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?". 
​
​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

Today’s New Team Leader Tip #9  gets you to think about what’s the lay of the land? What do you notice? It can be very tempting as a new leader to jump right in and make changes, as well as make a lot of assumptions. Be careful! Take time to get to know your surroundings, the history, the culture. Remember in getting to know a new organizational culture there is what we see "above the waterline" and there are many things below the waterline which we can't see. Just as in a lake, what is below the waterline can get us into trouble.

Some questions to ask yourself right now are:
What do you notice as you look around at your surroundings?
What stands out?
What's going to help you?
What might hinder you?
What's is visible "above the water line"?
What is below the waterline and influences what you see, the team and organizational culture?
Who are major stakeholders?
What are the key priorities for you? For your stakeholders?
What else is important to note?
What would your predecessor say is important to note?
Your boss?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

It's the weekend and time to catch up on some listening!  A reminder that you can access the past Team Leader Breakfast Cafe calls online at our Coaching TeamLeaders.com site.

You can listen into the past calls on:
The Six Factors of High Performing Teams
Strengths
and Team Culture

Each call is approximately 15- 20 minutes in length. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

This past week we've been focusing on accountability in the workplace, a key topic for so many teams. While I jumped into topics such as Key Ingredients for More Accountability in your Team (Teams365 #889) and Creating More Accountability with Your Team This week (Teams365 #888), we haven't taken the time to look at some ofthe interesting stats and definitions behind accountability in the workplace. Today's post does that. Did you know:

​First of all, how do we define accountability?
Boundless.com states, “Being accountable simply means being responsible for decisions made, actions taken, and assignments completed.

Source: Boundless. “The Importance of Accountability.” Boundless Management. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 07 Jun. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/introduction-to-management-1/core-requirements-of-successful-managers-19/the-importance-of-accountability-123-7081/
 Accountability is a key part of organizational culture today in the workplace.
According to Talent Culture, “The Workplace Accountability Study recently revealed that 82% of respondents have no ability to hold others accountable, but 91% of people rank accountability as one of the top development needs they’d like to see at their organization.” http://www.talentculture.com/why-accountability-in-the-workplace-matters/)
 Gallup has found that engagement levels have remained relatively static since the early 2000s and that  70% of engagement variance is due to the manager. (http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/182321/employees-lot-managers.aspx)

​As I've been asking throughout the last week, what is the state of accountability in your organization right now? What focus do you want to take around it?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326