Dan is busy working on his presentation for the Advanced Issues Employment Symposium so he decided to share this column written by business communications consultant Chip Cruze.
by Chip Cruze
Over the Labor Day weekend, my family and I went whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River. What a rush! Diving into those rapids in that rubber boat was like riding a roller coaster for an hour and a half.
As we were making our way down the river in East Tennessee (during one of the calm transitions, of course), it struck me how much this was like the workplace. Everything seems so much better when you’re working together, paddling in rhythm, taking cues from the guide as he shouts instructions above the din of the rushing water. And like the workplace, those elements were the foundation for our success.
Our guide, Salmon (interesting that we were going downstream, huh?), was like a company CEO. He was confident, articulate, and unquestionably in charge. Before we started our adventure, Salmon addressed the group and basically laid out our “company’s” mission (to get safely to the end), strategy (to stay down the middle), and tactics (paddle together in rhythm). He explained his communication strategy (commands he would bark out throughout the trip) and his performance expectations (that we would all be capable of following his simple instructions).
So we had a clear understanding of our leader’s direction and were motivated to implement his vision. As happens in many workplaces, all that went to hell in a handbasket once the action started, but we were periodically reined in when we lost our way. The two paddlers in the very front of the raft were tasked with staying in rhythm so those directly behind them could just follow their paddle stroke. But there were times when the two lead paddlers were out of sync. So guess what? Yep, the whole team was out of sync. Often it works that way, doesn’t it? A team leader gets off task and the next thing you know the whole team is in disarray, working on something that is only vaguely related to the original project.
Fortunately, Salmon was quick and even-handed with his admonition that we stay in rhythm. Likewise he was liberal with praise throughout when we were in sync (which I’m proud to say was most of the time). It was like the workplace in a microcosm — and very well run. And like a very well-run company in which the expectations are clear, the boss communicates well, and everyone works as a team, we had a great time!
Isn’t that the idea — to create a workplace where leadership is obvious, goals are clearly communicated, and motivation follows? Like the paddlers in our raft, everyone has a responsibility for the group’s success, and it certainly helps when your leader inspires the kind of confidence Salmon instilled in us.
Do your part to contribute to a great workplace culture: Be a team player, communicate well with everyone in the company, regardless of their position in the company, and have some fun while you’re at it. Life’s too short and we spend too much time at work for it to suck. The cool part is that when these all come together, productivity soars, too!
Chip is a communications consultant and member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). He is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and holds that organization’s Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification. Chip is a certified Rule 31 Mediator approved by the Tennessee Supreme Court Dispute Resolution Commission. You can follow Chip on Twitter at @cruze24.