WHY TEAM GROWING AND NOT TEAM BUILDING? MINDSET SHAPES BEHAVIOR
I use the terminology of growth to encourage a foundational shift in mindset. I believe that the use of the idea of ‘ team building’ is part of an antiquated view of an organization as a mechanical system of production.
Teams are not meant to be merely be organizational constructs designed to execute tasks through the exertion of power by a team manager over team members. Although much too often that is the experienced reality.
Teams are instead inherently relational, complex and capable of results that could never be achieved by any one individual member. They hold the potential for growth, both individual growth and collective agency. They are webs of interdependence between people, with all the complexity and magic that that entails. They are creative endeavors where a group of individuals come together to create something more together than they each could possibly do on their own. Thus generative growth - of outcomes, individuals and the quality of their relationships - is the key mindset and behavioral shift available to a team leader and their team.
How can you truly set the conditions for achieving such highly effective and inclusive team dynamics? First, the mindset shift.
And then, you get to grow your and your teams’ capacity for outstanding teamwork through some very specific steps in a cycle of learning and integrating that learning by actively doing things along specific guidelines.
Studies over the past 15+ years, in academic, business and other organizational settings, have shown that what differentiates high performing humane teams is the existence of a culture that is both a) trust-centered (i.e. psychologically supportive, where team members feel respected and heard) and b) has high, but not punitively so, shared goals and mutual expectations of performance.
TRUST + HIGH EXPECTATIONS = A GENERATIVE COMBINATION
If there is no trust and only high goals/expectations, you get a very stressful, high task orientation environment that delivers for a while, till it doesn’t. And either leads to high level of burnout or high levels of turnover. Some organizations actually design their employee management model to thrive on this sort of extractive team performance approach. You go in expecting hard work, demanding hours, command and control leaders, and you know that you will leave in 1 to 2 years having ‘paid your dues’ and will get to use the resume stop as a stepping stone to the next role or a masters degree application.
If there is a high trust but no high goals/expectations, and then you have a team that all get along wonderfully well, but deliver mediocre-to-poor results at best.
THE ROLE OF THE TEAM LEADER IN A GROWTH ENHANCING TEAM
The secret to regenerative teaming is being a team leader who can build both high trust/high psych safety while sustaining and delivering on stretch goals. And it some of the key factors are:
a) a team leader who can make themselves vulnerable (i.e. be authentically a human with their team) and
b) a team leader who attends to building the trust culture of the team. Encouraging the capacities of listening well, encouraging the curiosity of a learning culture that doesn’t fear the occasional failure, accelerating trust between team members, managing conflict as a source of innovation and strength; all leading to the optimal conditions of a sense of shared commitment and mutual accountability for results
IS THIS HARD TO ACHIEVE? YES. OK…. SO IS IT WORTH MY TIME AND ENERGY? ABSOLUTELY YES
Is all this achievable in your run-of-the-mill, real life team? In my 15 years of management experience and then in my 15+ consulting and coaching experience, yes. I have been part of, have led and I have consulted with teams in various contexts, countries and sectors that have embraced this journey and flourished as a result.
I have also, on the other hand, worked with teams that only half-heartedly embarked on the teaming journey and have seen them make improvements at first only to fall back on old ways of thinking and being. So one of the rarely addressed realities is that this way of teaming takes resilience and perseverance as it is still counter-cultural, open to being considered an attack on the status quo of a working cultures and therefore vulnerable to the vagaries of organizational politics and market pressures.
What I have learned is that this is not a journey for the weak of heart. It requires leadership and personal resilience and perseverance. It is complex and requires support and clear intentions. It requires patience and humility. It even requires making some difficult staffing decisions at times. And yet, I have seen teams flourish far beyond each team members’ wildest expectations, when they commit to the transformation journey. All the while delivering results that are the envy of the rest of the organization. And having a positive working culture experience while doing so.
I have seen such value in a Team Growing approach that I am sharing the resources listed below freely. In the hopes that you will take what will make sense for you and/or your team, even if you are not ready to fully embark on a contracted high performing team initiative with me or my colleagues at this time.
With care, Dorian
Note: special thanks to my creative thinking partner, Lilia Abreu Mawson of Princeton Labs who has helped me crystallize 25+ years of team dynamics interest, research, experiences and frameworks into a map of the capacity pre-requisites of Healthy Teaming (see below)
LISTENING - BEYOND THE SURFACE OF OUR HABITS OF ADVOCATING OR DEFENDING
Much of leadership development and organizational life has been centered on the skills of advocating well, asserting one’s opinion, voicing one’s thoughts.
That is a useful skill in any collective endeavor, if it ensures that a range of unique perspectives are allowed equal input into the mix, so as to generate the most complete decision and to encourage innovation through healthy debate. But that is rarely how advocating is practiced. More often than not it excludes differing opinions or marginalized voices to be added to the mix. It becomes a game of ego vs ego, rather than a collaborative endeavor
Additionally, what too frequently isunder-estimated and undervalued in the fray of everyday organizational life is the equally valuable capacity to listen, and to listen well.
In many circumstances, it is only through suspending your own beliefs, assumptions, even knowledge built through experience or study long enough to hear another viewpoint that innovative thinking can break through. In other settings, hierarchy is assumed to have so much importance that more junior voices are ignored or not welcome. And in more cases than not, our own fears of inadequacy or assumptions of time constraints cause us to listen at the factual level at best, and miss out on the opportunities held within empathic or co-creative, generative listening.
HBS ARTICLE - WHAT COMPANIES WANT MOST IN A CEO: A GOOD LISTENER - https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/what-companies-want-most-in-a-ceo-a-good-listener?utm_campaign=HBSWK&utm_content=1635348525&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
2. CURIOSITY - AS AN ANTIDOTE TO GROUP THINK OR THE STATUS QUO
And as a core element of growth mindset. The mindset that allows us to stay more interested in learning and growing than in being right. (thank you to researcher Carol Dweck for illustrating the Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset pitfalls)
3. THE CAPACITY TO TRUST WELL IS A KEYSTONE
FOUNDATIONAL TRUST DYNAMICS: Becoming aware of initial levels of trust bestowed - from resistor to co-creator mindset and behavioral habits - when interacting with ANY other person, is key. Knowing our initial preference (and that of others we are working with), can help you start to map how do you bestow trust generally, and how does that differ from others. Also, it well help you start considering the why of who is in your inner circle of trust, and the next circle of trust, and outer circle of trust.
1. JUDITH GLASER’S ARC OF ENGAGEMENT - it is helpful to self-assess where you stand in your initial interactions and where you think the individuals you are engaging with may stand vis-a-vis the Arc of Engagement. This can often be helpful especially in cross-cultural situations, where differing ways of engaging with authority, autonomy or decision making are both culturally and personally informed. We all make the assumption that others are wired to trust as we do. That could not farther from the truth. So it is helpful to become aware of the differences and practice shift our own and others’ default engagement patterns.
2. AMY EDMONDSON’S WORK AND THE CONCEPT OF TEAMING - TEAMS, TRUST AND OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE - How to grow a healthy, high performance team - bringing trust mindsets and motivational muscle together - less control/more direction+delegation
Amy Edmondson’s Ted Talk on Trust, Motivation, Stretch goals and High Performance
3. PATRICK LENCIONI FRAMEWORK AND MATERIALS
1. Lencioni Infographic 5 Dysfunctions of a team
2. Lencioni Anime' Appendix with summary on steps to take to build trust, encourage generative conflict/disagreement, etc
3. Lencioni Construct 2-pages
4. CONFLICT ENGAGEMENT FLUENCY
The value of engaging in differences of opinion or active disagreement, skillfully - start with learning more about the Thomas Kilmann framework, where he was able to identify the 5 core strategies for dealing with conflict. Identify the one or two that are your ‘go to’ approaches. Consider how and when you might need to leverage some of the others so as not to limit your capacity to engage with others most effectively.
•There are no right and wrong styles. All are valuable under certain circumstances
•Context is important – our response to conflict may vary depending on the situation
•Our responses to conflict are usually habitual, but they are not fixed. They are skills that can be learned
•Those who handle conflict best tend to make active and thoughtful choices in response to each situation
•Awareness of your preferences is the starting point for developing flexibility
5. COLLECTIVE COMMITMENT
The value of establishing collective commitment powered by individual clarity of intentions - resources coming soon
6. MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Your success is part of my success. Your challenges are mine to support you with. Your blindspots are mine to shed a light on. So we can all grow together and achieve more together - resources coming soon.
KNOWING ONESELF IS FOUNDATIONAL
1. THE BEST SELF AND 360 ASSESSMENT OUT THERE FOR ALL DEVELOPMENT WORK, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR HEALTHY HIGH PERFORMING TEAM WORK
The Leadership Circle Profile is one of the best assessment tools I have found in my 30+ year career in professional and personal leaderhship development. Whether you are a team leader, team member, individual creative, I strongly encourage you to take their free LCP assessment as a way of developing a strong foundation of self-awareness that you can move you from the reactive end of your leadership strengths to the creative capacities that you, organizations, even the world needs more of.
https://leadershipcircle.com/en/home/
Note: If you would like to contract to complete a more formal 360, contact me for information on how to initiate the process and its associated coaching plan.
2. HIDDEN COMPETING COMMITMENTS AND CHANGE
The Immunity to Change map is one of the stronger self-awareness raising frameworks if you are finding that you are wanting to change an important habit and you simply cannot seem to make it happen, time after time. It usually is because there is a hidden competing commitment working against the change you consciously trying to make happen. This framework is a helpful lens through which to consider your own development ‘challenges’ as well as those of team members or mentees.
EMPHASIS: Immunity to Change - the real reason people won’t change (their mindsets that anchor them to a past identity and the hidden competing commitments that invisibly ‘run the show’)
The HBR article by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey that outlines the impact of ‘competing commitments’ on changing ourselves and influencing change in others
The Immunity to Change mapping process that anyone can do for themselves to identify what are the competing commitments, worries and assumptions that may prevent you from making progress on goals that seem very clear on the surface for you and that are important to you
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
1. A 1 minute overview by Lisa Lahey, who is Robert Kegan's thinking partner on the Immunity to Change framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RmqazcIDgI