BOOK SUMMARY 9 One Team
Summary written by: Dianne Coppola
"If an organization has employees grouped together who
are not mentoring, teaching, directing, facilitating, or coaching – in other
words, constantly activating the potential around them – as they move through
the workday, the company is already at a considerable disadvantage."
- One Team, page 11
I have
been a member of a lot of different teams over the course of my career. In some
cases there was good chemistry between the members and we did good work
together. In others, the dynamics were less than inspiring and our deliverables
were often ‘one step forward, two steps backwards’. Team roles, which are not
often clearly defined, typically focus on team members’ unique expertise and
expected contributions to the project, not on activating the
individual potential of team colleagues through mentoring, teaching,
facilitating or coaching. Craig Ross and Angela Paccione have set out to change
that dynamic with their book One Team: 10 Minute Discussions that
Activate Inspired Teamwork.
The
first three chapters outline the case for why inspired teamwork matters, what a
‘one team’ approach looks like, and techniques that will activate inspired
teamwork and elevate performance. Chapters four through eight outline 52 ten
minute conversations called “activation points” that are organized under five
different themes: awareness, alignment, actions, accountability and
inspiration. Each conversation focuses on a specific behavioural competency
deemed essential to improving teamwork; things like honesty, inclusion, risk
taking, collaboration, diversity and trust. Teams seeking extraordinary
performance are encouraged to discuss one activation point each week of the
year, beginning with the ones that mirror the greatest developmental needs of
the team.
The Golden Egg
Words Determine Your Direction
"A
team will do what it spends most of its time talking about. In order for a team
to be successful tomorrow its conversations need to be different than they were
yesterday."- One Team, page 44
You’ve
likely heard the phrase “form follows function”. It’s a principle associated
with modernist architecture and industrial design that proposed the shape of a
building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or
purpose. In a similar vein, much has been written about the influence words
have on our thoughts and subsequently our behaviours. Simply put, our brains
seek the path of least resistance and so will focus on whatever stimuli is
placed in front of it. Visualize little green Martians riding pink elephants. I
rest my case!
So,
what does this mean for team productivity? Too often, meeting agendas are full
of information items and status updates – routine business that consumes
inordinate amounts of time and leaves little time for the candid conversations
about what really needs to be done to deliver meaningful results. Instead of
talking about how they might think and act differently to exceed expectations
in the future, teams focus on information-sharing and answering short-term,
transactional, task completion questions that keep the focus firmly on
replicating past performance.
Fortunately,
it is possible to shift that dynamic even if you aren’t the official team
leader. All it takes is asking the right question and encouraging your team
members to share their wisdom.
Gem #1
Use Long Lever Questions Not Toothpicks
"Long
Lever Questions help people ‘go past the edge of what they know about
themselves and discover new aspects.’"- Fran Peavey quoted in One Team, page 36
Most
people know the difference between an open and a closed-ended question. One
creates space for thoughtful responses; the other shuts down discussion with
simple yes or no answers. Long lever questions are open-ended questions that:
·
Are forward-focused
·
Encourage inclusiveness and co-discovery
·
Elevate thinking to connect with purpose and
desired long-term outcomes
·
Focus on team alignment
·
Facilitate full disclosure and information
flow
·
Strengthen trust between team members
Too
often, leaders mistake short-lever or ‘toothpick’ questions for long lever
questions. While toothpick questions are open-ended they tend to focus on
short-term solutions for the here-and-now. Examples include: What’s the
problem? What do you think? What results are we getting? Toothpick questions
can be useful in some circumstances, however high potential teams recognize the
importance of regularly asking and answering long-lever questions in order to
activate their untapped potential.
Consider
how the conversation shifts when you ask questions like:
·
Where in our process development do we need
to improve? What difference will those improvements make?
·
What’s the most important thing we need to
achieve on this project so we know we are fulfilling our quality objectives?
·
How can we improve sharing data more
efficiently so that we can make faster and better decisions?
Try
asking a forward-focused question linked to your long-term objectives at your
next team meeting – even if you aren’t the team leader or meeting chair – and
see how it helps people move beyond the status quo.
Gem #2
Lead from Where You Are!
"Whatever
our position on the team we should never relinquish our role – our duty – to
activate the greatness in others."- One
Team, page 18
I
believe one of our failings as a society is our tendency to surrender our
decision-making authority to those who hold positional power in our
organizations (e.g. our bosses), our communities (e.g. our elected officials
and/or municipal staff) and our homes (e.g. our parents or our spouse). We fail
to take action to correct problems because we tell ourselves it’s not our place
or our job to do so. And, this misguided rationalization is often reinforced
(sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally) by those who hold that
positional power.
Ross
and Paccione note that we intuitively recognize when the teams we are on are
not functioning at their best or fulfilling their potential. And yet, if we
don’t have a sanctioned leadership title following our name, we often remain
silent or take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach when team functioning flounders. This
needs to change!
If you
want to be part of a high-performing team that achieves extraordinary things,
you need to help create the conditions for that to happen. As Mahatma Ghandi
said, “Be the change that you wish to see.” And, as we just discussed, one way
to do that is to ask forward-focused long lever questions. Anyone on a team can
ask a question that will help team members view current challenges through the
lens of achieving the longer-term outcomes the group was tasked to achieve. You
can also look for and act on opportunities to support your colleagues through
mentoring, coaching, teaching or simply lending a helping hand when one is
needed. Small consistent actions can go a long way to stimulating positive changes
in team dynamics. Lead from where you are!
Archimedes
of Syracuse (a Greek mathematician and physicist in the third century B.C.)
said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I
shall move the world.” Helping a team make the shift from average performance
to high performance can seem a lot like ‘moving the world’.
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