[John Loftus of Moody International Consulting & Training shared the following activity at a recent meeting. If you are looking for an exercise which illustrates the power of team performance, give this one a try. -- Rob]
Fill the shoe box with 30 -40 items such as post it notes, paper clips, business cards, pens, etc placed loosely or glued inside the box.
Round 1
Draw the following chart on flip chart or white board on the left-hand side approximately 60 cm (2 feet, give or take) from the top:
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Two employees are responsible for designing and rolling out a new initiative. One is a hard charger, ready to plunge ahead, develop this new training and take the bull by the horns. His attitude is “we can do it, let’s get it done.”
Another employee wants to thorougly think through the training before diving in. He is concerned about the integrity and completeness of the assessment data on which the training will be based. Focused on the quality of program, he thinks that we are moving too fast. His attitude is “let’s make sure that we get it done right.”
I’m in the middle, and I need to make a decision
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Last week, we referred to the “building blocks” of a high performing team. In that article, we suggested that prior to doing (or failing to do) team building, you ask yourself the counterintuitive question “what type of team do I need? What is the strategic import of my group performing as (or failing to perform as) a team?”
I should have started with a more basic question: do you believe (really) that high performing teams at work are even possible? When we ask workshop participants about their “best team experiences,” we frequently hear about sports experiences, rarely about work.
While uncommon, high performing teams are possible at work. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing what we have learned in our years of team facilitation about what great teams need, and how to help them grow.
For now, I’ll simply share a few details about the BEST team of which I was a part. In 2003, I was invited to join a team of consultants who were assembled to develop and implement an online grants management system for a federal agency. (I can hear the yawns from here, stay with me. You … yeah, you in the back row … get your head up!) This system had to support a nationwide application process – literally, dozens of applicants from each of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico. It had to be fully up and running within 6 weeks, and we had to train ALL of the grant applicants nationwide in the system within 4 months.
You may not know grants management, but that’s OK. What you should know is that this had not been done before … it was a huge step forward into the 21st Century for this agency and would dramatically streamline their grant processes. It was also a very short timeline for the amount of work that needed to be done, almost impossibly short.
Looking back, I can see that we were a talented group of individuals. We had a very clear, measurable, almost impossible goal and benchmarks that, with exceptional leadership, caused us to dig deeper individually and pull together corporately to get the job done. We each knew our role in the structure and why that job was important. We had clearly defined communication channels and structured opportunities throughout the project to provide feedback and think together about continuous improvement. Over the course of the project (all told, about 7 months), we came to really respect one another.
A real High Performing Work Team. It’s totally doable. So back to last week’s question: How important is it that your work group really come together as a team? Have you had enough of the silos yet?
If you say “it’s important” that you become a real team, then stay tuned in to this blog series. You really can structure work team success. If you compared my account above with the team building blocks in last week’s article, you’ll see each of them there. I’ll be explaining these more fully in upcoming posts.
If you say it’s “very important and we need to do it ASAP” then contact us. Let us help you put your group on the path to becoming a team. Read more about our Executive Team Building on our website.
