Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
I am not about to cast myself as a business “self-help” guru. Those guys crack me up. If they had the business savvy to be successful, why are they flogging “how-to-succeed-in-business” books and audio tapes. They are good at selling books and tapes, but I’m not sure how much one can glean from them otherwise. Having said that, I had an opportunity to witness “corporate effort” (with a small “c”) in a very primal form – dog sledding.
Our family had been wanting to dog sled for many years, and never really had a good chance to do so. This year, we went up to northern New Hampshire and spent an afternoon with the Muddy Paws Sled Dog Kennel. This outfit takes in rescued dogs of proper breed with dog sledding experience, and offers drives of various duration. They opened especially for us that day, and we had the place to ourselves. The dogs were wonderful, and the new puppies cute as anything. But I digress…
To give you a sense of our dog team, we had eight dogs set up in four pairs, starting with a lead dog and his partner. The lead dog took the audible instructions from the musher (driver) and managed the team’s direction. His partner had the responsibility of keeping him in line. Lead dogs sometimes get a little full of themselves and would choose their own route if left to their own designs. The lead partner would nudge, block, and even nip, the lead dog to make sure that he followed through on the musher’s command.
The following six dogs were the real pullers, with the steadiest runners forward and the strongest at the back. We had two Malamute-cross dogs as the major traction for our sled, and they had a calm strength that was almost elegant. They were a real contrast to the more anxious and flamboyant lead dogs. Our little group was quite a collection of different roles and strengths – each necessary for the success of the group, and each relatively useless without the other.
The real eye-opener for me was how the “need to work” changed the personalities and motivation of the dogs. We had to stop to help another sled get turned around, and the dogs momentarily lost their focus. We wound up with a confrontation between the lead dog and at least one other dog that erupted into an eight-dog teeth-and-fur snarling mess. The musher got things untangled, but there were minor injuries to two of the dogs. After resetting the group, we were back on our way.
Almost immediately, the whole tenor of the team changed as the musher started to get the sled moving faster, allowing the dogs to work with focus. The cadence became steady, and you could see a change in the body posture of every member of the team. Heads were up, focused forward. Commands were precisely followed. There was a palpable joy in their movement. The team and musher were working as one unit, not as nine individuals.
I was very impressed. The lessons to me were refreshingly simple.
- One cannot succeed alone. I cannot achieve my objectives alone. I need my team.
- Every team needs diversity of talents and strengths. The core of HydroComp’s management is a partnership of engineer and business administrator. Our team is likewise built of individuals with different education and experience. We have also found that our interns – both engineering and business – offer creative insight and energy.
- There is focus when the purpose for the work is known by all team members. My management style regarding the “big picture” has not always been inclusive, to my detriment. The engineer in me wants to retain control of processes as much as I can. We lost a good employee some years ago, as I unknowingly did not include him in the broad vision of the purpose for the work he was doing. Reflecting on this, I believe that he felt a bit like a tool in my toolbox, rather than a full member of the team. It was a humbling lesson for me to learn.
- The need to work and produce is fundamental. “Busy work” is rarely worth the effort. Good team members want to be productive and see their work valued by management, customers, and clients.
Filed under: Engineering, Staff
