Smart Teams

Part IIIBuilding a smart team culture

At the start of this book I outlined the steps to enabling productive flow in your culture. We looked at how to move up the ladder from distruptive to superproductive: raise awareness, develop skills, champion protocols and inspire culture. I hope you can see the opportunity here, and the way forward.

But as I have said before, I do not want this to be another book that you read and like (or not), but fail to follow through on. We need action! It is your job as a leader to inspire action and create momentum. And a few well-planned projects, executed with commitment and passion, are fundamental.

I believe the key to this change is creating simple, achievable projects that can be run alongside your normal work, then leading the hell out of those projects!

Peter Cook talks about the value of projects in The New Rules of Management. ‘There is no magic bullet that managers can call on to grow profits, drive creativity, increase performance, lift engagement — or even give us world peace', he admits. ‘But if there were, it would be implementing projects that matter.'

While many priorities will compete for your attention over the next few months, no one is likely to email you asking you to reduce the productivity friction in your team. This is a proactive initiative that needs your time, energy and focus.

The projects you create and run to reduce the friction may possibly have more impact on your team than any other projects you are involved ...