Lessons from Furniture Assembly

While assembling dining room chairs last week, a few insights arose about high performing teams. You might wonder, "What's the connection?"

It starts with the fact that I'm not particularly good with following step-by-step instructions. My brain doesn't think that way and I have an incredibly low degree of patience with most things, especially directions that don't make intuitive sense. So when the screws didn't align properly with the holes, a number of thoughts swirled in my head...The instructions were wrong, the chair parts were improperly made, a part must be missing. Sound familiar?

"Something is wrong," I said to my husband with a note of exasperation in my voice. He patiently told me that all was well. The instructions were accurate. The chair parts were properly made. All parts were here. What was wrong was my method.

There were 4 screws and 4 holes. What I didn't realize without his help was that each screw needed to be slightly attached in order to ensure the other holes stayed aligned. If I "finished" one hole by tightening that screw, it offset the other three, and the holes no longer aligned. It was only when I tightened each screw just slightly that all holes aligned perfectly and I could then tighten all screws. By finishing one hole to completion, (the smaller 'win'), I sacrificed not just the other three, but completion of the chair. Going for the full win--four screws into four holes--lead to a finished chair, and a sense of accomplishment.

How often do we get tunnel vision and go for the one win? When we do, are we aware of the impact of that one win on the other functions of the team?

It's so easy to have tunnel vision, especially with so much on our plates each day. We crave efficiency, and waiting for others often seems counterproductive. However, when we take a breath and focus on the bigger goal, we might decide that it makes a ton of sense to stay in sync with the the other parts of the team so we can cross the finish line together.