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 authority by a team leader over team members. Although much too often that is the limiting 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 and innovation, through both individual 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, generative 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 GENERATING TEAM

The secret to being a team leader of generative team is being someone who can build both high trust/high psych safety while sustaining and delivering on stretch goals. Some of the key factors are:

a) a team leader who can stay deeply curious while making themselves more accessible, and therefore vulnerable than may be comfortable at first,

b) a team leader who attends to building the trust culture of the team. Encouraging the capacities of listening deeply, 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; being very clear on shared goals and desired outcomes; all leading to the optimal conditions of a sense of shared commitment and mutual accountability for results

IS THIS HARD TO ACHIEVE? YES. IS IT WORTH THE 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 effectiveness, generative teaming 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 elements of High Effectiveness Teaming (see below). My thanks to my colleagues of the Presencing Institute who have informed this work’s awareness based systems transformation aspect, as well as to the research and experience of Amy Edmondson and Patrick Lencioni

CENTRAL: AN ALIGNED WHY

For any high effectiveness teaming or generative teaming journey to be set up for success the team members and their leader must be absolutely clear about the purpose of their team’s contribution to the organization. Why are they doing the work they are doing? what are the short and longer term goals and objectives? what would not come into being if the team did not operate at its very best? how are the individual hopes and dreams of the team members aligned with the desired future outcomes of this team.

A number of processes can be employed for this critical aspect of team alignment. A systems analysis of the Iceberg of the Team, noting what is working and what is not working in current reality at the levels of results, behaviors, structures, mindsets and identity as a team, as well as a collectively held ideal of desired future state at all those levels. Or a 3D mapping of current reality and the desired future state. A strategy alignment session that can start to identify specific outcomes and timelines.

But without an aligned why, a team will simply be a grouping of individuals pursuing their individual goals and objectives, without a motivating interest in collaborating for a shared set of outcomes.

1. GROWTH MINDSET/BRAVE 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)

2. LISTENING SYSTEMICALLY - BEYOND THE NEED TO ADVOCATE AT ALL COSTS OR DEFEND ONE’S OPINION

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 is under-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.

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3. A TEAM CULTURE OF TRUST - THE QUALITY OF THE RELATIONAL FIELD MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

1. OTTO SCHARMER AND KATRIN KAUFER - FOUNDATIONAL TRUST DYNAMICS/THE QUALITY OF THE RELATIONAL FIELD : The research and working experiences of Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer (co-founders of the Presencing Institute) has been key in highlighting the foundational aspect of the relational field in awareness-based systems change.

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.

Practices from the Presencing Institute can help grow this capacity in individual and teams. Some of the practices i introduce in High Effectiveness Teaming/Generative Teaming journeys: check ins at the start of any meeting, Noticing the power of intentions to improve actions, Paying attention to the relational quality with colleagues, Engaging in ‘stakeholder’ interviews, Tapping into the wisdom of the collective through a shift from debate to dialogue, Team 3D mapping.

 
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2. 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.

 

3. 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

 
 

4. 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. WELCOME DIVERGENCE - A KEY INNOVATION SKILL

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.

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•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 - PROCESSES MUST BE CO-CREATED WITH CLARITY

The value of establishing collective commitment powered by individual clarity of intentions. This aspect requires co-created clarity re commitments to the shared why of the work that is being done, not just individually but collectively. Collective commitment creates the esprit de corps that ensures that leaders who are drawn to focus on their areas of delivery also can hold in their sights the collective success of the team.

6. MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY - BOTH A MINDSET AND A NEED FOR STRUCTURES TO UNDERPIN IT

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. Without mutual accountability, commitments can languish, especially in times of urgency or accelerated growth. Mutual accountability allows us to call on the support of our colleagues, knowing that our colleagues are invested in the shared outcomes we have all committed to. It helps break down silos of ego, and reinforces an ecosystem culture of the team.

ADDITIONAL ENABLERS FOR HIGH EFFECTIVENESS

SELF-AWARENESS IS FOUNDATIONAL

1. THE BEST SELF AND 360 ASSESSMENT OUT THERE FOR ALL DEVELOPMENT WORK, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR HEALTHY HIGH EFFECTIVENESS 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

Photo credits: Jonatan Pie (on Instagram @r3dmax); Tobias Fischer on Unsplash; Sora Sagano on Unsplash;