Team Trust Buster #1

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Ace of Clubs, Deciding how to Make Decisions. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Deciding How to Make Decisions

Many researchers have identified trust as the number 1 enabler on a team. In our work as team coaches, we encounter lots of examples of trust busters and today’s tip comes from the club, or decision making, cards.  Nothing causes more angst on a team than when a team leader changes decision making styles. I was interviewing a team member and asked her to describe the decision making on the team.  She said that for the most part it was consultative but that occasionally the team leader would make an autocratic decision. The latest had been related to her budget … she came to a team meeting and was told her budget was being cut … there was no opportunity to discuss it or provide input, just live with it. She said it was jarring and had broken trust with her.  To our tip below, we would also add “Leaders need to communicate clearly to their team members the decision making styles they will employ, when and why.”

Ace of Clubs – Deciding how to Make Decisions

One of the most important things a team leader does is decide how best to make any particular decision. The Club Cards in this deck outline numerous decision making strategies, but knowing which card to play in any particular context is the real key to successful decision making on teams. Leaders should pay particular attention to the number of people involved and the magnitude of the impact of the decision when selecting a decision making strategy.

What’s your experience with decision making on a team?

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Then download the free Teamwork Explorer iPhone app now! More interested in the actual paper based set of cards?  Visit our store!

Teamwork Explorer

#1 Team Communication Tip

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Ace of Diamonds, Impact/Intention. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Impact/Intention

One of the best books we’ve read on enhancing communication is Douglas Stone et al’s Difficult Conversations.  This book is a goldmine of practical advice and we have summarized a couple of their main ideas for our Ace of Diamonds (communication) card.  As we tell our coaching clients, the concept is simple in concept but amazingly difficult to live.  We judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by the impact they have on us.  This applies to disagreements about why your spouse didn’t get the groceries to deeply held hurt and pain about organizational life.

I was working with a team just recently that exemplifies this last point.  The organization was under financial and time pressure to make some changes and the leader of the team needed to act quickly.  He had the best intentions of his team members in mind but, for a plethora of reasons, the impact of his decision had disastrous effects. His team members assumed he had deliberately set out to hurt them. The hurt feelings went underground and by the time I came to work with the team all sense of trust had broken down.  Had any of them been able to follow the tips listed below, they may not have lost a lot of valuable time and saved themselves huge pain and frustration. His team members needed to suspend their judgment and talk to him about his intentions and he, in turn, needed to be more attuned to the emotional impact of his decision, and acknowledge that he may not have handled the situation in the best way.

Ace of Diamonds – Impact/Intention (Douglas Stone)

Awareness Gap

We judge ourselves by our intentions. We judge others by their impact on us.

Our assumptions about intentions are often inaccurate

  • Solution: Disentangle impact/intention
  • Hold your view as a hypothesis
  • Inquire about their intentions

Good intentions don’t sanitize bad impact

  • Solution: Listen for feelings
  • Be open to the complexity of your intentions

What other tips do you have for improving communication on a team?

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Then download the free Teamwork Explorer iPhone app now! More interested in the actual paper based set of cards?  Visit our store!

Teamwork Explorer

Embracing Team Accountability

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Ace of Spaces, Accountability. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Accountability

Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team has greatly influenced the work we do on teams. His 4th dysfunction, avoidance of accountability, is the focus of this blog’s team tip, accountability. It’s no surprise that this tip falls into the category of our spades, or task cards, as indeed work needs to get done on teams! As Lencioni suggests, “While a sense of accountability should pervade virtually every aspect of organizational life at a great company, the place where it must be demonstrated and addressed most clearly is meetings.” We agree and we like Lencioni’s idea of a scoreboard which helps the team keep track of things.

Ace of Spades – Accountability

Knowing who is responsible for what is vital to a team’s success. It’s very easy for these accountabilities to be too vague, especially when there are changes in team membership. Who is responsible for what is the most important thing to have documented at the end of any team meeting.

What other tips do you have for embracing accountability on a team?

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Then download the free Teamwork Explorer iPhone app now! More interested in the actual paper based set of cards?  Visit our store!

Teamwork Explorer

The Heart of Teams

Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Ace of Hearts, Develop a Shared Vision. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork? See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Develop a Shared Vision

I just spent the last week interviewing members of an executive team in preparation for some teamwork we will be doing with them. I was struck by their commitment to the work of the organization, but when I asked them to describe the culture of the team, I got things like collegial, professional, committed, predictable, cordial, conservative and well scripted.  Reflecting upon the teams I am a part of,  I was thinking … but what about the heart of your team? What are people passionate about, what gives them meaning and purpose?  I contrasted that with a podcast I was listening to by Chester Elton of Orange Revolution whose extensive research uncovered that great teams have a noble cause beyond just getting the job done, whatever job that might be. And that to me is the very essence and heart of a team … what noble cause or vision are they committed to?

So, thanks to Chester, I would change point #5 below to read “What noble cause would we commit ourselves to?”

Ace of Hearts – Develop a Shared Vision

There is no one right way to develop a shared vision but sometimes approaching it indirectly can be easier for people. Have each member of your team answer the following questions. Once everyone has identified their responses, have a team discussion and see what emerges as a result. This can lead to a vision statement in a more concrete way than just asking people to describe their vision.

Think back to a great team experience.

  1. Describe that experience.
  2. What was it about that experience that was so positive?
  3. How did it differ from other team experiences?
  4. How can this team create that kind of experience?
  5. What would we commit ourselves to?
  6. What values would we demonstrate?

What have been your experiences with teams and developing a shared vision? What are your noble causes?

Curious about the rest of the tips and want to know all about them now? Then download the free Teamwork Explorer iPhone app now! More interested in the actual paper based set of cards?  Visit our store!

Teamwork Explorer

Teamwork Explorer, an iPhone app for Leaders

Teamwork Explorer Version 1.2

Teamwork Explorer Version 1.1

Canadian National Values Assessment

In May 2009 1251 Canadians identified their top ten personal values, their top ten values describing the current culture of Canada and their top ten values for a future desired Canadian culture. Last week (Nov 3rd 2009) the results were published (see www.royalroads.ca/tti). As a relative newcomer to Canada and as someone fascinated by values and organizational culture, I couldn’t let this pass without comment.

The results show a strong agreement between all regions and age ranges. This was somewhat surprising as I’d been led to believe that there would be a difference between Anglophone and Francophone cultures. I also thought there might be discrepancies between the generations. As far as values are concerned, Canadians seem to be more homogeneous than I’d expected.

Summary of Canadian Values May 2009

Personal Values Current Culture Values Desired Culture Values
  1. Honesty
  2. Family
  3. Caring
  4. Humor/fun
  5. Respect
  6. Friendship
  7. Responsibility
  8. Positive attitude
  9. Trust
  10. Patience
  1. Bureaucracy
  2. Human Rights
  3. Freedom of Speech
  4. Wasted Resources
  5. Unemployment
  6. Crime/violence
  7. Law Enforcement
  8. Corruption
  9. Uncertainty about the future
  10. Quality of life
  1. Accountability
  2. Caring for the elderly
  3. Affordable housing
  4. Effective health care
  5. Caring for the disadvantaged
  6. Concern for future generations
  7. Poverty reduction
  8. Employment opportunities
  9. Human rights
  10. Governmental effectiveness

Personal value themes show what I have come to understand as a typically Canadian emphasis around honesty/respect, family/friendship along with humour/fun/positive attitude. No surprises for me here. This is one of the main reasons I love living in Canada!

Positive current culture themes around human rights and quality of life didn’t surprise me either. Having travelled widely, I really do believe that Canada is a great place to live. However there were also some strong negative themes around bureaucracy/corruption, wasted resources and unemployment/crime/violence. What is your personal perspective on this?

Overall the potentially limiting or dysfunctional values polled 32% of the selections. This figure of 32% is a measure for the dysfunction or cultural entropy in our current culture. Canada is the seventh nation to implement the National Values Assessment created by the Richard Barrett Values Centre (www.valuescentre.com). An entropy of 32% put us at a similar level to Sweden (31%), more dysfunctional than Denmark (21%), but in a much better position than the US (52%) and Argentina (60%). Don’t you just love these league tables!

The major emphasis in the desired culture is caring. From my perspective at least, 8 out of the top 10 values in a desired Canadian culture are about caring. From #2 to #8 we have caring for the elderly, homeless, sick, disadvantaged, future generations, poor and unemployed. Add human rights to the list and it’s clear to me that caring for others is enormously important. The final values in the top ten desired culture list are accountability and governmental effectiveness. These look to me like a clear reflection of some of the negative themes in the current culture.

I believe that there is a clear message here for business leaders who are building organizational cultures. If you want to build a culture that is aligned with the values of your employees then you absolutely have to show that you care. You have to show that you care about people, all people. You also have to demonstrate honesty and accountability. You have respect work life/balance. And you need to do all of this while having fun and maintaining a positive attitude. A tall order indeed, but one that I’m confidant is achievable.

Organizational Culture and Leadership

I was recently presenting at a high tech sector human resources conference and was asked a great question that really got me thinking. The question was something like “Isn’t it the senior management’s responsibility to define the organizations culture?”

What a great question. The short answer is probably “Yes.” An organization’s senior team has a big influence of the organization’s culture. After all, they call the shots and model the behaviours that set the tone for the organization. Unfortunately, from my perspective at least, there is a problem with this. The senior team, more often than not, put in long hours, focus on little else but work, and some of them take themselves way too seriously!

Thankfully, there’s a longer answer to the question. While the senior team have an undeniably strong influence over an organization’s culture, there are others in the organization that can have a powerful influence.

Imagine a programmer who is a keen soccer player. She takes the time to organize a team to play in a local league. She’s contributing to a culture that values teamwork, exercise and competitiveness. Imagine an office manager who knows when everybody’s birthday is. He brings in a birthday card and gets as many people as possible to sign it. Maybe there are also muffins? He’s developing a sense of belonging within the organizational culture. Imagine the small team of volunteers who organize the organization’s United Way fund raising efforts. They’re contributing to the organization’s sense of community involvement and service.

So my final answer to the question looks a bit like this. Organizational culture can’t be mandated from the top. For sure, the people at the top of the organization have a powerful influence over the organizational culture and they must be careful how they use that influence. We also have to recognize that anyone who chooses to step up to the challenge can have a profound influence over culture no matter where they stand on the organizational hierarchy. This is one reason why I believe true leadership isn’t a position but a way of being.

Strengths Based Leadership – Book Review

Strengths Based Leadership, ( C4UFXFKV2WPY BKSH2JUWWW75 )

by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, is a wonderful little book. We’ve used it with a few different clients and I think everyone has found it a useful framework for thinking about leadership. Each copy of the book provides access to an online strengths inventory assessment tool that reports back your top five strengths.

The idea of paying attention to and building on your strengths makes a lot of sense to me. Clearly we all still need to be aware of weaknesses, but we also need to build our strengths. Of course, this whole topic deserves a blog in its own right.

The book is based on the 34 strengths introduced in the Strengths Finder 2.0 inventory. Based on your strengths it provides suggestions for how to improve your leadership in four domains; Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. It’s well worth checking out. And no, we’re not on a commision 🙂

Tammy and I would love to hear from you if you’ve completed the inventory and have any questions.

Dave

Painting Leadership Patience

As you know from following our blog, we just recently moved. What usually follows a move is painting and in the last six weeks I have painted (with some help from Dave!) 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and three bedrooms!

Those of you who know me might know that I am patience challenged. Dave would say I am downright impatient and he’s probably right. Even though my long years of study of adult education exposed me to the characteristics of a good learner (open mindedness, risk taking, patience, etc) and I was under the impression I was one … lo and behold that is not always the case.

Which I discovered in spades through my painting experience. I just hate prepping the room, taping and painting around the edges. I like the rolling of the walls as it’s fast and you can see instant progress. When you are prepping the room or taping baseboards or painting an edge along the ceiling, it’s slow and it looks like you’re not getting anything done.  So true to my nature, I tried to rush that process … bad mistake as it then took me twice as long to wipe off the extra paint on the baseboard, and I ended up making a mess of things overall.

So how does this relate to leadership? Well, many of our coaching clients (high tech or otherwise) are fairly high achievers who like to get things done. Many of them are like me … patience challenged! Leadership is a lot like painting to me … if you spend careful time and patience laying out the boundaries of whatever you are doing (for yourself and others), you can really make progress when you get to the walls (walls are whatever task you want to accomplish). But if you try to hurry through those all important boundary and relationship building activities (like initiating change, bringing on new people, setting a new direction, etc), you will spend more time trying to “fix” the mistakes you made along the way.

So the next time you are trying to rush through relationship building, think painting and think patience.  The walls will come later and you will see progress!

Tammy

Creativity

Just thought I would post this presentation we do on creativity to our blog. Enjoy!