Stuck in the routine.
Too many teams fail to leverage their collective intelligence, hindering critical thinking and the emergence of best ideas through generative dialogue. In fact, teams often don’t take the time to practice how to dialogue with each other so their ideation and decision making are more fruitful. Why would you waste the combined energy and salaries of your team members to just provide updates in a staff meeting and not use that precious time together more productively? As noted by research by Mckinsey & Company, “team focused transformations can lead to 30% efficiency gains in organizations that implement these strategies effectively”. What is it about team dynamics that inhibits team members from authentically getting their voice and ideas into the room, and how does this impact their commitment to the decisions and ensuing results? Teams that create the right environment to think critically and generatively together accomplish significantly more.
Strong, effective leaders are just the beginning.
Investing in your own capabilities and building your strengths as a leader grows your self-awareness and hopefully greater awareness of others. Leadership growth is a journey, and effective leaders are more likely to become lifelong learners who continue to hone their leadership skills. However, maximizing a team’s potential takes more than the efforts and energy of one person. A strong leader alone can be challenged to overcome the inertia of their team members’ experiences, perspectives, and habits. For example, creating an energized, brave, and safe space for all team members, the boisterous and the quiet and reserved, to collaborate in a generative way is critical to breaking the mold of only using their known experience and limiting their thinking. Generative thinking creates more and makes 2 + 2 = 5. In teams, generative thinking allows team members to understand each other’s ideas and perspectives so they can build on them, rather than just defending their fixed perspective.
What do teams need to let go of to allow for generative thinking?
Let go of yourself and be curious. Each of us looks at life through our own lens. We interpret everything we sense based on our known experiences. Think about your early experiences in school and starting your career. You probably were rewarded for your “good” answers and dealt with the consequences, lower grades or reprimands for your “bad” answers or actions. The goal is to move past our tendency to label one thing as good or bad. This can get in the way of learning a new perspective from a team member. As William Shakespeare aptly wrote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. Teams that are aware realize each team member brings their unique experiences and perspectives. Effective teams invest time understanding each other so they can invite each person to bring their whole person forward. They build muscles in setting aside their egos, needing to be right, and tendency to defend their position and instead bring curiosity. This opens the door for new learning and generative thinking. Taking time to work on how the team will be together enables them to actually move faster. This is a skill that leads to greater “Teamship”
It takes intentional team practice.
The awareness that your team can operate at a higher and more generative level plants the seed for the fruits to grow. However, just making a proclamation that a team will be more transparent, vulnerable and generative will not create the results your organization needs alone. It takes intentional team practice to build the dialogue and relating skills necessary to support transparent generative team results. Systemic Team Coaching is more than a day out of the office in a team-building exercise. Systemic Team coaching builds the necessary interdependent skills for teams to be more effective and deliver greater results. Building the right team behaviors transforms the value the team creates for the organization, AND it drives greater team member engagement and retention.
