Whether you’re creating a new team from scratch, trying to get that old stuck team to wake up and move, or anything in between, it’s all the same. Those rock-star teams out there consistently activate personal agency and inspire collaboration. Although that level of awesomeness is tough to achieve, with the right strategies you can design the mechanism that sets you on course for the best possible outcomes.?
Practically speaking, we’re talking about reducing conflict, using the conflict that does occur for the good of the organization, catalyzing employee engagement and satisfaction, and driving innovative problem solving.
- The first step is simply to revise your understanding of what a team is. During our workshops, we often encounter leaders that view their teams as individuals operating within, and only within, their specific silos. Silos aren’t a bad thing, but that mentality is so limiting. Specifically, it sets the expectation that anyone outside a given silo couldn’t possibly have a viable perspective on how to improve things (efficiency, morale, impact, etc.) within that silo. The reality, however, is the exact opposite. It’s often that “outsider” perspective that you really need in order to see things clearly. There’s real power in reaching across the aisle.
- The very act of breaking down the communication barriers between silos implies another crucial point: every voice matters. We live in a culture where it’s frequently the loudest individuals who get heard. Or, as we like to put it, the squeakiest wheel usually gets the grease. In the moment, it often seems like the right thing to do. But if we take a step back, it’s easy to recognize that the loudest ideas aren’t necessarily the best. Quite frankly, the loudest ideas are rarely the best. They’re loud for a reason … because they often can’t stand on their own two feet. Giving in and indulging these ideas simply based on their prominence in team conversations inadvertently sidelines the diverse perspectives your organization needs to thrive. At the end of the day, you’ve got to start reconstructing how you conduct team conversations, doing so in a way that not only listens to every voice, but also expects every voice to speak up.
- Make Follow-up the Rule, not the exception. As encouraging as giving everyone air-time can feel, without follow-up, you risk undermining your own efforts. Without follow-up, your teams will know deep down that their input will be dead on arrival. Without follow-up, you will almost certainly bring your teams to a screeching halt. It’s all about putting words into action. And let us tell you, there’s nothing more validating and empowering to a team than that. By demonstrating that you value every team member’s ideas and then developing and implementing the best of them, you are reinforcing an engaged and collaborative office culture that can achieve real momentum.?
Building powerhouse teams is a huge undertaking, and these three steps merely form the foundation. But when you get them right, the results can be earth shattering.
