8-4-10 Scrambling is Good

I played in a golf tournament this evening…. A scramble format. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the game or the format, a scramble is a great thing. In this format, each person on the team hits their own ball then you decide which is the best shot, then everyone hits from that spot. Continuing on that way, picking the best shot, until the ball is in the hole. For hackers like me, it is about the only way we can ever consistently get a good score.

It occurred to me that the scramble format is a good metaphor for how we accomplish things at work. As an executive, it is up to you to set up an effective team. Once you have the team in place, you are relying on each of them to take their best shot on any given project. Since you most often have a team working on a project, some of the team members’ shots will be better than others. And that’s okay.

Because if you “play” the scramble format, you can pick the best “shots” and the whole team can proceed from there.

Yes, some would say that this is an inefficient way to do business -- simply because you have more than one person working on a project step. I would suggest that any waste you have from some overlap is more than offset by the longer strides you will be able to make by selecting the best from each person.

So as you launch that next project with your team, consider using the scramble format -- and see how much further and faster your team goes.

Cheers!