7. Team spirit
Teambuilding can do more to create bad feeling than build a team. So why do companies spend a fortune to make their employees go through ineffective team building activities as sitting cross-legged on the floor?
They do it because a great team will beat an ordinary team 99 times out of 100. So companies try to build effective teams.
Employees usually don`t complain about silly team building efforts because of apathy, fear of being labeled “anti-team” or fear of offending somebody.
So if conventional team-building activities are mostly ineffective, how can you build a great team? There are 4 key recommendations.
1/Focus on a clear objective. If you want to build a great team, make sure its members share a determined passion to accomplish something. You can get it by involving everyone in the development of the goal.
2/Have a common plan. It`s not enough to get a group of people together who care deeply about reaching a goal. They need to have a strategy for achieving it. The best team building tool ever is a good strategy that everyone buys into. If you want to increase teamwork, don`t focus on the team, focus the team on the task.
3/Create an open and honest atmosphere. Trust and respect are key. But ironically, often the best way to increase levels of trust and respect on a team is to get them focused on the goal and the strategy. This gets people saying what they really think. When people say what they really think and are held accountable, trust and respect usually follow. Don`t impose an atmosphere of false politeness.
4/Learn from the best leaders. Great teams usually have great managers. So learn how to be a great manager. Aspiring business leaders would be a lot better off if they spent less time reading management literature, and more time around people.
8. Logistics: the historical and modern perspectives.
The term “logistics” stems from the Greek word “Logisticos” which is defined as “computing and calculating”. But the word is most often associated with the military, meaning all the activities associated with the wartime deployment and ongoing support of a nation’s armed forces.
The importance of logistics to success of a military campaign has been well recognized and documented. For example, Alexander the Great developed an actual logistics system to support his troops rather than living off the land as army progressed. The Romans used a system of fortified supply depots stationed throughout their empire. Logistics also helped Napoleon Bonaparte to move and maneuver more quickly than his enemies. So, logistics is firmly rooted in the historical doctrine of war.
From the modern perspective, logistics deals with satisfying the customer. Thus, logistics is the continuous process of meeting customer needs by ensuring the availability of the right benefits for the right customer, in the quantity and condition desired by that customer, at the time and place the customer wants them, all for a price the buyer is willing to pay.
However, logistics can mean different things to different organizations.
Some firms are more concerned with producing the benefits, and their management focus is on the flow of raw materials into the production process. For them, logistics is synonymous to materials management, which is sourcing and management of raw materials and component parts.
Alternatively, consumer goods manufacturing firms are more concerned with the flow of finished goods from the end of the production line to the customer. Logistics in this situation is referred to as physical distribution.
Finally, some firms view logistics as embracing both materials management and physical distribution. They look at logistics as a way to manage the entire process of customer satisfaction, from sourcing the necessary parts and materials through production of the benefit to its delivery to the final user. This comprehensive view of logistics is sometimes referred to as supply chain management, and can lead to lower costs and better service that enhance the value received by the buyer.
To conclude, logistics, used primarily as a military strategy, has evolved to become a business concept aimed at satisfying customers.