Is Your Team’s Approach Sustainable?
Hi There,
One of the activities our group encountered during the European C-IQ Collective retreat still has me thinking. I’ve been marinating both on the power of the exercise and a greater understanding of opportunities lost when time isn’t invested in reflection.
The exercise let us experience what happens when clear direction and defined leadership are not demarcated. Ideally, self-reflection and interaction inquiries would reveal insights for a team to understand each individual’s operating style, and for each person to take responsibility, ownership and accountability as appropriate for a project at hand.
Here’s what happened.
We were challenged as a group with a task that has been summarized as nearly impossible without a plan, a process, clearly defined roles, and excellent communication.
There were 14 of us and 15 interlocking wooden boards. These 2x4’s, each unique in its design, came together in only one way to create the form in a picture we were shown.
The only instruction given was, “You are responsible for your piece of wood.” A suggestion was to ‘tag’ our own piece. We now had what we needed, and we were off!
Some of us sprung right into action, getting onto the floor with the wood and playing around. Others were directive, hanging on the outskirts and giving suggestions. Still others stood, simply watching. And some folks even disengaged.
I, myself, made a beeline for a sticky note to label my piece of wood. Then, I stood back. (My spacial relations ability is only one step worse than my knack for directions!)
As combinations failed, the noise level amplified, adrenaline increased and for some, listening and co-creation began to dissolve. It seems that those 35 minutes went on for 5 hours! But we finally figured it out— or, so we thought!
The next instruction was to take the structure apart and put it back together without the aid of the picture. At two points during this iteration, someone ‘stopped’ the exercise and asked each of us to consider how we were working (or not working) together.
This “take two” only took 10 minutes to complete. We didn’t get to Round 3, which would have been to rebuild the structure within ONE minute.
Due to time constraints, we underwent a quick debrief. I sense we could have spent the whole three days on the learnings and takeaways from this exercise alone. And this rubbed salt into my personal bias toward the importance of retrospectives to develop a sustainable team.
How often have you been part of a team who, after completing a project, did not take the time to reflect on lessons learned and how to improve in the future?
Consider experimenting with this as an extension of your next team project and observe how the energy shifts going forward amongst your team.
Cheers!
-Deborah
Deborah Goldstein
DRIVEN Professionals / Forbes / Linkedin
info@drivenpros.com | LinkedIn
DRIVEN Professionals, 35 Adrienne Lane, Garrison, NY 10524