How do you get the right people in the room if the makeup of the room is already set?
I’ve written before about the importance of getting the right people on the bus, deploying them on the right problems, and getting out of their way to get to the right solutions. But what if the makeup of the room is already set?
Very few of us own the company. When we don’t, we often inherit teams and are charged with deploying them to the right problems to generate the right solutions.
I think many of us then get trapped by what’s known as “functional fixedness”. This describes a cognitive bias in which a person can only see using an object for its known use. But many, many objects can be used for alternative purposes to their primary indication.
The same is true for our teams.
If the team is set, can you supplement it? If so, how? Can you hire more personnel? Can you bring others into the meeting? Can you enlist coaches, advisors, mentors, clients, suppliers, partners, or other related parties to send messages, make calls, or join meetings?
If you can’t, can you make changes to the team? If they are limited in number, how can you be strategic and precise in getting exactly the right people in the right positions?
And if the team is firmly fixed as it stands, how can you teach, train, and develop the personnel to understand their responsibilities and the challenges they may face in new and different ways and from other perspectives?
Just because you can’t set the bus exactly how you want it doesn’t mean it’s stuck in park. Don’t get trapped by functional fixedness with your team; look for ways to expand, supplement, and develop your team to achieve the things that great teams do.
You’ll often surprise yourself…and them!
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