Interview with Lance Wiggs
19 June 2010 | admin | 0 Comments
I’m Lance Wiggs and I really struggle to say what I do, but I help companies grow and help companies form and I help companies, I guess, pivot. And mostly I do it all without getting paid. What I’ve seen so far, I haven’t been here very long, I’ve popped into each room, I’ve sat down, I’ve observed each team, how they are working, it’s been really rewarding and entertaining I think. And just seeing how each team is working together and going through the process of forming, norming, storming; which is trying to figure out how you work together, doing the same things at the same time and then storming which is when you’re in flow and when you are just going nuts. And right now, walking into the Kiwi room you see people very intense. Entertainingly, all the tables in each of the rooms are facing different ways. So the Kiwis are facing away from you, the Aussies are facing sideways and the Americans are facing towards you. The Kiwis are working pretty much on their own, unless they’re in a pair and so there were a couple of pairs while I was there. One was with a client, one’s with just another of the team. And otherwise everyone’s heads down, bottoms up, working very hard, very intense. I would say they are in flow.
- And that’s slightly different from this morning – we heard apparently they were quite relaxed, so it’s good to hear that.
They’ve picked it up, yes. And to be fair, these things come and go, so I might go in there right now and see something quite different, As the team is doing a different task. Going out to the Aussie team it was carnage, there were people talking in all sorts of different directions. A group were over in the corner sitting down with a client in very intense discussion, you’ve got people standing behind the desk, people in front of the desk, people against the wall, cross-conversations going on and a lot of work was happening. A lot of talk was happening too so they weren’t really in that flow stage but definitely in that stage before with a lot of work going on but they hadn’t quite worked out how to work at maximum capacity. But obviously a very talented team swell and a lot of good things are going to happen. And finally the USA team. Very interesting, they are facing towards us as I said and are still I think figuring it out, how to work as a team and figuring out what their roles are and so on and so forth. Some great stuff going on one on one with each other. Some very intense flowing work happening but one or two people trying to figure out where they are it seems. They were playing some music.. They’ve taken on a bigger task, they’re doing a rebranding as well as a website which is pretty intense.
So the team are working together now, they are just understanding how this thing works. Clearly they are another very talented team. I think they will kick hard this evening and towards the morning they will produce something pretty special aswell.
- So do you think the teams are all going to last the full 24hours – no break downs or anything?
I would imagine that they would each have a bit of fun on that side of things and they will all deal with it in different ways. So the Kiwis I think would quietly take someone aside and say ‘Lets just have a chat or a coffee’. I imagine the Australians would all yell at each other and blow it out and get throughout with it and move on. And I imagine the USA would be something in the middle. That might be interesting to observe. But I think they are all professional enough and good enough to get through that sort of stuff. It’s going to be fascinating to see how they end up in the last two or three hours in the morning.
- So talking about the last two or three hours, who do you think is going to take it out?
Hard to say, this is a very dynamic process. The way a team is run now could be quite different to the way it is tomorrow morning. But right now if you had to shoot me, I would have to say the Kiwis, followed by the USA team followed by the Aussies.
- Not biased at all?
No, not biased at all. I’ve lived in all three countries, observed all three environments. I think the USA team has got a bit of a disadvantage because they are the newbies, they haven’t worked together before, they haven’t done the process so they’re getting it together but raw talent is present in all three teams.
- Thank you for taking the time to talk to us!
Thank you.
Tags: fcp10, gossip
