Recently, during my travels, I encountered an unexpected flight delay at Amsterdam airport that shed light on a significant issue: preventable profit margin waste. The scene was all too familiar – interminable queues at check-in counters, exacerbated by a glaring shortage of personnel. As a consequence, I, along with numerous fellow passengers, missed our flights. This setback led to a frustrating 10-hour wait before rebooking for the following day and prompted my contemplation about the avoidable loss incurred by the airline. Amidst the collective inconvenience, it struck me that had effective measures been in place to prevent profit margin waste; the airline could have reaped substantial benefits. By optimizing operational efficiency, not only could the original flight have taken off with a full complement of passengers, but the replacement flight could have accommodated additional travelers, bolstering profits in the process. This experience made me see how easily a company can lose profit and reminded me of a book I read long ago called Six Sigma Simplified by Jay Arthur. This book talks about a tale of two factories. According to Jay Arthur, every business has two “factories” running simultaneously: The "Good Factory" is where you focus most of your energy on producing goods and services for your customers. The "Fix-it Factory" cleans up all of the mistakes, rework, defects, breakage, returns, scrap, and other problems of the “Good Factory." The "Fix-it Factory," in most cases, is overlooked. This is where frustrations accumulate and also the area where valuable resources such as time, energy, and clients are lost. As a business owner, the “Fix-it Factory” can prevent you from sleeping at night and give you grey hairs prematurely. In other words, the “Fix-it Factory” consumes the company resources without any positive output. The cost of running a “Fix-it Factory” in any business is enormous and very harmful. Let’s illustrate the effects of the “Fix-it Factory” on the company using the following example. Jay Arthur says the “Fix-it Factory” costs 25 to 40% of every 100 Euros you spend. That means, for 100,000 Euros paid, a company could have saved 25,000 to 40,000 Euros; or for 500,000 Euros spent, they could have saved 125,000 to 200,000 Euros, and the saving could have reached 250,000 to 400,000 Euros for 1,000 000 Euros spent. The “Fix-it Factory” cost is even higher because you don't pay it out of the revenue but directly out of the company's bottom line. Let’s consider a company with one-million Euros in sales. Let’s assume they have only 3% waste. That means the "Fix-it Factory" will cost them 30,000 Euros. Considering this company has an 8% net profit before taxes, their profit will be only 80,000 Euros – 30,000 Euros = 50,000 Euros. The pain is even more significant when you consider that to get to the same profit level, the company has to sell nearly 400,000 Euros more to make up for this 30,000 Euros loss. Just imagine if the business can save a fraction of the money used…

Why the perception that the scope of team dysfunctions is confined to just five represents a grave misconception that needs urgent correction. This prevailing belief undermines the multifaceted nature of team dynamics, potentially obscuring the broader spectrum of challenges that can impede team success. Is your team failing to function well despite fixing the common five dysfunctions of a team? Today is your lucky day. In this blog, I will share my fortuitous discovery, which will give you an insight into other team dysfunctions you may have overlooked. Recently, I had the idea to write a blog article on team dysfunction. Just like everyone will do, I decided to research the keywords to find out what people out there thought about team dysfunctions. I started by typing “Team dysfunction” on Google, and to my surprise, at least all the results in the first five pages were based on “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni. I was surprised because this didn’t match my expectations. In my mind, I expected to find different sources or a variety of viewpoints on team dysfunction. I was shocked to be the only one with a unique perspective on such a sensitive subject that has troubled many organizations. Don’t get me wrong, I read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team back in 2002, and it was one of the best books on team dynamics that I stumbled on. I have used it for my coaching ever since. However, what was shocking was the impression my Google search results gave me 20 years later. With most of the answers based on the book of Patrick Lencioni, I felt that Google was telling me: “There are only Five Dysfunctions of a team." A belief that most people have adopted. Why could people believe that there are only five dysfunctions in a team? We cannot take away the credit for the book being well written. The choice of Patrick Lencioni to present the concepts as a fable with examples makes the story very captivating and easy to remember. Like every good story, people have shared and recommended the book to others. I remember that I got the book on the recommendation of my friend Philipe Sarrazin. Word of mouth, the excellent marketing of the book, the services around the book, and the good SEO made it possible to get the impression that there are only five dysfunctions in a team. To the defense of Patrick Lencioni, I should mention that I have never read anywhere that he stated there are only five dysfunctions in a group.  The situation reminds me of the story of the monkeys isolated in a room with a banana placed on top of a ladder. As the story goes, the monkeys were sprayed with cold water as soon as one monkey tried to climb the ladder. Quickly, the monkeys learn that they should not climb the ladder; otherwise, they will be sprayed with cold water. The monkeys stayed away from the ladder…

One of the most valuable things in business and life is trust. Trust is hard to earn but can be easily lost. As a consultant, I have encountered issues related to trust and its effects on business. Specifically, I've witnessed the remarkable impact of saying "yes" in business on cultivating and maintaining trust. I have observed how confidence can affect business and life, and I've come to a significant realization: in most cases, people who kept their word earned trust. People tend to say YES to those they trust, and this correlation between trust and saying "yes" is undeniable. What does it mean to say YES? We use the word YES to approve if something said is accurate or correct. YES comes from the Old English word gise, gese, which means "so be it!" There are many ways to convey the sense of YES. Some of the synonyms include: definitely, of course, sure, by all means, that’s right, you bet, you’re on, affirmative, be my guest, I don’t see why not, yea, yeah, yebo, yep, you betcha, yup, is the Pope Catholic? The meaning we give to a YES varies. Saying YES after long and arduous peace negotiations or at your wedding doesn't have the same significance and importance as answering YES to the question: “Are you hot?” These nuances are the origin of many interpersonal difficulties. Let us look at the different types of yeses below. Types of YES Saying YES does not necessarily mean we agree on something. Some factors determine the type of YES we are likely to receive or speak to someone—the word YES can be said deliberately or coerced. When YES is forced, there will be no willingness to follow up on the YES, which can be detrimental. A YES should be intentional and contain a desire to carry through what has been agreed upon. Looking deeper into the process of saying YES to something, the degree of freedom of choice, the intentionality, willingness, circumstances, and surroundings when deciding to say YES play an essential role in the type of YES. These factors form the basis of the four variations of yeses: The Gut-Yes The Social-Yes The Defensive-Yes The Fake-Yes Below is a pictorial representation of the variations of YES. Anssof Matrix of YES From the image above, the horizontal axis goes from a YES said under total external pressure, no natural choice, to a YES expressed when you are free to do so, and it is your own choice. The vertical axis goes from being 100% willing to make what we have said YES to a reality (total commitment) to zero willingness to comply with what we have agreed to. Let’s look at what these types of yeses mean. The Gut-Yes The Gut-Yes corresponds to the YES, that is entirely deliberate. The person is then unquestionably willing to bring what they are saying YES to into existence. We have a conscious decision or choice, an expression of total agreement about the subject. In other words,…

Over the years, while deeply engaged in designing team alignment programs, I've interacted with numerous dedicated business owners and recruiters, all driven by the quest to secure the finest additions to their workforce. However, what struck me profoundly was the unwavering determination exhibited by each of them in pursuing remarkable individuals who could contribute to their enterprises. This phenomenon often seemed to transform the recruitment landscape into a fierce battleground, where securing the right talents bore semblance to a relentless competition for achieving nothing short of sustainable organizational growth. As much as the recruiters in their job advertisements were looking for talent, when I interacted with job applicants, most did not discuss their talents but skills, know-how, and competencies. Isn’t that strange? Our education system never delivers a diploma for talent but always certifies abilities. I noticed a big misalignment between what companies were looking for and what the applicants offered. In this article, I will share my discovery of the misconception of these two terms to help applicants understand what the recruiters are looking for by answering the following questions: Are talent and competence the same thing? What are the differences between these two terms? How do they affect the life of the individual and the team in the long run? What is talent? Talent is a natural ability or aptitude that allows someone to shine in a particular activity, especially without training. According to Etymoonline, the word talent comes from the Medieval Latin talent, which meant weight, the sum of money. The meaning of "special natural ability, aptitude, a gift committed to one for use and improvement" was developed by mid-15c. in part perhaps from the figurative sense of "wealth," but mostly from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30. A talent is something a person is born with. It has to do with the innate qualities they possess. It is the role they tend to play naturally in life and most of the time in their work. The person having the talent may not necessarily value it. It is second nature for them, and they don’t seem particularly excited. Knowingly or unintentionally, they find themselves involved in situations where they use their talent. Other people end up soliciting them for their talent even if they don't promote it. For example, we can all talk, but you can see that some people are naturally talented at communicating. Those people excel best in sales and marketing jobs. What is competence? Competence is the ability to do something well or effectively. Competence derives from the French word “compétence,” which meant "sufficiency of means for living at ease” in the 1630s. The meaning "adequate range of capacity or ability, sufficiency to deal with what is at hand" is from 1790. One develops competencies through school, training, and practice. Competence is not static; it continuously evolves and grows. For example, a programmer's skill grows as he continues working on various projects. The more you use a competence, the sharper and more potent it becomes.…

Your present circumstances directly result from the choices you've made along your journey. Every decision, whether a resounding "YES" or a thoughtful "NO," has played a role in molding the trajectory of your business and personal life. Today, you find yourself reading this article because you've deliberately opted to explore valuable insights – particularly regarding the art of saying "NO" wisely. This crucial aspect of decision-making has the potential to redefine your ultimate path to success. Looking back at the success stories and struggling businesses of people I have met during my coaching career, I wanted to identify the common factor that led to the success or failure of companies. That is when I realized one thing that stood out: the ability of a business owner to say NO or accept the word NO. Yes, you read that right; saying NO was the last piece of the puzzle. In this article, I want to share this fantastic discovery of why saying NO or accepting the word NO is one of the most coveted superpowers of an entrepreneur. In my career, I have met many people who had difficulty saying NO, which has gotten them into big problems. Think of it this way, the quickest way to stay away from alcoholism is to say NO to the first drink. The best way to uphold respect in an organization is to say NO to matters that corrupt your integrity. Even though we underestimate these concepts, in most cases, the word NO has had a lot of positive effects in a working environment, eventually leading to infinite success. A decision is a way to say YES to one thing and NO to many other possibilities. When making a decision, people overlook that each YES corresponds to countless possibilities to which you say NO. When you choose a specific job, you automatically say NO to numerous job opportunities you could work on during the same period. We can apply this to real life, too. For example, when you say YES at your wedding, you have committed to saying NO to other people who would otherwise want to marry you. Said differently, you are ready to say countless NOs to keep your YES. This realization opened my eyes, and I wished someone had pointed this out to me earlier. I wondered why no one hadn't cared to stress the issue despite the high number of coaches teaching about decision-making in the business world. Teaching somebody how to decide without making them aware of the number of NOs he needs to say to keep his decision or achieve his goal is like sending somebody to the front with a gun but not giving him the bullets. The value of a NO Saying NO ensures you are not derailed by any sideshows that can negatively impact your road to success. When you say NO to something not aligned with your goals, you reinforce your YES on the earlier decision. Therefore, you should be okay and enthusiastic about…