The B-I Triangle: Team

July 4th, 2006 by Bill Perry in Business, Financial Freedom, business implementation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs

This is part 2 in an 8-part series about the B-I Triangle™ put forth by Robert Kiyosaki in his book “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing“.

The article links are Mission, Team, Leadership, Cash Flow Management, Communications, Systems., Legal, Product

A good business team is set up as what Napoleon Hill called, in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, the Mastermind Group. Says Hill:

“The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony….No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

In essence, this is saying that when each member on a team is driving toward the same goal, the collective attitudes, knowledge and philosophies of the entire group begin to mesh together and act as one mind. It is a collective conscious entity that runs through the entire group.

In order to maximize the team’s effectiveness, each person on the team must bring some unique skill or ability to the table. This leads into a brief discussion of recruiting and hiring. Most employers are quick to hire and slow to fire. If you want to maximize the odds of building an effective team, begin to do exactly the opposite. Be slow to hire, and quick to fire. Interview each prospective team member, both to make sure that they are a good fit for the team, and that the team is a good fit for them.

Further, if a current member of the team begins to drift from the team’s mission, the other team members must help that person to get back on track as rapidly as possible. If this cannot be done quickly, it will adversely affect the quality of the Mastermind. In these extreme cases, that person must be removed from the team as quickly as possible.

A substantial trait of a team that is designed to last for years is the team’s ability to be Systems-Dependent, as opposed to People-Dependent. If one person in the team seems to be the glue that binds the team together, what happens when that person leaves or dies? Water will rise to it’s own level. Here, too, the team’s Mastermind will naturally settle to it’s own natural competency-level.

A systems-dependent team, however, will basically not care if any one person leaves or passes on. Systems are the procedures that get the mission of the team done as quickly and efficiently as possible. More on systems will be covered in part 6 of this series.

A good example of building an effective team is in football. The players on any team, whether it’s a winning or a losing team, have access to the basic “systems” of football. These would be the basics such as running, tacking, and kicking. The only thing which separates a winning team from a losing team is the team’s master of the basics, coupled with single-minded focus.

The team must maintain single-minded focus on the mission of both the team and the company.

I hope this article helps with understanding of why building a winning team is important.

Posted in Business, Financial Freedom, business implementation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs |