This month’s focus at the blog is Team Springboards. Teams are the engines of many businesses today and being in top shape is important. Team culture is also important, given the context of virtual and remote work where matrix teams are an inevitable part of the equation. When working in matrix environments, it can be really important to strengthen your team culture and clarify how things are done in your culture. Again, team culture is about HOW WE DO THINGS. It’s our processes, our practices, and what’s acceptable and what’s not.

I thought it would be useful to take us back to a past post on Team Culture which you may want to explore as you go to define the different team cultures you are part of. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1526:
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“Team Culture: The Every Manager’s Desktop Reference defines organizational culture as “a set of shared values, goals, practices, and management styles that characterize an organization and are expected to be reflected in its public face and member behaviors” (pp 414, Every Manager’s Desktop Reference).

Today’s VUCA business context, characterized by ongoing change and flux, has pointed many teams to the importance of team culture. Our team culture may be different, or aligned with, our organizational culture. Simply put, team culture is “HOW WE DO THINGS”. It is the behaviors, practices and values which shape our every day interaction. Think about a team who has as part of it’s culture “customer service”. Actions and activities around providing exceptional service will be prioritized over ones that value quality and/or time, unless they are linked to customer service.

What are the adjectives that describe your culture?

Team Culture doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, and HR writers like Susan Heathfield reminds us “team members understand that 20% of the problems that they will experience as a team will fall within the context of the task or mission the team is assigned to accomplish. The other 80% of the problems they experience will relate to their team culture and the processes team members establish and commit to for interacting with each other as team members.” Here's a link to her great article Team Culture and Clear Expectations at The Balance.com.

There are many different models of what comprises team culture:

Culture includes our behavioral norms and agreements - How do we do things here? What is acceptable and not acceptable.

It also includes team identity – How do I connect with others, how do we see ourselves?
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What we value: Culture is shaped by our values, beliefs and actions. It also includes our mindset. Consider what some of the mindsets are for you as a team. This might include: “We are able to flow with the changes that come our way” OR “We go above and beyond or “We rise to the challenge every time”.
When cultures are strong new members and external people can sense what our team is like. It’s almost a visible layer to others. This is especially true when we have a culture of collaboration, having each other’s back, or helping each other.

​What's important for you to note and be in dialogue around as a team with respect to team culture?”

Here's the original post.
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What’s important to note about the cultures you are part of right now?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

This month’s focus is on Team Springboards, things that help teams. Let’s take a look at a laundry list of things that help teams excel. Individually they are quite straightforward, collectively they are powerful. As you review this list you might consider giving yourself a rating on a 1-10, with 1 being low and 10 being high.
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1. Clarity around goals
2. Strong team culture
3. Knowledge of each other
4. Connection with other team members
5. Understanding what people do on the team
6. Knowing who to go to for _____________ (insert issue)
7. Clarity around roles on the team
8. Clarity about how to surface issues
9. Confidence that issues raised will be heard
10. Confidence that issues raised will be addressed/considered/responded to
11. Clarity around how performance is measured
12. Resources needed to do the work
13. Mechanisms to flag resources needed
14. Feedback channels
15. Acknowledgement for work well done
16. A clear vision of what the team is aiming for in terms of this year’s/quarter’s goals
17. Effective Team Meetings on a regular basis
18. Clear channels for communication
19. Opportunities for development
20. Opportunities to have fun and connect with others

What else?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

​This week’s Effective Virtual Conversation tip gets you thinking about the statement “Virtual teams need attention too”. It is often thought that “out of sight = out of mind”. Virtual teams receive a lot less attention and focus than intact, face to face teams. A 2016 study by Culture Wizard (insert link) found that approximately 22-23% of virtual and remote teams surveyed actually benefited from virtual team support.

Virtual teams need just as much attention, and perhaps even more focused space for dialogue and greating shared agreements and norms. Discussion around “how we do things” ensures consistency across a team, and a focus on what’s important.
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What are the conversations important for the team to have? What things need to be clarified or agreed upon?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

As we wrap up the year, it’s likely that you may be moving into some of your last team meetings before the holidays.

This week’s Team Building Tip asks you to consider the question “Our greatest impact this year has been….”

Think about the impact you had. You might consider:

• Projects
• Impact on customers
• Impact on internal stakeholders
• Impact on team culture

As you discuss what impact you have had also consider writing it down and having it visible in a place you all can view – ie. Your Intranet, ScreenSaver, or on your project management software.

Best,
​Jennifer

Team Building Question #196 asks you to consider the questions “What’s the culture you have evolved as a team? Is that what’s going to take it to the next level?”.
Culture is something that evolves over time. It’s how we do things. It’s shaped by our stories, our icons, or experiences. What’s the culture that you have evolved as a team over the years?
As you consider where you are heading, how can the culture support you in taking things to the next level.
What values can help to support you?
Which ones do you want to focus on?
What are the specific way you do things which can help?
What are the past experiences you can leverage or springboard off of?
What do you know is your core strength?
What is your “super power” as a team?

If you haven’t had a chance to explore the topic of team culture before, here’s an opportunity to start the discussion. How do you uniquely do things? What makes you unique as a team.
 
Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

This month as we've been looking at tools and different things you can do with teams (empathy, roles, visuals) we are connecting in with the topic of team culture. As I wrote earlier this month, in Teams365 #1526, Team Culture is "How we do things". 

​It includes components such as our:
Identify
​Beliefs
Values
Assumptions
Practices

​Our team culture can shift over time and is heavily influenced by leaders and team members.

​As you have been considering some of the activities and conversations posed this month here at the blog, how do they connect with your culture. How aligned are they?

​Consider where you as a team want to go, and what will help you get there.

​If you have not taken a look at some of the areas you want to build capacity within your team around, be sure to check out #Teams365 $1540 - Tools for Leaders and Business Owners. In this post I highlight eight different areas skills are needed in.

Best
​Jennifer

Team culture is often defined as "how we do things". It includes our behaviors and practices, what is acceptable and what is not.

​Each team is unique in it's team culture, and this may vary from organiational culture.

​Consider the question this week "What are three adjectives to describe your team culture?". 
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​What do these adjectives say about you? What you value? How is it reflected in your work?

​Have a great week,
Jennifer

We are back to the 20 different activities for virtual and remote teams and have finally made our way to Intercultural skills and knowledge. This is an area which can help teams excel in terms of their understanding of each other, and it can also be a major source of misunderstanding and conflict.

Intercultural challenges are some of the greatest challenges for virtual teams. Without stereotyping team members it can be very important to recognize what team member’s natural working style may be, and how their home office (country of residence) may place emphasis on how things are communicated (direct/indirect), value of hierarchy  (hierarchical versus participatory ), as well as how much is done independently versus in a group. What often emerges in virtual teams is creating a team culture which may not necessarily be the synthesis of all of the team members. As part of your team development process, consider who you are as a team and what you value. As you read through the upcoming culture scales, where do you reside along the continuum?

Keeping in mind the work of Geert Hofestede where we have cultural variances across:
Individualism-collectivism;
Uncertainty avoidance;
Power distance (strength of social hierarchy)
and masculinity-femininity (task orientation versus person-orientation).
Long-term Orientation
He also added Indulgence vs Restraint
View his six areas here. Culture scales also often include Direct and Indirect – consider how direct your communication may be.
 
Another framework you may want to explore is that of Erin Meyer author of The Culture Map. She distinguishes between 8 different culture scales

• Communicating: explicit vs. implicit
• Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback
• Persuading: deductive vs. inductive
  
• Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
• Deciding: consensual vs. top down
• Trusting: task vs. relationship
• Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoid confrontation

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-culture-map-8-scales-for-work-2015-1
 
As a team it can be very useful to have dialogue and even map yourself along these cultural continua, one at a time, having dialogue around where you naturally fall. This activity could take upwards of one entire team meeting of an hour.

As you look at each of the culture scales (Hofstede, Meyer or other), have discussion around these question:

1. What does activity under this culture scale look like?
2.  Where is your home business context along this scale?
3. Where are you  as an individual professional along this scale? (Pause to have the team note what’s similar/different/interesting along this continuua)
4. Where are we as a team? (Pause to have the team come to consensus or agreement around where you are on this continuum and what that looks like behaviorally).

What is the culture of our team?
What are the five or six adjectives we use the describe our team?

As a wrap up ask the team to share what is important about each of those areas.

Helping the team understand who they are as a collective, helps to create clarity around their own culture, “behavioral norms” and how things are done here. This provides consistency and more alignment across the team.

What are the conversations which are important to have in this area for you as a team?

With best wishes
Jennifer

In today's busy world, one of the things we often rely on, in part to go on auto-pilot and get things done, is to lean into our habits as well as our team culture. Yesterday's Team Building Question had you think about the habits that are helping and hindering you as a team. 

​I tough that it would be useful for today's FlashbackFriday post to share a little about what I have written on team habits in past posts. 

Here's what I found:

​Teams365 #961: Team Habits

Examples of team habits could include:
a) Making sure everyone is wrapped up at the end of the week wtih key projects by doing a Friday morning check-in/status update and pitching in where needed
b) Scheduling in a year end retreat to support team development and team planning
c) Being ready to start work with computers on, coffee in hand at 830 (and not in the coffee room until 9)
d) Making a point of job shadowing for half a day each quarter with a different team member.

As with these examples, most, except c work in favor for the team. What happens over time is that teams can slip into habits that really do'nt benefit the entire team or its' performance.

One activity you might want to undertake as a team is to identify the top 10 habits you as a team have developed. Think about those things you consistently do. Which ones help? Which ones hinder?

Team Habits ultimately shape our team culture, an area many authors write about. Since this is an area I find myself working with teams in as well, I thought it would be useful to share what I had written on Team Culture a few years ago. Here's from an Earlier post - Teams365 #226:
"Three key areas which make up any organizational, or team culture, are your values, practices and habits. Our values form the foundation of any team. Whether explicit or not they shape what we value, prioritize and how we make decisions. As we have explored in other posts this year,  consider these questions:

• What are the values of your team?

• How do these align with the organization?
• As you consider recent decisions and priorities, what values did those demonstrate?

Values are often under the waterline, invisible and not necessarily seen. High performing teams are well aware of their values and lead and act from these making them as visible as possible. Par of my work as a leadership and team coach is to help teams identify what their core values are, and make these explicit in their decisions, actions and communications.

What is above the waterline is our practices as a team. This may be a Thursday evening post-work hangout, acknowledging others in a particular way, undertaking a debrief/post-mortem after any project, or some other actions which are done consistently, and specifically by you as a team. Our practices are an important part of how we operate and communicate as a team. They are often a visible part of team culture. Once again high performing teams are intentional with the practices they undertake as a team, and are aware with how these connect to their values. In some respects, practices are values in action.

Consider:

• What are the current practices of the team?
• What is getting in the way?

Hand in hand with practices are habits. In fact you might ask what comes first, a practice which done repeatedly becomes a habit. It is these ongoing habits which really kick teams into high performance. Whether it is the habit of closing the door for half an hour or making sure a team huddle happens each Friday afternoon to review the week and prep for the next one, habits shape who we are.

Consider

• What are the habits your of your team?
• How are these supporting excellence and high performance?
• How do these connect to your values and what you prioritize?
• What habits are getting the way?"

Have a great Friday,
Jennifer

The culture of a team or organization is much more than a few words. It's the way things are done. It encompasses behaviors, values, mission, practices, priorities and the motivational factors of a team.

In building strong teams it is important for teams to become aware of and focus on their team culture - the good and the bad. It's important also to note when team culture is distinct from, or aligned with an organizational culture.

For example, a team of project managers may value agility, speed and problem solving, whereas the organizational context may value quality, specificity and thoroughness. In this instance there can be conflicts between the team culture and organizational culture. The team culture may also have an influence on the organizational culture over time, shifting it to be more agile or responsive. We are seeing this today in many organizational contexts which are re-thinking how they operate and the roles their teams play.

A useful activity for a team is to consider what their team culture is. Consider your values, and what you prioritize. You may also want to ask yourselves the questions:
What are the 3 adjectives we would use to describe our culture?
What are the 3 adjectives other teams would use to describe our culture?
How do our other stakeholders describe our culture?

What do you notice about culture in your team? What's important to keep an eye on?

Check out these other Teams365 posts on team culture:
Teams365 #406: Team Culture - What's Yours? Read it here.

Team Leader Breakfast Series - Call on Team Culture. Listen in here.
Have a great Thursday,
Jennifer