Learning How to Learn (VII): Interaction

Barely a few years ago boys and girls in Africa didn’t have specific individual ages. Rather, they were in groups, cults, and peers. So a boy's age and maturity isn’t measured by when he was born but by which age group he belongs to. In addition, initiation into higher social platforms is done in a collective way together with other members of the same group or peer.

In as much as this concept sounds archaic and possibly ineffective to us today, a careful search as to why it was done in the first place will reveal some astonishing things about how we learn. Children were grouped in peers and cults so they could learn by interaction. In some of these groups what they had weren’t “teachers” (from a narrow meaning of the word) but guides and counsellors. So, they learned to hunt together, farm together, dance together and get married together. As time went by these groups develop such strong bonds that they’ll willingly die protecting each other than live without the other.

Our present-day classes are designed in a way that narrowly imitates this method of peering but we contradict the goal of grouping by encouraging and enforcing individualism within the group. 
If you will learn effectively, I propose you form groups with people of like minds. Interact with one another, advice each other, complement weaknesses and sharpen strengths. In my book, Do it Like Kids, I suggested 5 unifying factors that ensure groups and teams work effectively. Here is a summary:

1. The unifying factor of harmonizing skills: members of a team should complement each other in skill. If you have everybody in a group having just one skill, know that you have no team at all. There is practically no way such a group can effectively provide excellent service at all times. When children form teams, team players take up roles that they feel they can best fit into. They don’t all take up the same role because it makes play boring.

2. The unifying factor of shared purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal reason. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” In line with that I say if the purpose of a team is not known and shared by the team players, abuse is inevitable.

3. The unifying factor of performance goals: A goal is an aim, something someone wants to achieve in a specified period. In view of this, a performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

-         Write them down in clear terms

-         Set a time frame

-         Make a list of everything the team will have to do

-         Plan

-         Review often

4.  The unifying factor of approach: the approach taken to achieve the performance goals is as important as setting the goal in the first place. If you know where you are going, then you immediately become restricted in the number of roads that will lead you there.

5. The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. 

Corporate Vision: Begin With Your Vision

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. ­– Jesus (The Christ)

If you want to develop corporate vision you must first have a vision! This may seem simplistic, or at best, obvious, but, many desire to build corporate vision on the foundation of no vision at all. They are the blind leading the blind. We have a lot of such all around us.

Vision is to see ahead. It means to capture a picture that others do not initially have. Vision goes beyond physical sight to mental sight. It was Helen Keller who said, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.” Without first having a deeply and thoroughly engrained vision you cannot get any sensible folks to share it with you. In a prior article, The Blind Man inFront, I noted that it was impossible to lead without seeing clearly where you are headed.

When you decide to build corporate vision you are offering to be a guide to the folks you are working with. You must be willing to guide them through every stage of the vision. To guide means to show the way to others. It means to intentionally influence the growth and development of others. You become a pilot, and mentor, and chaperone to your people.

In addition, your vision must be people-focused. Folks want to know how the fulfillment of your vision will lead to their fulfilling theirs. No one wants to remain stagnated and so in the event that your vision does nothing to add to them they will join the next bus away from you and your self-centered vision. A people-focused vision goes hand-in-hand with a visionary who is willing to teach the nitty-gritties of every aspect of the vision.

Finally, you must have clearly understood and believed in your vision to build a corporate one. Many seek the help of others in a vision they have not clearly understood and believed in themselves. They want others to do the work for them and so they fail again and again in developing corporate vision.

     {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

When you have given the right place for these areas you stand a far better chance of getting folks to buy into your vision and in turn developing a corporate vision.

Corporate Visions

And God said, “Let US make man in our image, after our likeness.” ­– God

Fact: Dreams come true. That dreams come true isn’t a statement that needs all-night research to prove any longer. Many folks have dreamed and seen their dreams come to pass. Others that did not live to see it happen left it deeply engrained in the hearts of many that people watched out to see it happen.

Fact: Big dreams are BIGGER than their dreamers. A careful analysis of big dreams will show you that they usually are bigger than their carriers – the dreamers. This is so because big dreams aren’t self-centered or myopic. They carry as many people – sometimes systems or whole nations’ ideologies – under their umbrella.  The dreamer is simply a part of the dream and not the whole.

Fact: Big dreams need teams. For significant dreams to come true you need a collection of people. A team must be built around the vision. Individual vision isn’t enough, you need corporate vision. Sometimes we want to run all alone so that we can be the only person praised but praise isn’t enough to outweigh the numerous advantages of corporate vision. Corporate vision does a lot:

1. Diversifies the initial idea and open up a world of possibilities that weren’t thought of.

2. Makes financial resources less difficult to access.

3. Makes mental resources readily available.

4. Ensures that many smaller dreams come to pass.

5.   Makes the process of actualization fun.

6.   Releases the potential of a lot of people.

7.   Fosters unity.

8.   Challenges people to grow and develop mentally.

9.    Reduces the stress that would have been on one person.

10.Makes room for expertise and skill development.

11.Builds up leaders and leadership.

12.Multiplies the speed at which goals are achieved.

13.Diminishes the probability of failure.

    {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

You would agree that developing corporate vision is important to your goals. I would, in the next few articles, focus on how to develop corporate vision for each goal you set.

Social Capital

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the Chief Priest, and so he went in with Jesus to the Chief Priest’s courtyard. Peter had to stay outside. Then the other disciple went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and got Peter in. ­– John (the apostle)  

Let’s say you want to start your dream business. You think of every item you need, you search out a location and find a perfect one, and your heart is racing to see it begin. Then you receive a report from your financial adviser who says to you, “This business will need N2,000,000 to get off the ground.” At that moment your mind goes to your account balance and you remember that you barely have N2,000 left. The next thought that goes through your mind is, “You stupid dreamer, you better wake up!”

If you are like most of us, this story describes you and your response to the universal start-up enemy: financial capital. It is easy to place a money-estimation on virtually every aspect of your life. The interesting thing about money is that the moment you bring it into a free flowing idea thought line you go blank. It often seems like the brick wall that cannot be surmounted.

Financial capital blocks our ideas because we fail to look at other forms of capital. One of such capitals is the social capital. Social capital involves every single person you know; relatives, friends, acquaintances, and the like. Social capital will open doors that financial capital may never be able to. If your dream is to meet one-on-one with the UN Secretary General, for example, you may not have the wherewithal from where you are to achieve this dream. But what if you knew the president of your country on a personal level? All you need is to hop in an official trip to the United Nations Assembly and your dream may be achieved.

           {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

        Do not look down on the people in your life. They are all there for a reason. I regularly remind myself that people are more important than things – because they truly are. 

Setting Up Your Team: (How to Make YOU a Team Player)

The strength of the team is each individual member. the strength of each member is the team. - Phil Jackson (Author)

It is sometimes easy to get into thinking the success and failure of a team is all-dependent on the team members other than you. In essence what that means is that you may think that you have attained to the state that the team needs but others need to grow. This is never true. You are a team player too and must play according to the set rules of the team. here is how you can be the right team player. 

Admit your need for help: I generally assume, correctly or otherwise, that the fact that I often look small as compared to my vision is my mind telling me that I need help. Not many people like to admit their inadequacies, interpreting it as weakness. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is strength in vulnerability and the radiance of this strength is often exposed when you let it be influenced by other people in a team.

Make “you” desirable: in team play, the people involved work with each other and not for each other. People do not want to work with an undesirable team head and team players. Make yourself someone people want to be around. Cut anything that limits your ability to get people around you involved with you. Search for things about you that make people draw close to you. Focus all your energy on bringing out these traits.

Look out for like-minds: the whole idea of teamwork is bringing your visions to fruition with the help of others. You need people that can think in line with your visions. There are people I do not dare tell a word about what my visions are all about. There are people on the other hand that I literally search for so I can share my next project with them. The difference between these two classes of people is the fact that one party kills the dream and the other party builds it.

Seek fun-people: do not work with people who show signs of disinterest in your vision or who will not derive pleasure in the process of accomplishing the vision. Everybody you are to form a team with should enjoy the process from start to finish. Success comes faster if everybody derives pleasure from the work. Failure or the inability to reach your goal also is easier to take and more easily seen as temporary if such people are on board with you. 

Setting Up Your Team: (Performance Goals)

I will now write on the unifying factor of performance goals. Goals are the life of team play because they are the aim, the “something” that teams want to achieve in a specified period.

          The unifying factor of performance goals: A performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

       
  Write it down in clear terms. Any performance goal that is not written down is no goal at all. Make sure your performance goal is written in specific, clear, unambiguous terms so every team player can understand and agree without much effort. Many times folks think they understand a thing only to see it in written form and discover the contrary is the case.

-                         Set a time target. All performance goals must have a time tag. Any goal without a time tag is a mere wish. “The vision will …happen at the appointed time. It hurries toward its goal. It won't be a lie. …wait for it. It will certainly happen.” A time tag pushes team players. With a time tag, each player knows that he or she does not have all day.

-                    Plan. Plan what the process will be for your team to reach its target. A plan is a sequential list of activities outlined with high-priority actions coming first. A plan is actually the map you and your team will follow to reach your destination. What decisions and actions should come before others? Outline them all in your plan and follow them.

-                         Review often. A team’s performance goals should be reviewed as often as possible. This makes room for changes that may arise in the course of time. This means the team players have to be versatile enough to accommodate these changes. It is worthy to note that every review should be approved by each team player before it is adopted. You do not want a situation where some team players are ready to move while some others stand back and watch.

Setting Up Your Team: (Common Purpose and Mutual Accountability)

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody. - Thomas Paine (Author)

If you have followed the articles on teamwork then you should have started considering how best to put your team in place. Today I shall discuss two other unifying factors. Without these unifying factors every team eventually goes to disarray.

The unifying factor of common purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” This applies to teams when team players do know the purpose of the team.

When a common purpose is recognized and understood, a team’s effectiveness sky rockets. It is a sorry thing to see a team with differing purposes. Any sports team with such would easily fall to a team with a better sense of it’s purpose. This applies to businesses, families, classes and the like.

A common purpose is built, first, by clearly communicating it. Indeed a team leader should be able to articulate the intent behind his or her team but beyond one-way articulation, team players should be able to understand and produce performance that clearly shows their understanding. Only when this happens can we say communication has occurred.

Also, team players should be willing to submit every action to the purpose of the team. Contradictory actions that obviously create a division in the team should not be entertained.

The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. The whole point behind team-play is mutual accountability. This is when every team player feels as much responsible for the team and its progress as everyone else. You don’t get this in hierarchy where responsibility clearly lies on the people at the helm of command. Every player in team-play learns responsibility. When one falls, all fall. When one is up, all are up, none is left behind. Accountability is demanded from every player at all times. 

Teamwork: The Assurance for Your Success

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: ...though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A strand of three cords is not easily broken. - Solomon (Third king of Israel)

I will be writing a series of articles on the need for teamwork in your success journey. This is important because ability, strength, capacity, and eventually success is multiplied geometrically when you work with a team as opposed to individuality.

Not many folks think they need help. I am sure you have heard the phrase, “self-made millionaire”, used to describe people that supposedly “made” themselves whatever they became.

Learn to work as a TEAM

Nothing can be further from the truth. None of us is completely self-made. I admit that there is a lot in your success journey that you and you alone can make happen but to say that everything you have become, you self actualized is to over state it.

Every one of us is summary of many other peoples contribution. Someone breastfed and catered for and educated you else you would not have even had a chance in life!

The fact that you need people does not make you a weakling. Interestingly it's an assurance for your strength. Every individual has personal limitations. There are things in your person that serve as limiting factors to your progress. They may have arisen from family and environmental background, societal influence, peer group associations or the media. Irrespective of the source, the main issue is that they exist and a denial of their existence does not eliminate their presence. The only way you can break personal barriers and limitations is by teamwork. You need someone who will walk and work with you, pat you on the back when things go well, encourage you when things don’t go as expected, rebuke you when you do wrong - If you are a person that cannot handle a rebuke but take offence at every instance of it, then your progress will be rather slow.

You need people with the ability of polishing your ideas and expanding them. King Solomon once noted that, “Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.” The greatest minds need sharpening. Irrespective of how revolutionary your ideas might seem to be, you need people who will do some polishing on them.