The facilitator at a recent breakfast meeting brought the
topic of healthy teams for the group to discuss. He framed his presentation and
subsequent group exercise around Patrick Lencioni’s 2012 book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health
Trumps Everything Else In Business.
A smart organization is one that
has a defined strategy and has teams and processes in place for marketing,
sales, financial health and technological resources. A healthy organization has
minimal politics – the focus is on the team; clarity throughout the
organization – everyone knows where the firm is going, how they are going to
get there, and what their roles are; high morale – employee engagement is strong;
consistent productivity; and finally, low employee and customer turnover. So
how do you get there?
Randy Taussig, our facilitator
shared Lencioni’s five-step process. It begins with trust, vulnerability-based
trust that is authentic. When a leader can be vulnerable and show his or her
humanity, it sends a powerful message. If trust is absence, well pack your bags
and leave.
The second element or step, once
trust has been established, is healthy conflict – Don’t forget The Essential
Workplace Conflict Handbook! Too
often, conflict is perceived as negative, but the ability to have passionate,
positive debate moves the organization forward. It’s not about personal gain or
winning an argument. Rather it’s about giving everyone the opportunity to have
their say so ideas and issues can be presented, decisions made, and then allow
everyone to move on. When there’s fear of conflict or unhealthy conflict, the
result is the avoidance of issues, passive-aggressive behavior, and lack of
engagement.
Healthy conflict leads to the next
step – true commitment. Healthy conflict provides input. When all team members
know and understand all opposing points of view, they will be able to commit to
team decisions and buy into them. It avoids those situations that we’ve all
witness in organizations, where everyone shakes their heads in agreement, then
leave the meeting and voice discontent or just don’t stand behind and support
the decisions.
When true commitment exists,
accountability can be embraced – that is the willingness not just to be
accountable as an individual, but to hold others on the team including the leader
accountable. If accountability is avoided, feedback does not take place. It’s
the old adage of telling the boss (or anyone on the team) what you think he
wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear – withholding vital
information.
This leads to the final step –
results – collective team results that supersede any departmental or personal
objectives or pursuits. If there is inattention to results, the team loses
track and misses what was possible.
Test if your team is a healthy
one. You can do this exercise alone, but it’s more powerful to do it with
others:
1.
Describe a time when you were part
of a team that exhibited some or all of these behaviors. What stands out about
the experience?
2. Then,
describe a time when you were you were part of a team that did not exhibited
these behaviors. What stands out about the experience on this team?
3. Generally,
how good were the outcomes and results in both of the above?
4.
Looking back, how important was
the “health” of your team in achieving the overall results you expected in the
scenarios you described.
