionate about promoting
individual success and enjoys the challenge of helping
someone see wisdom in leveraging their efforts through
teamwork.
Please check out these upcoming events, and tell your
colleagues who deserve better results in teams.
- KTEP Consultant Certification Workshop for internal and
external consultants, October 11, Portland, OR. What if you
had an inexpensive and powerful team diagnostic tool that
makes even skeptical techies sit up and take notice of team
dynamics? http://www.partnerwerks.com/ktep/index.html
- Being Powerful In Any Team, December 2-4, near sunny San
Antonio, TX. http://www.beingpowerful.com/
And I just learned my book, "Teamwork Is An Individual
Skill: Getting your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility,"
is entering it's third printing. Order yours at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576751554/partnerofficeont
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3. OUTCOME THINKING
Do you know what you want? Do your partners know what you
want? Do you know what they want?
I've been focused lately on the power of Outcome Thinking.
For instance:
- Why do we--smart people--spend so much time dwelling on
what we don't like or don't want instead of discoverying
what we do want and focusing on it?
- Why do we--smart people--allow meetings to start without
agreeing to a clear result we're going for?
- Why do we think we can't have what we want?
- And why do we advise our charges to dream big but then
tell them not get their hopes up?
Outcome Thinking is a marvelous management tool. Salespeople
ask prospects what benefits they are looking for in a
product. Trainers ask participants what they want from a
learning event. Doctors and nurses ask patients what end
result they desire from treatment. Athletes close their eyes
and envision picture perfect outcomes, everytime.
Outcome Thinking has won the ringing endorsement of
psychologists the world over. Experts say "If you cann see
it, you can be it." And the opposite is also true: if you
can't see it, you can never be it.
How Outcome Thinking works remains a bit mysterious, as does
much about the mind, but it isn't hocus pocus. Psychologists
claim your mind doesn't know the difference between an
actual sensorial experience and a well-imagined one (ever
wake up from a bad dream in a cold sweat with your heart
racing? or worse, ever have your spouse wake up mad at you
based on what s/he dreamed?!). Try this: Imagine walking
into your favorite fresh foods grocery, the one with all the
great fruits and vegetables piled up in gorgeous well-lit
displays. Now, head for that produce section and go for the
pyramid stack of large shiney yellow lemons. Pick up a
section of the quartered lemon laying there on the display
table and wedge it into your mouth, between your teeth, and
bite down...
Now, if you are like most people, that description got your
mouth's juices flowing in expectation of the citric acids
squirting into your mouth.
Experts say that envisioning desired, i.e., perfect,
outcomes programs your body and mind to produce them. Some
even say that whatever your mind dwells on and filters for
is what it attracts to it (in a magnetic sort of way). Do
you think winners expect to win? You bet! What do you think
losers think about?
There's a story about a dad and a little girl learning to
ride a bike. He took her to a huge empty parking lot, a
totally flat surface of many acres with no cars, and helped
her onto her bike. When she got going, she yelled "The pole
Daddy!" Chasing after her, he said "Don't look at the pole
Honey, look anywhere else but the pole!" And you know what
happened. She focused on pole and envisioned a terrible
outcome. Of all the acreage, that pole represented the
1/10th of 1% of the parking lot space that could create a
negative outcome for her. And she focused on it, and it did
produce the negative outcome she feared.
So here's another question: Why focus on our fears when
evidence suggests that's a sure way to make them come true?
What outcomes are you creating by default because you aren't
deliberately creating and envisioning the outcomes you want?
Do you even know what outcomes you want? Why not? Do you
believe you could have the outcomes you want if you knew
what they were? Do you believe your team or department could
ever agree on common outcomes to create together?
Unless you are actively addressing these questions, you are
acting by default, and your outcomes likely show it.
Get started with this week's 5-Minute Practice Tip.
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FREE! Introduce me to meeting planners and leadership
development managers. When they request a marketing kit
(full of testimonial letters that will make you proud), I'll
send you my book ($18.95) or the print version of The
Leader's Guide ($22.95). Just direct folks to the url below
and cc us at teamwisdom@partnerwerks.com.
http://www.partnerwerks.com/services_and_products/speaking.html
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4. 5-Minute Practice Tip
To build your Outcome Thinking muscle:
1. Spend five minutes a day alone with your eyes closed
envisioning absolutely perfect outcomes to every one of your
major projects and interests.
2. Spend another five minutes a day alone with your eyes
closed envisioning all of your intentions, desires, and
wants. Get into a positive (happy, joyful) emotional state
and stay there through this exercise.
Faithfully,
Christopher
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"'Teamwork Is an Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done
When Sharing Responsibility' contains more practical
information and advice about the conditions under which we
humans optimize our work together than any other book you
are likely to have read"
~Terry O'Keefe, Executive Bookshelf
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576751554/partnerofficeont
For 35% off orders of 50+ books contact info@partnerwerks.com
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I will be traveling to and speaking...
- 1 October 2003, ProjectWorld, Chicago, IL, presenting
"TeamWisdom Secrets of Master Project Leaders"
http://www.projectworld.com
- 11 October 2003, KTEP Consultant Certification Workshop,
Portland, OR, http://www.partnerwerks.com/ktep
- 2-4 December 2003, Being Powerful In Any Team, public
learning event for professionals, San Antonio, TX
http://www.beingpowerful.com/
Want me to speak at your company or association? See
http://www.partnerwerks.com/services_and_products/speaking.html
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