Team Butter

Good morning,

Although I am not much of a chef, I love watching chefs in action.

The characteristic that I appreciate the most is their attention to detail.

They realise that many things must come together to create the perfect taste experience and they are relentless in finding the ingredients that create that perfection.

I want to share two ideas with you from world-class chefs that we can apply to our teams.

Team Butter

The great Heston Blumenthal was asked whether he could tell if a restaurant or chef was any good before sitting down to taste the food.

“The butter”, he said.

"If the butter has a good consistency and is easily spreadable then you know this is a chef that cares about the experience of the customers. If the butter is hard and impossible to spread, then the chef has likely never dined at his own restaurant."

(Coincidentally, my wife and I had a sub-par experience at a restaurant this weekend, and on reflection we realized the butter was hard.)

What we see in this answer is two things:

1. The pattern recognition that comes with expertise. I am sure in your field of expertise you can also point to what seems like insignificant observations that mean everything to the expert and nothing to the novice.

2.There are certain indicators of excellence that have nothing to do with how we actually do the work.

How does this relate to leadership and teamwork?

Well, I’d like you to think about “the butter” for your team. What do you observe when the team is in a good space? What do you observe when the team is in a bad space?

In other words, what are the non-obvious, non-performance related indicators that tell us that the team is in a good state?

It might be the amount of chatter in the Whatsapp group, or the extent to which we celebrate small wins, or our punctuality or contribution to meetings.

Keep an eye on your team butter.

The most important ingredient

A chef was interviewed about the incredible steaks that his restaurant produces.

The interviewer asked him, “What’s the most important ingredient?”

“Time.”

What he is specifically referring to is the resting of the meat after it has been cooked. To not rush to get it from pan to plate.

Time matters in teams too.

Specifically, it matters in how we help our teams to step it up to the next level. We’d like this process to be instantaneous. But it’s not.

It takes time.

And if it takes time, then how we approach team development should align with this philosophy.

Here are two statements related to building up your team:

• "We do once or twice-yearly team effectiveness workshops / offsites."
• "We have dedicated time every week/month for team learning and development."

Which of these two statements best aligns with the philosophy that change is not instantaneous?

Obviously, it’s the second statement.

When we do team interventions only once or twice a year it means we are betting everything on those events to change team behaviour and dynamics.

Whereas on-going team development means we are continuously and patiently giving our teams the time to change.

Now, look at your own team development process and determine which philosophy it aligns to.

Here’s to building better teams,

Erik

Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways in which we can help:

1. Book me to speak at your event. In my keynotes, I inspire leaders to become change-makers who create environments where teams flourish, transformation is prioritized, and adaptability is embraced in the face of rapid change.
2. Book us to design and deliver a workshop for your team. Our flagship workshop helps your team to discover the practices that increase psychological safety and to create a code for performance.
3. If you are ready to deeply invest in your people, then reach out for us to design a 3 - 6 session long engagement geared towards creating shared mental models and facilitating change.

 Click here to enquire about any of the above.