Potluck Approach A Recipe for Success

On Friday we held our annual Digital Echidna's Christmas potluck – a day where the team gets together, brings an assortment of food, and somehow comes together with a cohesive and comprehensive lunch experience.

I'm pretty sure productivity lagged in the second half of the day, and more than once variations of the phrase, "I really shouldn't eat anything else, but..." were uttered.

One great thing about a potluck is that it almost guarantees that everyone will find something they enjoy. Secondly, most people will discover something new – a recipe, a food they've never tried before, or something about the cook's history.

But the potluck approach isn't just successful at creating an intriguing and generally satisfying meal – it can also be applied to most walks of life: sports, politics, and, of course, business.

No matter what sport you choose, you can't win with a team comprised of the same types of players. Take hockey for example: you need offensive-minded players and those who complement them defensively. You need people who are adept at making crisp, precise passes, and you need people with the hands capable of burying those chances. In baseball, you need guys that have speed and get on base a lot, setting up potential runs to be driven in by those with the big bats.

Politically, not everyone can be a leader. You need to have a mix of visionaries and foot soldiers. Yes, you need people who have their heads in the clouds, but you need as many, if not more, of those who are willing to roll up their sleeves, work together, and subjugate egos.

And the same goes for business. A successful team brings together people with varying backgrounds, experience levels, and personal interests. Older, more experienced veterans can be complemented by younger, freshly trained staffers. The veterans benefit from learning new techniques and procedures; the junior staffers learn from the years of first-hand experience and problem-solving history from their more senior partners.

You need talkers and doers. You need those that can inspire and motivate with big-picture vision, as well as those who love tackling a challenge and sorting out the minutiae.

In a previous job, I was involved as a Kaizen trainer. And what I loved most about that process – and still do, to this day – is that it involves people from all walks of life and all parts of a company, working together to solve problems. Not only do you take those who are directly part of a process and bring them into the discussion on how to fix it, but you also bring in those who are only tangentially involved, as well as some who are completely outside the process.

That way, nothing gets taken for granted. No question goes unasked. And you open yourself up to embracing new, fresh perspectives. The question, "Why do you do it that way?" is never a bad one – especially when the answer is all-too-frequently, "Because that's the way we've always done it."

Too often, we find ourselves stuck in silos, focused only on our limited sphere of influence, not truly understanding how our efforts and actions can impact those around us. Maybe, as a marketer, you've fallen in love with this unique packaging idea, but unbeknownst to you, it's dramatically reducing production time and causing challenges in your distribution and shipping department.

Or maybe you've implemented an amazing social or marketing campaign, but failed to consider how it would impact your point-of-sale or customer-service staff.

A potluck approach to team building or project development can help your team learn and grow. Not every new and fresh idea is a good one – sometimes there are real and proven reasons as to why they would not work. But by sharing knowledge, challenging ideas, and discussing, you create an environment based not on stagnancy, but on innovation, teamwork, and knowledge.

And that sounds like a recipe for success.

Your thoughts on the potluck approach? Comments are open!