4 Ways You (and Your Team) Can Keep Kicking Ass, Even When Things Go Wrong

In Vino Veritas!

Translated: “Truth in Wine!”

Of course, in order for the Veritas to come out, you have to be able to get to the Vino…

I discovered this lesson a few years ago, when I decided it was time to throw a wine party. The plan was to invite a bunch of friends over and taste a wide variety of wines.

Pretentious? Absolutely. But keep in mind, I run a blog called the Motivational Smart Ass – how high class do you think any affair I throw would be?

I procured a wide assortment of wines, and my friends brought their own samplings as well. The party began, and we opened the first bottle (a very nice Gavi, if memory serves correctly). It was delicious. It was also a screw top, which was a good thing…

We moved on to wine number 2, which had a traditional cork. Fortunately, I had a corkscrew. Unfortunately, the corkscrew was not made of reinforced titanium steel.

Yes, you guessed it. I screwed the corkscrew into the wine, and as I was pulling it out – SNAP! The corkscrew broke in half.

I know what you’re thinking, because it’s the first thing I thought:

“Avish, surely you had another corkscrew somewhere?”

Shockingly, I did not. I have accumulated more junk than I know what to do with. I have a graveyard of kitchen accoutrements that I rarely, if ever use. This includes a salad spinner. Yes, I, who make my own salad with the same frequency that the housemates on the Jersey Shore stay in for the night curled up with a good book, own a salad spinner. My wine to salad consumption ratio is something like 1,825 to 1, yet at the time I had exactly one salad spinner and one corkscrew. Sadly, wine bottles can not be opened with salad spinners.

IMG – SALAD SPINNER

I know what you’re thinking now, because it’s what I thought of next:

“Avish, surely one of your friends would be the type that would carry around a pocket knife with a corkscrew on it, right?”

I know, you look at me and I look like the type of person who would have friends with bottle openers and corkscrews in their pockets, or purses, or on their key-chains. Maybe 10 years ago, but now everyone’s grown up and has kids, and responsibilities. Plus, for those who fly, the TSA has made it relatively impractical to keep a small stabbing device on your keychain. One day you’ll forget to take the corkscrew off your keychain before flying and BOOM! The next thing you know, you’re being fondled by one disgruntled employee while another rifles through the underwear in your carry-on bag… I would not recommend trying to take a corkscrew on a flight.

So I had no extra corkscrew, and neither did any of my guests.

I looked at the table where we had laid out all the wine and assessed the situation:

• This is a wine party
• We have only had one bottle of wine so far
• My corkscrew is broken
• About 80% of the remaining bottles have traditional corks in them.

This was a problem…

Being strong improvisers, we jumped into action. Of course, we didn’t jump into unified action. No, we somehow broke into three pairs, each with a different strategy for how to address the broken corkscrew situation (the others at the party just sat back and watched the mayhem ensue. The one person there who doesn’t drink and wasn’t going to have any wine was tickled pink at how desperate a group of adults can be when faced with a table full of wine and no corkscrew).

Before reading further, consider what your first solution would be here.

No, I mean it, really take a second and think about it, it will be important later.

Got it?

Ok, good. Now you can keep reading…

The Procurement Team

A friend and I both knew the best course of action: we needed to run out and buy a new corkscrew. There was CVS nearby which would surely have corkscrews. The thing was, it was almost eight o’clock, which I thought was near this store’s closing time. We quickly called and found out that:

1. Yes, they do sell corkscrews and
2. Yes, they were closing in five minutes.

There was no time to delay! The CVS was only a five minute walk away, but we couldn’t risk it. Instead, the two of us ran down to my car and drive to the CVS.

(I know what you’re thinking, but no, driving was fine. Remember, this was very early in the evening, after we had had only one glass of wine).

We got to the CVS right before it closed and my friend ran in and bought not one, but two corkscrews (smart – he bought a backup). We had our corkscrew. Crisis averted.

We returned home, only to discover that strange things had been afoot in our absence…

The Academic Team

While we were buying a replacement, two other people immediately hopped on-line and started researching “how to open wine without a corkscrew.” Amazingly, Google returns 231,000 results for that search.

Ah, Google, is there anything you can’t do?”

Well, there is one thing Google can’t do: come up with a sane way for people who have been drinking to open wine without a corkscrew.

Some of the idea you’ll find on Google include:

1. Using a screw, screwdriver and hammer
2. Wrapping the bottom of the bottle in a towel and whacking it against a flat surface, like a wall or phone book up against a tree!
3. Digging a small knife into the cork and slowly working it out.

(You may be shocked to hear that there were no solutions involving the use of a salad spinner).

The problem with all of these suggestions is that they are wonderful ways of opening your first bottle of wine at someone else’s home. But tell me – would you want someone who had even had just a couple of glasses of wine to try any of these solutions in your house??

I am not sure which would be the worst option amongst the three. The hammer version would probably lead to household destruction. The whacking method would surely lead to a shattered bottle. And the knife method? I can only guess at the blood bath that would ensue when a 0.05 BAC, a paring knife, and a tough cork met for the first time.

Of course, this was the method my friends had settled on: using a knife to remove the cork.

You can almost hear the Looney Tunes music in the background…

Fortunately, I returned home with the new corkscrew before they had a chance to test the knife method. Crisis (and potential death) averted.

Of course, there was a reason they had not yet tried to open the wine with a knife. That’s because another solution had presented itself…

The Relationship Team

Two other people at the party offered up another innovative solution:

They went to the apartment next door and asked if they could borrow a corkscrew.

The guy said yes.

Crisis averted.

Color me stupid….

Ok, I’ll admit it, I was a little embarrassed when I discovered that they had come up with a simple solution that was free, took ten seconds to implement, and that I had completely overlooked.

Regardless of how silly I felt, the end result is that it ended up being a kick ass wine party. Now we had not one, not two, but three corkscrews to open wine with. Plus, we had two people who were 100% convinced they could open a bottle of wine with a paring knife (or phone book and tree…).

Looking back, the whole experience was somewhat enlightening. Here we had an unexpected problem and three completely different approaches to solving it. I think there is a lot to learn from this experience.

Here are four Veritas I learned about how to keep kicking ass even when things go wrong from my experience with the Vino:

Pausing and Thinking is a Good Idea

I’m all for action. Nothing gets done until someone takes some action. When Ding Happens, you’ll often get an immediate idea for a solution. However, just because that was the first thing you thought of, that doesn’t mean that’s your best or smartest solution.

It’s usually a good idea to pause, take a step back and breathe, and then think through your options. You may end up going with your first thought, but many times you’ll be able to come up with a simpler, better, and faster solution.

A few moments of thought before running out the door to the CVS and we wouldn’t have needed to waste a trip.

Question: When Ding Happens, do you jump into the first action that comes to mind or do you take a moment to think through your options?

There is Power in Teamwork

For those of you who think you can do it all on your own, remember, in this story, we had three different pairs of people who all came up with three different solutions.

If it had been me alone, I would have stuck to my, “buying a new corkscrew’ strategy and missed the other options.

This is one of the reasons why teams are useful: they allow you to have a group of people who will see things the others miss. They bring different backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches to solving problems. Don’t discount them just because they have different ideas from you.

Never underestimate the power of someone else’s perspective. Even if you think you have all the answers, it’s worth getting a little help from your friends…

Question: Open and willing are you to listen to other people’s advice and get their perspective?

There is Power in a Team of Individuals

I read a book (I believe it was The Invisible Gorilla) that stated that the best way to get ideas and solutions from a group of people was to have each person come up with ideas on their own, and then share them.

This allows each individual to tap into their creativity without being biased or bullied by other people’s opinion. In many group situations, individuals may just go along with the “leader” or strongest opinion rather than speak up or think of their own ideas. By allowing people to create on their own first, you eliminate this dynamic.

This is what happened with our wine situation. Without doing it intentionally, we broke into three groups who worked on the problem separately and came up with their own ideas. Each idea was different and still valid (yes, even the knife one).

If everyone had just listened to me (since it was my party) when I said, “Ok, we’re going to buy a new corkscrew,” we never would have had the other ideas. In this case, it didn’t make much difference since the first solution worked.

Questions: How many good ideas might you be letting pass you by because you are forcing people to collaborate in a way that stifles their creativity?

Try this as an experiment: The next time you are going to brainstorm a solution with a group, start by having each person come up with some ideas on their own. Use those ideas as a starting point for your group collaboration.

Understand Your Bias

Chances are that you have a solution bias. When things go wrong, you probably have a preferred strategy you use to solve the problem.

In this story, we saw three different strategies:

• The Money Strategy – What can I spend money on to solve this problem?
• The Learner Strategy – What do I need to learn to solve this problem?
• The Relationship Strategy – Who can I ask for help to solve this problem?

There are other strategies as well. Here are a few:

• The Flowing Strategy – How can I change course to make this problem irrelevant?
• The One Step at a Time Strategy – What little piece of this problem can I solve right now?
• The Meditation Strategy – Where can I go to think and reflect on the problem?
• The Action Strategy – What can I do right now that’s at least somewhat related?
• The Anger Strategy – Who can I yell at to solve this problem?
• The Ostrich Strategy – How can I ignore this problem until it goes away?
• The Happy Hour Strategy – Where can I get a drink to forget about this problem?
• The Buck Passing Strategy – Who can I hand this problem off to?
• The Woe is Me Strategy – Who can I complain to (and how loudly) to make me feel better about this problem?
• The Quitting Strategy – How can I just give up?

(Please add your ideas for additional strategies in the comments section below!)

As you can see, there are some good strategies and some not so good ones.

Chances are that one, or maybe two, of these are your default strategy. When something goes wrong, your first instinct is always the same. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it may be limiting.

There is no best strategy. Some are clearly destructive, but many are valid. Some are better in some situations than others. Your default may not always be the best course of action.

Once you understand:

1. What your default strategy is.
2. What some of the other approaches are…

..You will be able to catch yourself when you get into “tunnel vision” style thinking and then step back and see if there is a better way.

Question: What is your default strategy when Ding Happens? Are there other strategies you need to remember to consider that may be more effective in some situations?

You may never find yourself hosting a wine party with a broken corkscrew. I certainly hope you don’t. But sadly, you will surely find yourself facing unexpected challenges and problems from time to time. Take a moment now to reflect on how you currently handle them so that you may be better able to handle challenges in the future.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in the mood for a glass of wine, and I need to find a phone book and tree to get the bottle open…

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You do realize that this topic (how to stay on track when things go wrong) is the premise of Avish’s speaking presentations and training workshops, right? If you and/or your team, department, or organization could use more awesome advice about kicking ass even when things go wrong, then you need to check out Avish’s Motivational Humorist page now!