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Mega Team Building

If you live in the United States and you do not live under a rock, you or someone you know may have had lotto fever recently. There was a mega lottery pool for $1.6 billion dollars. There was only one winning ticket sold and I can say it wasn’t me. Like everyone else, I had a case of lotto fever, spending money in my head before I even saw it. The dream was alive. The majority of individuals I know not only had lotto fever, but in many groups, including workplaces, the groups had it also. When a group of people band together on a mission to win it, the experience is an amazing and completely natural exercise in team building and if you payed attention, the power of the lotto team building is amazing. It showcased how team building really works and how teams come together to make something happen.
 
I want to start with a lie of team building. Does the saying, “teamwork makes the dream work,” sound familiar? This saying, straight off a motivational poster, has been branded in the brains of people, but it is not true. In reality it is the opposite. The dream work makes the team work. Mega lotto fever showcased this perfectly. Everyone had a dream to win. The individual reasons were different, but the dream to become a millionaire was the same for everyone.  This showcased the reason the dream comes before the team. True teams have a common vision. The common vision will band people together and have them work towards a goal.
 
After the dream comes the action. The group has to figure out how to achieve the goal. Everyone has a strategy to share with the group. For the lottery, some groups pick special numbers. Other groups let the lotto machine pick the numbers, but buy the tickets in special places. The group will come together, weigh the pros and cons, and will figure out what works best. When the group comes together to develop the strategy there is buy in.  Many organizations manage with the top down method, dictating the best strategy, but there is not real buy in from the group. Buy in comes from being part of developing and implementing the solution.
 
You can’t talk about groups working towards a goal without talking about leadership. Even in lotto fever, there are leaders. In lotto fever, a natural leader will emerge. The natural leader has two of the most important qualities, passion and organization. First, the leader of the lotto pool has to be passionate about winning. The passion for the cause will drive the leader to step forward, but the leader will not be successful if he is not organized. Many people are passionate, but few are organized. The natural leader will emerge when people are passionate and organized. When the leader will comes forward, tasks will be assigned, and everyone will feel part of the cause.
 
Unfortunately, the majority of the lottery players were not winners. In workplace teams, not every project will be successful. It is a plus when the big lottery is won or the strategy is on target, but the real benefit of the exercise is from the participation in the team, being part of something bigger than the individual, and from learning more about the other people in the group.
 
~Karen Cirincione
Email: kcirincione@gmail.com
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/karenjcirincione
Twitter:@kcirincione

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