High Trust Teams Training

Monday, November 14, 2011.  I attended Developing High-Trust Teams training with other team managers in the company.  It was facilitated by Ardy Abello of BusinessWorks.  It was from 9AM to 4PM and by the end of it, I had 7 pages of notes - a testament to how much notable content there was and my note-taking skills. =)  Seriously, I consider attending training as opportunities so I make sure I learn the most that I can, and remember them.  Thus, the notes.  And because notes on paper can be lost, here's the abbreviated version for (my) future reference.

Photo by LA Adriano


4 Stages of a Team. I know this already but I got new insights from the training.

Forming
  • Adding members on the basis on competence, identify roles. Law of the Chain says weakest link determines the strength of the team.
  • "If two people are exactly alike, there is no need for one of them."
Storming
  • Development of goals and strategies, bring clarity.  Team conflicts have very little to do with competence.  Storms only test the strength of the team, it does not strengthen the team.
  • Use Creative Thinking Process. (1) Info Gathering - ask questions, in-depth interview, observation. (2) Incubation - funnel information. (3) Ideation. (4) Implementation.  Application - send meeting agenda beforehand; park/bin other issues that come up that are not part of the agenda.
Norming
  • Identify non-negotiables in conduct of affairs of the business, values as guideposts, norm + culture, core values can be ranked.
  • Develop a culture
  • Core values -> shared values
  • Application: Values matrix. Ask the questions what values were compromised and what should have been used.
Performing
  • Multiply efforts by competence and character.
  • Train, trade/transfer, terminate.
  • "When times are hard, equip people with training.."


Team Foundations.  This was presented as a triangle with five elements.  Bottom-up, the elements are Trust, Conflict, Accountability, Empowerment, Results.

Trust
  • T - Being honest and open. "Use and management of information today will determine if you win/lose tomorrow."
  • R - Reliable especially in the midst of diversity
  • U - Unified/Unity. 
  • S - Standard bearers/benchmark
  • T - Time-bound, time-tested

Conflict
  • Ideally should come after trust is established.
  • Be careful to keep conflicts on the table and not with the person.
  • A-to-F of Conflict and Feedback. Acquire and validate information.  Biases aside. Current issues only but patterns can be brought up. Deliver a balanced message (oreo).  Empathize.  Follow through.
Accountability
  • Hold people accountable for solutions.
  • Succession planning should produce output and action.
Empowerment
  • Develop as many people as possible.
  • "Only secure leaders give power to others." 
  • "An obstacle to progress is not ignorance but assumption of knowledge."
Results
  • Values -> behavior -> action -> results.

Building a high trust, high performing team is not easy!  It takes commitment and a lot of work but it also brings endless benefit to the team members and organization.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Filipino Friday 3: Reading Habits and Book Formats

Image
Reading Habits and Book Formats . Where and how do you read? Can you read anywhere and everywhere, or do you need a certain place/mood/state of mind to get reading? Do you read more in the morning or at night or any minute that you can? Where and how do you usually read? Are you exclusively for print, or do you go for ebooks more than print? Have you ever tried audiobooks? I am old school.  Even as most books now have digital versions, I still prefer the physical, ink-on-paper variety.  I like holding a real book, flipping the pages and being able to see my progress based on the thickness of read/unread pages.  Somehow, I feel more engaged and focused reading a physical book vs. from a gadget. I very rarely reread books so most of my collection just sit on the shelf after I'm done with them.  I feel it's a waste of precious trees if they are not shared with others.  So I started a Google doc at work where the team can list down their collections and anybod...
Read more

Trivia and Reading

Image
I am currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I am inspired.  It’s about the author’s year-long quest to be happier.  It’s purposeful and practical and has lot of tips that I can apply or have started doing. Rubin focused on different areas every month and for May, it was Be Serious About Play.  The author was trying to go back to activities she enjoyed as a child. This led me to also think about a favorite childhood pastime, which was collecting trivia.  The Philippine Daily Inquirer used to run a trivia section by Bong Barrameda and I would religiously cut and paste them onto scratch papers, which I would then collate and read again and again.  Nerd zone! Not only that, I also kept a trivia notebook where I researched and wrote down interesting information like areas of study, capital cities, historical figures, scientists and discoveries, everything!  That was fun for me.  I was about to say they were useless info, ...
Read more

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Image
There is something to be said for collective recommendations like bestsellers list.  I found this title on such list at Fully Booked, read a few pages and decided to buy it.  I was intrigued by the theme of the book which is memory, specifically, how the author started as a journalist covering the US Memory Championships and ended up as a contender in the finals of the same competition one year later. It claims that with proper training, one's memory can be improved to be at par with the top mental athletes of the world.  Memory training has become an esoteric discipline because we practically do not need to remember a lot these days.  Information is very easy to retrieve from electronic devices and what not.  You just need basic search terms and the Google provides the information you need and more. Photo from Rainy Day Books I have to admit I rely on external memory a lot.  I can recall birthdays of my very close family members but outside of tha...
Read more