I think this thread brings out very valid issues about teams and
individual roles in creating outstanding performance.
Ann, on your specific point below, my experience is very different.
Most of my career has been as a high-tech entrepreneur (I arrived in the
org learning world in 1991). In my most successful venture, we had seven
founders; in the launch and over a fifteen year period, every one of us
had very critical contributions to make. We noted on several occasions
that we didn't think we could have done it with a very much smaller core
team. As to visions, in our case it was not one person's vision and the
rest of the team gathered in support.
This also matches my experience with others who have start companies...
I think you really do need a large enough founding group to have
meaningful diversity in the team. Especially in the startup phase, but
also later, I worry that the single leader (with a following team) will
have a tragic blind spot.
Now, FWIW, in my company mentioned above, we didn't always *work* as a
tight team, doing things together. Many of our most significant things
were done by one or two of us. I think the team vs. individual dimension
is more subtle.
-- Rick
On Fri, 10 Oct 1997, Ann Reilly wrote:
> AND no one ever invented a business by committee - at most two people with
> the same vision have succeeded. Why do our social / business cultures
> persist in squashing the individual with a vision?
--
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | email: rkarash@karash.com
"Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Mailing List
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