Quote: Our Constitution

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John Adams, US Constitution

John Adams was born 272 years ago today. He was one of the founding fathers of our nation, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the first U.S. Ambassador to a foreign country (The Netherlands), the first U.S. Ambassador to England, the first vice-president and the second president of the United States.

Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution, which was the first to feature a bicameral (two houses) legislature, and which later served a model for the U.S. and many other state constitutions. Thus Adams uniquely understood the fragile relationship that existed between the Constitution and the citizens when he said:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

John Adams (b. 10/30/1735 – d. 7/4/1826)

Our government is adequate only to the extent that the citizens are willing to govern themselves. This principle, I think, can also be applied to any organization, team, or business. The strength of the organization depends on the integrity of its members, and their commitment to maintain the organization. No organizational structure can withstand unbridled avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry.

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Trinity Tigers

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football

In one of the most amazing displays teamwork I have ever seen on the field, the Trinity Tigers posted a come-from-behind 28-24 victory over Millsaps College with 2 seconds left on the clock. I’ve seen last-second ‘Hail-Mary’ passes before, but never have I seen anything like the final play of this game. Even if you are not a sports fan, you will appreciate this one.

Wannateam?

Thanks to DUST!N for drawing my attention to this site, an online whiteboard where people can move letters around. After a mind-numbing few minutes of watching this insanity, it occurred to me that this a perfect example of art immitating life. The process reminds me of how we often behave in meetings and on project teams:

• In one of the rooms I visited, there were more than 100 people participating. Far too many people form a cohesive team.
• Nevertheless, there seem to be a few sub-groups that form to work on a pet project. None of these projects have any real relationship to each other — just pockets of self-interests.
• The sub-groups band together to vigilantly protect their turf and agenda, while outsiders in the room take pleasure in wrecking their progress. In fact, it appears that there are some people who come to the room just to see how much pain they can cause for the others.
• There seems to be a lot of people in the room, but relatively few people are doing anything productive. Most are just observing, wondering what the heck is going on.
• People pop in and out all the time. There is no commitment to the room (i.e. project).

If this sounds like I’m cyncical about human behavior, I’m not. Rather, it’s a commentary on how we form and lead teams. We tend to put way too many people in a room to solve a problem; the brilliance or creativeness of the solution is often inversely related to the number of people trying to solve the problem. I think an interesting social experient for wannaspell.com would be limit the number of participants in one of the rooms (to, say, ten or so people) and see how much more creative and productive the team becomes.