Engaging Teams with Purpose

If you have ever experienced the euphoric feeling of helping someone, then you know that for that moment and many moments thereafter your world feels and seems a better place.

Executive Summary

This article explores the concept behind engaging people with/for purpose and how it helps transform teams, their mindset, their attitudes and their behaviour to perform more homogeneously and with greater levels of collaboration.

How?

By giving teams a reason to connect beyond the obvious work/job and providing them a sense of meaning and higher purpose which serves to mobilise a greater version of themselves and teamwork in business.

“Disengaged employees cost U.S companies up to $500 billion (USD) a year.”

Source: The Engagement Institute – a joint study by The Conference Board, Sirota-Deloitte, ROI, The Culture Works & Consulting LLP

If we work on the premise that it makes good business to have employees highly engaged, then we should perhaps first consider what causes teams to be disengaged and then what it takes to build engagement levels within teams.

 The Root Cause of Team Dysfunction

Paradoxically, work by its very nature can divide us as it “slots us into silos” (Source: Terry Haayema, Commonwealth Bank) and isolates us from each other. Then, with the frantic pace of work we see an increase is stress levels and a gradual erosion over time of workforce resilience and unity.

So, what are the ingredients that give rise to dysfunctional teams? According to Patrick Lencioni (Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) these are:

1. Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to results

Each of these root causes of team dysfunction are interrelated and start with the absence of trust, which at its core comes from an unwillingness and resistance amongst team members to be vulnerable. To compound the problem, the lack of trust fosters an avoidance behaviour where team members feel at risk and thus unable to have open, honest discussions and frank debates. Instead, it is often what isn’t said, than what is said, that holds the greater weight. 

The intentional absence of open conversation, the frank exchange of differences of option and passionate debate is often replaced by ‘apparent’ agreement. In reality, true buy-in is avoided and individuals are discouraged from committing to decisions, which shows later when follow through behaviour diverges from the ‘agreed’ course of action.

This then follows with team members who have feigned buy-in and then avoid accountability to a course of action as they are unprepared to stand by an ‘agreed’ decision, that in truth they weren’t truly in support of, and this makes it extremely hard for any leader to spot, challenge or correct.

As a direct result of this lack of accountability, team members become less concerned with, vested in, or committed to results, often putting their own needs (recognition, career, or ego) ahead of the collective goals and needs of the team.

A team in this state of dysfunction will be costing the business something, be that lost revenue, client dissatisfaction or loss, staff departures, absenteeism, low productivity….. So, if you know, work in, or lead a team where these behaviour characteristics are at play, then read on….

Rebuilding a Team

“In organisations where employees do not view leadership as committed to their well-being, only 17% would recommend the company as a good place to work.”

Source - American Psychological Association

At the base of what makes for a team dysfunctional team is the absence of trust. Where this has been lost or eroded over time, team members will not open up, be vulnerable, be committed, take ownership, or follow through on their responsibilities with any degree of conviction. In short, these teams will be in an increasing cycle of self-destruction.

“Work slots us into silos. We’re almost encouraged to sit at our desk and hammer the keyboard as fast as you can as this was productivity…”

Terry Haayema, Commonwealth Bank

To make matters worse, the work environment by its very nature fosters a degree of professional distance and silo mentality and behaviour, that makes connections hard to foster beyond an operational formality as staff may feel judged, watched, or assessed. This is compounded by corporate performance management systems which hold employees accountable for their behaviour and foster a self-protective attitude of just doing the bare essential of what needs to be done and to the letter of the job description, which in turn discourages staff from operating outside of their immediate area of focus for fear of judgement or rebuke. Thus, team behaviour, support and collective responsibility is neither shared nor fostered. 

“31% of respondents reported extremely high levels of stress at work.”

Source - CareerBuilder’s survey on stress in the workplace 

And then factor in employee mental health, particularly over the last year from the huge operational, emotional and psychological disruptions caused by COVID which forced rapid change on workforces and teams, including forced physical isolation from colleagues. This never bodes well for social animals like human beings. 

“61% of employees are burned out on the job.”

Source - CareerBuilder’s survey on stress in the workplace 

 And people who are stressed, burned out or on emotional tender hooks are even less likely to operate effectively, trust others and are highly likely to be reactive and sensitive, making it all the harder to fix the situation.

In short, we have the makings of a powder keg, so business leaders be aware and if you recognize any of these symptoms described, in your company, take corrective action fast.

 So, the key to treating this toxic work environment and team dysfunctionality is by building the trust levels in the team.

Rebuilding Trust

So how does the ‘For Purpose’ focus help build trust in employees and mobilise teams?

And this is where the recent Webinar Discussion Panel, hosted by Communiteer, was able to shed some light on this topic as fellow panellists Rebecca Harris (Sage Foundation), Terry Haayema (Commonwealth Bank) and I were able to explore our shared experiences of how For Purpose (aka Community Engagement) activities, associations and involvement serves as a common purpose, or “North Star” as Rebecca put it, for colleagues to rally around.

To view the recording of the panel discussion - https://teambuildingwithpurpose.com.au/communiteer 

“A team of people who come together and connect with each other start to help each other in ways where each person may not be spending each day on their one single role, but as a team they produce a whole lot more because they are connected; connected through purpose, connected through a shared experience and having done something together that feels fantastic.”

Terry Haayema, Commonwealth Bank

 When referring to ‘For Purpose’ let’s simply consider this to include any Community Engagement activity that involves the company and its employees assisting, helping, or being involved with a Not-For-Profit, a charity in other words. This could involve corporate volunteering, a gold coin mufti day, a Christmas Hamper drive, volunteering with a charity (once or regularly as an individual or group), hosting a talk by a charity, visiting a charity’s office, participating in a fun run or sponsoring a colleague in some sort of fundraising initiative, sponsoring a charity, workplace giving, hosting a fundraising event…..

Breaking down Barriers

“Establishing that partnership philosophy gets colleagues more involved naturally.”

Rebecca Harris, Sage Foundation

It is my assertion that to rebuild trust you first need to break down barriers. This is harder to do in a work context, especially when everyone’s guard is up and they fear judgement. An easier way to do this is to take people out of their traditional space and comfort zone and put them all in the same place of unfamiliarity. This tends to foster a greater sense of team cohesion as individuals form together as a way of self-protection and sense of safety. This happens when a team is visiting, meeting, or getting to know the world or place of a charity or cause. 

“Helping others is the way we help ourselves.”

Oprah Winfrey

By getting a team to face the unfamiliar circumstances and new world of a charity together this can pressure them to join forces as they now share a common ‘foe’. It also takes each person out of their own area of familiarity and levels the playing field as no one person tends to have a greater sense of advantage or superiority over another. Length of service counts for nothing, seniority has little relevance and age doesn’t confer advantage. This sounds may negative, but consider that by getting a group of individuals to face an unknown world or challenge together, it gives them an excuse to bury the hatchet or momentarily put differences aside to work together to achieve a shared goal. This allows them to feel safe and be united in a common lack of familiarity.

Uniting Teams through Purpose

“Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed.”

Gerald Jampolsky

Now add to this lack of familiarity, the fact that what they are doing is helping others and that can provide them the sense of joy one human feels when helping someone else or witnessing an act of kindness.

Thus, when you bring groups of people together and focus on a common purpose through community engagement this allows you to remove pre-determined concepts about one another and hierarchy and build teams quicker than might normally be possible within the usual BAU setting.

In truth, this may at first serve more as a distraction from the usual office strains and stress or just a day out of the office and reprieve from the daily grind, but in practice it proves to be something far more. Helping a charity confers a sense of purpose and provides meaning to people that may be missing this in their life.

And when a team engages a charitable cause, adopts a charity, or takes part in a corporate volunteering day, this fosters a sense of common purpose that transcends the usual work problems. This usually serves to render the typical conflicts and disagreements meaningless as employees cannot help but compare their ‘first-world’ problems to those of the disadvantaged, homeless, abused, sick or injured. This helps put their problems in perspective and tends to minimise the true significance they have.

Giving employees perspective like this is part of the solution to build trust as it starts to break down the traditional defences, align colleagues and unite them behind a new more positive goal, need and social imperative. It also takes them out of the usual business mindset and taps into their heart and helps unleash empathy and compassion.

When a workforce can behave with more empathy and show compassion to others this serves to remind them of the value of this behaviour towards others. This in turn exercises their muscle memory and encourages them to extend this thinking to others, namely their colleagues.

“96% of employees believe showing empathy is an important way to advance employee retention.”

 As with a brand of any kind, a sports team, a sports star, a celebrity, their fans tend to be connected emotionally, which fuels their passionate support and following. The same holds true for loyalty to a team or company. It comes when the employees are emotionally connected and vested in the property or person. This is where the For Purpose sector can greatly help a company where trust and loyalty is missing as they serve as a temporary, substitute or foster heart to help a team or company to recover its soul, loyalty and connectivity by providing a heartbeat to rally the individuals to.

5 Stages of Team Development

 To help understand how For Purpose can help engage staff and teams, we should look at the model of team development that a behavioural psychologist called Tuckman created in 1965, which he revised twelve years later in collaboration with Mary Ann Jensen, to include a fifth stage:

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning

The following extracts are taken from Upwork Staff’s blog of 28th April 2021:

https://www.upwork.com/resources/stages-of-team-development?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=SEM_GGL_INTL_NonBrand_Marketplace_DSA&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=113089129402&utm_term=&campaignid=11384804789&matchtype=b&device=c&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYGGBhCTARIsAHdMTQx_c9Gh4xhIiZXbrzXFFq-GqAGuTg3dwhwnU0NfcNc-MpS2MVq33eMaAsqdEALw_wcB

1. Forming:

“The forming stage of team development is punctuated by excitement and anticipation. Group members are on high alert, each wanting to put their best foot forward while, at the same time, sizing up each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

In this initial phase of group interaction, individual members tend to behave deferentially to one another. Because each new team member sees their role from the perspective of individual performance, the group doesn’t accomplish much during this stage.

This is a good time for the group leader or manager to open up discussions about the team’s mission. It’s also a good time to address the ground rules, clearly stating what the team norms should be while reviewing expectations for team dynamics.”

Opinion: As the forming stages requires excitement and anticipation and a new set of ground rules as the usual lay of the land no longer applies, a For Purpose focus is a perfect setting and excuse for a team to operate outside their usual ‘territory’.

2. Storming:

“All that polite, deferential behaviour that dominated the forming stage starts to fall by the wayside in the storming stage. Storming is where the metaphorical gloves come off, and some team members clash personally, professionally, or both. One team member might take offense at another’s communication style. Work habits might be at odds, and perceptions about who is contributing what—and who might be left holding the bag—begin to surface. Members might start to question team processes. They also might form cliques. The result is likely to interfere with team performance and stall the team’s progress.

This critical stage is a necessary evil in the formation of a successful team. Managers and team leaders need to confront issues directly. Ignoring them could let minor conflicts fester into major problems. In the end, however, team members will have to come to a consensus about how to move forward as a team.

You can help the team break through the storming stage by encouraging members to refocus on goals. Try breaking large goals down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Then, work with the team to redefine roles and help them flex or develop their task-related, group-management, and conflict-management skills.”

Opinion: The For Purpose setting provides a safe place for a team to refocus and reconnect and gives individuals manageable and shared goals to help the group to collaborate over rather than conflict and a platform for engagement rather than separation.

3. Norming: 

“You will know your team has entered the norming stage when small conflicts occur less frequently and team members find ways to work together despite differences. Each person begins to recognize how their fellow team members contribute to the group, and that perspective—combined with a recommitment to the team’s objectives—helps establish work patterns and accepted performance markers.

Some teams will toggle back and forth between the storming and norming stages. This may happen if work priorities shift and team members are temporarily thrown off-kilter. Given time, the storming will dissipate, and team members will come to appreciate how individual performance and group performance overlap.

What should you do? Wait, watch, and intervene only where necessary. The group needs to work out this dynamic organically. You can gently encourage team members to engage in self-evaluation to determine whether there is room for process improvement, but your primary focus should be on encouraging stability.”

Opinion: As a For Purpose day or community engagement project progresses, teams will start to see their colleagues as people and equal, appreciate the skills and contributions that their peers have and witness the momentum of their combined collaboration. This translates to evidence that working as a team is better than not.

4. Performing 

“The relationships and interdependencies formed during storming and norming pay off in the performing stage. By now, team members have honed their conflict-resolution abilities and spend less time focused on interpersonal dynamics and more on team effectiveness. This is where surges in creative problem-solving and idea generation occur. The lines between individual performance and team success blur as the team works to deliver results.

As momentum builds and each team member leans in to the team’s goals, productivity—both personal and collective—begins to increase. This may be the perfect time to evaluate team functions to increase productivity even more.

Even as you push for greater productivity, you should make a point of rewarding the team by showing confidence in their abilities, offering support for their methods and ideas, and celebrating their successes.”

Opinion: As the team starts to connect more and celebrate the success of their collaborations for the common good the results will serve to highlight the value of teamwork as everyone increasingly appreciates the benefit that collective team unity has to the charity.

5. Adjourning

“Often, the adjourning stage brings up bittersweet feelings, as team members go about the business of concluding the group’s functions. They start to focus on the details of completing any deliverables, finalising documentation, and meeting reporting requirements. They might start looking toward their next assignments, leaving little energy or enthusiasm for finishing the tasks at hand.

Management can help the team navigate through the adjourning phase by acknowledging the team’s accomplishments and recognising the difficulties that come with tackling all the loose ends.”

Opinion: At the end of every corporate volunteering day, fundraising event, volunteer task or charity project, there is a period of shared reflection, appreciation and gratitude. It is a time when a team celebrates what they have done, learnt and shared. The key is to use this as a launching platform to maintain momentum when everyone returns to the office and their day-to-day responsibilities. It is a source of energy that can erode over time if it is not fostered and used to facilitate longer-term change. Otherwise, people tend to return to old habits and behaviours!

Team Unity Accelerant

“Doing something meaningful is the best thing you can do. Doing it with other people is even better.”

Terry Haayema, Commonwealth Bank

I believe that when For Purpose activities are applied to corporate teams they serve as an effective accelerant to this Team Development model. The community engagement focus provides a shared sense of purpose and meaning and provides the perfect setting to mobilise staff and team engagement, foster team connection and build trust levels.

“89% of workers at companies that support well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work.”

Source: American Psychological Association

This in turn provides a platform to fuel productivity and staff retention, build the company’s profile and reputation as a great place to work and perhaps more importantly, foster a greater sense of civic duty and contribution to Society that can only serve to make our world a better place to live and work in the future.

Overcoming Barriers & Resistance

One of the biggest problems for those organising team building and corporate volunteering days or special charity events and fundraising drives, is a lack of staff engagement. It is not uncommon for staff to cite workload or other pressing engagements as a reason to avoid participating. I have heard the excuse ‘I’m too busy’ cited many times as a reason not to pack hampers, do a gardening day at a retirement home or visit a homeless shelter. For some this may be a genuine excuse, but often a mixture of apathy and disinterest is the real root cause. 

But, when people realise that this charity day is more than a day or a few hours out of the office or away from the desk and instead is more of a team building day where problems, misunderstandings and miscommunications can be resolved, then perhaps those same people will miraculously find the time. It’s a really a question of choice and priorities. 

As Terry Haayema from Commonwealth Bank pointed out, one of the huge benefits and maybe one of the whys of a day working together in the community, is that it builds connection with people and that by enabling colleagues to help one another out of the usual work environment that it can actually help the same people become more efficient, improve communication, simplify delegation and reduce or even eliminate ‘handover’ errors. All this, through greater understanding of each other, more respect and in time trust.

Perhaps then if staff appreciate that the reason for these community days is so that this will enable the team to be better at work and if they can see this direct correlation then next time they are invited to participate they may be less likely to see a day of packing hampers as just a nice thing to do but an essential one to the welfare, unity, productivity and welfare of the team.

Impact Measurement

“91% of our employees who were asked said that their volunteer program contributed to their happiness.”

Rebecca Harris, Sage Foundation 

As with any business there will be expectations and pressure to measure the impact of For Purpose activities on the business to justify the time spent way from the business.

Usually, companies use quantitative measurements to judge the success or failure of their community engagement programs like how many hours or days spent helping charities or how much money was raised and donated to them. Rebecca Harris aptly pointed out that the impact on the individuals is the real value and thus the strength of For Purpose is actually the qualitative data and stories that staff hear, see and experience. And this point of view comes from a person who works for a company whose staff globally have done nearly 35,000 days of volunteering!

“Impact measurement is really hard to capture in just numbers.”

Rebecca Harris, Sage Foundation

One example she gave of real impact, that wasn’t evident in numbers, was a story she shared about meeting a young ‘disadvantaged’ person at a social enterprise business their company supported, who had just received their first pay packet. Learning that they were the first member of their family in three generations to have a pay packet, seeing the expression on this young person’s face and feeling their joy, was priceless. And yet this wasn’t something that could be recorded in an Annual Report or found on a balance sheet.

Similarly, I have witnessed young children returning to a Children’s home and saw their reactions when they discovered that a corporate group had just installed new swings and slides in their playground. This delivered an incredible powerful surge of emotion, sense of achievement, purpose and pride that simply doesn’t translate into dollars, cents and ROI for the bean counters to measure, report on and use as justification for or against For Purpose initiatives and community engagement activities. And what I felt wasn’t unique, judging by the tears that streamed down the faces of the corporate group of men and women. And who says that grown men don’t cry!

Proof in the Pudding

“The investment of one day or a few hours in doing something meaningful will pay you back many times over in no time at all.”

Terry Haayema

Purpose is at the heart of the 7 Hats of Highly Happy people; it serves as the glue in Tuckman’s and Jensen’s 5 Stages of Team Development and acts as the antidote to Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Furthermore, from Dan Pink’s insights into what really motivates people, Purpose shares the stage with Mastery and Autonomy at work.

So, there is enough empirical evidence that For Purpose delivers trust, which in turn breaks down silos and mobilises collective spirit and fosters teamwork. But, in case you were still not convinced, let me leave you with an example that Terry shared – a story that he heard directly from a colleague whose team was buckling under stress and resulted with someone in the team off sick one day a week.

This phenomenon changed from one day a week to zero. How?

After they had a community engagement day together and from the connections they had built, it actually helped them to work together in ways that supported each other better and reduced their stress. This resulted in an enormous reduction in their time off work unwell.

So, team engagements for Purpose are a great rallying cry and platform for genuine connections. They enable employees to feel part of something special and meaningful. They build trust and prove the old adage “the sum of the parts”….. and in doing so, serve as a heartbeat that breaths life back into the team. 

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”

John Holmes