Action: Figure out what each of your employees' or colleagues' strengths are and develop these to help people perform better. Peter F. Drucker
It takes reading Dr. Drucker's comments (again, buy the book so you can follow along better The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker ) to understand here that he really intends for us to examine and structure high performing teams at the micro-level. He is not here addressing the, also, important question of corporate culture at the macro level. Just because some-one can only "work" for 1 hour a day, doesn't mean that they can't be a core member of a team, contribute huge value, and be the "critical" differentiator if they are excellent during that 1 hour.
That said, in my experience and Dr. Drucker's (if I read him correctly), you will have to be willing and able to break "rules" to make this happen in real life.
Example: We tried again and again in my firm (so willingness was present, to some degree) to integrate part time consultants into high performing teams. The need and desire was particularly acute for those individuals who still desired to work in the "front line" roles (at the client site) even after they had made the decision to start families. Staffing of these assignments was usually done on a full time basis (especially for those age-groups most affected). We failed, in that we were not "able" to break the rules around, staffing time periods, performance evaluation of part timers as a distinct group, creating team mechanisms which made it easy to accommodate part timers. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to overcome is the "envious colleague" who won't make an accommodation. The point here is that even though these individuals might have been, truly the best qualified, "able" individuals, we did not remove the systemic/structural impediments which accentuated their "disabilities" in order to enable their continued contribution. How much insight and excellence did we lose? Have you looked at your teams in this way? Are you "breaking glass" to make room for excellent individuals even though they have disabilities.
This is obviously a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I do not want to seem self serving. I am using my personal example to hopefully jog you into some change of behavior. As you are hopefully seeing, I am capable of writing, and pulling together concepts in a logical coherent way. I am also, probably (I'll leave room for any doubt out there) one of the few, people, in a global sense who has experience and significant success in opening up and sustaining relationships with senior executives/clients in industry leading enterprises, in order to help them solve problems of significant strategic importance for which they might require external assistance.
Take that for given, at the moment. I have about 1 hour a day in which I can actually perform close to, if not at a competitive level before I am unable to continue (it takes me about 30 minutes to write this blog); however, I am not able do so in a sustained way from day to day (I am usually working 6 blog days ahead of delivery date, so bad days without production can be "absorbed"). My "disability" looms so large, that not one of my many former colleagues in so many of the firms who know me has ever truly attempted to integrate my considerable "abilities" into their client interface process, again, even though I am/was considered "talented". I have had calls from several previous clients (thanks Robert Rudzki). While extremely "good" for my bruised ego, those opportunities were not ones I could have taken on and executed. I have also had pings from concerned industry colleagues (Thanks Cuneyt Oge, Bob Duffy, Michael Traem, Norbert Wittemann) who ask when I would be ready to get into the saddle again. Unfortunately, the answer is: likely never as I was before; but I still have valuable abilities, you just have to "break your rules" to integrate me into your teams and disregard my disabilities. I certainly look forward to the day when I might be able to contribute in a way in which I am able, after I execute on my 365 days blog commitment.
So, in addition to Dr. Drucker's Action call, I ask you to seriously consider how many "me's" do you know, whose excellent skills you could integrate into your teams to improve your results, but haven't been able or willing to break the "rules", so far. It's a huge win/win awaiting you if you act.
For your information, I am currently not monetizing this blog in any way (by getting a cut from Amazon click-throughs, for instance). If I ever do, it will be to the benefit of charity.
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