{"id":15,"date":"2025-04-07T00:07:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T00:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/?p=15"},"modified":"2025-04-18T04:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T04:23:30","slug":"peter-smalls-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/?p=15","title":{"rendered":"Peter Small’s offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message:<\/p>\n

From: <\/strong>Halltennis@aol.com<\/p>\n

Subject: Peter Small’s offer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Date: <\/strong>June 21, 1997 at 10:23:58 EDT<\/p>\n

To: <\/strong>joe@joe10.com<\/p>\n

Joe:
\nYes. It is a good idea. Like many good ideas, it is mostly good as an idea,
\nnot an action.
\nIt can be done, IF:
\n1) one person makes the decisions and they are (rightfully) respected by
\neveryone
\nelse.
\n2) someone else can do the cost estimates, but that one person has to be able
\nto bounce them back for revisions.
\n3) someone else can do the work program proposal, but that one person has to
\nbe able to say yes or no to its content.
\n4) someone else…etc, etc, but one person has to be etc, etc.<\/p>\n

A team can do a lot to make an enterprise go, but it has to have a manager.
\nIf a manager cannot say the final Yes or No, she is not a manager–only a
\nchairperson.<\/p>\n

About half of marriages lead ultimately to divorce. About half of the new
\nprofit making businesses fail. Most such failures are not because of
\nincompetence, but from poor information, poor judgement, venality, peripheral
\nignorance, and the unintended outcomes of the best thought-out activities.<\/p>\n

I believe that Team Methods can work. Leadership can make it work. The
\nrules have to be clear–even when unstated or simply implicit. No one should
\nget her entire income from a single Team’s activity. One leader who leads.
\nExample:
\nTeam Leader Announcement: “I have a tentative committment from a corporation
\nto buy a whatisit project at a price that looks like a cost-plus deal for the
\nteam that produces it. I am assembling a team to do the job. We have to
\nmeet face to face. If you are interested, etc.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, not everyone who thinks he is a leader, a potential team
\nleader (and can you imagine someone who thinks he\/she is NOT a potential Team
\nLeader?) really is. I find that difficult, yet I suspect that in any given
\nsituation, at least 50 percent (half) of us are (is?) not the right person
\nfor the task. Now that’s a real downer.<\/p>\n

Democratic election is not the answer. Command of resources is. Control of
\nthe contract is. The Golden Rule: he who has the gold rules.
\nL–h.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message: From: Halltennis@aol.com Subject: Peter Small’s offer Date: June 21, 1997 at 10:23:58 EDT To:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-email","wpcat-4-id"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}