be on a passionate team

Large companies often make mission statements and choose core values. My small company, Inxight, has been acquired by Business Objects. Business Objects has as a core value, Passion, along with Integrity, Leadership, Innovation, Transnational Teamwork, and Customer Success. There are things I can’t talk about, but this is public info available at the external website. Now Business Objects has been acquired by an even larger company, SAP. Which interestingly shares the core values of Passion and Integrity. Looks like I’m moving in the right direction, just by being in the right place for the right wave.

One of the best things I learned from Jim and Michele’s McCarthy Bootcamp was that they taught me one of their core protocols called “Ask For Help”. It’s one of the simplest of the protocols to learn, but it yields fantastic results when we lead with vulnerability and ask people for their creative input and caring.

The whole reason I went to the McCarthy’s for help in the first place, was because I wanted to be on an aligned inspired team again. I’d been on one before, when I was connected with the Xerox PARC team that invented the mouse/windows/WYSIWG, etc. Not everyone has been on a passionate inspired and aligned team, maybe like not everyone has been in love. But it’s amazing. The McCarthy’s know how to generate a team like this. They learned how when they raised the Visual C++ product from the craphouse at Microsoft, to the lead development tool in the industry. They quit Microsoft and devoted all their energies to it for 10 years now. It works. Every time. But the word has been slow to get around. Though the techniques are simple, it takes some risk and some time to implement the techniques. And it can only only be done voluntarily. You can’t force people to be passionate and aligned, any more than you can force them to be in love.

The McCarthy’s have found a way that might really work to get the word out, on their PodCast. The latest entry includes Rachel Rutherford, who has brought what she learned to Theater while remaining at Microsoft. Episodes 35, 36, and 37 included her in on the conversation, and they were inspiring and excellent. I will ask her for help to achieve this goal of being on a passionate team.

Doing this one requires having more courage, moving past and through the fear. I can see some things I need to do. This site is helping me see some next steps to work on a passionate team, and it has nothing to do with waiting, and everything to do with simple things like getting focussed, like right now.