Holding a successful corporate event can have many benefits, from the obvious, such as team building and problem solving, to the not so obvious, such as increased productivity and morale. But what is the best way to go about this sometimes daunting task? Define your goals, e.g. team building.

The three cultures inside every organization are analogous to the story of the three blind mice and the elephant. The perspective of each mouse is framed by the part of the elephant it touches. It was almost a decade ago when Schein (1996) wrote about the three cultures of management. He asserts that there are three communities in organizational setting— executives, engineers, and operators—and they do not fully understand each other. In Shein's view, when the three communities are not aligned, their actions limit organizational learning. Schein defines the management culture as a set of basic tacit assumptions shared by a group of people. These assumptions color the way they perceive, think, feel, and behave. His tripartite conception of this culture is similar to Stephen Covey's (1991) discussion of how individuals' value judgments affect interpersonal relationships. The first way is when people interact at the deep value-based level that forms the core of the group. The second is when the group tries to convey a public image. The third involves the way the group actually operates on a day-to-day basis, which consists of making compromises about their values to achieve immediate goals.

We have only one life, but we live in three overlapping worlds—our business world, our family world, and our other social world. Imagine bringing your spouse and kids to a meeting with seven of your salespersonnel. Sitting off to your left, Miss Wright asks the question on the minds of all her fellow sales colleagues, “Why did you bring your family to our meeting today? Will they be playing any sort of role in our discussion?” You simply respond, “No, they're just here so I can tend to their needs.” Of course, this is a highly unlikely scenario. You don't bring your family into work with you every day. However, Heather Howitt does. Howitt, the CEO of Oregon Chai in Portland, Oregon, balances motherhood with her responsibility of running an eleven million dollar manufacturer of tea lattes. “Our office is a very casual place. We've got a family element going on here.”

If you have the entrepreneurial spirit (which clearly you have!), you probably have a tendency toward being a control freak. I know the feeling well -- "No one can do it as well as me, so I'll just do it all!" While this may seem to be more efficient than trying to bring someone else in to help out, it's actually more time-consuming in the long run. See if this scenario is familiar -- you find that you can't see as many clients as you would like, because you have to spend at least one day each week catching up on paperwork. You spend nearly 6 hours that day on administrative work -- filing, writing letters, sending out mailings to clients, and staying on top of your bookkeeping. You feel efficient, because at least you get it done. But is it really work that YOU need to do? Most of the time-consuming, labor-intensive administrative duties that accompany business ownership don't have to be done by the head of the company. Filing? Anyone could do that, provided they understand how your system is set up. Bookkeeping? Mailings? Same thing. We just don't think to hand these duties over to someone else because we feel we have to do it all --- it's our business, so it's our responsibility.

Learning to be assertive takes time, courage and the ability to recognize the situation for what is really is. You want to get something done, and you need another's help. You can request it, you can demand it, or you can sit back and hope that it happens. The first behavior is an example of assertion, or standing up for your own rights without violating the rights of others. The second is aggression; you are standing up for your rights, but violating another's right to voluntary action. The third choice is submission, a failure to stand up for your own rights at all.