Positivity – Communication

[Anonymous]

Clear and efficient communication is valued over less direct approaches such as politicizing, gossiping, or stonewalling.

[Alexis Phillips]

Tips and questions about Communication on teams:
– What does Communication mean on this team? What is the benefit of it?

– What does clear and efficient team communication look like? Sound like? Feel like?

– What does unclear and inefficient team communication look like? Sound like? Feel like?

– The first step is discovery: what are the team agreements around communication? How does it work on this team? If it were ideal, what would change?

– What communication vehicles does this team use most often? How is that working for you? What could be even better?

– Give examples of indirect communication habits on teams. Where does this sideways stuff get started? Why is it valued on teams?

– Often forgotten: the other half of communicating, is listening. On a scale of 1 to 9 how good is this team at listening? What would raise that score?

– What Team Agreements would support Communication on the team?

[Alexis Phillips]

Research in relationship communication clearly shows that communication style has dramatic
impact on Positivity over time. Researcher and author John Gottman identifies four toxic communication styles that corrode relationship over time.

Teaching teams about the Toxins and having them create a signal to pause the interaction is helpful. Download the exercise from the Team Coaching Intensive.

Remember the acronym NCAA:
Notice the impact
Check whether a toxin is present
Ask where we align and agree on what to do differently
Act on new agreements

[Alexis Phillips]

One exercise to practice communication is the Web of Connection. In this exercise the team discusses a process from start to finish, naming each step and the person responsible. As the conversation unfolds the team tosses a ball of yarn to one another for each step, creating a web. The visual impact of seeing inter-dependencies is powerful, it’s a new way to practice communicating about accountability, and the de-brief generates ideas about how to improve team communication.

Download the exercise here.

[Author]

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