Welcome to the kickoff of our workforce blog, Team Play. We chose that name for a few reasons. The first is obvious: At its core, manufacturing is a communal undertaking. The odds of any project’s success depend heavily on the quality of the collective effort that goes into it.
A second reason for the Team Play title is also pretty evident: Collaborative enthusiasm is contagious. The most valuable workers are the ones who most enjoy their jobs, and who, as the schoolyard cliche goes, play well with others.
Of course these are truisms that apply to most types of business—and to any collaborative endeavor, for that matter. But it’s best to start with basics. And I gather that these points, self-evident though they are, often get lost in the din on the factory floor.
If you’re a manufacturing executive looking to get a leg up on your competition, a great way to start is by taking a fresh look at the workforce axiom that says your success hinges on the performance of your workers—and hence on their engagement, fulfillment, and all-around enjoyment of their jobs. But you have to go beyond just revisiting that axiom; you have to buy in to it. You have to make it a core belief and demonstrate your commitment to it through your daily actions. Execs who do this give their companies the best chance to succeed in the manufacturing game.
Another reason we’ve named this blog Team Play is that we intend to showcase other people’s thoughts here regularly. I’ve been with IndustryWeek a whopping four months. The wealth of knowledge out there in the workforce universe dwarfs mine, so I plan to draw on that stockpile often.
In that spirit of sharing thoughts from across the universe, I’ll close with a few quotes I’ve come across while fishing around for ideas on what this blog should be about.
- Harvey Firestone: “It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.”
- Betty Bender: “When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.”
- Peter Drucker: “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
- Thomas Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
- Pearl Buck: “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.”
- Dean Smith: “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”
- Paul McCartney: “I love to hear a choir. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.”
- Warren Beatty: “You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.”
