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The Primes: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem

51vdMbhHPHL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_What are you trying to broadcast with this resource?

For this blog entry, I wanted to focus primarily on how to bring a team together with a few PRIMES. Chris McGoff emphasizes the word PRIMES by capitalizing all letters every time- so that the reader would be able to pick each PRIME from the surrounding descriptions.  “THE PRIMES” includes 46 different characteristics that help teams improve overall efficiency in the internal part of the business.

What did you learn from this book?

In Chris McGoff’s book, THE PRIMES, I learned that groups are able to solve certain internal and external issues by following several characteristics that are present in today’s biggest companies. By following these PRIMES, any business would be able to clear up any problems that would come up.

Chris McGoff came up with the book’s title when working with a bank to successfully implement strategies. He later took different patterns from observations about companies such as IBM, and turned it into THE PRIMES, a collective guide in successful businesses and problem sScreenshot 2014-07-17 10.27.07olving.

Important Primes

1. LEADING PRIME- Chris McGoff describes this PRIME as three characteristics: 

-Setting Direction

-Allocating Resources

-Inspiring Action

McGoff then describes three words (Leader, Manager, Operator) that convey what people are, but do not indicate what a person of that given title actually does. When those three words are changed into the verb form (leading, managing, operating), then that is what truly describes a person.Screenshot 2014-07-17 09.49.46

2. BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT- How to help people see the “whole thing”.

The picture with blind men holding several parts of an elephant portray an analogy to a team. Different members of that team have varied pieces of information, that can potentially be combined to reach an accurate solution. It is very important for team members to recognize that they only hold a part of the elephant, not the entire thing and they may not know everything to further boost the team towards their objective.

3. RIGHT VERSUS RIGHT- Deciding between beneficial actions for long term/short term and other factors. Screenshot 2014-07-17 09.50.21

This PRIME is all about choosing which action to take when both choices can result in good results for the entire company. The first step in managing potential challenges during these decisions is to recognize them when they occur. It is always important to make RIGHT VERSUS RIGHT dilemmas visible and recognizable.

 

How can we as a company use this resource?

By understanding the meaning behind the different PRIMES mentioned by Chris McGoff, they can be accumulated to improve team efficiency work towards any recurring issue.

 

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