đ©BLUF: Bottom Line Up Frontđ©
Over 60 interactive minutes, participants tried out a few Flash Fifteen favorites and discussed how if aligned with core behaviors of cohesive teams, these bite-sized experiences lead to better collaboration habits and higher-performing teams.
đ© The Conversationđ©
The Challenge
Team cohesion is an unfair competitive advantage. Cohesive Teams display high morale, and productivity as well as minimal conflicts, confusion, and employee churn.
There's plenty of information out there on how to build healthy teams. My favorite comes from Patrick Lencioni. He says, for a leadership team to be cohesive, it must embrace five behavioral principles.
First, great leadership teams must have trust â more specifically vulnerability-based trust, the kind of trust that stems from openly sharing oneâs vulnerabilities and mistakes. This allows team members to say things like, âI need helpâ, âYour idea is better than mine,â âI screwed up,â and even, âIâm sorry.â Such honesty requires a strong bond among team members but saves a lot of time and energy for all parties.
Second, teams must not fear conflict. Whenever a team tries to find the best possible solution to a problem, conflicts will undoubtedly arise. Yet these must not be feared, as they are a key part of the problem-solving process. As the saying goes, âNo pain, no gain.â
Whatâs more, avoiding the conflicts at hand out of fear usually results in frustration and more intense disagreements down the line.
Third and fourth, team members must be committed to decisions made in the team, and share accountability for those decisions.
For team members to commit to a decision, they must be given the opportunity to provide their own input, but they must also understand the rationales behind the decisions made. Otherwise, they wonât feel like active participants and wonât feel committed to the decision.
For a decision to stick, it is crucial that the whole team feels accountable for it. This is also true of goals: teams pursue them more vigorously when they are held accountable for them.
Finally, great teams always deliver the results they set out to achieve. And to get there, all the team members must share the same common goal. For example, a soccer team must share the goal of winning. If they have excellent offense but lose due to poor defense, the offensive coach canât think, âAt least my goals are being fulfilled,â because the team is still losing.
The Problem
Every organization lists a form of Lencioniâs 5 behaviors as part of their âvaluesâ. But what keeps leadership teams from turning these 5 âvaluesâ into âverbsâ?
Busy leaders are often interested in more exhilarating problems than the often uncomfortable process of developing better relationships. Or they havenât experienced the positive alignment, optimism, and trust that empowers teams to do their best work from expensive and time-intensive soft-skills training in the past.
Collaboration Habits
Organizations can first normalize new ways of working together and create the conditions for cohesion and sustainable change. Bite-sized 15-minute experiences, blended into the 'regular routine' and based on Lencioniâs 5 behaviors can help busy teams nurture creativity, strengthen connections, and bring new energy and insight to real business problems. Over time, teams develop the language, frameworks, tools, techniques, and conditions to turn their âvaluesâ into âverbsâ. Building team cohesion is one of the greatest opportunities for companies to gain a competitive advantage. But it's a habit and skill that requires regular attention to develop.