Queen – Flash

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After five wonderful years of living on beautiful Rimpau Blvd. in Mid-City Los Angeles, I’m moving. Or, to say it more accurately, I’ve moved. My new abode is still close enough to work (1.7 miles, as opposed to the previous 1.4) to earn the scorn of friends and family who suggest that walking (or minimally, riding my bike) would be more appropriate.

I promise to put up some pictures of the new place once it doesn’t look like a train wreck, but what was perhaps just as interesting this past Saturday as getting into a new home, was the process that went along with the new home.

On Saturday, myself and a team of friends completely moved all my stuff in a total of 90 minutes. Yep, 90 minutes, including loading into a 17’ U-Haul, driving to the new place, and unloading all the stuff into the apartment. I had even hoped to buy my helpers lunch but it was 10:30am when we finished and no one was even hungry.

So how in the world did this record-fast move actually happen? After thinking about it a bit, and listening to others, basically, it boils down to two elements that were central to Saturday’s move. organization and teamwork.

Organization: Prior to the day of the move, I had packed all my stuff up in boxes and placed those boxes in a corner in my living room. And while the living room was certainly cluttered, it made it incredibly simply to say to folks, “All of this stuff here, goes”. Once the process had been greatly simplified, everybody jumped in immediately and got straight to work. Easy.

Teamwork: The second element that was central was the fact that I had 6 additional people helping me move, and yes, I did bribe them with Starbucks, donuts, and the possibility of lunch, it was largely their amazing willingness to jump on in and be a part of this that made it happen. No one was forced, no one was coerced, and these folks have freaking amazing character!

Anyway, why should you (or anyone else) really care? Well, this theme of organization and teamwork has kept coming up in my mind during the past week as some of the centrally important elements in anything, be it school, work, or whatever. When I get frustrated with stuff at school (and rant about it on this blog), it’s usually due to a lack of either organization (the leaders not leading) or lack of teamwork (the leaders simply dictating rather than building trust and buy in).

Hmmmm… let’s see if I can keep these in mind as I go forth this year!

2 Responses to “A World Speed Record”

1. Mariana Lajmanovich says:

   September 1, 2009 at 7:57 pm

   I like your analysis, Mr. Hunsberger. I agree that organization and teamwork seem to be the skeletal elements of many successful endeavors. We can see this so clearly in the case of a symphony orchestra, or in sports, or in so many other things such as the way you approached moving into a new apartment. Do you think that, in the case of your move, the organization and teamwork were successful because there was already trust and shared values amongst you and your friends? Or can you develop trust, shared values or other qualities through organization and teamwork?

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2. Kyle says:

   September 2, 2009 at 6:37 am

   That sure sounds like a “chicken vs. egg’ question. I think you nailed it on the head, in that trust is both a prerequisite and a function of organization and teamwork. Which comes first ultimately? I’m not really sure, but I know that if you DON’T trust someone, teamwork can’t happen, and if a leader is disorganized, we won’t learn to trust them (we’ve seen this over and over at school). :)

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