I first learned of this quote from a Roman General when I was in the Marines…It stuck with me. I decided to find it again when challenged by work with a client who seems to specialize in reorganizing their org chart every couple of months.

“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

Upon further review, as the saying goes (and with the power of the Internet), I learn that it is improbable that Gaius Petronius Arbiter uttered these words. Too bad. It sounds better from Roman times but this is an eternal truth. The attribution remains murky, there are a few possible sources but that doesn’t matter for us today. Whoever said it, they were on to something and we have all seen it.

Reorganizing is sometimes important and valuable. It can often be confusing, inefficient and demoralizing. When we deploy as Marines as part of a Marine Amphibious Ready Group we generally combine the team 18 months prior to deploying. We get to know the other players on the team (the Marine Air Ground Task Force) as we come from different areas and we learn to work together. Within our own squadron we had combat crews, groups of pilots who flew most of their time, and all actual missions, together. My first float I was the copilot for Beetle and my second float I was pilot and Nuts was my copilot. We were a team. We could act and know what the other would do. We were highly efficient because of it.

Extend this to the workgroups in your firm. Cohesion can be defined as when the values/objectives of the group transcend that of the individual. In other words, total buy-in to the mission. Total understanding of what is required and who can best deliver it. This is leverage and it wins in business just as it wins in battle.

What steps can you take now, as the year begins, to bring stability to your teams, crews, job-sites, work groups etc? The payoff can be substantial and I encourage you to go for it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.