The Team Formula by Mandy Flint

Author:Mandy Flint
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: leadership, team, team techniques, leaders, leadership methods
ISBN: 9781780923482
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

“You’re both right. We just don’t talk to each other; we don’t tell each other what we’re doing. I don’t know what you’re working on at the moment for example, JR. I don’t know what’s important to you, or what your priorities are. Maybe if I did, I could share things with you regarding what I have done. We could help and support each other much more, that’s for sure. What if one of us is currently doing something brilliant but not letting the others know? Ultimately the customer loses out as they don’t get the benefit of all our knowledge.” Anna waited for a reaction from the others.

“That’s easy for us to do something about. Maybe we should have ‘ sharing’ as an agenda item for our meetings? We don’t do that now.” JR said.

JR was animated and energised by the discussion and the searing bright insights they were having together. He was also surprised that it was going so well, that they seemed to be progressing so easily.

“I also spotted how we avoid conflict and if there is tension we ignore it, or we expect Stephen to deal with it. Don’t we all have to take responsibility for that? Can we add ‘Conflict Avoidance’ to the list?” asked JR while already writing it on the flipchart.

Christine smiled at his obvious expectation that they would agree with him, which of course they did.

“Yes, unresolved conflict is a killer, but I have to admit that I find that difficult. Why didn’t we go straight to Stephen with our concerns about the 24-hour email commitment that wasn’t kept? Why did we just talk to a few people, behind each other’s backs? I know you did it too.” Christine looked knowingly at her colleagues.

“That’s another theme, isn’t it?” exclaimed JR, jumping up again. “Let’s add ‘Keeping Team Commitments’ to the list”.

“Yes, because if we don’t do that, then what happens to trust? If we can’t trust each other then we’ll just keep working independently.”

JR wrote ‘TRUST’ on the flipchart and underlined it.

They continued working intensively and time seemed to just disappear. When Laura did a time check with the two teams, they both indicated that they needed more time. She smiled and nodded, holding up both hands, fingers spread out, indicating they could have another 10 minutes. This certainly wasn’t the first team she had met who had thrown themselves in fully once the flood gates were open.

She reminded them that they needed to be focusing on solutions now. From Laura’s experience, teams always needed more time once the talking had started to flow, yet they needed to be prompted to drive towards the solutions and actions too.

Fifteen minutes later, Laura invited the two groups to come back as one.

The chairs shuffled softly over the thick Oriental rug as they all moved back into a semicircle. Compared to just a few hours earlier, this set-up felt much more comfortable now.

“Just before we go to lunch, tell me what it was like to go through that? Not the actual results, just what you experienced here”.

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