Likely the answer is you have either developed a bad habit that is very much ingrained in your normal routine or you just don’t have the natural skills to improve it yourself.  That’s where the team comes in.  Odds are someone else, either a co-worker or a friend is struggling to improve something in their lives that you have mastered. 

Determine what it is you would like to change and seek out other individuals who you believe are operating at a level you aspire to, really effective if you can find a few individuals that have achieved the results you seek by different means.  Create a team objective and share with each other strategies of how you have mastered a particular skill and coach each through  the rough spots.  Each gaining something out of the relationship by sharing your differences to improve performance overall.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

1.    Can’t take in what others are saying because they say it differently.

·         Have team members practice actively listening, where they repeat back what they heard.  The individual who is communicating the original idea can correct the understanding and both members and those observing can see where the differences originate and have a deeper understanding of how to communicate more effectively.

2.    Individuals approach things differently so they don’t know where their team mates are coming from so they don’t develop trust.

·         Have team members work through a simple problem and document the steps they would take to solve the problem.  Then have each member review with the group how and why the approached it in their unique way.  The group should see there are many ways to work through things and gain an appreciation for different approaches.

3.     The process by which they make decisions is different so they can’t make consensus decision.

·         Decisions shouldn’t always be made through consensus but there are times when all team members need to have a say to buy in and carry the decision through.  So if the team is having trouble making decisions look into why that is, challenge the team to identify why they are having trouble and brain storm on suggestions on how to improve.

4.    The group is highly interdependent but they don’t understand what the rest of the teams roles are, they just know they need something from them to do their role.

·         If time and skills permits , allowing the group to swap roles for a day or an hour.  Often we think we know what someone else does until we are actually challenged with doing it ourselves.  If time or skills don’t permit, take time out of each team meeting to have individuals give a little review of their role and how they go about it.

5.    The common goal is not clearly defined or bought into by all team members.

·         Some people enjoy the social interaction of team so naturally adjust well to working in a team, others however would prefer to be individual contributors.  If individuals do not understand the common goal they are less likely to stretch themselves to work together as a team to accomplish.  Ensure the group understand the goal they are trying to achieve as a team and the benefits of working together as a team.

So to summarize the barriers that teams need to overcome are:

1.    Unclear or unproductive communication

2.    Different approaches result in individual being untrusting of others

3.    The team can’t make consensus decisions when required

4.    Team doesn’t understand their other team members roles

5.    Team is not clear and bought into the common goal

Evaluate your teams effectiveness and see if one or multiple of these barriers are holding your team back from being a truly high functioning team.  Take steps to correct, one at a time, too much change will just through the group into chaos.

Lynn

1.    Think about commitments fully before making them.

2.    Once a commitment is made, nurture it, follow through or manage new expectations if required.

3.    Demonstrate your commitment to the team and the shared objective through concrete actions not just words.

4.    Be open and honest about your opinions and goals, hidden agenda’s are a trust destroyer.

5.    Share your thoughts and opinions succinctly.

6.    Demonstrate a commitment to paying attention to detail.

7.    Demonstrate a propensity for being accurate (not making factual errors).

8.    Allow team members time to process a suggestion or perspective that you have offered.

9.    Build social bonds with team members demonstrating your commitment to the individuals not just the task at hand.

10. Actively listen to team members, questioning and commenting as appropriate to ensure clear understanding.

Items 1 thru 4 are key to building trust regardless of the personality and preferences of your team mates. 

If your team members are more focused on the details of the task and the logical process trust is greater enhanced if you augment items 1 – 4 with items 6 – 8.

If your team members are more focus on the team achieving together and the emotional connection of the team trust is greater enhanced if you augment items 1 – 4 with items 9 and 10.

Once trust is established within a team the impact can be profound, it makes way for all the benefits of working as a team possible, without it they are all undermined.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast.

1. Trust – openness and commitment
2. Effective communication – clear, unguarded and effective listening
3. Effective processes – decision making, conflict management and problem solving
4. Value diversity – diversity of capabilities, clarity of roles and interdependencies
5. Results focused – clear goals and plans

Each of these 5 key areas build on each other, if there is no trust in the team then the other factors don’t really get a chance to come into play, if there isn’t effective communication then working through processes become extremely difficult and so on.

Building on understanding these key characteristics when you are embarking on either a 3rd party team building exercise or an in house activity, keep the following key tension points in mind and design your team building exercise to bring these different perspectives to the forefront. Different personalities have different viewpoints on how to approach tasks, understanding the value that each personality can bring and the tension points that can arise will allow team members to work out differences during a “simulation” so they can work together better when real results are required. Some key tension points are:

• Approach and value of planning versus doing
• Risk taking
• Structure versus flexibility
• Focus on nurturing the task versus the individuals

Try to follow the team building activity with a good discussion around how team members felt about their performance in each of these key areas, to solidify the team learning and translate it back to their everyday work environment.

Lynn
Team Enthusiast

A key characteristic of successful teams is the attitude and actions of team members to be fully committed.  Capability is important but it’s when team members underperform to their team expectations it has the greatest impact within the team. 

Spencer’s underperformance was very visible and during a crucial activity.  So what can you learn from Spencer when you are working on a team?  Being 100% committed to all team goals and objectives is a great aspiration but unfortunately impractical.  As human beings we have our good and bad days, luckily our work environments don’t work exactly like survivor where we risk being voted off the team every 3 days.  That said being very conscious of when your team is counting on your to deliver and coming through with 100% commitment.  The capability part most team mates will be reasonable about, it’s the perceived commitment that strikes an emotional reaction from team members.

1. Start with yourself, recognize that as human beings we prefer to spend time around people we like, that said, work should not be about a popularity contest, we should be and should respect others for their capabilities and contributions to the success of the common goal of the team. So clearly define for yourself what trait it is that is causing the team chemistry problem.
2. Develop your feedback skills by determining how you could communicate to the individual to tone down a certain element of their personality without being a person attack.
3. Actively communicate to other team members the skills and capabilities you see in the team member with the chemistry issue raising their awareness of those skills that will hopefully offset the focus on the personality trait that is causing the team chemistry problem.

What do you do if you suspect you are the person on the team that is causing a team chemistry issue? Don’t worry if you are self reflective enough to ask the question you are probably well dialled in to team dynamics and managing your team chemistry just fine.
Lynn
Team Building Enthusiast

I’d like to reflect on the team learning that is clearly demonstrated on each episode of Survivor.  Now the concept of survivor is ultimately to “outwit, outplay, outlast”, however the road to the million dollar prize is paved with many aspects of effective team dynamics.

As a first instalment, I have to begin with “Coach” – Benjamin Wade. I know that individuals are selected often because they have the ability to trigger emotions in people good or bad and coach is definitely one of the stronger personalities on the show. Coach clearly believes that manipulation is a key dimension of being an effective team leader. However, for teams not pulled together simply to compete and outlast each other, manipulation would be one of the worst traits we could have in a team member let alone a team leader.

Trust is a foundation element of successful teams and nothing undermines it more than attempted manipulation. Although we have seen some winners on the show of survival that have been master manipulators, if we see traits of those individuals on any team members we need to work with, odds are it will be a less than effective team. So does it mean we just bounce them off the team? No we can’t always choose who we need to work with on a team, however if you find yourself working or managing a team that has a “master manipulator” on board take these steps:

1. Have a one on one conversation with the individual immediately or as soon after you have witnessed the negative behaviour (constructive feedback is best received and delivered without an audience)
2. Discuss the situation and give the individual your perspective and the resulting tone that it leaves with the group
3. Give the individual an opportunity to explain an alternate perspective

Although this won’t change an individuals behaviour overnight, the fact that it has been brought to light in a non threatening way will often allow the individual to be more self aware and hopefully recognize that putting energy into being an effective team member instead of being a team manipulator will bring greater rewards in the end.

Lynn Ferguson
Team Enthusiast

The primary objective of any team building activity is to improve the performance of the team.  Focusing specifically on teams in the business environment, its clear wither we define team as a group with a specific objective or just individuals who interact, a key dimension of success is the ability to understand and respect team members.  How can team building improve this key factor?  Running around having fun with people, that you may barely know well enough to say hello to, not only improves the social relationship it creates a new level of interaction and cooperation, a level that can then be capitalized on to identify both strengths and weaknesses of the team and an openness to improve.

Successful team building can be compared to a sugar coated pill; it does its job without leaving a bitter taste in the mouth.

·         A group of people with a specific objective.

·         A group of people who interact* well together.

*interact can take on many definitions but the basic premise is there is some benefit by people “interacting” versus individual results.