Issue No. 66 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting will encourage you to think about the felt needs of your team and elevate your weekly staff meeting up a notch. In this week’s book, Bill Butterworth quotes Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s Buena Vista Distribution. His view of teamwork: “Don’t think golf. Think football.” And this reminder: check out the archives here for the mini-reviews of more than 65 books.
The 4 Barriers to Teamwork
You’ve just finished your weekly staff meeting on time—yet the 60-minute gathering had that same familiar feel: BORING. A small staff that meets at least 48 weeks out of 52 will invest a minimum of $10,000 in salary time alone on staff meetings. Suggestion: spend ten bucks on this week’s book to ensure your staff meetings have substance and will connect meaningfully with felt needs.
If you’ve heard Bill Butterworth speak—you already know he has memorable content and a Pro Bowl delivery. He’s also laugh-out-loud funny! His book doesn’t disappoint either—and it’s packed with team building essentials. It’s perfect for that five-minute inspirational/motivational blurb at a staff meeting—or as an outline for a team-building retreat.
Butterworth believes there are four great barriers to teamwork: 1) the barrier of personal insecurity; 2) the barrier of unhealthy competition; 3) the barrier of noncommunication; and 4) the barrier of being afraid to change. That’s a month’s worth of staff meeting topics packaged in an 89-page book—and wrapped in a hilarious, but poignant story, “Everything I Know About Teamwork I Learned at Carnegie Hall.”
Order Butterworth’s book from Amazon by clicking on this title: On-the-Fly Guide to Building Successful Teams. It’s quick-reading, but long-lasting. I read it last week “on-the-fly” and my fellow passengers wondered why I was laughing so much!
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
#1. In groups of three, dialogue about the greatest barrier to teamwork in our organization.
#2. Butterworth quotes a woman who tells him, “For the first time in all the years I’ve been working with this company, I realized why I love working here—because it feels like family.” What would you tell a job applicant about our team here?
The Team Bucket: Your 3x3 Box - Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
In Bill Butterworth’s book, he mentions that Andy Reid, coach of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, takes an offensive lineman’s approach to teamwork. In an interview in the Los Angeles Times, Reid pointed out, “Each guy doesn’t have to be an all-star; they just have to be able to master their little [3’ x 3’] box on the field. Then you can master that big box which is the actual football field. You take that approach to it, you’ll be OK.”
So, here are two of Butterworth’s questions (from the book) that every team member must answer.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
#1. What’s your three-by-three box on the team?
#2. Can you describe it in one sentence?
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