Let me illustrate my thinking on issues of corporate performance, innovation, teamwork and the basic issue of alignment, since I think that some people get this wrong. And, as usual, I will try to keep this as simple as possible!

Let me take a really simple approach using some stuff out of the attic and constructing some ideas on teamwork:

First, there is the issue of how things normally work, people-wise, within an organization:

The Chaos of Un-Aligned People

Then there is the issue of teamwork, getting people going in the same direction and in alignment to collaborate and push forward together:

The team, facing forward and ready to go.

And then there is the rigid alignment that some people think is positive, with people in lockstep and overly aligned:

We can be TOO aligned and rigidly structured.

If there is too much rigidity and structure in the system, people will spend more time keeping people in line and maintaining control and the innovative and collective collaboration of the group will suffer. Keeping a balance between alignment and chaos is where we are likely to find the highest levels of motivation and engagement and the sharing of ideas. Control will limit intellectual collectivity; some level of chaos will help generate innovation.

Since I got that old box of LEGO® out of the attic, I might as well start messing around and creating some stuff. I’ve now taken about 150 pictures to use these LEGO to illustrate some of the Square Wheels concepts in a slightly different way, visually. Expect to see many more in here…

You can see some of my colleague Hakan Forss’ work at http://hakanforss.wordpress.com/too-busy-to-improve/

Please also note that I have a whole big bunch of LEGO based exercises — free — on my other website. You can go to that page of game designs by clicking here:

Some LEGO-based exercises

For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.

 
Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

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Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

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