35 Responses to:
THE TEAM-BUILDING PARADIGM

# 1. 5/3/12 7:16 AM by rochester escapee
It appears you need some diversity training.

# 2. 5/3/12 7:29 AM by Abner D - cachito@zacatecas.zzn.com

I like the corporate type who feel it's perfectly ok to lie as long as it's business.

I'm also partial to the goofballs who implement 'Lean.' Six Sigma Blackbelts or whatever they call themselves today.

Lean (in a nutshell)

1) Exclude areas of greatest excess and waste

2) Generate reams of reports, charts, graphs, and paperwork. *paperwork in triplicate, please

3) Terminate 50% of support personnel

4) Increase remaining support personnel's workload *exponentially*

5) Increase number of office personnel and managers. (absolutely necessary due to additional metric tons of paperwork)

6) Increase management's year-end bonus.

# 3. 5/3/12 7:31 AM by Poplar Beach
Hum! I don't know nuthin about no Synergy.

# 4. 5/3/12 7:41 AM by Cal - Rochester, NY
Bob,

Maybe youu have all this synergy because Mitt`s Bain Capital ownes Clear channel, while Bain also gives immense sums to Obama, while supporting Conservatve talk radio including Rush!

# 5. 5/3/12 7:51 AM by GEORGE (THE OTHER ONE) - GANANOQUE ONTARIO CANADA
*

Still trying to 'interface'. Figure I am at least ten years out from 'synergising'. ( isn't that some kind of exercise programme?)

# 6. 5/3/12 7:54 AM by Carl
Is my boss a dope? Yes he is. Worse yet. I have to look at him when I shave.

# 7. 5/3/12 8:02 AM by OldVietVet - Rochester, NY
I remember a scheme that circulated on the shop floor decades ago. It involved buying a nonexistant airline seat, and then selling the same to another dupe, naturally, for a higher price. Everyone was supposed to make money-the old fashioned way I suppose,by using a transparently phoney line of B.S. to pull off a swindle.It was called, approprately enough, the "Airplane".The cops called it something else; When someone from my crew took a two-by-four over the top of his skull, and another nitwit was hosed for 2 grand, the "management",being persuaded by the police vice squad to do so, finally stepped in and-posted a notice! The "Airplane" crashed.So it went.The language changes,the management remains the same set of puffy faced jackanapes they always were.And "synergy" replaces "downsizing".

# 8. 5/3/12 8:12 AM by B Smith
Should have watched AMERICA REVEALED which wrapped up last night on PBS. Synergy at work. Shows everything that American Companies and America gets right. Watch this and then tell us how PBS is liberal.

Editor's Note: pbs -- hundreds of tv channels pay their own bills, pbs remains on the public dole.

# 9. 5/3/12 8:18 AM by Paul - Rhode Island
"Maybe I'm anti-social". Me too. But if you're like me, you weren't born that way, the world's idiocy drove you to it. Corporate team building events and corporate political correctness seminars being prime examples.

As to "building shareholder value" - people who stand up in meetings and talk about "building shareholder value" are 99% guaranteed to be lousy at "building shareholder value". Meanwhile the scientists and engineers in the company probably have plenty of ways to genuinely "build shareholder value". However, no one pays any attention to them, except as cost cutting targets.

# 10. 5/3/12 8:37 AM by Andrew - Henrietta
You forgot the part about their big fat salaries putting them in the 1% for "building shareholder value" by increasing profit via layoffs.

# 11. 5/3/12 8:47 AM
Bob,

You are so obsessed with this "public dole" situation. Your talking pennies compared to the billions that US taxpayers give to other countries. I think if you don't let it go now, your health will suffer long-term. Good Luck amigo.....

# 12. 5/3/12 8:49 AM
A dope no. A self centered arrogant egotist with a Napoleon complex, YES.

# 13. 5/3/12 8:51 AM
Bob,

That's why we have the Justice Department. I'm joking, sorry !!!

# 14. 5/3/12 8:56 AM by Matt - Rochester, NY
Arunas Chesonis used to speak of Synergy all the time! Translated to---you do all the work, make me a millionaire, and once somebody comes along willing to pay me and my cronies, I will sell you and your livelihood down the river. Enough said.

# 15. 5/3/12 8:59 AM
Wrong Bob. Most of those TV channels on your Cable or Sat System are getting nickels and dimes from your Cable or Sat. provider which the consumer pays. When it comes to ESPN it is dollars per month and you can't decide which ones you get.

Editor's Note: hey, moron, it's the marketplace, of course they make money. pbs begs money, mostly because its crap absolutely sucks.

# 16. 5/3/12 9:11 AM
Suckholes.

# 17. 5/3/12 9:18 AM
#2 Abner D and #14 Matt perfectly sum up the right wing free enterprise/capitalism philosophy, so that no right winger should ever complain about the results, even if it means a job loss, because it's all for the "greater good".

# 18. 5/3/12 9:34 AM
So quit already.

Or stop whining.

# 19. 5/3/12 10:14 AM by Steve
To all the liberals that just come here to post childish comments f-off already. Other people want to have an adult dialog. Go whine on the huffington post with all their vile comments.

# 20. 5/3/12 10:25 AM by kittynana - Lewiston NY
You're not anti-social. And THANK YOU for making fun of those two words I hate: synergy and paradigm.

That's like those motivational speakers saying "You OWN it". So 90s.

# 21. 5/3/12 11:12 AM
I have a former boss who was so horrific that I still have nightmares about her. In all the nightmares, I'm forced to go beg her for a job and she makes me scrub floors and crap. I have Cinderella nightmares. Another of her former employees has frequent dreams about running her over with her car.

This horrible, nightmare-inducing boss-lady requested to be my friend on facebook last week. What the...? What in the f-ing f???

# 22. 5/3/12 11:31 AM by Patrick - Syracuse, NY
After reading this I can only come to one conclusion; Your ratings are lookin' pretty good!

# 23. 5/3/12 1:05 PM by cj
so true!

# 24. 5/3/12 1:14 PM by jg
I always thought it was kind of interesting that the many company mission statements I had to endure over the years never contained the words "hard work".

# 25. 5/3/12 1:32 PM by Teamer
I always thought the Huffington Post was pretty mainstream conventional & conservative. Now the news on it is the concern about airlines regarding dangers of UFO's which has never been an issue before so why all of a sudden is that an issue?

It is odd as didn't the military dismiss them as weather balloons, meteors or swamp gas? To get to the topic, is Clear Channel on the public dole?

# 26. 5/3/12 2:00 PM
If you watched PBS once in a while, maybe you would have a little smarts instead of being anti science and anti anything that requires a little intellectual honesty. PBS is the biggest bargain with all the nature shows and no ads.

# 27. 5/3/12 5:20 PM
I love PBS. It is practically the only TV viewing I do. Tonight has two great shows: "History of Science" and "Pioneers in Aviation." My DVR will be capturing both shows.

The other channels happen to be airing dreck today, tomorrow, and every day this week. Pretty sure that's also what's on tap for next week.

# 28. 5/3/12 5:48 PM by Ed - Hilton, NY
Thanks for the heads up about the Democrat and Chronicle adding the cost of online access for subscribers to the paper which is charging twice for the same information. I canceled my paper subscription and don't want the online either. What incredible stupidity the D&C marketing group has.

# 29. 5/3/12 7:01 PM by Rick G. - Spencerdigm, NY
Even though I know better, when I see "paradigm" my mind says, "pair a diggem."

Can I get an all hands in synergistic hoo-ha on that!

# 30. 5/3/12 7:17 PM by marge
PBS? my grandson loves Caillou. As for the adult programs there are quite a few I enjoy such as Washington Week and my husband loves the Red Green show. We are always delighted by PBS as no snotty yelling overpaid talk show hosts trying to rile everyone up with their blonde bimbos agreeing with everything they say.

# 31. 5/3/12 7:25 PM
Those buzzwords actually refer to valuable business concepts. The fact that people use them too often and incorrectly, and that you don't understand them, doesn't rob them of their value.

# 32. 5/3/12 7:27 PM by Richard "dick" Storms - Rochester, New York
Are you a union shop at WHAM? Rugged rough riders like your macho self prefer to go it alone. To get to the top one has to know the bottom of the situation, down there, on the bottom, the role is "supplicant". Just face it. Bain is the top. Good luck with that.

# 33. 5/3/12 9:08 PM by Mike Shevlin - Allentown, NY
Don't be so down on that team building, Bob. We did that at Kodak some years back and just look at how successful it has been for them.

# 34. 5/3/12 9:15 PM by GEORGE (THE OTHER ONE) - GANANOQUE ONTARIO CANADA
*

#26 if PBS, like it's cousins in Canada who are government supported were such bargains they would be presenting a product that the public wanted to 'buy' instead of having their pockets picked to support.

# 35. 5/4/12 6:55 AM by tw - roch
Probably not a good idea to blog about your employer in a disparaging way. That is, if you like (or need) your job.

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