Tag Archives: Scott Gemmill

July 22, 2012

Nails

By sdgemmill

I met Peter ten years ago when I was involved in a ecological restoration project.  At the time he was an academic at the local university.  His enthusiasm for the native flora and fauna of New Zealand was nothing short of intense.  So much so that it was impossible not be caught up in the buzz of the whole thing.  It was really special to be around Peter and learn from his passion.

Peter had a big reputation for donating his time, expertise and planting skills to any restoration project to be found.  I had him over to my place one day to assist with some planting and he was tireless in his effort.  I found the experience pretty intimidating as he was about 20 years my senior and I was ready to throw in the towel about half-way through.

Not long ago Peter retired, but he is still very active in restoration projects.  I was out for a training ride yesterday and rode past Peter as he was doing his errands on his well used bike. Peter lives in a stunning home and has done very well professionally.  He chooses to run errands on his bike.  Wicked cool in my mind.

As I rode by on my carbon uber bike I said hello, chatted for a few moments and carried on.  Not long after I could hear Peter on his heavily laden beast of a bike chasing me down.  Peter in his gum boots and giant rain coat, chased like there was a pot of gold at the end of the road.  I backed off because it was just a matter of time before Peter would have reeled me in and dropped me.

The guy is tough as nails (gnarly, never give up nails), full of life and generous.  Special qualities in a really unique character.

 

SDG

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August 6, 2011

The Collaboration Myth

By sdgemmill

I ran into a friend of mine on Friday, an ex-CEO who is now building a very nice consultancy.   We spoke about one of his clients and the desire his client has expressed in fostering a collaborative environment across several virtual teams in multiple locations.

We talked over an impromptu lunch about moving collaboration from theory to practice.  I have pretty strong feelings about this latest interest in collaboration and the insistence that by working together we will reach some heightened level of  productivity.  The assumption is that if you take a semi-dysfunctional culture and you inject coffee machines, open plan work spaces and soft furnishings you will fix all that is broken.

Not long before the lunch tab was pushed in my direction I suggested that historically it was our ability to collaborate that facilitated some of our more noteworthy achievements.  Collaboration is nothing new.  Music and written language would rank pretty high as collaborative outcomes.

Collaboration is born out of a unifying cause. Physical proximity is an enabler, but distance does not need to be a deal breaker. It all hinges on a conversation, people coming together to combine experience and perspective into a whole that is much greater than the parts.

Our designers and architects have transformed CEO’s visions into stunning open plan, collaborative spaces. These spaces are filled with a myriad of technological wizardry.  The challenge for today’s knowledge worker is not in the tools or in the workshop, but in time.

In a world where managers attend an average of 62 meetings in a month and process over 100 emails a day the conversation becomes a nice to have.  Regardless of the best intentions, collaboration is an endangered species in many firms because of the volume of work.

A proposal: align individuals and teams with diverse skills around a common cause.  Engineer a process whereby these groups can form an environment of trust.  Give them the resources to see the project through to fruition.

Pressure test this on a small scale to get the recipe correct.  Celebrate your success and you may just have the early stages of a collaborative culture evolving on its own.

 

SDG

 

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