In problem-solving organizations, some tasks are repetitive, resulting from ongoing operations. Others are one-of-a-kind, and directly related to the organizational mission. And there are other tasks, one-of-a-kind or not, that relate to infrastructure and affect wide segments of the organizational population.

A team raises a wall of a new home in Nevada sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in an echo of an old-fashioned barn raising. Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Tasks of this last category can be addressed using an organizational form similar to a "barn raising" — a custom from the early history of U.S. farm communities, where community efforts were applied to the benefit of single farm families.
In "Workplace Barn Raisings," Point Lookout for August 2, 2006, we surveyed the kinds of tasks that modern organizations can tackle as barn raisings. Here are some ways "barn raisers" can divide the work.
- Plan, plan, plan
- Whether you're raising a real barn or a figurative barn, you have to plan, and someone has to take the lead. Think of your barn raising as if it were a real project. It is.
- Do your winter work
- In traditional barn raisings, community members did "winter work" to prepare for the event, on their own farms, during the winter. They harvested timber, hewed beams, made pegs, and sharpened tools.
- In a modern barn raising people do figurative "winter work" on their own well in advance. In moving a library, for example, they can label boxes or locate sources of dollies.
- Prepare the site
- The main ingredient
in organizing a modern
barn raising is no
surprise — organization - Real barns need foundations and floors. And some of the work on the heavy timbers has to be done after they arrive on site. In real barn raisings, we do this kind of work on site in advance of the event.
- Some of the work for your barn raising must be done in place, in the weeks leading up to the event. In our library example, labeling the bookshelves and installing dolly ramps might be examples of site prep work.
- Know what to do the day before
- In a real barn raising, food preparation is in the last-day category, but there are lots of other items, like preparing to look after children and farm animals during all the ruckus.
- In a modern barn raising, the effort itself might have consequences internally, or with customers or ongoing use of the event site. You probably need to deal with these issues starting the day before the event.
- Attend to people needs
- In both traditional and figurative barn raisings, the celebration and sharing are part of the fun, and much of the benefit. Provide food and drink, scheduled breaks, comfortable places to rest, and a party afterwards.
Since you'll be asking people who are already working full time to lend a hand with your barn raising, you might have to coordinate delays in other efforts. Things can get complicated, but if you send me your success stories, I'll post them here in a kind of barn raising of a barn raising. Top
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Reader Comments
- Jim Batterson
- When we lived in Montpelier, Vermont, they wanted to move the library. They asked everyone in town to check out some books from the old library and return them to the new library. Don't remember how well it worked.
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
Should I Keep Bailing or Start Plugging the Leaks?
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rather than take time out to plug the leaks. Here are some tips for dealing with floods of problems.
Critical Thinking and Midnight Pizza
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observe. Sometimes the conclusions are right, and sometimes not. When they're not, organizations, careers,
and people can suffer. To be right more often, we must master critical thinking.
Finding Work in Tough Times: Communications
- Finding work in tough times entails presenting yourself to many people. You'll be conversing, interviewing,
writing, presenting, and when you're finally successful, negotiating.
How to Make Good Guesses: Tactics
- Making good guesses probably does take talent to be among the first rank of those who make guesses.
But being in the second rank is pretty good, too, and we can learn how to do that. Here are
some tactics for guessing.
Contextual Causes of Conflict: II
- Too often we assume that the causes of destructive conflict lie in the behavior or personalities of
the people directly participating in the conflict. Here's Part II of an exploration of causes that lie
elsewhere.
See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Problem Solving and Creativity for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming June 7: Toxic Disrupters: Tactics
- Some people tend to disrupt meetings. Their motives vary, but they use techniques drawn from a limited collection. Examples: they violate norms, demand attention, mess with the agenda, and sow distrust. Response begins with recognizing their tactics. Available here and by RSS on June 7.
And on June 14: Pseudo-Collaborations
- Most workplace collaborations produce results of value. But some collaborations — pseudo-collaborations — are inherently incapable of producing value, due to performance management systems, or lack of authority, or lack of access to information. Available here and by RSS on June 14.
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