Last week, I spent most of my time working on updating the ManageTrainLearn e-learning courses. (Coming soon to a website near you!)

When I say "most of the time", I mean that 20% of the time went like a dream and I updated 80% of the courses without a hitch. However, 80% of the time went on trying to resolve a handful of less than 20% of the courses.

(And if those aren't good examples of the 80-20 Pareto principle, I don't know what are.)

The reason why I spent so much time trying to fix a handful of courses that wouldn't play ball was that, when it comes to getting things right, I'm a perfectionist.

When other people see the big picture and what they're doing right, my brain slips into seeing all the little details and what I'm doing wrong.

I should know better.

If, like me, you have a strong perfectionist streak in your make-up, you'll have spent a lifetime agonising over the 20% of things that didn't work rather than the 80% that did.

Well, last week, in the middle of my frustrating battle with the DHTML and the file transfers, I had a eureka moment, triggered first by the excessive amount of time I was taking and secondly by a blog from my friend Scott Ginsberg.

Scott happened to be writing about the very thing I was resisting: imperfection.

And, in his own inimitable way, he was championing all the things that make perfectionists like me uncomfortable, but that we most need to learn.

Like showing your vulnerability; believing that people really want the real, honest and imperfect you; easing back on the need to see perfection in others; learning to live in shades of grey, rather than good-bad, right-wrong; and "walking the halls" with an attitude of confident uncertainty.

In short, Scott was saying that there really isn't anything wrong with imperfection. It's what makes you more human and it's what people identify with and buy into.

So, that's a good lesson learnt.

In future, I hope the lesson will come back to me whenever I find myself spending up to 80% of my time on up to 20% of my problems.

As U. S. Anderson said in "The Magic Of Your Mind", "When imperfectness enters a man's soul, he is able to show that he does not live in the world alone but with millions of others in whose hearts exists the same animating spirit."

Or, to quote Scott Ginsberg, "What would happen to your career if you were known as the biggest imperfectionist in your company?"

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We've all been there. You walk into a bank, restaurant, or store and suddenly feel it, that vague sensation that all is not well. It drips from the ceilings and sits in puddles on the floor. The employees are lost in thought, unable to decide whether they'd rather be somewhere else or stay and kill each other. And you're the lucky one bathing in all the poison they can ladle up.

Yeesh.

I hope you've experienced the other side, too. You walk in the door and are gob smacked by a sense of well-being. This isn't just a place where people work, it's a place that WORKS. The employees want to be there and they want YOU to be there. You feel your brow relax, and the corners of your mouth head ever-so-slightly north. You don't wanna leave.

So which of these do YOU work in?

Now, which of these environments do you think YOUR employees rather work in?
So you're wondering if that six-headed, chain-smoking, flatulent monster that's been "hiding" in the supply closet is the Beast we're talking about here.

Here Are 9 Symptoms of a Dysfunctional Workplace:

1. People say one thing and mean another
2. People give lip service to new ideas, only to undercut them in private
3. Defensiveness
4. Saying you'll do something and then not doing it
5. Chaos
6. Deflection of feedback and blame
7. People pretending they "missed the memo on that one"
8 Refusal to deal with conflict
9. Gossip and backstabbing

When you think of a dysfunctional organization, you might picture a lot of screaming and yelling. But take a close look at this list. There's very little that has to do with raised voices, and the only mention of "conflict" is the failure to deal with it directly.

You will have conflicts in the workplace. The key is to address it in a healthy and productive way. Yelling at someone isn't the best way to communicate displeasure, but it's a heck of a lot better than whispering behind that person's back, which gets us into the excruciating, crazy-making world of the passive-aggressive.

If I had to nominate just one of thing from the list above as the most destructive symptom of the dysfunctional workplace, there's no contest. It's GOSSIP. A workplace full of whispered gossip is as painful and maddening as a buzzing mosquito at bedtime. It is destructive to the soul of your workplace and the souls of your people who never feel safe and always wonder who is talking behind their backs.

When people gossip about others, you may as well have them bring baseball bats and beat each other. At least that will heal. If a happy and functional workplace is your goal, there are few more productive places to put your energy than the absolute elimination of gossip.

How to End Gossip & Create a Happy Workplace Environment Where People Actually Want to Work

Step one is to recognize that gossip is an attempt at communicationâ014seriously screwed up communication, sure, but communication nonetheless. You can't eliminate the behavior without providing something to replace itâ014namely a good and healthy way of communicating.

All Jack had to do was to go to Tom and say, "Dude, when you are late with that analysis, I end up on my knees to my boss because then my report is late. Please promise me you'll get that to me on time from now on." Reasonable. Direct. Easy.

If Jack came to you with gossip, simply say, "Gee, it sounds like you need to talk to Tom directly so you can work this out." Lather, rinse and repeat until the person wakes up!

Once you establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person's back, give your employees permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. Create a trusting and open environment and watch the dysfunctions in your workplace ebb away.

The Next Step to Ending Workplace Dysfunctions: Build a Shared Vision

Now you've recognized the symptoms and diagnosed the disease. Time for the cure.

Most workplace dysfunctions amount to employees shooting their energy at each other because there's nothing else to aim for. What's needed is a single, shared vision.

Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Everyone wants to feel productive and be happy. Give yourself and your team members a clear and positive picture of where you want to go as a group. Most of them will jump at the chance to be a part of it. When people align around a vision of great service, pettiness and dysfunctional workplace behaviors fall away and people become who they need to be to make it happen.

Will there still be those who stubbornly hold on to their dysfunctions? I guarantee it. And for the sake of the rest of you, gently but firmly encourage those folks to find and follow their bliss elsewhere.

Are you ready to do what it takes to end the dysfunctions and create a can-do culture in your workplace?

Roxanne Emmerich is renowned for her ability to transform "ho-hum" workplaces into massive results-oriented "bring-it-on" environments. To discover how you can motivate employees, ignite their passion and catapult performance to new levels, check out her new book - Thank God It's Monday. Now, you can get a free sneak preview at: http://www.thankgoditsmonday.com/preview_the_book/

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If you are new to facebook then I can strongly recommend the video series at butterscotch,Facebook For Grownups. Ten videos totalling less than 30 minutes covering signup, finding friends, developing your profile, applications and feeds, privacy, groups and events, videos and navigation.

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Execution is everything. Plan all you want, dream all you can, then turn that key or you've accomplished nothing. Execution is what separates those with lofty ideas from those who end up winning the game. It's about taking strategies and making sure they are implemented with power.

Creating a culture of execution is a leadership issue. It combines creating a "no-excuses, get-it-done" culture with the systems, processes, and accountabilities that ensure things are done consistently and well. But it's also more than a leadership issue.

Plan, execute, measure, celebrate

People at every level in an organization can get bogged down in planning and strategizing without ever getting off the pot.

It's easy to guess which things in a company are measured and audited: It's the things that people actually DO and do well. If you want something done with fairly strong consistency, set measurable benchmarks.

But don't forget to put systems in place to see if the benchmarks are being met. If a standard is measured in the forest, and no on is there to audit it--does it make a difference? Not bloody likely. Why should it?

You can't monitor and audit every facet of your business, or you won't have time to run the business. So where does execution matter most? It matters most in the critical moments I call Moments of Truth--the moments where execution can mean the difference between success and failure.

Focus like a laser on Moments of Truth

Moments of Truth are those critical times when a customer forms an impression of you, deciding whether your offerings and their standards see eye-to-eye. Though they vary from industry to industry and business to business, every business has them. Define them, create measurable goals and a way to assess progress, and GO.

Use weekly planning meetings in which each attendee declares focused results following a clean process and you will create magic. These meetings create the engine to keep people focused on doing the right things and getting results in the areas that matter. It also reveals the "stealth slackers"--those who are otherwise masterful at hiding and looking busy. Got some of those?

Don't let "busyness" get in the way of business

Top performers don't just stay busy--they know how to get the RIGHT things accomplished. Top performing leaders also know how to get their people focused on doing the right things, especially those things intimately tied to the Moments of Truth that can make or break a company. They know that accepting no excuses from their team members means permitting no excuses from themselves as well.

In the end, execution boils down to three crucial ideas:

- Define your Moments of Truth and how you will measure progress.
- Put systems in place to instruct and assess, then hold people accountable (including yourself).
- Celebrate victories large and small at every step along the way.

Miracles are supposed to happen, but they require a steadfast, ironclad system of execution and a leader who is committed to making the miracle happen. So be the miracle!

Roxanne Emmerich is renowned for her ability to transform "ho-hum" workplaces into massive results-oriented "bring-it-on" environments. To discover how you can create a motivate employees to execute plans without fail check out her new book - Thank God It's Monday. Now, you can get a free sneak preview at: http://www.thankgoditsmonday.com/preview_the_book/

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Here are a couple of tools that I find extremely useful in internet marketing.

The first is cCleaner. This is a tool that you should use every day. By clearing your cookies, you ensure that the results that you get from search engines are not tainted by your previous browsing history. Google's results are partly based on what you have searched for before. So, if you have been doing keyword research on "gardening tools", the results that you obtain will gradually become distorted by your previous clicks.

Another reason for using cCleaner is to keep your browser running smoothly by clearing away clutter. But cCleaner will also do the same for the whole of your PC, deleting temporary files scattered around your hard disk from installs or simply using Office.

Finally, if you have a number of accounts at a particular site, you may wish to keep these identities â018unlinkedâ019 in the eyes of the site.

Link to cCleaner

Evernote

The next tool that I would recommend is Evernote. I can hardly believe that this is free (although there are premium versions). Evernote is an information store. I use Evernote as my repository for new information, particularly from the internet. When browsing I can select some text, right click and â018Add it to Evernoteâ019.

The best function of Evernote though is the Clipping Panel. You can use it to select any part of a screen and create an image from it. All the images in this post were created using the Evernote clipping tool.

Watch Evernote in action below:

Link to Evernote

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I have read so many forum posts over the last few weeks about generating backlinks and there seems to be too much focus on generating backlinks purely for search engine positioning (SERPs).

That is not to say that generating backlinks for SERPs is not important - however, I think it would be more effective if the starting point was not, "How many backlinks can I get" but instead was "Where can I place a link that a human being might actually click on it."

In other words, if the primary reason for placing the link is to generate traffic, the SERPs will take care of itself. Why? Because the types of places that will get the most clicks are the same places that rate highly in search engines. In other words, don't spend time chasing links in directories and anonymous scuttle and pligg sites - instead, spend time seeking our the places where your potential customers may browse.

There is an additional benefit to this approach too - you may actually find some useful sites!

,

Yes this is possible - for any search term.

I explain how on this lens at Squidoo - First Page of Google.

However, if you really want the secret sauce, you will want to return to the first page of Google page on the main website, sign up for the newsletter and find out how to create the xml file that makes it all possible. For a sneak preview of what is possible, click on the Google button below and subscribe. Then try out a Google search on "article marketing".

,

Here are some comments from Joe Griffin:

"Building a presence in the social web is all about reputation and branding. Most of the web's top ranking websites maintain strong brand recognition in their respective industries. Strong branding leads to natural inbound links, and this is the lesson to be learned about building a reputation within social media networks. Most of the major social networks like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, purposely nofollow or truncate outbound links. This strategy drastically cuts down spam in their networks, and improves their quality and relevancy in the major search engines.

So, simply building profiles and linking to your site won't help. If youâ019re interested in leveraging social media portals to improve your website's rankings, then you need to look at the strategy in a completely different light. First and foremost, participating in the social web means building brand recognition, which can be used for your personal brand, your business brand, or both. It's the brand recognition that leads to improved linking to your website - it's not the social media websites themselves that will give your website link popularity. The inbound links will come from bloggers, forum moderators and users, resource websites, and new friends and colleagues that you will meet along the way.

Social networks build brands. Brand building is the key to top rankings over the long haul. Recent updates by Google, including the Vince update validate these comments."

Here is a link to the original article:

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Article Marketing Tips (5.229) Article Marketing Tips There are many reasons why you should...

,

A constant refrain on my website is that quality is more important than quantity. This applies particularly to backlinks.

Finding backlinks can be incredibly time-consuming and often there is little reward for all the hard work. If Google doesn't value the site on which you create your backlink, then it won't value your backlink either.

That is why sites such as hubpages, squidoo and Yahoo Answers are so important. Quality sites, with an active user community effectively moderating content. Google can trust the content and so the link is valuable.

But how can you find the links quickly? Enter, Market Samurai, a program that I refer to several times on the website (Finding Niche Keywords Using Market Samurai).

Follow this link to view a short video on how Market Samurai can help you to Find Backlinks.

,

Here are a couple of tools that I find extremely useful in internet marketing.

The first is cCleaner. This is a tool that you should use every day. By clearing your cookies, you ensure that the results that you get from search engines are not tainted by your previous browsing history. Google's results are partly based on what you have searched for before. So, if you have been doing keyword research on "gardening tools", the results that you obtain will gradually become distorted by your previous clicks.

Another reason for using cCleaner is to keep your browser running smoothly by clearing away clutter. But cCleaner will also do the same for the whole of your PC, deleting temporary files scattered around your hard disk from installs or simply using Office.

Finally, if you have a number of accounts at a particular site, you may wish to keep these identities â018unlinkedâ019 in the eyes of the site.

Link to cCleaner

Evernote

The next tool that I would recommend is Evernote. I can hardly believe that this is free (although there are premium versions). Evernote is an information store. I use Evernote as my repository for new information, particularly from the internet. When browsing I can select some text, right click and â018Add it to Evernoteâ019.

The best function of Evernote though is the Clipping Panel. You can use it to select any part of a screen and create an image from it. All the images in this post were created using the Evernote clipping tool.

Watch Evernote in action below:

Link to Evernote

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One of the really hard but powerfully effective skills of communications is to speak with good purpose.

Speaking with good purpose means conversing with others in a way that is honest, straightforward, and with the aim of building better relationships.

Take for example the following phrase: "You're so sloppy. Your work area is such a mess."

This is likely to antagonise the person to whom it is directed who will most likely respond in the same manner (since behaviour breeds behaviour) or go on the defensive. Either way, your point will be defended or denied and the conversation, to say nothing of the relationship, will pretty quickly be over.

If, on the other hand, you worked out in advance that you really needed the other person to know how you felt and what you wanted them to do, you could phrase the same message in the following way which leaks no anger or put-down: "I find it really hard to share an office with you because we have such different ideas about organisation."

Now, you have the basis for a much better working arrangement.

Bobby DePorter, the president of Quantum Learning Network, says that there are many ways we can learn how to speak with good purpose. Here are 3...

1. a "No Tolerance to Gossip" policy, since gossip is exactly the opposite of speaking with good intent.
2. letting people know your intent when you speak. So, instead of the slightly sinister-sounding "Have you got a minute?", use visible communication and let them know what's on your mind, as in "Have you got a minute to talk about the Jones' contract...?"
3. avoiding shut-downs by turning the conversation from them to you. So, if someone is telling you about a problem they've got, don't "me-too" them ("Yeah, I know what you mean. The same thing happened to me...") and don't give them your solutions ("If I were you...").

Marshall Thurber, the real estate mogul, has a rule in his office: "If it doesn't serve, don't say it." When he finds anyone breaking this rule, with gossip, negativity, or not thinking before opening their mouth, the culprit has to put a $20 in the charity box.

The result is not only that people stop saying things that are hurtful, malicious, or just plain unnecessary. They stop thinking them too.

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In challenging economic times, buyers look for value. The more you provide, the more likely you are to become the provider of choice. Presentations offer excellent opportunities to provide that value at different stages of the business development cycle.

5 Ways to Create More Value in Your Presentations

1. Solve a problem instead of peddling programs.

People know when they're being sold to and it makes them uncomfortable. Prospects invest their time in attending or listening to a presentation because they believe it will benefit them in some way. They don't attend to hear a thinly veiled sales presentation.

Violating those expectations by promising one thing and delivering another constitutes a "bait and switch" that quickly turns prospects off. Prove to them they've made a wise investment by placing your focus on education instead, and you'll find a more receptive audience.

When you can solve a problem or remove some pain, you're positioned as a resource instead of a vendor. The problem you address should resonate with the audience's experience. That means you need to do some audience analysis as you prepare the presentation. Think about:

- What questions does your target market ask most frequently?
- What three challenges do they regularly face in business?
- What are the top mistakes people in similar situations make?

When you have the opportunity to survey the audience in advance, you can customize your message even more and give them solutions that are immediately actionable.

2. Provide value-based marketing materials.

The typical presenter hands out colorful brochures, slick flyers and glossy postcards about himself and the services he offers. These provide no value to the audience. That's why these materials have an extremely short shelf life.

Instead, distribute white papers, special reports, published articles, checklists and tip booklets. These serve as resources the audience will use and keep. They also provide top of mind awareness after the presentation. One of the pieces I circulate includes a four-page resource guide on creating and using visuals. It contains a step-by-step guide to creating effective visuals, examples of different types of charts and an article on how to avoid the most common errors with PowerPoint presentations. I've seen it in client's offices five years after they received it. You add value through these collaterals when the information helps the audience save money, increase their available time or perform a task more efficiently.

3. Get your presentation accredited to count for continuing education units.

Many professional organizations require continuing education to maintain professional designations. Partner with one of them to develop a presentation or course that meets these requirements. It provides value to the members of the organization and increases your demand as a speaker. Conduct some research to determine which courses are mandatory and which are electives. Focus on the former so your course development efforts provide information people must have. Since most organizations require a certain number of professional education hours annually, this can help you develop ongoing repeat business.

4. Offer a complimentary initial consultation for attendees.

If people aren't quite willing to hire you yet, but will take the next step, an initial consultation can serve several useful purposes. First, it provides an added benefit from attending the presentation. You'll be giving audience members another reason to believe they're getting a good return on their investment of time. Second, it provides an opportunity for each of you to explore the other's approach, working style and personality. You can probably determine during that initial conversation whether you can work together productively. Third, it gives prospects the opportunity to "try before they buy." It can increase their comfort level in hiring you and move them further along the sales process. Limit the offer to the first ten
to respond. That way you can set boundaries for yourself and increase the sense of urgency. Don't worry about "giving too much away." Prospects will recognize your generosity and you'll build a relationship of trust.

5. Partner with non-competing professionals that serve your target market to create an educational seminar.

For example, an attorney and an accountant might co-produce a seminar for small business owners on "10 Strategies To Collect Accounts Receivable in Tough Economic Times." A business broker and a banker might organize a seminar on "5 Essentials You Must Know Before You Buy a Business." Such cooperation allows you to share expenses, combine the power of your individual lists and leverage different perspectives on the same topic. You'll need to agree on the desired outcomes and make sure the project is mutually beneficial.

You'll have to invest some time to incorporate these benefits into your presentations. It will require some thoughtful audience analysis, creativity in designing materials and determined follow-through with accrediting agencies and partners. But the return on that investment can be significant. When you add value to your presentations, you pull business in, rather than pushing it on, prospects.

With his new book Rainmaking Presentations: How To Grow Your Business by Leveraging Your Expertise, Joseph Sommerville, Ph.D. helps professionals, small business owners and entrepreneurs including accountants, attorneys, engineers, executives, financial planners add influence to their expertise and make more money during challenging economic times. Now, you can download the first chapter for free at http://www.RainMakingPresentations.com

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It seems to me that one of the differences between leaders and followers is their attitude to problems.

Most people approach a problem in one of three frames of mind:

1. They get uncomfortable and wish it would go away.
2. They feel they have to come up with a quick and correct answer.
3. They look for someone or something to blame.

As a result, most people worry about their problems until they can be resolved.

Leaders are different. They have trained themselves to look at problems in three opposite frames of mind:

1. They see them as normal and therefore not something to worry about.
2. They see them as opportunities to learn and move ahead. As Richard Bach put it: "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hand."
3. They see solutions as inevitable.

On our ManageTrainLearn Thinking Skills programmes, we teach our trainees that problems can always be resolved by two approaches: moving your thinking to a higher level and taking your time.

Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now, says that seeing a situation as a "problem" is the result of ego-based thinking. In this kind of thinking, a problem arises when it threatens our image of ourselves as competent, capable, and confident.

By moving our thinking from ego-based to non ego, or spirit-based thinking, our problems dissolve into thin air. They become simply another "interesting" situation with lots of opportunities to explore, experiment, and have fun.

Taking our time is the second way to solve problems.

Tom Hicks, of business consultancy Connexus, says that people are born problem-solvers but don't realise it. Our fear of discomfort means we rush into a solution when it would be infinitely better to take our time.

By being patient, we allow ourselves to put the solution at the end of the process of enquiry and higher-level thinking. It also means being able to live with "life unresolved", not always a comfortable thing to do.

Hicks adds that a problem is like a curve in the road where we can't see the road ahead. When we take the bend quickly, we come a cropper. When we take it slowly, we make it easily.

The next time you face a problem which appears to knock you off-track and de-rail you, calm your thoughts and take your time.

And, bit by bit, you will become a leader of class.

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I am sometimes asked to define the difference between old-style organisations that use control to get things done and new-style organisations that use empowerment.

And this week I discovered the answer: in empowered organisations, people can disobey and become heroes.

What prompted me to this conclusion was reading about how guide dogs for the blind are trained. If you've ever seen a guide dog working, you'll know how devoted they are to their owners and how well-trained they are.

However, on occasions, the guide dog will disobey, for example, when the owner believes it's OK to cross a road and the dog notices at the last moment an approaching speeding car. Then the dog knows that, whatever its training, its care and protection to its owner comes first and won't go.

Bruna Martinuzzi of Clarion Enterprises who gave me this insight calls this "intelligent disobedience".

In empowered organisations something similar happens when employees know that, whatever the rules and procedures say, sometimes you have to break the rules for the greater good.

Peter Grazier tells the story of going to his favourite baker's shop one day to buy something to eat.

His gaze fell on the most delicious-looking chocolate muffins and the shop assistant noticed too.

However, Peter was on a diet and, resisting temptation, ordered the healthier option of oatcakes instead.

His gaze, however, returned to the muffins so the shop assistant asked if he'd like some. Peter hesitated for a moment and then said, No.

He paid for his oatcakes, set off home and thought back to how delicious those muffins would have been.

When he got home, Peter opened his bag, took out the oatcakes, and found that the shop assistant had inserted a free muffin with them.

That's empowerment and creating a customer for life. Even if it's disobedience.

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Attain Response is changing the way businesses do business.

Attain Response is a complete internet marketing system that uses powerful tools of attraction enabling businesses like yours to attract engage and succeed with your customers thereby increasing public awareness of your products and services giving you an advantage over your competitors as you acquire new customers while also staying in contact with existing ones.

You can deliver your website to all your contacts in one single click or showcase a particular product or service with a live broadcast while also being able to measure and refine your marketing efforts.

Fewer and fewer people are responding  to traditional advertising media as the internet plays a bigger part in their lives making email and video the most effective form of marketing for businesses today.

Video compels viewers to take action and over 40% of internet users check their email inboxes more than three times a day.

The Attain Response Marketing system provides a cost effective opportunity for you to build a stronger brand image for your products and services with results you can track using methods previously only available to large companies with big marketing budgets.

To increase your profits arm your business with Attain Response today at www.armyourbusiness.co.uk

    

 

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MS Word
MS Excel
MS Access
MS Powerpoint
MS Outlook
MS Project

Windows
Vista
OS X
ACT
GoldMine
Acrobat

Internet Exp
Firefox

 

Assert yourself
Customer Care
Delegation & Empowerment
Project Management
First Line management Skills
Effective Meetings
Report Writing
Telephone Techniques
Time Management
Project Management

Influencing Skills
IOSH Working Safely
Leadership and Management
Management Communication
Management
Disciplinary and Grievance
Technical Report Writing
The appraisal process
Train the Trainer

 

Corel Draw
Photoshop
Go Live
Dreamweaver
Frontpage
AutoCad
Flash
Freehand
In Design
Illustrator
Fireworks
Quark
Publisher
Visio
Cold Fusion
Paint Shop Pro

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I read recently that teamwork is much rarer in our organisations than we tend to think. Apparently, most of our managers don't think it is either necessary for people to commit themselves to group goals or possible for them to give feedback and support to each other without being told.

A pity that, especially as we know that teamwork works wonders in nature. If you have ever seen a flock of geese, you'll know what I mean.

Consider the following:

1. Geese don't fly in a V-shaped formation just because it looks good. They do it because it protects the members of the flock, conserves energy and allows them to cover more distance. A classic example of high team and task concern.

2. As the bird in front flies forward, it leaves a gap behind it called a vortice. This means that its teammates have less air resistance to fly against. A great example of putting teammates first.

3. When the bird in front gets tired, it moves to the back of the V and all the other birds move up, so that everyone gets a turn at leading and others get to take on other roles. That's in-built versatility and flexibility.

4. The formation allows all the birds to keep an eye on each other and to cover up to 71% more flying distance than if they were on their own. A case of win-win all round.

5. Whenever a bird flies out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag of going it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the birds in front. A fine way to remind anyone who fancies going it alone of what they'd be missing.

6. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. A true illustration of leading from behind.

7. When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot, two geese drop out of line and follow their fellow member to help and provide protection. They stay with their colleague until it recovers or dies. Then they launch out on their own with another formation or re-join their own flock.

We often use this geese analogy on our ManageTrainLearn Teambuilding courses. From it, we pull out the following lessons that are as valid for great teams of people as they are for great flocks of geese.

a. look after each other. It's the only way to survive as a team.

b. take your turn to lead. Put another way, take your turn to be responsible for where the team is going.

c. have a break now and again and let others carry you just as you will carry them when they're tired.

d. when one of the team falls out, don't stick to what you know and can do. If the team needs it, move to a new position and fit in.

e. if you want to get to your goal, stay in formation for as long as it takes. Only when everyone does their bit is the formation maintained and the goal achieved.

f. give feedback and encouragement to each other. Don't be afraid to speak up and don't be afraid to hear what others are saying.

g. when someone is in trouble, go to their help even if it means you have to catch up later on.

I always remember a survey from many years ago that found that the one thing people missed most when they left a job was not the work, not the pay, but the team.

Teamwork is special. It's one of the few things you get for free when you join an organisation. It has the potential to be your most memorable experience of organisational life.

Just ask the geese.

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