The TEAM Approach

No Excuse Team Development!

Occasionally, all teams benefit from the opportunity to step back and look at themselves as a whole and evaluate themselves as a team. They might ask how effectively they work to support each other, how well they communicate and share information and what improvements could make them even more effective. By providing such an opportunity, a team can become even more cohesive, enhance communication, adjust to changing roles and build greater trust and commitment to work together in accomplishing their goals.

The free Team Check-Up is a tool that allows a team to assess itself and its culture. Culture can impact turnover, morale and the level of engagement that any employee has on a given team. Culture is the glue that holds great teams together and it can be improved and refined by a team that is committed to such improvements. The commitment always begins through a process of stepping back to assess the situation.

Try the free team check-up today and see how energizing it is for the team to get issues out on the table and come up with their own plans to create positive change. You won’t be disappointed!

Dialog: The Path to Community

We recently hosted my daughters wedding shower in our home. I say host, because while it was in our home, I was not in charge- the bridesmaids were. Now before I go any further, I will preface this with the fact that I have occasionally gotten feedback that I have a problem with control.

So, I knew I needed to just get over it when my daughter’s maid of honor (and future sister-in-law) suggested games. I immediately remembered the painful details of the past three showers I’d attended with everyone being forced to play games and I said….”great!” It wasn’t exactly terrible, but the very idea of games just seems to annoy me at events like this. As I considered my feelings I wondered why this harmless playful activity bothered me so much. Certainly, as a person in the adult learning profession, I have used enough games in the classroom myself- wasn’t turnabout fair play?

Yet, it did not seem to be the same thing to me. It wasn’t the idea of the game itself; it was the fact that the games became the focus rather then conversation. Dialog was difficult because there was always a game. I remembered the showers of years back that just had lots of food and the chance to catch up with friends and relatives that you see far too infrequently and I wondered why just visiting was no longer sufficient?

I have felt for a long time, that we are loosing the art of visiting. Think about it, how many friends can you name that would actually think of dropping in for an unscheduled visit if they happened to be in the neighborhood? If you are like everyone else that I know, this is pretty unusual.

Today, we schedule visits, and our children play organized sports. We even have devices that allow us to answer phone calls only when it is convenient, which is practically never! The quick pick up game of football, baseball or basketball are long gone and kids sit on the school bus plugged into ipods so they don't have to talk to each other. In fact, in the summer it seems like someone has rolled up the kids. You rarely see kids outside playing like I remember from childhood- you could barely get us to come home for a meal. Today, kids are on their Xbox or computer game or "something" electronic. The new “dialog” is the instant message , which not only is not dialog at all, but is the most fragmented bits of communication possible to still get some meaning across.

We tend to have far too little time for meaningful dialog in our lives. Do you suppose we are we forgetting how? Is the need to have games at a shower a way to avoid something we are loosing touch with as a society? What about the workplace? How often does meaningful dialog happen there? How often do we get beyond “task talk” and really hear each other?

What can we do to begin connecting with each other and building communities in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces? We cannot ever hope to have a world at peace if we cannot find time to hear each other and have conversations.

The Power of Feedback

Over the 20 some years I have spent growing up in the learning industry, it has been fun to watch the trends come and go. Really some of them whisked by so quickly I barely caught on in time before they disapppeared from the earth's atmosphere. Certainly, many things in the learning industry have also stuck around but I am willing to bet that a few decades from now, one of the winners will be the whole area of feedback. Yes, for many organizations, feedback got a rocky start. It was not done well in the beginning. Some people got hurt. Some organizations used it badly. But through all the challenges, feedback has continued to grow in its use and value in helping people reach their potential while also helping the organizations that they serve.

The real spirit of feedback is to help people achieve more, to move to a higher level of performance, and to grow personally and professionally. It is a powerful process if approached in this mind set. This means that the feedback is strictly developmental, and is "safe." The real power of feedback comes from using it. Taking the feedback and creating a developmental plan that is uniquely tailored to one's own needs and having a system for tracking one's progress brings the responsibility for performance to the individual level. We all need to be accountable for our performance. Feedback that is offered without a system to facilitate developmental goals and improvements is a wasted effort.

A feedback process can impact a number of positive changes. First there is the impact on efficiency and productivity. Performance feedback that is offered in the spirit of helping one improve is extremely motivational. When feedback is offered to truly contribute to the growth of another it provides motivation for creating performance improvements. Everyone wants and needs feedback in order to improve. When offered in the right spirit, feedback is the most powerful performance motivator available.

The very essence of providing and receiving feedback opens communication. Team members and customers will have a safe platform to share and receive their performance perceptions with each other. This structured communication process is the starting point for more face to face dialog that will follow, as specific verbal feedback is solicited by participants.

A key part of opening up communication is to uncover blind spots that may be problematic for some participants. In a feedback process, employees will experience and practice communication within a safe environment. In this environment the playing field is even because everyone is receiving feedback, and it is acknowledged that everyone has both areas of strength and opportunity.

Satisfaction is enhanced through a feedback process. This is important because it is a key attitude that contributes to greater levels of performance, increased commitment and higher levels of retention. External customers that are invited into a feedback process will feel stronger ties to organizations that solicit such feedback. The internal customers who are recipients of such pointed feedback will have an opportunity to make adjustments to increase the satisfaction of external customers.

Satisfaction can only be increased by letting one's needs be known. If needs are unmet this can contribute to frustration, poor performance, increased absenteeism, and turnover. A safe structured process such as that provided in a good feedback model is the best way to open the communication process and improve satisfaction.

Through the guidance of skilled facilitators and coaches, we can learn how to accept feedback and incorporate it into a plan for professional development. We can begin to apply new behaviors that will delight their internal and external customers.

Feedback is here to stay. We all need feedback for our development, it is the only way that we can discover more of who we are and initiate personal change. For organizations to be more effective, their employees need to continue to grow and respond to personal developmental needs.

Feedback and Friends

A few times in my life people who have cared about me have come forward with information about me that I was unaware of at the time, and offered it for my own good. I’ve always been amazed that a friend would care enough to risk our relationship to help me see a blind spot. Yet, these relationships have turned out to be the most significant of my friendships, and have grown deeper through this intimate sharing of feedback.

My friend Peg once confronted me and told me that I was becoming a “bitter women.” At the time this feedback was offered, I actually was quite bitter but totally unaware of it. In fact, I had allowed some personal circumstances in my life to become so consuming, that I was beginning to drive people away, but I was so preoccupied with myself, that I never even noticed. Many people must have seen this happening, but only one came forward: Peggy. Are we still friends? I would trust Peggy with my life.

As a result of this encounter and others like it, I have often wondered why there is often such a challenge with receiving feedback in organizations? Why do we often dread a 360-feedback rollout? Why do we expect to get straight A’s on feedback report when each of us knows that perfection is not possible and that we all have room for improvement.

The other question that is even more puzzling for me, has to do with those of us who have information to offer others that could help them grow, but we do not offer it. In formal feedback process we keep silent. We would bristle at the idea of a face-to-face conversation about the concern even (or, should I say especially) when the person is a close associate, or our boss.

I think we need to work on this issue because holding back on our observations, ideas and concerns, is not a team approach! Through our silence we are not offering each other or our organizations the chance to be more or to win.

To work with this, I have compiled a list of some of the more famous blind spots known throughout history. Just for fun, try to imagine yourself as the close personal associate of one of the people below and your task is to offer another view of the situation, say try to change their paradigm. Imagine the conversation, what would you say….

…to Charles H Duell, of the US Patent Office, who in 1899 said:
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

…to Harry Warner of Warner Brothers who in 1927 said: "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?'

…to Grover Cleveland, who in1905 said "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote" (ladies, please be nice to Grover!!)

…or, to Thomas Watson, founder of IBM who in1943 said:
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

I would welcome your creative responses (for the fun of it). But I do hope that you’ll take time to think of those people with whom you’ve had a burning desire to provide some feedback, but have not taken the plunge. Consider the impact of lack of action instead of the possible negative consequences you might encounter by sharing your thoughts, observations and feelings. We’ll talk more about how to do this successfully in an upcoming post.

Welcome to our Blog

The year was 1986 and Rick (my partner in life, work and my best friend) had decided it was time to leave a private non-profit agency, Gateway Placement Institute, that he had founded 10 years earlier to begin his dream: a firm devoted to both personal and team development.

As a community psychologist, Rick has always been intrigued by group dynamics and community organization. When I met Rick in 1983, he introduced me to the personal development movement. Rick, it seemed, had every personal development book and audio that was ever produced - he was a personal development junkie! One of my favorite stories illustrating his value for learning in his early life is about a decision he had to make on his 16th birthday.

Imagine for a moment you are turning 16 again and that you can now have the legal right to a driver’s license. To make this story even more exciting, imagine that as you anticipated this event, you actually had the wisdom and foresight to save the money for a car as Rick had done. Wow, you are sixteen and a car is within your reach- you should be on top of the world! However, as the day arrives you are suddenly thrust into a dilemma by the Encyclopedia Britannica people (I am sure you have always had suspicions about anyone who sold products door to door). They visit your parent’s home and discover your house does not need another encyclopedia, but they are not put off! They are sure they have something you need. They tell you about the “Great Books of the Western World.” Wow, all the worlds best thoughts and writings in one set of books!

Well you can see where I am going with this. Rick was in a quandary. Should you get the books or the car? After days of suffering over this decision, I am happy to report he was “normal enough” to go for the car. But I love this tale about Rick as it shows his passion for learning that eventually led him to create our company, The TEAM Approach. By the way, he had purchased the books just before I met him, and we now both attend a Great Books discussion group through our local library, which has been a wonderful and enriching experience.

So, Rick approaches our attorney at the start of the business to discuss a name for his dream. As he shared his vision and ideas, our attorney raised some good questions about his potential name choices. Teamwork? He wondered if this teamwork stuff were just a fad- would it exist in 5 years, or, in 20 years and beyond?

Boy, does it give me a chuckle as I think back about his concerns. Wouldn’t it be great if we had actually solved the teamwork issues of the world by now and there was no need to focus on it any longer? My suspicion is that the challenges of people working and living together effectively likely go back to the beginnings of people. Perhaps as we continue to evolve as a species, we’ll make steady progress toward being more fully human- for are not the qualities inherent in teamwork, humane? In the meantime, the need for teamwork, managing emotions, courtesy and other interpersonal skills persists. These skills which are called “soft skills” are really the hardest to master. While both Rick and I have been on a personal journey of developing these very qualities in our selves, we look forward to sharing ways that you and your organization can progress on your own journey. This blog is therefore for that purpose: to help facilitate teamwork in organizations, in families, communities, countries, and yes even our planet. Welcome to our journey and our Blog!