Chapters:

First Chapter Sample

CHAPTER ONE

I was sitting in the break room having a microwaved meal, feeling good about myself, my job, and life in general. I was thumbing through a magazine—or was it a newspaper article? It was 1995, and while the internet was at the beginning stages of being popular, we were not at that stage yet where you would see printed articles from the web left about the break room. However, there I was, reading an article that had a headline like a typical blog article today: “10 ways to know you work at a dead end job.”

Like I said, I was feeling good about my job, so I read the article just to see how many things we have that they are suggesting dead-end jobs do not. I cannot completely remember the list, but I remember it being very interesting. A few things I do remember …

“If your job doesn’t have a gain sharing program, you may be in a dead end job.”

One of the things boasted where I worked was the gain-sharing program. The bosses were very proud of it. Thus far, it had worked out very favorable for us. Every three months, we got a bonus check, up to eight percent of our gross pay for the previous three months. The percentage was based on the company’s performance. Ever since we were eligible, we had maxed out at the eight percent every three months. Check, I thought.

“If your job does not have a clearly outlined pay and progression system, you may be in a dead end job.”

Another item that the bosses bragged about. We had a pay and progression system that was clearly outlined, with charts, requirements, and prerequisites. There were different options to get to different levels in the pay and progression system, different ways to get raises and to move around. It was all outlined, to a point. There were parts that were not finished, but there was also a committee working to iron those unfinished portions. Check again, I thought.

I can’t remember every list item, but I remember feeling pretty good about my position in life. Everything that the article suggested a good job should have or do, we had or did … until the last item listed on the list.

That article was a popular article in the break room, as I think almost every employee had read it at some point during that week. There were always discussions about the article, people listing the things we have and sitting back, smiling and feeling good about themselves. Others compared it to past jobs just so they could say where they worked now was so much better. That last item, though—no one ever talked about it. I do not think many people even made it that far in the article. However, I did, and it was troubling.

“If your job is still striving for and promoting synergy, you may be in a dead end job.”

Synergy? I had heard that word a lot over the past year. In fact, much of what we had been taught was based on the idea of synergy.

What does synergy mean? Why was it bad for companies to be focusing on synergy?First, let’s take a look at the meaning of “synergy”: “Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.”

That definition was published in 2015, but it sounds almost word-for-word the same definition written on the whiteboard my first day with The Company in 1995 The goal was to get a group of people together to solve a problem and come to something a little more than a consensus. Not that we would just agree to go in the same direction, but we would all completely believe in that direction and support it like it was our own decision, even if it wasn’t or if we felt we had a better idea. Once the decision was adopted and believed in amongst the members of the group, that decision became “enhanced.” Everyone in the group had taken ownership.

The key idea is that when groups are able to work together like that, eventually they will all think and operate almost as one. Knowing what decisions to pursue, what decisions to let go, coming to the same conclusions or taking those conclusions further to make even better conclusions, instinctively. This way of operation would make a group or team more productive, better focused, better at making decisions, and better performing.

When you think about it, it makes sense why striving for synergy could be considered bad. Most groups need a leader or a director. The idea of synergy means that there is no one leader and that everyone in the group operates as one, thinks as one. Something like that would take a good deal of training or brainwashing. In the article, it stated that trying to achieve synergy was futile, as it takes a group too much time to get there. In addition, once there, you find you have a group or team that only has one voice, one way to think about things and solve problems. As long as solutions fell into that one mindset, you were fine, but stray beyond that mindset and your team is at a loss.

From 1994 to 2010, I worked for a company that was very focused on synergy and other team-based ideals. I was there from the very beginning until the very end. I participated in training, and I was on committees that helped build operating parameters that the company has used the entire time. I was taught theories in a classroom setting and saw how those theories work in the real world. I am going to tell you about those experiences, and hopefully give you a sense of what I feel is an incredible journey.

That article stayed with me for a little while. Actually, it has stuck with me for a long while. Right now, it has been over fifteen years since I read that article, and I still remember it. I remember reading it a few times, then ripping out the page that had the synergy question and pinning it on the bulletin board in the break room. It stayed pinned on the bulletin board for a long time.

I read that article in 1995, about a year after I started with that company, but a lot had happened to get to that point. I am going to start from the beginning, and tell you this story as best as I can remember.