Put me in, coach!
One of the things I love about baseball is the subtle communication that is taking place all over the field. The signs between the catcher and pitcher, silently communicating the type of pitch and its location. The signs between the manager in the dugout, the third base coach and the batter, informing the batter whether to bunt, swing away, take the next pitch, or ask for more money in his next contract. You can imagine that, if a new player showed up on the team and didn’t take the time to find out what all the signs were, he wouldn’t be very effective and would be on the bench, “riding the pine” as they used to say, pretty fast.
So I am always a bit amazed when a vendor that is being paid handsomely for their efforts introduces a new “player” in a meeting or on a conference call, allegedly with some new expertise that is greatly needed for the project/endeavor to succeed, and the first words out of the new player’s mouth are, “I’m really not familiar with your project or environment.”
Really? Did the person coordinating the resources from your end not take the time to fill you in on a few key details, like what we’re trying to accomplish, who the team is, what our milestone dates are and what your role will be?? Or did you not bother to ask??
When you play pickup baseball in a park or schoolyard, there are no signs. That’s because everyone playing are a bunch of amateurs, not paid professionals.
How do you want YOUR team to be perceived…?
Explore posts in the same categories: communication, Expectation Setting, Leadership, quality, Service, strategy, UncategorizedTags: adaptive, communication, employees, laziness, leadership, strategy, training
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