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One exercise to improve Accountability 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 get clear about accountability, and the de-brief generates ideas about how to improve clarity of roles and responsibilities, hand-offs and follow-through.
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.
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 agreementsTips and questions about Trust on teams:
– What does Trust mean on this team? What are the benefits?– One of the keys to creating and maintaining trust on teams is the conscientious attention to the team agreements. We typically describe this process tool and create a set of team agreements very early with teams and then re-visit the agreements throughout the coaching, especially when issues come up that touch on elements of the agreements.
– Create a structure with your team to re-visit their agreements and update them on a regular basis. Teach them that the Team Agreements are a living document that evolves and changes over time as they evolve and change.
– Ask the team, “What creates trust for you? How do you know when it’s present? Absent?”
– What does, “We have each others back” mean to the team. What is the impact of backstabbing?
– How does Trust impact speed and flow on the team?
– How does lack of Trust create fear; how does fear impact team Productivity?
– Trust is built over time when team members engage in collaboration or disagreement. They learn where the edge of trust is in the relationship or the team. If they are aware they will establish a new, stronger, more resilient edge. Find examples of collaboration or disagreement on this team. What happened? How was trust affected?
– Discuss the relationship between Trust and Respect. What does this mean to the team?
– What Team Agreements would support Trust on the team?
Tips and questions about Respect on teams:
– What does Respect mean on this team? What are the benefits?– How is Respect clear and visible on teams?
– What does Respect look like? Sound like? Feel like? How do you know what it’s present? Absent?
– How is Respect different from Trust? How are they inter-related?
– Create structures that allow team members to practice acknowledgement. The “Catch Me at my Best” cards are one form of acknowledgment. What else might the team use to practice Respect?
– What Team Agreements would support Respect on the team?
Tips and questions about Camaraderie on teams:
– What does Camaraderie mean on this team? What are the benefits of it?– With intact teams in geographic proximity it is not so difficult to create structures for social interaction and play. Sometimes that play can be purely for the sake of the team’s entertainment or for “team building”.
– More and more teams gather for purposeful volunteer efforts that also build camaraderie and a sense of meaningful, shared contribution. Teams work together to clean urban parks, build homes with Habitat for Humanity, volunteer to handle a water stop at a Breast Cancer walk and run, etc.
– What cause or activity has your team found to bind them together?
– With virtual teams it is more challenging but it is possible when they get creative. For example, hold weekly “water-cooler” teleconferences simply for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or a virtual happy hour with wine (or other beverage) and snacks.
– How is Camaraderie created on teams? What is the long term effect? How is it sustained?
– What Team Agreements would support Camaraderie on the team?
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?
Tips and questions about Constructive Interaction on teams:
– What does Constructive Interaction mean on this team? How does the team define “constructive”?– Most teams do not have what are often called “rules of engagement” when there are differences of opinion. Creating those rules of engagement is both a valuable process and a way for teams to enter the vulnerable territory.
– Create norms and agreements around giving and receiving feedback.
– Timing makes a difference. Using specific recent examples can be helpful.
– Explore with the team: What is most helpful – – feedback given in 1-way blurts or 2-way dialogues? How does listening play a part in feedback? From both the giver and receiver?
– Feedback can be positive, too. Frequent giving of positive feedback will build a foundation of goodwill so that constructive feedback can be received more easily. How does this team practice giving positive feedback on a frequent basis?
– There is more than one reason for a lack of conflict on teams. Sometimes conflict or disagreement is avoided out of fear. Sometimes it simply doesn’t exist because the team members operate very independently or because the system is running rather smoothly and the causes might not appear.
– Rather than miss the opportunity to stir things up and see what sorts of creativity might emerge, sometimes set aside regular time for arbitrary contrariness. How might you see that happening on a team? Playful “Post Stirrer”.
Tips and questions about Values Diversity on teams:
– What does it mean to Value Diversity on this team? What are the benefits?– Train the team in listening for the different points of view. Celebrate the range and variety.
– Notice if listening for diversity is actually happening or if expressing diversity is happening more. Discuss the relationship between listening and valuing diversity. Notice the impact on valuing diversity when listening and expressing are more equally balanced.
– Encourage teams to listen for the voices on the fringe. They don’t have to accommodate every voice by giving it voting rights or veto, but the simple act of listening and letting those voices know they have been heard/attended to is often enough.
– Some teams consciously ask for the unpopular voices in meetings along the lines of, “what is not being said, or asked? What is the voice no one has spoken for?”
– If a team notices they want more diversity they might assign the role of “Devil’s Advocate” to stretch their perspectives.
– Play this game. “If __________ were here, he/she would say…” Then fill in the blank with people everyone knows that would have a distinct opinion or point of view. Could be a real person in the organization (the CEO, the head of R&D), or anyone alive or dead, real or fictional. If Genghis Kahn were here … If Snow White were here …
Tips and questions about Optimism on teams:
– What does Optimism mean on this team? What is the benefit of it?– In the broadest sense, how would the team like their environment to feel?
– Ask team members, what are their beliefs about this team when they look to the future?
– One a scale of 1-10 with hopelessness at a 1 and hope at a 9, where does this team land?
– What would it be like if the dial were turned up a notch?
– What would it look, feel, sound like at a 9?– How can you create a stronger sense of possibilities on teams? What needs to be in place?
– How much time is spent talking about the past versus the present or future?
– How and when does appreciation happen on this team? How could it happen even more?
– What Team Agreements would support Optimism on the team?
An exercise from the Team Coaching Intensive called “Diminishing Resources” demonstrates how teams react in the face of dwindling resources… how they hoard, make rules, become competitive — even destructive. Sometimes teams need to be desperate before they will become innovative. Download the exercise here.
Tips and questions about Resources on teams:
– What does Resource management mean on this team?– What does Resource sharing mean for this team? What about Resource hoarding? What is the impact of both? How do they affect Productivity? Positivity?
– How can working with the issue of Resources empower a team?
– What will make this team more resourceful?
– Not counting money or “stuff”, what are the intangible resources of this team? How can they be maximized/leveraged?
– What Team Agreements are needed to support Resources on this team?
Tips and questions about Decision-Making on teams:
– What is clear decision-making on this team? Examples?– What is efficient decision-making on this team? Examples?
– How do you know if decisions are effective? What happens when they are not?
– Work on a specific area where the decision-making process is murky.
– What is one area where the decision-making process is quite successful? What can you learn from that as a team?
– What are different decision-making styles you have seen on teams?
– There are various roles and approaches to use depending on the type of decision. If the role and approach are unclear, there are disconnects.
For a particular decision:
– How is the decision-maker identified?
– How is the decision approach identified?
– How is the decision-maker and approach communicated to the team?
– How is the decision communicated to the team? By whom?Tips and questions about Proactive on teams:
– What does Proactive mean on this team?– Identify a practice on the team that needs change, or identify a product or process that needs change.
– Improv games inspire creative agility and generate playfulness.
– Engage the team in out-of-the box thinking. In a world where money and resources are no object, what would be the ideal product or process? What would be the “wow” factors? Anything goes!
– What attributes support team pro-activity? What attitudes support team pro-activity?
– How and when does the team actively look for opportunities to change?
– Under what circumstances does creativity flourish most on this team?
– What gets in the way of creativity, innovation?
– What Team Agreements are needed to support team Pro-activity?