The concept of Camelot

Those of you who know me well will know that I like to think of theories and explanations for why things work in different ways, and to test these in real life. When I was younger I developed the nuclear theory of parties, which actually was pretty successful, not to mention my dinner party strategy for developing "social" connections in small country towns. My Dumfries and EMOT colleagues will probably chuckle at the stories, which are best told after many glasses of red wine, suffice to say that all couples were "neutron rods" which would rule most of us out of invitations to a nuclear party of the Uranium 238 individuals.

Another pet theory of mine is the concept of the "Camelot moment" this is one of those times where the team of people you are with sets aside petty crap, personal agendas, and ass covering and really does something which just feels like someone just hit the turbo boost on life for a short time. Usually its an unusual combination of people who, some how or other, fit together to make more from the combination than is obvious from the parts. I have been very fortunate in my life to be part of a few of these teams, the first plant I was technical leader of, Melinex 1 in Dumfries with Phil Roe (plant manager) and Martin Grady (engineering) was a team like that. We were let play with the plant as it was to be closed, but we turned it round so well that we actually worked all one Easter holiday to buy it from ICI to keep it running - sadly a good lesson in politics for me when we worked out why it had to close. (to cut a long story short we had to make our numbers look good to get the next plant which was good for town - except they forgot to tell us)

Then we had a little plant in Dumfries which did pretty well and I got the feeling again, but the business went to hell and got taken over which left me at Gore. Those first days at Gore were just like Melinex 1, the underdogs get it together, and the team which was there already managed to take a really badly performing plant and turn it around to take on the best in the company. Once again I felt that feeling of "Camelot" where you could challenge each other to be the best, not just to get the job done, but with a feeling of genuine friendship and without disrespect, its like personal feelings were not the main point for a short period of time. Perhaps that is what being in a war is like.

My most difficult Camelot feeling was working in Eau Clare, imagine turning up on the first day when the team feels you are "sent from HQ" and "don't know shit" (both of which were in fact true) but yet you feel in your bones how much better the place could be if you could somehow get past that and get some basic production stuff in place. For more of that story see my reply to Bills post earlier.

Finally the best Camelot feeling I ever had in my life was working on the start up in Shenzhen, we literally walked across the border with our rucsacks (and a lot of money, and Rocco our chinese colleague who was the true star of the show) and left two years later with a great bunch of associates, a kick ass plant which still kicks ass at $50mm a year and friends for life. We had more than 40 associates from all our plants around the world make that happen with a fantasic local team who stepped up to the line to own their future from day one in the door. For a short time we were all like a family.

The point of this story is not these particular successes, but much more important than this and the core of what I believe is the truth behind the Gore culture, which makes it remarkable - if you can truly value people and motivate them and merge their strengths then you can create moments in peoples lives which are not administration of businesses, nor simply the making of profit, but moments when the team is an exhilarating and astounding place to be - those are Camelot moments and I believe we all should try to find and create those moments for they are rare and valuable things in a life full of mundane and administrative tasks.

So to all of you "Camelot" friends, remember what it feels like, and do the magic every time you see the chance to create the mix and to pass on that feeling to others, from my personal observation there is nothing which comes close in your work life and this is the thing which makes work more that just earning money but something which adds value, energy, memories and warmth, the the few times when we can create a true team.

So you can all thank Bill and his sick horse for that line of thought, I guess I am in a happy mood from the good review with the doctors today and looking forward, perhaps prematurely,to seeing friends in China, Germany and the USA again. Working over the telephone is a poor second to talking with people and seeing how they are really doing. So I look forward to seeing you all in a few months and keep me a cold beer and a long chat in reserve.

Cheers for now

Gerry