April 2010
Dear Friends and Fans:
It’s been a busy time, traveling east and west, north and south, around the country, speaking to companies and other organizations representing many different industries.
And no matter the group and the sector of the economy in which it operates, all benefit from more efficient and higher functioning teamwork.
So whether – to use an example of a stretch of appearances early last month – it was addressing Rite-Aid in Baltimore, MD, or Sanofi Aventis in Bridgewater, NJ, or MPI Research in Salt Lake City, UT, or Citizens Bank in Warwick, RI, or Horace Mann Insurance in Marana, AZ, my messages and teaching points, adjusted and customized for each audience, emphasized and expanded on the traits and strategies of great teams.
A primary point I present and discuss is that members of great teams have a shared dream. Employees of many companies for which I speak are practicing and striving to share a dream. Still, a speech specifically tailored, well crafted and presented, reasserts the importance of and makes more urgent and relevant this winning element.
Think of the players on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Early in our journey together, six months out from the Olympics, the 20 players who would make up the team that played at Lake Placid did not share a dream. We were 20 guys with our own individual dreams. That changed, of course. We trained and worked and were molded into a group of young men whom fervently shared a dream. We wouldn’t have made history if we didn’t.
One of my mentors, and a good friend of mine, is Jon Luther, executive chairman for Dunkin’ Brands, the company that owns the Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins brands. Here is a reflection Jon wrote recently on the importance of a shared dream:
As Jim Craig and I built our friendship over the years,we often talked about leadership…and how you get teams aligned to win. Jimmy believed that one of the ways that great teams are able to win ….is to create a shared dream or shared vision. I took that premise to heart when building our great team at Dunkin Donuts. We spent a lot of time developing that strategic notion and once that dream/vision was set…. we wrote it…we talked about it…we communicated it…we role modeled it… we rewarded it….and now everyone in the organization lives it!! It is no coincidence that our strong results followed. Today, Dunkin Donuts is one of the most admired brands in the restaurant world…….in part due to Jim Craig’s view of a shared dream…and helping me to embed the Dunkin shared dream throughout the organization…
I am fortunate and blessed to make a living doing something that I enjoy, which I know is important, and which challenges and improves me.
I also wanted to give a special call out to one of my clients and teammates, W.L. Gore, a company I work with as a national spokesperson for its Ultimate SAAAVE, a public affairs campaign that urges those at risk for abdominal aortic aneurysm, or triple-A, to get screened for the condition. The screening is easy and painless, and if a triple-A is discovered, a non-invasive endovascular procedure can repair the triple-A and make you as good as new. My father died suddenly from a triple-A that ruptured.
Please visit www.ultimatesaaave.com to learn more about triple-A and the Ultimate SAAAVE campaign.
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April is upon us. I leave you with a reflection of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, on the Olympics and its relationship to spring: “The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.” Nice.
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Please return here often and follow what I and Gold Medal Strategies have been up to. I encourage you to click on the links here that take you to my Facebook page, where you can become a fan, and Twitter page, where you can sign up to follow my tweets. As well, you can link here to my YouTube channel and sign up for my online newsletter.
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Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.
Sincerely,
JIM CRAIG
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