Screwing up the coffee break!

A few years ago, I screwed up the coffee break for a group of fifty managers. And I did it on purpose! Here was the situation. I was facilitating a session on managing for long-lasting results and we had just completed a team survival exercise with a video describing the life or death situation in the Canadian Arctic they all faced. While they were scoring their results, I slipped out of the conference room to where the hotel staff had set up the coffee ready for our break in 10 minutes. I systematically disrupted the carefully placed layout of tea and coffee urns, plates for the cookies, sugar, napkins and spoons.

When the group got out for their break, there was a mini pandemonium while people milled around trying to get their cups, drinks, cookies, etc. This lasted for one or two minutes with no real semblance of order. Then, one participant came forward, took charge and politely but firmly got his colleagues to move the urns, cups, and everything else into positions where a more orderly self-service line could form up and everyone could get served. The finished layout did not look as elegant as the hotel staff had set up – but it worked. Despite the disruption, the break finished on time and our session restarted as planned.

Why did I do this? I wanted to demonstrate a key trait of high-performing leaders and managers; they have the ability to quickly find and execute solutions that meet everyone’s objectives, including those imposed by meeting tight deadlines, and without getting hung up on unnecessary details. This trait is a key element of the Achievement style described in the leadership profiles produced by Human Synergistics®. Other elements of this style are the ability to set tough but realistic goals for themselves and their teams, the ability to view occasional errors and failures as opportunities to learn and improve and the desire to work autonomously as self-starters and have others around them do the same.

This style also happens to be very strong in project managers, and this participant went on to become a senior project manager in his organization.

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