InformationWeek

Secret CIO: Team Building Is For You

In another exercise in redundancy, management arranges the questions so they neatly fit predetermined answers

By Herbert W. Lovelace
Issue column appeared: Oct. 7, 1996

Those of us reporting to executive committee members had a team-building meeting last week at a local retreat. You know the type of place I'm talking about: an old mansion set on a beautiful estate where businesspeople get together, wear carefully chosen casual clothing, act friendly to each other, and discuss the problems they haven't been able to solve while garbed in suits at the office. Ostensibly, we were there to assess how we were doing as a company and to strengthen, as the invitation said, "the synergy of the management team."

The day started with breakfast and a review by executive committee members of the state of the business. They were not very positive and I was not surprised, as there have been storm clouds on the horizon. Several of our product lines have flattening market penetration, and the new ones from R&D don't seem earth-shaking.

But we aren't any better than anyone else in the industry at predicting customer demand, and the return on equity employed (our measure of success) has been excellent. In any case, we were instructed in the opening message from our president, Phil Whitestone, and our CFO, Sid Gornish, that we should officially worry.

We spent the next two hours identifying problems the company faced. They were the typical ones you might expect: a need to lower costs, improve market position, eliminate bureaucrac y, improve communication, and strengthen working relationships. We then divided into smaller groups, each designated to discuss one of the topics. Interestingly enough, our high-priced facilitator/consultant had helped us identify exactly the number of key topics as the preset number of discussion groups. Each group included a member of the executive committee to provide guidance and help keep us on track.

I found this last part rather funny, having watched how frequently executive committee meetings meandered all over the place. I shouldn't have been laughing, though. It was evident when we got together after lunch that all of the groups had received remarkably similar guidance.

The rest of the day was spent discussing ways to improve company performance. Even though I am basically of a cynical mind, I have to admit that we came up with some good ideas that, if followed through, will help. We also came up with sobering alternatives that could have a painful impact on the workers in the company.

Special Talents
Later we had cocktails and finished up with a great dinner that I figure could be paid for by firing only two clerks. In his after-dinner speech, Phil told us that the day had identified the need for us to use our special talents, working together as a management team, to reengineer our respective departments so as to lower costs, reduce head count, and improve service.

While we came up with some right answers, I found the whole exercise rather depressing. These meetings are supposed to build enthusiasm and trust. It would have been better if Phil and friends had come out with what they wanted up front. To a large degree, the day was designed as a buy-in to their view of the problem and their solutions. It was more team manipulation than team building.

We were there to find for ourselves the solutions that the executive committee had already decided made sense. To liven things up, I think they should have given a prize to the first team able to find management's hidden agen da. Now that would have been fun.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. He can be contacted by E-mail at secret@cmp.com. He'll provide real answers (with whimsical comments) to your questions on his Web page , .

Comments on this story?

http://www.informationweek.com