Successful teams

A successful team or franchise is very hard to come by.  In professional sports, there are about five teams that I would define as franchises.  In the four main professional sports, to only have about five franchises says a lot about how difficult it is to sustain excellence at a team level.  The best example of a team that has sustained excellence is the San Antonio Spurs.  They have been at the top of the National Basketball Association for the last 16 years, and it does not look like they have any intention of slowing down.

I have been a part of only a few successful teams in my life.  The most successful team I have ever been a part of was my freshman year football team in high school.  We had an undefeated record and we won our conference by a unanimous vote.  The reason the team was so successful was because we have one boss for every part of the game.  What I mean by this is that for our offense, our quarterback was always in charge.  The play call would come in from our sidelines and then he was totally in command of the entire offense.  Nobody was every going to question him because we all had a great amount of faith in what he was doing and how he was conducting himself.  It is a lot easier to be a leader when your organization is having a lot of success versus when it is not.  On our team, we where winning and therefore everybody who was not a leader was perfectly alright following our leaders who we knew had given us success in the past. 

Now thinking about it, our team was a simple hierarchy.  We had our head coach who was the main man in charge.  Then we had all of our assistant coaches and captains who were our individual leaders on and off the field.  Our defensive leader was our middle linebacker.  Our middle linebacker never got a call from the sidelines.  I know this because I was our middle linebacker and my coach and I spent so much time together, that I knew the play call solely based on what position players the opposing teams would put onto the field.  Our defense worked as one unit because there was never any questioning of my leadership.  Everybody on our defense knew that I knew what I was talking about and that I would not throw our team into a situation where we would not be able to succeed. 

When I began to read the section of the book by Katzenbach and Smith I saw a very interesting quote.  “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, set performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” (Bolman, Deal 107) That quote is perfectly accurate when describing my freshman football team.  No one person possessed all of the skills to get the job done.  We functioned so well because every person on our team knew that we needed the other ten guys on the field if we were going to reach our goals.  We set a goal every week.  That goal was to win the next game.  We never looked ahead to the games ahead because we did not want to become distracted.  If someone was not doing their job, the entire team would call that person out and make sure they knew what they were doing wrong.  Accountability was huge on our team.

“High performing teams shape purpose in response to a demand or an opportunity placed in their path, usually by higher management.” (Bolman, Deal 107) That quote is meant for a company but it also applies to a football team.  Our demand from our coaches was to remain as a unit and to win.  My teammates and I took the demands that our coaches gave us, and we worked our hardest to execute and accomplish those demands. 

Last thing I want to say is that winning solves everything.  Nobody is going to complain when things are going well.  When you are 7-0, what is there to really complain about.  When a company is thriving, what is there really to complain about.  People start abandoning ship and complaining when things are not going well.  People begin to question leadership when you begin to lose or a company stops thriving.  Overall, winning or success makes everything much easier.  I believe that to become a great leader, you need to have been on successful and unsuccessful teams or organizations to truly earn credibility from your peers.

Opportunities

Being opportunistic is extremely difficult.  When an opportunity arises, how can you know that the opportunity will turn out to be something awesome or terrible?  It is impossible to predict the outcome of any random opportunity.  Most of the time, you do not have a lot of time to take advantage of a good opportunity.  There was one situation were I had a friend of mine have an awesome opportunity present itself, but he did not take the situation by the horns and grab it. 

Senior year of high school I was the captain of the varsity volleyball team.  I played varsity for three years in high school, and my time had come for me to take leadership of the team and be the captain.  I accepted the opportunity and really embraced the opportunity to become a leader for my team.  The season was going great until half way through the year a starting player on the team went down for the year with a broken ankle.  We really did not have a backup for that position, but another starter could have filled his position and done an ample job in the role.  Instead of offering to change positions, he asked me if he could stay at the position that he was more comfortable with. 

The rest of the year, our team really struggled because we had a gaping hole and we really struggled to fill it.  I knew that forcing my teammate to play a position he was unwilling to play would not do the team any good, but I also knew that we were going to struggle a lot because no one else could really fill the role. 

I know the reason that he did not want to switch positions was because he had become so accustomed to playing his position.  If I were in his shoes, I feel as though I would have jumped at the opportunity to try something different and experience something new.  Hindsight is always 20/20, so it is pointless to look back and point at little things that you wish went differently. 

Another situation where I distinctly remember a friend of mine not being opportunistic was about a week ago when all of my friends and I were filling out applications to go abroad.  My friend is an education major, and he at first did not believe that he could go abroad because of the various requirements that come with being an education major. 

Last week he received an email from one of his advisors about an opportunity that came about for a few education majors to go abroad.  I told my friend that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity and that he should obviously look into taking advantage of this opportunity.  Instead of embracing this chance, my friend decided to not even apply because he did not think he had enough time to research the school and make an informed decision with his major. 

I did not understand why my friend acted the way he did.  The worst thing that could have happened if he looked into the opportunity was if he found out that it was not a good decision for him.  On the other hand, the best thing that could have happened would be him actually being able to go abroad and explore the world in a completely different way. 

A lot of the time, people are so afraid of change.  Why be afraid of a possible opportunity or advancement.  In my opinion, my friend was an idiot and will regret this decision because he undoubtedly should have jumped on the opportunity that his advisor presented him with.  Now, it is past the deadline and he will not be going abroad. 

In total, opportunities are unpredictable as you never truly will know the outcome until you experience that outcome.  I wish that I could say that I take advantage of every opportunity, but that is not true.  I am a victim of staying in my comfort zone and not trying new things all the time. 

Organization experience/transaction costs

I was unaware that there is a 600 word requirement.  I am going to redo my post now. 

Over the summer I worked at a staffing agency called Professional Diversity Network.  I obtained this internship near the end of last semester and had no idea what I was getting myself into.  My first day on the job, I was given a piece of paper that detailed what I was going to be doing over the summer.  Some of the items on the piece of paper intimidated me at first because I had never done anything like it.  One of the items on the list was a long explanation that basically meant cold calling.  At first I dreaded the idea, but it helped me learn so much about the business as a whole. 

Cold calling was such a minor part of my internship.  I worked directly under the director of sales.  Basically, anything he needed done, I did it.  The director of sales and I became very close.  He showed me the ins and outs of our organization as a whole.  He taught me everything I learned over the summer.  Through him, I was able to learn the main foundation of a successful organization, at least in the field of staffing. 

The most important aspect of an office is the feel of the office.  The feel of my office over the summer was incredible.  There are at least 15 people from the office who I am going to remain very close with.  Everyday I went to work with a smile on my face because I knew that my day was going to be enjoyable.  If I was ever unsure, or had a question, I had no problem going to anyone in the entire office of 30ish people and asking them my question.  Since I was so comfortable, I was able to really show my personality and that is the reason I was able to make so many good connections there. 

Another important aspect of an organization is the ability for everyone in the office to work together.  At my office, the success of the place was reliant on how well everybody was able to work together.  One great example of a time when everybody worked together really well was when we held a career fair at Navy Pier.  The other interns and I were in charge of setting up basically the entire event.  When we got there at 9AM, we were told to do countless chores that needed to be done.  The event started at 12PM and because all of the interns were able to work together, we got everything done in plenty of time.  When all of the employees from the office got there, they immediately began to aid us in anything that needed to get done without question.  The office really came together as one unit and showed that in order to be successful, working together is a must.

Overall, I feel as though the organization I was a part of over the summer is a successful organization that will remain successful for a very long time.

Now to the topic of transaction costs.  I looked up transaction costs online and it says that “a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange (restated: the cost of participating in a market). ”(Wikipedia)  I am not entirely sure what that definition 100% means, but I can attempt to understand it.  Time is always a very important point in terms of economics.  A major transaction cost must be the time it takes to understand and complete a good transaction.  For example, the time it takes to seek out all of the information that you need to make the transaction.  I can see transaction costs playing a major role in a game theory situation.  Is that true?  Are transaction costs mostly related to game theory?