I come from an educational family. Both my mom and sister are nationally acclaimed, award winning teachers. As we have just started back to school, an analogy that my mom used to tell me popped into my head, and I couldn’t help but think about how it relates to our work in teams as well as how we motivated ourselves. Being in the classroom for over 30 years, my mom made this observation, “If you have 30 kids in a classroom, they average out this way. Five of your kids will do their work no matter what. You could have all the distractions in the world, but they will still turn their work in. Five of your students will try to act up no matter what. The battle is for the 20 kids in the middle.” You see, successful teachers that perform well find ways to commend that positive behavior by the model five that are doing their work, while giving the proper incentives to the middle, and handling the mischievous five. Teachers that struggle haven’t found a way to handle the mischievous five and haven’t motivated the middle. The model five is still doing their work, but now these teachers are dealing with distractions from 25 students and lost control. How does this relate to our situations in teamwork as well as with us? If you have a team of 10 people, it’s a sure bet that you have one in the ten that are at work extra early, ready to go. This is the model member. Then it is just as likely that you have someone who gets to work somewhere between 2 minutes before the clock on a good day, to 20 minutes after the clock on a bad day. This is the mischievous member. If being prompt to work is important with your team, and you keep letting the mischievous member come in as they like, the middle of your team will start to lean in that direction, thus giving you a bigger headache. Inside of you, the model and mischievous side also exist. When we are faced with a decision in our lives, we are immediately bombarded with two thoughts; the best and worst case scenarios. Neither direction is absolute for us, but it is our decision making that allows us to lean in either direction. So what do we do? How do we prepare ourselves like the successful teacher, and coach our “classrooms” well? In the situation with a team, the key is a combination of incentives and corrective actions. If we address the mischievous behavior in an open way, we will correct not only the wayward member, but make an example to the team that this behavior will not be tolerated. Also, if we find ways to add incentives to the positive behavior, (i.e. early release from work) it will create an environment for your middle to lean in that direction. While in teams, mastering the mischievous and model behavior is the key. To battle our own mental demons, facts are the key to move our “classroom”. When facing these decisions, we must consider the facts of the situation to move us into the most positive action. It’s easy to pick out negative speak within our thoughts. We use victim speak like “always” or “never”. There are very few things in life that happen in absolutes, so when we use “always” or “never”, they are very rarely true. By concentrating on the facts of a situation, we can find the most reasonable path and move our classrooms in the most positive direction. Oginga Carr CEO Epiphany Consulting