Comments

I have for the last 10 years asked groups (often clients on leadership retreats) to tell me about their favorite team experience. I have noticed a deep emotional response to this question and a longing to somehow repeat the experience of team. The longing usually is not around accomplishment of team but nearly always around the WE of team.

Posted by Michael at June 19, 2005 2:12 PM

Yes, as Consultant i have always thought that´s a critical moment when you and your clients can share a common experience and say we. Another experience of this kind happens when your clients talk to you as if you were part of their staff. Especially if it happens in an spontaneous way, unconsciously.

Posted by felix gerena at June 19, 2005 3:33 PM

Michael ... yes, the feeling of WE is rewarding in itself ... doesn't it seem to motivate people to a whole new level.

Felix ... thanks for helping make this personal for me. As I think of "We" as a general concept, you've highlighted how my most successful consulting enagements are those in which I cease being a vendor and seamlessly become part of the "We." I can sense the same thing must happen for you.

Isn't the most powerful brand harmony one in which the customer participates in creating?

Posted by Steve Yastrow at June 19, 2005 3:50 PM

The US Hockey Team that beat Finland in Lake Placid in 1980 to win the Olympic Gold was seeded seventh in a field of twelve teams. The power of "we"--of coaching team and playing team was apparent in their perseverant and spirited play. It was, shall we say, a "miracle on ice"...
In my own experiences in work and personal arenas, the experience of co-laboring with others in a "we" relationship makes it easy to overcome underdog status and lousy odds and disbelief to achieve the unthinkable.
Now if "we" can put our heads together, we may be able to achieve a 'global we' that could take our planet to miraculous levels that we never dreamed of.

Posted by Pam Brill at June 19, 2005 8:31 PM

This is a very good topic.
In my experience, if we CONNECT ourselves to the customer, "we" relationship starts.

Posted by Sridhar at June 20, 2005 1:24 AM

That´s an excellent way of achieving brand harmony, Steve. Indeed, if we could say that about all our customers we would probably have few branding problems.

Trevor, I agree with you. If freedom was the great word for the liberation of the oppressed, autonomy is the great word for the development of the individual.

Pam I like your idea about a global we. I know sometimes I can be a bit utopic but powerful ideas have always had a global extension.

There´s an slight contradiction about this we and any sense of me. The french psychiatrist Eric Laurent has talked about the business of narcissism. I think these are opposing trends. What can we do? Is the business sense of we as Steve is telling a way of facing problems? A way of understanding the other´s position and working together?

Posted by felix gerena at June 20, 2005 5:42 AM

Ugh, why do you keep asking these painful questions? I don't have "customers" but I have "students"... and I doubt that many would include me with "we" when describing our classes.

That's the painful truth, dammit. So my question (to myself, I suppose) is, how do I change that?

Great Post! Keep asking.

Posted by AJ Hoge at June 20, 2005 6:00 AM

Aj, I think you could find some point your students find it interesting or even exciting, something you and they could find as a challenge. And then you could tell them something like "How will we find a solution to this? That is a good way to make your subjects interesting. And you could also involve in their current interests as to make them think you are part of their lives. Just an idea...

Posted by felix gerena at June 20, 2005 8:12 AM

This idea of "we" is quite timely for a project that I've been working on. I came into the company about a little over a year ago and it felt like there was a big wall between the company and our customers.

After about a year of begging, we've finally put together a small blog. And we've invited customers to have full authorship of the blog right along side us. We're hoping that by making this a collaborative "we" type experience, we will start to break down that wall and make the relationship feel less like company-customer.

There are most certainly risks associated with it, but hopefully the openness, dialogues, and relationships started will help keep us headed in the right direction for our customers.

Posted by Ryan Toohil at June 20, 2005 9:23 AM

There are various levels of "we" that are being discussed here. "We" internally, shared between co-workers and "we" as in company/client realtionship. It seems that the point in "we" is that it includes the other party in your thoughts, expressions, and hopefully actions. No longer are you viewing situations from your individual vantage point, but from that of the pary you are having an experience with, be it a co-worker or client.

How important is language? By changing the words from me/you to we, are you also changing your thoughts and actions? Is learning to speak differently also leading you to think and act in new ways?

Posted by Caroline at June 20, 2005 11:01 AM