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 at the blog we’ve been exploring the topics of trust and connection. As part of this week’s Flashback Friday, let’s reach back to Teams365 #610 where I explored Four Ways to Boost Trust. Here’s what I wrote:

As we explored earlier this week, trust is a key issue for teams today. Today’s blog post looks at four ways to build trust in your team:

1. Connection - We feel supported when we feel valued, known and heard. Connection is a critical factor for high performing teams. Teams who feel connected with each other have often invested time in getting to know one another, and schedule time for regular connections. Perhaps a 2 pm daily meeting is the norm, or a Monday morning huddle kicks off your week. Consider what will boost connection amongst your team members.

2. Clarity - Clarity is key in creating trust. When we know what is expected of us, it is easier to follow-through and know how we are doing. Creating shared, and clear expectations of each other is important, as is having clarity around roles.

3. Communication - Communication is the foundation of connection and clarity. Consider how the team wants to communicate with each other, and what in fact is most effective.

4. Knowledge/Competence - Many trust models talk about the importance of skills and knowledge, or what they call competence, in building trust. If we know that others have the skills and knowledge to have our backs, we can rest easier that things will get done.

What else do you see as other factors building trust?

As you think about your work and team practices right now, what are you doing to boost:

1. Connection
2. Clarity
3. Communication
4. Knowledge and Competence

Let us know and share your comments below!

​Enjoy your weekend,
Jennifer

​This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to consider the question: “_____ is strengthening our relationships”.
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Teams which excel are great at getting results AS WELL AS having strong relationships. On the relationship front we want to hone areas such as:

• Knowing each other
• Understanding each other’s strengths and styles
• Being able to understand what supports vs. what triggers others
• Providing feedback and communication
• Being able to work across differences, and difficult issues
• Team Spirit (having a sense of team identity – see yesterday’s post on this)

As a team this week consider the things you are doing to strengthen your relationships. This might include practices such as:

• taking a coffee break together each week,
• ensuring that team meetings happen on a regular basis for virtual teams,
• spotlighting the work and background of one of the team members each month in an internal email and/or newsletter,
• connecting peers in peer pairings to get to know each other, and their work.

​What are the things you are doing as a team to strengthen relationships?
 
Hope that you are enjoying your mid-week,
Jennifer

Team identity and culture is something that we all shape. Team identity is critical in the context of virtual and remote teams. It helps us understand who we are and how we do things. A strong team identity helps me know that as a member of this team, I am expected to:

• Raise issues quickly
• Rather than complain, seek for solutions
• Support others and provide information to others on a regular basis about the work I am undertaking, opportunities I see for collaboration

Ways we can start to form a strong team identity include:

1. Having the team identity key values. For example, innovation or respect.
2. For each one of these values, have the team identify the behaviors which illustrate that value. For example, for respect – Consider impact before speaking; take ownership of mistakes; reply to requests in a timely manner (and as a team identify what timely means); when raising issues also offer possible solutions.
3. Having the team own “How we do things here. What’s acceptable and what’s not”. In owning it, we call out behaviors which are not aligned with our agreements.
4. Identifying logos, icons or metaphors of what the team is. For example, a team that is about creating a WOW experience might embrace “The Orange Bird” as their mascot.
5. Creating a drawing or tableaux of what the team is aspiring to. Several years ago, vision boards were very popular. Teams too can have their own team vision board which they can situate in an area of high traffic. If its’ a virtual team, take a photo and include in it any sides you are sharing with your virtual meetings. Review it regularly.

Bad behavior doesn’t just happen. It’s permitted. What are you doing to call it out?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

This month's theme here at the Teams365 blog is Team Springboards. Where do you start the conversation about how the team is doing?

​​One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?
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If you are interested in learning more or sharing different resources with your team, check out this past Team Leader Café Call I did on the topic of the six factors.

Check out this short video about the six factors.

If you have a copy of my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, check out chapter 11 (Virtual Team Development). 

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

Happy April Fools Day! Every April I celebrate the milestone of moving back to Canada after spending almost 15 years working and living abroad. Some stints were short, others became indefinitely longer than planned, AND I look back to my many years of service in the global arena with great fondness.

Coming home to Canada was precipitated by many factors in 2004, namely the loss of vision in one of my eyes. While I’ll never have full vision, I can say strongly 15 years later, that I’ve learned to navigate most things very well, and given my focus on the virtual space, don’t often even think about it!
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This month at the blog we’ll be focusing on the theme of Team Springboards, in honor of the new season. I’ll be continuing to focus on some practical things you can incorporate with your team – whether it’s remote or virtual or intact.  The start of Q2 provides an opportunity for reset and also stock taking. Before we know it, summer will be on the doorstep for Northern Hemisphere teams, and winter, encroaching for Southern Hemisphere teams.

This month will mark the start of our 15th anniversary celebrations given that Potentials Realized marks its 15th birthday on April 7th. Stay tuned for monthly spotlights and resources around the key areas we provide services in to leaders, teams and business owners.

Best, 
​Jennifer

​I thought I would take a look back to the March 2014 posts to see what I was talking about five years ago here at the blog. What was interesting to me was that that month we were talking about team development and team formation, one of the key areas I continue to get questions around.
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I dedicated five posts in March 2014 to discussing Tuckman’s model of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. This model to group and team formation has stood the tests of time, and is something that I continue to see in my work in person and virtually.

Here’s what I shared about the first stage of team formation in Teams365 #70:
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The first stage of team formation is the FORMING stage. Whether it's a new project team coming together, or a new leader joining the team, there are several characteristics common at the FORMING Stage:

1. Team is getting to know each other
2. Safety needs are high, trust levels are low or non-existent
3. Goals, vision and values are needing to be created

As a leader it is important to:
1. Clarify expectations you have.
2. Have the group or team create shared expectations of each other
3. Create opportunities for people to get to know each other
4. Ensure that safety needs are met.

What else is important at the forming stage? What have you noticed in past instances where teams are forming?
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Check out what happens in the storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages.
 
What are you noticing about where your group or team is right now? What are they yearning for?
 
Enjoy the conversations,
Jennifer

Teams excel when they have a clear focus on results, and the resources and tools to accomplish them, and when they are also focused on relationships.
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This month I have been sharing different activities virtual and remote teams may consider integrating into their work. If you didn’t take a look at last week’s post on Creating Virtual Team Culture, take a look at it now.
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Today’s post invites you to consider integrating appreciations in your work as a virtual team. What are the pauses you have created so people can thank others and acknowledge them for their strengths?

Peer feedback is often found to be more valuable and impactful that feedback from a superior or other.

To facilitate this activity, make sure you have adequate time. It may take 15 minutes or more. If you have a larger team (8 or more) have people work in triads (use breakouts for this if you are virtual – which is likely).

One at a time, have someone in the “appreciation seat”. Their colleagues are asked to share:

1. What is an example when I have seen you at your best this week/this month/this quarter?
2. I see one of your strengths as….
3. I appreciate….

This should then be rotated so each person gets a chance to receive feedback.
This exercise can also be added onto by discussion around additional questions such as:

• One thing I wish you would do more of is….
• I can rely on you for…
• One request I have for you is….

This can provide space for more support and difficult conversations.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Welcome back to another Thursday Team Building Tip. This week’s question invites you as a team to articulate your response to the question “This year our focus has been _____”.

​Consider what you have been exploring and looking at as a team and as individuals. What are the things which are helping you? What are the major projects you have completed? What have you been saying YES to, rather than NO to? How has this been helping you?

The weekly Thursday Team Building Tips are geared to get you thinking about your team’s work and focus.
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Check out other past Team Building Tips here.

You might also be interested in exploring yesterday’s topic of different ways to work with virtual teams around creating their team culture.

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer