Team Journey: Steps from people to real team results!
July 16, 2008
I sat down with LUCRUM’s Eric Duell a couple of years ago and talked about the value of teams. Eric is a principal consultant and specializes in executive alignment sessions - but is the guru of communications. The truth of our conversation has never left me. He tied together results of a team through proper leadership and stepped me through the teams ‘ascent’. This talk of ours was so powerful, that a couple years later, I chose to work at LUCRUM.
I don’t want to steal Eric’s thunder but there are dependencies that are really worth noting. I’ll just highlight them below:
Step 1: Show each person that they are part of the team and that they can contribute to the success and problems of the team. This expectation should be set from the beginning - this gives them the freedom to move to the next step.
Step 2: People need to feel that their contribution is part of the team’s success. Sure, the ownership is on that person to ensure that they are ‘engaged’ with the team, but it’s also on the leader - to make sure that the person has the right avenues to contribute. Ensure that contributions are appreciated…publically.
Step 3: Once these contributions are shown, this build trust within the team. This is a key point because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.
Step 4: Now that we have trust, the team can have honest and open conversations. Debates are not win/lose, rather they are healthy and passionate. This level of communication reveals the right data for the team to act upon.
Step 5: The leader now has the foundation to have a commitment by each member to the team. Here we are focusing on a common course of action, the holdouts, cowboys and dissenters are not present…for the team’s value is realized and we think of the team success first.
Step 6: Now that we are committed, we can be accountable. Too many times this foundation is shortcutted and we have tentative accountability; one foot here and one foot there. But, this team is now in a position to expect real accountability and forms the right partnerships to help each other.
Step 7: Once we are at this level of accountability, we are ready to do what the team was designed for; looking for the best solution with a focused team. Here is where the power is and this focus is how to concentrate the talents, passions, desires and energy of the highly successful team!
So, you see, this progression from person to maximum results is framed by real team development and leadership - but must progress through clearly defined stages. This is a strategy we strive for at LUCRUM. When you peel back all that extra baggage, we are left with real people who contribute within real teams to focus on real value for our clients with a real focus.
Imagine a team with a missing piece. What if we did not expect a team member to perform? What if we did not appreciate contributions? How would it be if the team could not have open conversations and the real data was hidden for fear of rejection. Could the team be committed if we could not talk openly? If people were not accountable and not held accountable, could we succeed? Any missing piece above would cause the team to focus on their own agendas and not on finding the best possible solution.
This model was truly one of the reasons that I chose LUCRUM to take my career to the next level. The commitment to teams is core to what we are all about.
~ Scott Felten
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So basically, build rust so we can ’survive’ the right conflict in the group so that we can commit to the action of the group in order that we can hold each other accountable so that we are results focused!
Don’t under estimate the value of that first step…building trust. Without trust, we can’t survive the needed conflict - where we debate the real issues and have the right conversations.
If we don’t have the right converstaions, no one is truly ‘bought in’ to the vision. And when no one is really bought in, then no one is truly committed. Of course then we lower our standards and we have no grounds to hold each other accountable. When this crumbles…team results are impossible!