Even on holiday... building team from a random bunch of individuals

I know, I am compulsive, I can’t help it. Even while on holiday on a tour for the Rugby World Cup in Japan, I found myself observing how our tour leader Damien Fitzpatrick built the group into a team and established an excellent team culture. Damien will be an awesome catch for a corporation which he makes the shift from playing rugby in the Australian squad, and leading team mates, to leading teams in a business context. He is a natural leader without knowing he is doing it.

For those who want to build a good team culture, it pays to observe, and notice how these things come about. Most of what I have know in this area has come through my powers of observation, and of then seeing patterns in how good teams work.

Imagine, we are on a tour bus, nobody knows each other, most of us would say we are not the type of people who would typically go on a tour. It was certainly my first. Day One Damien tells a story about what happens when a rugby squad is on tour, and how they handle people turning up late when the bus is due to leave. The individual concerned makes their own way home, and pays for their trip. All said with a lot of good humour, but suddenly we all found out that holding the bus up by being late was a behaviour that would not be discouraged. Then we had two instances where people had to make the “walk of shame”, being a few minutes late and everyone giving them a slow clap as the walked down the bus to their seat. That was it, after that everyone turned up at the appointed time every time.

Group WhatsApp cam next, and the tone on there was unobtrusively set by Damien. The group picked up the signal, and within 24 hours everyone was posting stuff.

Damien worked out very early which people might need a bit of extra help, with walking or finding their way. He himself was always checking in with everyone. Within a couple of days, he was calling us a team, and asking that someone took on Jim-duty to make sure the least able member got around OK.

I dropped in a question one day as to whether the Aussie’s sang at rugby matches, coming as I do from England. Within a day, one of the group members had appointed himself CJ DJ, and was comparing songs to accompany the mood of the bus at the time - he got it right even after the unexpected loss by Australia to Wales.

So what does a leader do to build a team and to set the right culture on that team?

• Define and encourage the behaviour you want, and discourage what you don’t want when it happens - don’t from standards.
• Set up activities in which people can visibly see it is better to work together.
• Create good communication mechanisms.
• Assume that some team members will have special skills that they offer to the team, and when you see the first shoots of these encourage them like crazy.
• Use your own humour and energy to lift the rest of the team, but not to force what is not there.
• Be genuinely interesting and interested.

Simple techniques, consistently applied. It has been fun for me to watch it happening so quickly, and with such apparent gracefulness. That is the skill of a great leader. Thank you Damien Fitzpatrick for a wonderful week. I am a new rugby fan as well as a Japan fan.