The Daley Group Institute Weblog

How can a Football team get a new coaching staff for the same players and drastically improve their record?  How can a large company get a new CEO for the same people and drastically improve their performance?  Why will a “group of superstars” get beat by a team of average players? (US Hockey Team, 1980 Olympics)  It’s the human affect, one plus one equals three.

When a business hires a new employee they evaluate the talent of that employee as they performed in past environments but do they evaluate the talent as they will perform with in the new organization.  There are two elements in placing a human resource into a team.  The team and the new hire together become a new team.  Together the new hire and the team have to be better than either would have been separately.  If we have a superstar but put them into a “toxic environment” they will under perform.  If you hire a detractor and make them a member of a successful team that team will under perform.  If the leadership allows the detractor to detract long enough the best and strongest teammates will leave and others will become toxic with the detractor. One plus one will equal 0! 

When we work with a leader we ask them to close their eyes and think about their most challenging employee.  Some of the expressions we see are amazing.  We ask them if they think about any of their problem employees when they go home.  What does that do to a manager’s performance at work and at home? We then ask them to think of their best employee.  The smiles replace the tension and stress.  If the leaders have that reaction wouldn’t you expect to get the same reaction from employees when asked about the leadership or fellow employees?  Which situation is most likely to evoke The Human Element of One plus One equals Three and which probably equals .5 or less? 

It is difficult to forecast the future performance of a team by their past record if you change one player or coach on the team.  Statisticians will tell you the probabilities of future performance by their record only to have a new leader or team mate come in a break all records.  They are a positive catalyst.  Should the world be round, should airplanes fly or should we have walked on the moon?  Not according to what we knew 100 years ago!  Should we be walking around talking on cell phones or listening to IPods?  Not according to what was believed to be fact 50 years ago.  Could these have happened because of the Human Element of One plus one equals three?

The definition of leadership is getting things done through other people.  Does the leadership place or remove obstacles to the success of the team.  When a business finds a superstar will they want to be on their team? Will they stay?  Does the leadership have a positive attitude and plan for the whole team to win?  Does the team understand and buy into the leaders plan completely.  Is the team a well run machine that functions better than any one member could by themselves. Is the team void of detractors?   If so then The Human Element applies, One plus One equals Three.  When you have a well run positive team your can expect your ROI to go off the scale and that is when visions and dreams become reality in spite of what history tell us should be possible.