I finally got a different car today. I still spent forever there but at least they listened to what I said I wanted and made it seem like they were interested in my business. Way to go, Millenium! My car is now less sporty but has nearly 93,000 less miles and a monster warranty (my main reasons for considering a new car). And it still sports the "Badger82" license plate!

I had a discussion with my sales guy today about something they do at the dealership. A part of his pay is based on the customer satisfaction surveys that customers answer after they purchase a car. There are a lot of areas covered in the survey, from the salesman himself to the manager to the finance department, customer relations, etc. The problem, from my man Abdul's perspective, was that he was judged, and therefore, paid, based on what a lot of other people did that he had no control over. Me, putting on my small business leadership hat, boldly stated that that way of compensating him can make him become a part of the well-functioning team. He will now try to figure out how to help the finance department do their job with me, the consumer, better and hopefully, they will see this and return the favor. His response, which was an excellent point, was that the car business is very transient. A lot of employees cycle through the dealership very quickly. They don't care to help anyone else or become part of a team, Abdul told me, because they know they won't be there very long.

That made me think of our orthopaedic practice, Triangle Orthopaedics, and how we've developed a fairly good team atmosphere over time, with different folks watching out for how they can help other unrelated employees. But we have good continuity, so we're a lot different than the car dealer. How do you create a sense of teamwork in a transient employment place? I've got to think about that one a bit.