Who would have guessed: August -- a prime time for engineering high rates of sustainable growth.

Although I’ve always been told that not much business gets transacted mid-late August because everyone is on vacation, I’ve always found August to be a particularly productive month. Not only has August 2009 not been an exception, my experiences this month tell me that there’s heightened focus and purpose in the business world…clearly a very positive leading indicator! I’d like to use the remainder of this space to relate my highlight for the week to the encouraging signs I’m seeing in general.

Presented with an opportunity to launch a new business line, a company I’ve been working with (that defines the word “conservative”) had the good sense to pursue the initiative with cautious optimism. The company assembled a project team that did more than simply evaluate the venture’s worthiness. This cross-functional team was comprised of members that brought subject matter expertise and a strong willingness to challenge every assumption. From day one it was clear that this was a highly capable group of professionals and it soon became even more evident that this team has uncommon maturity. Members didn’t make the process easy on one another, yet at no time did any meeting devolve into finger-pointing, egoism or turf protection. This team collaborated in a most impressive way: each member demanded goal-oriented excellence from himself and his peers.

Along the way, the project sponsor had moments of doubt—even thought at least one participant was going to do everything he could to kill the initiative. As it turned out the (apparently) most negative group member proved to be the driving force for transforming concept to reality. Had any member, particularly the project sponsor, lost sight of the business objective; had anyone reacted to legitimate business challenges in a personal rather than professional way; had they lacked individual and collective commitment to the absolute best work product theirs would have been abandoned like so many other excellent ideas unfortunately are in Corporate America. Without the sincere efforts of the team’s toughest critic, their high-potential initiative would ultimately fall short of its objectives. This team set a very fast pace, accomplished a great deal in a short period of time, yet all had to keep up with other job responsibilities. They never missed a meeting, none of the participants ever came unprepared, and none allowed other responsibilities to be slighted either.

As they practiced it, collaboration wasn’t pandering nor was it about compromise. Theirs was collaboration as I believe it is intended to be: each sum intensely driven to create a superb whole. Though they did ask the question that is on everyone’s mind these days, “is this the right economic climate to try something new?” They didn’t obsess on that ever present excuse in most business environments today and they also concluded that the best remedy for poor results is growth and growth will come from innovation. As more companies and project teams adopt the “We Must!” mentality, removing all vestiges of finding reasons why not to do something (always the easiest path) economic vitality will overwhelm anything that has ailed us.

I was privileged to work with this group and what they did, in August no less, is the model for engineering high rates of sustainable growth for many years to come.

Cultivating major league business talent requires more than natural gifts.

Prior to yesterday’s game the Yankees designated Cody Ransom for assignment. Now if I were writing a sports column, taking up space to report about dumping a journeyman player from a first place team that starts a critical 4 game series against their biggest rival would redefine absurd. But this isn’t a sports column and the 33 year old Cody Ransom who has spent the vast majority of his career as a minor leaguer is a relevant metaphorical business topic. I refer to Cody Ransom not as someone who has posted an anemic .233 lifetime major league batting average over 197 games played, but as Cody Ransom a truly phenomenal athlete….this Cody Ransom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqjUJJ86VV0

It’s easy to forget that even the most marginal professional ballplayer is a special athlete. To me it’s unfortunate that too many don’t recognize that cultivating major league business talent requires more than natural gifts.

Troubled economic conditions have a way of accelerating or shining a very bright spotlight on problems that had been there, but remained unaddressed during more favorable climates. These underlying issues were always there; all too often they were ignored or left unaddressed. As a result of my own professional focus I get to see this more than most, particularly the disastrous after-effects.

I’m more convinced than ever that the depths and dimensions of corporate volatility are created and solidified when conditions appear to be optimal. Rather than challenging the most gifted employees to continually improve, all too often, management makes excuses for their high-potential as well as their (apparently) high-performing employees.

In my opinion, instead of demanding excellence on all levels, most notably ethics and judgment, management—perhaps unintentionally— often fosters environments that encourage short-cuts and short-term action. As a result, knowledge and skill does not have the opportunity to become fully developed, especially at the levels required to excel in today’s more competitive and more educated, global economy.

It takes more than Cody Ransom’s awesome natural ability to make for a productive major league player just as it takes far more than having the right foundational components to develop an excellent business professional.

This past week I had two distinctly different and rather incredible experiences that compelled me to write about Cody Ransom getting cut by the Yankees and relating it in this highly generalized for business piece. My next two posts will speak to both these situations, each highly relevant to anyone in any business that intends to build sustainable high-performance organizations. Stay tuned.