Making Teams Work

A Cross Between Mother Theresa and Joan Jett

2009-08-24T13:11:00.001+01:00

Many of you know I am the kind of sceptical guy who never forwards chain emails.

The attached is a genuine appeal for sponsorship from someone I know personally, Denis Campbell, and whose absolute integrity I hold in very high regard.

He is running in two half-marathons to raise money for an old school friend of his who has dedicated her career to delivering medical supplies to people in developing nations and deprived areas of the US who can't afford it and now ironically she herself needs medical help and has been refused the travel costs by her (US) insurance company.

Please read Denis' story below and consider visiting the link he provides to make a donation to help this person who has helped so many others.

I particularly like Denis' description of her as "a cross between Mother Theresa and Joan Jett"!

Dave

Dave Bull MBA CTA ATT MInstLM
Dave Bull Chartered Tax Adviser
Team Coaching Network Ltd
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Denis Campbell
Date: 2009/8/24
Subject: Denis Campbell asking if you could please help me help Paula?
To: Denis Campbell

On 22 June, my high school friend, Paula Persechini-Petitti was delivering emergency diabetes health screenings across the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation. Pine Ridge was economically distressed in the ‘70s. It is now a 3^rd world nation within the USA’s borders with a land mass the size of Connecticut and a road system equivalent to Zimbabwe.

Her car was rear-ended there at 60 mph (100 kph) placing her in a coma. Friends raised $18,000 in cash for an emergency medical life-flight from Rapid City, SD to home in Boston that her health insurance would not authorise. She is awake but requires long-term, highly specialized brain injury treatment. Paula’s case is another example of the broken US healthcare system.

Ironically, she spent her life bringing life-saving medical supplies and doctors to 3^rd world ‘hospitals’ around the world through the BlackRiverProject.org. Now her insurance refuses to cover the $45,000 pre-payment required for a brain injury rehab hospital. They will park her in a nursing home. Such ‘parking’ though will not help her recover and she runs the risk of losing her home and financial ruin. So, she needs all of our help and… would never ask for it for herself.

I am running in two road races to raise funds for Paula’s care. On Sunday, 06 September, it’s the HSBC Cardiff 10K (6.2 miles) and on 18 October, the Cardiff 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles/21 kms). As many know, I had a minor stroke, 9-months ago. I’ve since lost 30 kilos (66 lbs/4.6 stone) through diet and running. My goal is to run in my 1^st every marathon in London (at age 52!) in April, 2010.

Every penny you give helps ease the family’s burdens. We would be extremely grateful if you could consider a $5, £10 or €20 contribution (more, gratefully accepted!) here at the website www.BringPaulaHome.org It only takes a two clicks after entering your credit or debit card using the secure Internet PayPal system. Please insert the words: “Denis runs” in the “add special instructions” field so they can keep track. With your help we can hopefully raise $5,000 for Paula’s care.

I wrote about Paula in several articles (1^st one is third on the page). Paula never accepted “no” for an answer and has done the impossible for so many. She is fighting back and we can’t accept “no” for her. She is a once-in-a-lifetime “force of nature,” what would happen if Mother Theresa were crossed with Joan Jett. This e-mail is going to some 4,000 people with my advance deepest thanks for your kind attention.

All the best,

Denis Campbell

Train me tender? Don't!

2009-05-15T17:22:00.002+01:00

I'm concerned.

I've been thinking about the "rational planning model" approach to purchasing training that prevails in many organisations.

This model is promoted by training managers because it provides documentary evidence that they have done lots of rational decision making in appointing a training officer or a training consultancy, and proves that if something goes wrong it wasn't their fault.

This model is promoted by training accreditation organisations such as CIPD, ILM, ALP and ITOL because it is complex enough to be examined and because it requires trainers to go through their qualification programmes that are a major source of income for some of them.

This model is promoted by large training organisations because the overhead resources needed to be sacrificed each time you apply for a piece of work are beyond the capacity of their smaller leaner specialist competitors.

What am I talking about?

At the moment, many organisations buy training the same way they buy toilet roll. Tenders are made and suppliers are approved on the basis of a pre-ordained set of "needs" that have come from an internal analysis and a secret dutch auction - i.e. sealed bids with full details to enable a contractual offer to be made.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST - Team Coaching Network is a small specialist supplier of training and NEVER bids for work in a tender.

Here are some reasons why I think this is not the best approach:

"Needs Analysis" often comes from appraisal interviews. Managers may be required to tick a pre-set list of training needs to indicate what the employee needs; these are collated by the training manager who then puts the popular ones into a tender specification. If an employee needs to learn how to operate a fork-lift truck or to perform first aid, this is a great method. If they need to become more effective at working in a team this simply isn't going to help. Every learner who has come to me over the past 8 years has had subtly different requirements, many of which couldn't even be put into words in session one, let alone in an interview with their manager to decide whether they get a pay rise that year.
Many tenders require "accreditation" of the people who will deliver the training. If you're teaching someone to drive, it may help if you yourself hold a full clean licence, but if you're teaching people how to become more persuasive in getting co-operation from colleagues, customers and suppliers, there ain't an exam in the world that can measure the competencies that make you effective in developing those skills in people.
The very tendering process favours larger organisations who make their profits on economies of scale. If you're learning how to use Sage Line 50, then each participant needs to know the same stuff and every course will be the same so you can deliver efficiently to 10,000 people. If you're helping senior managers lead and shape cultural change throughout their organisation, you need the flexible customised approach that independent consultants are famous for; in fact some research into change management consultancies suggests the quality of independents outstrips all other consultants except the massive multinationals.

A procurement process designed to find the cheapest people to empty your bins may work for some kinds of training but it can run aground pretty sharpish if you try to use it for development designed to change interpersonal behaviour, improve working relationships or influence the organisational culture.

So what should we be doing?

Imagine a movie studio or a west end producer selects their lead actors by asking them to put copies of their drama school certificates, a description of how they would tackle the role, details of their ethical and environmental policies, and of course the fee they want, into a sealed envelope to be scrutinised by a secret committee.

It won't work, will it? Some of our greatest actors failed drama college or never even went. And you can't describe how you'd play the Dane on paper, you'd have to show them how you would do it. And while I've no doubt some actors never get asked to audition because they are beyond the budget, it's hardly the single deciding factor.

We instinctively recognise that acting is different from making sure there's enough loo roll around - it's not about logistics, it's about talent. Great actors respond in the moment, create changed emotional states, take the audience on a journey and leave you with plenty to think about. Good trainers, in the fields of interpersonal behaviours and organisational leadership, have to do the same.

I was once asked to deliver a short "taster" session with the prospect of a piece of work with that group if I was chosen over 3 other consultants. I was a bit peeved at first, but went ahead - after all half a day was far less than the time it would take to write a tender bid! I am proud to say the group chose me head and shoulders above the others, who made the mistake of using their 2 hours to pitch for the work, whereas I rolled out the flipcharts and listened to the team talk about what they really wanted and what they needed to be effective in their roles.

There isn't much time in the world to do this every time you want a training course, but we need a rebalancing between the clinical rational world of choosing a furniture supplier and the complex, personal business of starting a relationship with a trainer who could transform the whole environment of your organisation.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com
Campaign for Real Teambuilding - http://realteambuilding.co.uk

Virtual Team Support

2009-04-23T17:43:00.005+01:00

When I asked the question, it was not with any intention of publishing the answers.

But when the answers came back I was so gobsmacked at the replies I got that I just had to share them with you.

These people are part of my wider "team". I work by myself a lot when I'm not face to face with a client or working with a team in a session. Social networking technologies have for me replaced the "people you chat to in the corridor" that I fooled myself into thinking I wouldn't miss when I set up on my own.

So here was the question:

Who's got a story about a time they surprised themselves by being able to do something?

I posted it to my Facebook status update. Why was I asking such a leading question? Well, this is a large part of what I do. Helping teams function properly, helping managers deal with people effectively, helping sales people get through to their customers, all come down to raising self confidence and self esteem. Once we realise what we can do, no-one needs to teach or train us, because we have imense power and capability that for most people spends most of its time locked down by guilt or doubt.

These replies really made my day. If I could keep amazing positive people like this on tap, to see me through the more difficult days, I would. But of course, with Facebook, Twitter and other modern techonologies, I now can.

Enough wibble: Here's what my friends said:

Brian at 18:25 on 22 April: I just got back from a jog I used to do 10 years ago and I completed the course.( I was shattered by the end )

David at 18:32 on 22 April Hmmm, I worked through my entire shift last night without telling my employers to go screw themselves - does that count?

Joanne at 18:59 on 22 April I lied on my CV with an employment agency and said I knew Powerpoint. Getting to my placement on Monday morning I found out I had to train people in using Powerpoint. I bluffed through it so well they had me training everyone in the office and 6 months later they called me back in to do it again.

Adrian at 22:39 on 22 April I decided to set up my own company - and do stuff that I want to do ..

David at 23:05 on 22 April Got close to setting up my own company - got let down by colleagues - that turned out to be a surprise too - on a lighter note, what surprised me most about myself is walking out on stage and singing in bands with who I regard as being very good musicians...

Jacqueline at 05:26 on 23 April I only went to college to learn accounts because my husband told me I would never be able to do it. I surprised myself by passing every exam first time and even more to have three limited companies up and running 5 years later.

Joanne at 14:54 on 23 April I'm scared of heights and managed to jump off the Sky Tower in Auckland!

Such questions - simple, open ended, story-based - give you really rich answers that talk about people's values, motivations, dreams, problems, issues, aspirations and goals. Stuff that is really really useful to us as managers and team members, yet we never seemt o get this information! This is because you can't egt at it by asking someone "What motivates you?" Yet you can get it easily by asking simple questions that draw out people's stories and experiences.

For me, it's a basic technique - I use it in teambuilding, in management development, confidence building, presentation skills, influence and persuasion courses, sales training. It's so versatile. Here's a challenge for you:

Go and ask 6 people my question, listen, and thank them for their answers. Feel free to email me and complain if you don't learn something interesting about at least one of them!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Turning Learning into Profit

2009-04-10T07:41:00.002+01:00

I have recently connected on Twitter with Dr Ed Holton who is a professor of HR in the States. This led me to his blog, in which he argues passionately for more attention to be paid to how learners in the workplace transfer the benefits of their new skills so that they and their employers can benefit from it.

I think the problem is with the whole concept of training.

What the organisation needs from its staff is changed behaviours, and what the staff need is more engagement with and fulfilment from their jobs. Asking the question "How can we transfer learning from the workshop to the workplace" could be taken to imply that there is nothing that needs to change about what actually happens in the seminar room. In which case all we need for focus on is how to make teh trasnfer of learning happen.

Well, I think we all knows what comes next!

You'd think the Human Resources departments woudl be focused on the word "human". Many of course do, but sadly we often encounter the mechanistic approach in such departments. In short:

"Thank you for attending the training course on XYZ. You will be contacted in 4 weeks time to evaluate the amount you learned and the extent tow hich you have trasnferred your learning to the workplace. Your next 3 quarterly appraisal meetings with your manager will have (yet another) form to fill in assessing the extent of application of learning. Keeping your job after the next round of redundancies will be partly dependent upon your completing a detailed record of acheivement demonstrating the times and situations when you applied the learning and evaluating the financial benefit to the company."

Crazy? Well, yes, because I made it up and I tend to exaggerate, as you know.

What we actually need is a shift to what many of us are trying to do, which is to move away from training as an event and towards development as an ongoing relationship between a team and the trainer.

I work with teams over a period of time, in short sessions with lots of contact between sessions in a combination of face-to-face, email, telephone, and Moodle. In each session, learners are coming back knowing they are accountable to the rest of the group to verbally report back on applications of learning. Spread over time this becomes a habit and the team can take over where I leave off.

The downside for HR departments is that it is more complex to purchase and manage an ongoing development programme than to send employees on a "sheep dip" training course, make them fill in forms, then complain that senior management don't appreciate the value of training.

As training consultants then, I guess it's our responsibility to make the purchasing and management of longer-term ongoing team development programmes easier and even more transparent.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Read a Good Book Lately? Keep it to Yourself!

2009-03-23T06:08:00.003Z

We've all been there - the boss comes in one Monday morning with a pile of books and an evangelical grin on his face.

You exchange glances with your colleagues. You all know what's just happened, and you know what's going to happen next.

He's just spent the weekend reading the latest management book. He's full of enthusiasm for the idea he's got and he wants you to be full of it too.

And there's the problem.

A few years ago there was a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a firm of estate agents in London. The chief gathered the sales force in some hotel for a weekend staff conference. On the Friday afternoon, everyone was given a copy of Who Moved My Cheese and told they had to read it by Saturday morning's first session.

Now to be fair, it is a short book. Reading it in the time isn't the problem. Nor is it a hard book. It's a simple parable of two mice in a maze, one of whom adapts to change, the other resists change. Not terribly taxing even after a week of trying to steal customers from your colleagues. It was that kind of firm.

The team were not keen to "do their homework" and those that did failed to see the point. There was friction, resentment and disagreement the following day between the team and the boss.

You see, when we get a great idea from a book, we sometimes think that it was the book that did it. This is what philosophers call "post hoc" thinking (Latin: "after this"). It goes like this: "I had the blinding revelation of what we should do in this company / team after starting to read this book, therefore it was the book that gave me the inspiration. If I make everyone in the team read the book, they'll be inspired too."

post hoc is a fallacy, however. It wasn't the book that had the idea. Like a teenager falling in love, you've projected your own emotional state onto something outside yourself. And like a teenager falling in love, you expect all your mates to agree that she/he's the greatest in the world. Even if she/he has never actually looked at you twice!

If it wasn't the book that had the idea, where did it come from?

Your inspiration came from a combination of sources, one of which was the book or training course, naturally. The other sources were nothing to do with the book: your business circumstances, a recent issue you faced, where you were when you read the book, what you'd had for breakfast that morning - all these things added up to put you in exactly the right frame of mind to have that "wow" moment. And you can't replicate that for other people.

I'm not advocating ignoring all business ideas that you get - I'm suggesting that the means to propagate them is not by handing out copies of the book. Ideas and inspiration are human, and they are specific to you and your team in your current circumstances. The best way to share them is not to impose on other people's free time by handing out homework - it's to get up in front of them and explain how you got the idea, why you think it's important and to ask them for their support and ideas of how to make it work.

(Declaration of interest: Dave Bull designs and runs management courses designed to help you get that message across in a confident, enthusiastic, assertive, positive, inclusive manner. Dave has not (yet?) published any books.)

The real source of the inspiration was inside you. To pass it on, you have to show them you, not the book.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com
Campaign for Real Teambuilding - http://realteambuilding.co.uk

How to repair your team after downsizing them

2009-02-05T12:47:00.003Z

Tough decisions are being made all over the world at the moment. Very few managers enjoy having to cut jobs, and there's a whole profession dedicated to ensuring that when you have to outsource or when you have to make redundancies, everything is done as smoothly as possible.

Ignoring the survivors

What we sometimes ignore however is the impact of downsizing on the people who are left behind. Things would be much easier if the survivors thought: "Well, aren't I lucky! I'm really motivated to be one of those chosen to stay! I'll work really hard to rebuild my internal networks in the company!" In reality, that is a completely unreasonable expectation.

How they really feel

Your survivors are having serious mixed emotions right at this point - yes they are relieved that they don't have to try to find a new job straight away, but on the other hand:

you have just shattered their illusion that the organisation will never make people redundant
they have lost some of their close working friends and contacts
they may be having to pick up extra work or go without support services they were used to
old habits (and humans are nothing if not habitual) have been disrupted, from who you call with a particular problem to who you eat lunch with.

How would you feel?

What this means for your business

Everybody knows the stuff about sad employees = low productivity, poor quality, customer service problems. I'm not going to insult you by repeating all that here.

The other issue is that the working links people have made have been shattered. Teams have been broken up, and networks have been fractured.

(I know some teams need breaking up, but we're often talking about all teams, or at least many teams here.)

Teams develop over time (Bruce Tuckman, remember him?) and develop their own internal understandings about who does what, how people interact, how decisions get made and how things get done.

Break up a team, even by just removing one member, and you send that whole process back to square one. Add to that the fact that people are concerned about their job security - no amount of reassurances from management can prevent that. Bingo! One recipe for a team that fails to face up to the challenge, doesn't re-develop those working links.

You can imagine the impact of teams that don't operate smoothly, in a company that's already made job losses.

Prevent one lot of cuts turning into another

The good news is that you as a manager of the team can do something about this:

1 Recognise their pain

For something that doesn't pay the bills, recognition is massively valued by humans, whether we acknowledge it or not. We've all met people who say they "don't care what others think" of them, and we've all seen what a massive lie that is. Always.

Recognising the pain is easy: get them together for a team meeting. Explain that you want to do whatever you can to help them rebuild as a new team. Crack open a flipchart pad and ask them to tell you what they think is positive and what they think is negative in the current situation. get the whole lot up on the board.

2 Help them re-establish team processes

Health Warning: Never under any circumstances try to suggest that things will be the same as they were before. "Nothing's really changed" "It'll be just like the old days" are not true, don't help and simply destroy your credibility.

Health Warning 2: Don't give them your prescription of how things should work; a high-performance team creates its own rules and you have a unique opportunity here to help them do that from scratch.

It's far easier to have people accepting change and finding new, better ways of working together if they're already out of their comfort zone than two years ago when everything was sunny and everyone was complacent.

Put your flipchart sheet up on the wall with all the stuff that they've told you; now get them working on the really big questions:

who does what,
how people should interact,
how decisions get made and
how things get done.

When I work through these questions with clients' teams, the creativity and openness that I get back from the team members is always amazing and without fail leads to shared understanding, new agreements and more effective working cultures.

This is what we call Real Teambuilding - the team building itself under our facilitation. At its best, it's as much fun as a social event, and more productive than a team meeting.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

How to lose a sale - what not to do when asking an independent consultant for money

2009-01-21T06:34:00.005Z

I get a sinking feeling when I answer the phone and this happens:

1: a brief pause
2: background office noise
3: "Oh, good morning, Dave, this is X X from IBDG, can I just confirm I'm speaking to Mr Dave Bull?"

The question is designed to make you say Yes - a standard sales technique that I myself teach in sales training. Teaching it makes me very aware when it's being used on me. Its purpose is to set up a psychological trend in your brain so that when he asks you to buy you'll still be in Yes mode.

Like you, I feel really really resentful if I think I'm being manipulated. So instead of answering I ask him what IBDG stands for - International Business Development Group. Hm.

He tells me they are consultants and he's working with the training managers and directors of the top 450 companies in the UK and asks if that would be a good target audience for me. Another Yes question. My response: "Are you telling me, X, that you are consulting with 450
training managers?" He backs down - first to say that that's between his whole team, then: "Put it this way, we only deal with companies that are in the top 450." Well, that could be just one company, but to be fair their website says they work with "over 150 top companies." Glad that's consistent then!

Finally he tells me what they do - they ask these managers what training needs they have, then match them up with "very carefully pre-vetted specialist consultants" at a kind of "dating seminar" and the managers can decide whether to engage you or not. More Yes questions follow, forcing me to call him: "So where does IBDG fit in, what do you get out of it?"

No straight answer at first, lots of waffle about packages and return on investment, followed by the bombshell: their smallest package (a two-person package - despite telling me that these training managers were specifically asking for independent consultants) is...

...a five-figure sum annual membership.

I laughed out loud at him, which he obviously didn't like because he then asked me if that was "a little out of my league".

Sales lesson No 1 - insulting your prospect is a fantastic idea if you love making phone calls but hate closing sales.

I apologise for laughing and advise him to move on to the next name on his list, but he tries to recover himself - more questions, more justifications. Too late. I repeat that he's wasting time on me and needs to move on. He puts the phone down on me. No goodbye. Rude.

Checking the company out they seem to be reputable enough - they complete their accounts and returns on time, for a small company. They've been registered for a few years, their registered office is on an industrial estate in Milton Keynes, not in someone's bedroom in their mum's house.

But the very business model is suspect - why would I pay the salary of a telemarketer to get into 17 "beauty parades" a year? Why would they build their package around a single upfront fee, when they could earn more than they asked me for with a percentage commission? I can only assume that it's because they don't really believe they can actually get me the business.

===

Now I have to apologise to you too - I don't usually use this blog to have a rant! Here are some of the lessons, please comment if I've missed anything else.

Obviously scripted calls put people off. Obviously scripted pep talks and appraisal meetings are exactly the same. We can only truly get people's buy-in and co-operation by connecting with them and if you're reading a script you're not connecting to the person. Be yourself, tell your team (or your prospect) about your vision, your hopes, your dreams for the the team and what you see as its potential.
Share risk - if you're telling me you can win me business then I will only believe you if you're willing to share in that reward and risk - I'll give a commission to anyone who comes to me with a customer I haven't already got - and do the same with your teams: you can reduce conflict by sharing risk and reward. Make your production department and your Quality department share in one reward rather than setting them up against each other.
It's awfully easy to put people down - if you watch TV or films you'll see it happen all the time, and unconsciously we pick up these patterns of interaction all over the place. I don't imagine for a second he intended to insult me with "out of your league", but he did. An open question like "What was it that made you laugh, Mr Bull?" would have got him further.
Get your story straight. If you have to backpedal on statistics within your first minute of a conversation, you've lost all credibility.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Wrap up!

2008-11-28T07:33:00.002Z

Hi Folks

I've had several conversations with people recently about the economic situation.

I've been comparing the current situation with the metaphor used by Jim Rohn. Rohn says "Life and business are like the changing seasons." If that's right, we are clearly heading into an economic winter right now.

And this leads me to question the assertions of government and journalists that the solution to our problems is for everyone to keep spending - for the government to build bridges and hospitals, and for people to spend their 2.5% VAT savings on the kind of consumer junk we've been wasting our money on for the past 15 years since the last recession.

It's like the government telling us: Turn up your heating and open all your doors and windows, and we can stop winter happening!

It won't work. We'd all end up as cold as Canute was wet.
It'd cost us a flipping fortune.

The appropriate behaviour for winter is to huddle down, conserve what we have and watch out to stop our neighbours starving or freezing to death. It certainly isn't to don your cricket whites and go out on the green in the hope that acting summery will make summer happen!

In team terms, I wonder if the metaphor of the seasons tells us anything useful? There's a lot of hype (usually by people selling books and trainign courses) about High Performance Teams. The science shows that all high-performing teams, companies, individuals, regress to the mean in the end; high performance is cyclical, not permanent.

If your team is in summer now, you need to think like the ants think (thanks again, Jim Rohn) and remember that winter is coming. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Thankfully not for the rest of your life - if it's winter for your team (you're struggling, nothing seems to be going right, you feel under seige) you need to remember that every winter that's ever happened has ended sometime, and hang on in there. Recognise that things are tough right now, and look out for each other to make sure no-one is lost or damaged in these tough times.

And cook yourself up a mid-winter festival to keep everyone's spirits up. After all, that's what we do in real winters!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com
Campaign for Real Teambuilding - http://realteambuilding.co.uk

The truth about team development

2008-11-16T09:00:00.002Z

A great article on Behance reminds us that recruitment and selection is not the end of the story when it comes to setting up your team. What actually goes on inside the team, and the relationships between members, have far mroe impact on team success than simply choosing excellent talented team members.

When I started working in training, I was running a programme in which participants developed their confidence, communication skills, interpersonal skills, presentation skills and enthusiasm over several weeks. When each group came to its final session, they had without question turned into an effective team - and then all went back to their respective organisations.

What was happening? Well, I think that the activities we undertook to develop these skills in the group also ahd the effect of creating the "chemistry" that Scott talks about in his article. that's why, when I started working for myself, I took those same techniques and applied them to real working teams, and got the same great results.

What can you do this week to improve the Chemistry in your team?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

5 symptoms of dysfunctional teams

2008-11-11T18:19:00.001Z

A great article on REX. It's a book summary, which neatly ties up the main points of team effectiveness.

1: Trust
2: Challenge
3: Buy-in
4: Accountability
5: Results

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Herding Cats?

2008-11-06T11:20:00.002Z

I am priviledged to be running a workshop today for MIND, the leading mental health charity here in the UK.

I was just chatting with the regional Change Director and getting her views on how an organisation like her manages its operations, given that they rely heavily on volunteers to deliver much of their service.

She told me that while the approach had to be different, there were many things in common. While there is no employment contract, the stick that many commercial and public organisations use to control employee behaviour, all volunteers have to sign up to the charity's statement of values and agree to conform to organisational norms.

I read recently that commercial companies should start to treat their employees as if they were volunteers, especially those who are in Handy's "Strategy Core" of employees. The days of treating them as servants (the approach Handy takes to the Peripheral Staff in his "Shamrock Organisation" model) are, or should be over. This will become more important now, as companies compete in ever harsher conditions to retain their most talented employees.

The danger is that companies will use voluntary redundancy and cost-cutting on benefits to respond to the current market trend. The results of voluntary redundancy are almost always that you lose the most experienced and the most talented and are left with the mediocre - not exactly a sustainable competitive advantage. Cost-cutting on benefits, including transferable skills training (declaration of interest here, Dave) drive away the most talented in the same way.

Be very careful that you do not act like an industrial baron towards your most valuable employees in this recession - you must act like the Lord of the Manor and show them your loyalty now to secure theirs through and beyond the current crisis.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

It's All Rather Complex!

2008-10-08T12:33:00.003+01:00

I enjoyed David Snowden's recent summary of complexity in his blog, though Dave seems to enjoy spending at least half of his blog posts railing against something, so I thought I'd see if I can convincingly reduce it even further without destroying the essence.

Ordered Systems

These systems are mechanistic. When you take an action on the system, you can predict what result you will get. The problem for teams is that people assume that they are ordered systems and try to govern them with rules and procedures. A plethora of meaningless rules which just prevent work being done is the result. And misery for the team. And frustration for the manager.

Chaotic Systems

These systems are made of of non-connected members. Action on one has neglible impact on another. You control them by looking at averages and distributions. A chaotic system is likely to be a population, but not a team. Trying to control, measure or reward a team by statistical averaging techniques is just plain wrong - see Deming's demonstration on the futility and unfairness of individual rewards. Video at YouTube - skip to 4:30 to see the game in action!

Complex Systems

In these systems, all the members communicate with each other and with the system itself. You cannot control them with rules, you cannot apply statistical averages to them to say what will happen. Remind you of anything? Your team?

Teams (in the sense we tend to use in this blog) are definitely complex. Any act you perform on one member (praise, punishment, pay review, allocate task, anything) changes the behaviour of other members of the team.

How to "manage" a complex system

This is the tricky bit...

Strictly, you can't manage a complex system. It'd be like trying to manage the weather. Literally, as weather is a complex system.

Don't give up hope; there are some things you can do. I'll be mentioning htem in future blogs, so make sure you sign up for the RSS feed so you get notified when they come out!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

They Stole My Idea!!!

2008-09-10T17:41:00.002+01:00

Not mine - that's a quotation. But we've all had that experience, right? You thought up something new and amazing and six months later you saw one in a shop.

A good friend of mine told me about an idea she and her husband had come up with which explained those inexplicable congested spots on the motorway which seem to appear and vanish without any apparent reason.

"It's Compound Braking, Dave" she told me, "Someone brakes a little bit more sharply than they needed to, the car behind them over-reacts a little bit more again, and so on back down the motorway until suddenly you've got gridlock with no visible cause. Compound Braking."

Just a couple of weeks later I was driving to a session when lo and behold, radio 4 news announced that scientists had, at great expense no doubt, discovered why congestion appears on the motorway for no apparent reason. They then described how a chain reaction of ever-more-panicky braking responses cause this. Hm, I'm thinking - isn't this just Michelle's Compound Braking by another name?

Besides the obvious lesson about rushing down to the Patent Office every time you have an idea...

...next time you're listening to the idle chatter of members of your team who's coming up with these hare-brained ideas? Odds are these are the people who could be putting that IQ to use on solving the problems your team faces. Are you letting them, or are you stopping them?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

The Pagan View

2008-07-24T13:22:00.002+01:00

I went to Cardiff University Innovation Network for the first time in many months. Missed it; it's a good event, well run, excellent speakers.

This month's guest was Mike Pagan. Mike is a consultant and speaker. it gets difficult to tell whether people are consultants who speak to get business or speakers who consult to sustain business legitimacy. All I can tell you about Mike is that he's a good speaker - natural, funny, down-to-earth and only very slightly dodgy in his sense of humour.

Mike's topic was effective business networking. Useful for a networking event. I offered to do this topic for them a few years back - not being famous enough naturally gets in the way there! Mike told us about:

Networking Jack Russells - the people you can't shake off once they've latched on to you. Mike's advice? "I'm sorry, my head's about to explode. Nice to meet you, bye!"
Moodhoovers - (It's all posh in Mike's house, they call them "Dysons") people whose own attitude drains the energy out of everyone around them
Business Card Croupiers - the people who start to sell to you before you've even finished the introductory handshake! Mike's advice - one pocket for the cards of people you want to keep in touch with, another for the cards that are going in the bin as soon as you get back to the office.

Lots of other advice - select your networking events well; give without expectation of return; do not try to sell at events; measure your networking activities to see which ones pay off.

And this:

"The biggest error I made when I set up my business was when I believed I could do it on my own."

===

The event itself was combined with the summer barbecue of The Cardiff Club, so half the audience spent the evening somewhat bemused that their social evening included a speaker telling them how to network for their businesses. the other half spent the evening bemused that their networking function included a hundred people who were not involved or interested in business! Having said that, I made at least one networking contact with someone who was only there for the social stuff.

It's true what they say - opportunities can crop up anywhere as long as you're looking for them.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Antagonism

2008-07-16T16:55:00.002+01:00

One of the worst things you can face when working to build up a team or deliver group training is to have antagonists in the room.

You know the sort - we all have issues with other people and their styles and methods, but these people have got used to making it personal with each other, and that dominates all their interactions from then on.

What do you do? As a manager? As a trainer or consultant?

There are various answers that have been suggested in the past: ignoring the problem so as not to give it reinforcement; mediating between the parties to achieve a compromise; knocking their heads together; locking them in a room until they agree to agree on something; separating the parties.

The time comes when some or all of these are not available to you. How many managers get to choose who can be on their team (few) How many trainers can pick and choose their attendees (fewer?) What do you do then?

Picture the scene...

Gary keeps pointing out that he and his colleagues wouldn't need to be on the course at all if Helen and her team did their job "properly". Helen retorts that Gary causes the real problems by failing to "stick to the rules".

Now, suppose you're a course participant, from Gary's team, and you can see both sides of the argument. Do you wade in, point out that both Gary and Helen have valid points, ask each to acknowledge the other's point of view, suggest they learn to be more tolerant of each other and use less emotive language?

Even if that was crossing your mind for a moment, as soon as Gary turns around at you and your fellow team members for moral support, you know you'll have to side with him. You have to work with him tomorrow once this course is over. Sorry Helen.

And of course the same on Helen's team.

Now put yourself in the Facilitator's shoes. You've effectively got the House of Commons in your training room! Two sub-groups form in the room, mentally lined up behind the two antagonists. You might as well draw those tramlines across the floor, sword-and-arm-length apart.

If you're a trainer and the manager, or your client, has not warned you about this, be prepared anyway as it's quite common when meeting or training with two sub-teams that have to work alongside each other.

The key to breaking the pattern is transparency. Conflict is when it gets personal, and as I've said many times before: conflict never arises from what the person actually did. It arises from the reason we assume they had for doing it, which almost always is to personally insult us!

How, then do we increase transparency and so reduce this projection? Here are some brief keys, but I think I'd better expand on them in later posts:

Kill it before it starts - open the workshop with an open discussion on acceptable group behaviours then draw it to the group's attention if antagonism surfaces. You can do this with your opwn team int eh workplace - facilitate an agreed list of acceptable behaviour then get in on the wall so eveyrone can wave at it whenever necessary.
Make a topic out of it - cover intra and inter group conflict within the session, symptoms and the long-term effects, ask the group for examples (Well, Gary and Helen often...) and how as a whole group it can be prevented
Arrange for it to come out "naturally" by getting the group to brainstorm the 3 Ws for their workplace. This one is especially good if you've not been tipped off as it will only come up if it's a problem. You don't want to be doing (2) above to astonished looks from a really friendly team!
Face-off with Feedback. 360 tools, particularly ones that use non-emotive metaphors to provide a baggage free vocabulary for delivering feedback.

That's a start. Try one and let me know what happens.

All the best,

Dave Bull MBA CTA ATT MInstLM (!!New!!)
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

2008-03-12T11:30:00.000Z

Critique of "VISTAR method of communication"

VISTAR is claimed to be a revolutionary way of "accessing the Collective Consciousness" in group meetings. You can pay them heaps of money to learn this amazing new technique. The below is from a summary they published on Master Facilitator Journal. VISTAR Foundation is at http://www.vistarfoundation.org/

Here's what they say, with my thoughts appended:

1. Bring some elegance and beauty into the meeting environment. Surroundings have a way of affecting people’s attitudes.

Well, we never knew that! For goodness' sake, if facilitators need to be told that pleasant surroundings lead to pleasant meetings...

2. Is there alignment in the purpose and significance of the meeting? This cannot be taken for granted and left in the “Grey Zone.” Review the purpose of the meeting with everyone at the beginning.

Another obvious point. A basic rule of normal communication re-stated in hippy language.

3. Review the basic VMC rules, their meaning and vision, and get agreement that they will be followed. For example, the rule that states “No questions while the meeting is in progress” is challenging to the ego and needs to be understood in light of the importance of the momentum of upward spiraling group energy.

Agree the meeting process rules; one of VMCs rules is "Contributions though the chair" but once again re-worded in their own vocabulary.

4. The Leader should choose an individual or individuals to act as support for the direction and purpose of the meeting. Every meeting has a natural centrifugal force away from its original direction. The support person should have communicated with the leader in advance and be fully aware of the contents of the meeting and its intended direction. Support in this sense is not a question of personal agreement or disagreement; it is a commitment to the rule of order in the meeting and to supporting the leader in staying on the topic and goal of the meeting. Just as in a physical structure, the number of supports depends on the size of the meeting.

One facilitator may need assistants to help govern the meeting. Duh!

5. Stress the importance of contributions by each participant. Contributions are an essential energetic input to a meeting. These may be verbal in the physical realm, or be evidenced by the quality of presence of each participant. Attention and intention are energy fields which determine the atmosphere and frequency of a meeting and are crucial ingredients in accessing the Field of Collective Consciousness.

If someone wasn't going to contribute why would they be at the meeting? Something basic like the Think-Write-Share process is highly effective at getting everyone's contribution.

6. Plan your meeting according to the three sections of the VMC, called the enunciation, development, and recapitulation.
Enunciation is the statement of the purpose of the meeting and exploring its larger significance. In the VMC, the theme of the meeting is called “the thread.” This takes up about one quarter of the time. The Development section takes up about one half of the time and explores the ramifications and consequences of applying the thread in everyday experience. The Recapitulation section brings back the thread, which is now matured through the considerations of the development section. New understanding and new directions for follow-up have hopefully emerged and can be compared to the original intention of the meeting.

Call it Exposition (Enunciation obviously designed to sound a bit mystical!) and you have Sonata Form - not new, but about 250 years old. Also echoes the "Tell them what you're going to tell them..." formula older guys love to trot out.

7. At the start of a meeting and at the very end, the VMC practice is to have a moment of silence. This space is for centering in the present moment and internally and quietly posing such questions as “why am I here,” ”what do I want,” “what do I have to contribute,” ”what have I experienced?”

Again not unique - but few seem to practise this consistently.

8. Using aspects of the VMC outlined above, bring into the light of consciousness the individual and group experience. What are the factors that facilitate or obstruct access to higher levels of group energy and communication? Have elements of Collective Consciousness been present?

They talk about Collective Consciousness like it's God or The Universe or something. They seem to be playing on the term Collective Unconscious, which was coined by Jung and it's the hard-wired stuff that's in our brains due to evolution. Human beings work well when they connect openly and communicate freely and the above techniques are all well-established ways of doing that. Trying to wrap it up in pseudo-mystical hippy terminology to make yourself sound amazing (and worth spending money on!) is just a bit cynical in my book.

Obligatory Copyright Notice:

About the Author
Steve Davis, M.A., M.S., is an Facilitator's Coach, Infoprenuer, and free-lance human, helping facilitators, organizational leaders, educators, trainers, coaches and consultants present themselves confidently, access their creativity, empower their under-performing groups, enhance their facilitation skills, and build their business online and offline. Does leading or participating in groups frustrate you? Subscribe to his free weekly ezine at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com and contact him here to schedule a free exploratory coaching session.

©2005. Steve Davis, www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com. All rights reserved.

You Clever People!

2007-11-28T15:17:00.000Z

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Linking Businesses and Universities

2007-11-16T19:33:00.000Z

I was invited this morning to take part in a workshop set up by the Royal Institute of Engineering - we were asked to consider how Universities can get SMEs more involved in working with them.

Unis have a good track record of developing relationships with larger companies - we were regaled with case studies of companies like Cogent, who have worked with academics on developing amazing clever new kinds of magnet.

Despite my initial scepticism, I came away with some ideas on how collaboration can be developed.

And a big pile of business cards, of course!

I have lots of ideas, most of which require me to collaborate with others to implement.

Who could you be collaborating with in a way that will help realise your visions?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Top Nurse Slams Stupid Meetings

2007-10-17T10:14:00.000+01:00

I was interested to hear Justine Whitaker, Nurse of the Year, talking on the Today programme this morning about her decision to leave the NHS.

One thing (among many) that she mentioned was her frustration at having to attend meetings at which nothing was decided, and at which she was "the cheapest there, at £35,000".

All organisations, not just public sector, are under constant pressure to make the most value from the talent they have and poorly run meetings, as well as being demotivating and boring, are an incredibly expensive way of getting sod all done!

I would say this, but I think management teams should get talented expert facilitators in to teach them how to run their meetings more effectively...

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Are any of these theories actually true?

2007-10-15T21:29:00.001+01:00

I think it would be fascinating and very useful to find out whether team building models that are currently being taught in management courses and used in companies are actually transferable.

Wouldn't it be great if we could look at what one team / manager was doing, identify the essence of it, and transfer that to another team / manager?

I'm concerned that despite all our best efforts this may not be the case and in fact success cannot per purchased in book form. Leadership trait theory is rightly challenged in courses, even basic ones like the CIMA management module. The more you look for leadership traits, the longer the list gets and the more exceptions you find. The same may well be true for team development and management theories, including heavyweight stuff like Belbin Team Roles, Tuckman's team development sequence and Adair's Action-Centered Leadership.

If this is true, what are the consequences for teams, for consultants and for academics? Well, I imagine that most people will either not be interested, or will choose to ignore it. Throwing out 107 years of management textbooks is unlikely to happen, however much Paul Davies might want it.

Those of us that really want to make a difference and for that difference to be founded in demonstrable truth, however, would sit up an take notice. We'd pool our forces and efforts ina determined effort to find out what would make a real difference. Is it the democratisation / abdication approach (depending on your viewpoint) of companies like Semco? Is it team development based on educating people in psychological preferences, as promised by companies like Insights Learning & Development? Is it something else?

I've had an idea for some time now to bring together people who really want to find out the truth about how teams work; to sweep away the superstitions and rituals of the past and move workplaces forward in a positive and constructive way that works, sticks and is true. Those who feel the same calling probably will want to call me.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Only half the story

2007-07-04T07:03:00.000+01:00

Found this:

Camarader ie is great but...

...which neatly sums up the problem with unfacilitated teambuilding. I was at an outdoor activity centre quite recently where the manager told us of how many companies wanted to whisk the team back off to their hotel to get plastered as soon as the activities were complete. It is so important that we take time to reflect, and teambuilding and training events are ideal for some intense, focussed reflection. Let's remember to take some time around the campfire to reflect with our teams, even in our everyday world, not just when we're out in the woods!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

2007-06-22T22:04:00.000+01:00

Just so you all know, this blog is safe for you to let your children read:

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Naturally Speaking

2007-04-12T08:40:00.000+01:00

Ever watched yourself presenting on video?

I have tended to keep away from video feedback on communications skills courses. One of the dangers of video feedback is that the camera notices and exaggerates stuff that the brain filters out. When you watch it, you look like a windmill on speed, and people can become very self-conscious about things that are actually positive features of their natural communications style.

I heard Simon Callow once describe Milos Forman's directing style as being "No Acting Allowed!" and in the same TV documentary series Clint Eastwood said a similar thing - the expressiveness we use in front of an audience, be it in a seminar, on a stage or even just one-to-one in a coffee shop, is too much for the camera, which has a far narrower field of vision.

There's a kids' TV programme called Big Cook, Little Cook starring a full-sized chef and his lilliputian colleague. They do dances to their songs between parts of the show and Big Cook Ben looks exaggerated and unnatural, whereas Little Cook Small (imaginative name, huh?) doesn't and I think it's because of the fact that Small is shot from a long distance and takes up about 1/3 of the screen height from head to toe.

I teach that natural communication is the best way to present, to sell, or to run and participate in meetings. Be very wary of the extreme narrow focus of the camcorder!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd

Have you tried this one?

2007-04-08T23:10:00.000+01:00

It seems most people are aware of the business networking website Ecademy. Have you seen this alternative, called LinkedIn?

I have recently used LinkedIn's "questions" facility to run a short informal survey on "what frustrates you most about team meetings?" Feel free to post your own answers here as comments, by the way!

I'll be putting some of the conclusions of the replies I have to this question soon!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Delurking Week

2007-01-10T23:25:00.000Z

Just a quick pointer, my very old friend Gary has found us all this piece of warming cajolery from the US.

This is the week we should all make some kind of comment on the blgs which we read but never or rarely comment on.

Full details at http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2007/01/national_delurking_week_2007.php

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

2006-12-19T17:05:00.000Z

In all the organisations I've worked in, I've noticed that there are only two things that need to be done, and that doing those two things involves meeting with other team members and getting agreement.

If your experience of meetings is like mine, you'll be groaning already!

From my studies of facilitation techniques and my experience working with managers and teams in organsations, it's become clear that there are six keys we can use to unlock the potential that hides behind the bickering, the backstabbing and the circular debates that dominate so many teams.

Ask your team members this week (at the party if you like, their guard will be down):

"If someone you know asked you what this team is for, what would you say?"

It's a question we all think we know the answer to. When challenged we may not find so easy to put into words. Seriously, try asking people to write down their answers and then compare. There will be considerable umming and ahing followed by consternation at how different their answers are.

Then you can discuss why your answers are different and how you can all get to the same answer in future.

Meaning, purpose, mission, whatever you want to call it - we all know it's vital but how often do we check that people actually know it?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Laughter: The Best Medicine...

2006-11-08T16:33:00.000Z

...was the title of one of the regular humour columns in the Readers' Digest my mother used to read. I remember as a 10-year-old boy skipping past boring stuff about how brave people climbed Everest with no legs using only three plastic toothpicks they salvaged from a plane crash or about how to spice up your married heterosexual right-wing bourgeious life to read the three or four humour slots in that magazine.

Which is NOT the point of this posting. Have a look at our friend Dan's latest post to find out what he thinks about the effect of laughter.

More seriously, real laughter in the workplace is a great thing and can be beneficial for your team. there is a world of difference between real laughter and the "I was only joking, what's the matter with you?" culture.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Creating and Sustaining Momentum

2006-11-03T10:54:00.000Z

Someone congratulated me recently on "keeping up the momentum" with this blog!

This got me thinking about momentum in management teams and in helping teams change and grow.

We all want our teams to be effective, to make good decisions and to implement the decisions they make in an effective way. The danger is that one-hit solutions and quick fixes generate a lot of enthusiasm that doesn't last once the team get back to the workplace.

When people ask me if I can facilitate a 3-day event with their team, I will often ask them to consider 6 half-days instead. When I can work with a team once a month over 6 months, they get so much more benefit. They develop as a team more by being given the opportunity to reflect on and share their experiences between sessions of applying what was agreed; I get to see the change in their behaviour and confidence over the period; and the company are able to assess and evaluate the benefit of my work with their team. This enables me to offer the money-back guarantee of the work I do.

Little and often is usually a better way to build and sustain momentum than one big splash. What can you set up with your team to ensure that you sustain those "little and often" improvements in they way they work?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Problems with Belbin's Team Roles

2006-09-27T10:59:00.000+01:00

I met a business lecturer the other who told me they didn't "believe in" Belbin. I've out it in quotes because I'd had a couple of glasses of Red and can't be entirely sure of the exact words...

This got me to thinking about the potential limitations of his research and the way some people use it, which include:

* the subjects were all middle managers selected for "grooming" for senior management
* the environment was within a management development programme at a business school
* the behaviour was observed during business simulation games
* Belbin himself confirms his model is NOT a typology, yet people use it that way

I have written some of these thoughts into the Wikipedia page I started on Belbin.

The biggest danger as always lies not in the model but in the mis-use of it to pigeon-hole people. Belbin himself argues against this pointing out that his subject teams adapted to fill "empty" roles.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

The maverick boss came to town

2006-09-11T22:06:00.000+01:00

Last week I had the fantastic opportunity to attend a one-hour presentation by Ricardo Semler. Semler is very popular with management gurus (people like Charles Handy - one of my heroes) as the man who took a traditional, hierarchical, command-and-control business and turned it into a textbook team-based, democratic, fully devolved organisation while seeing profits grow healthily through national recession. Semler has written two books about his experience, tours the world giving lectures, and teaches at leading business schools around the world.

Semco's website contains a nice flash presentation of their corporate principles - check it out.

Semler said that hierarchy and systems are designed to restrict employee choice. A general does not want to ask the left flank if they want to be sacrificed in order to win the battle - managers have simply taken on the paradigms of military management without asking whether they are the best for the workplace.

At Semco, all top-down rules are questioned - unless there is a demonstrable need for a rule, it is scrapped. So over the last 25 years, Semco has ditched:

uniforms,
fixed working hours,
5-day weeks,
management authority by right,
titles,

and set itself up around project-based teams who

write their own budgets,
allocate their own wages,
and - get this - interview, appoint and appraise (anonymously) their own managers, up to and including Semler himself.

25% of profits are paid into a fund which is distrbuted by a committee elected by the workers.

If this model is so good, how come so few companies are doing it? (Handy says "no-one else is doing it")

1 Few medium and large companies are owned by their CEO. Semler had total authority to make these changes happen.

2 Semler suggested that managers in traditional companies would not have the skills to survive the worker review process. Imagine a certain entrepreneur's entire workforce turning around and saying "You're Fired!"

3 Semco makes pumps for marine applications and other large, expensive, bespoke, complex, technical items. Is there so much scope for workers in a call centre, or a biscuit factory, to work in six-month project teams, choosing a new team and new manager every time they reform around a new customer order?

While the Semco model may not be easy to apply to our own businesses, there are principles of transparency, trust, delegation and fair reward that we can all apply to some extent with our teams. What can you change this week to sweep away an unnecessary rule?

Some other blog entries on Ricardo Semler:
Quote: Keep asking "Why?"
Review of Semler's book Maverick

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

"How can you tell when a team needs some teambuilding?"

2006-09-01T08:09:00.000+01:00

Someone asked me that question this week at a networking event. Sometimes as consultants there is danger that we can get so wrapped up in our service that we lose sight of the real world business problems that mean clients could really benefit from our services. So here - with lttle explanation now, I may expand on some of these in future - are just the first 25 behaviours that indicate your management team could benefit from team building or facilitation:

1 a few people within the team dominate all discussions
2 work is duplicated and wheels a re-invented
3 "agreed" points are re-opened for discussion later
4 everyone thought someone else was going to do it
5 "Humour" is used to mask differences of viewpoint
6 people do not regard team meetings as valuable
7 few new ideas are generated
8 criticism is aimed at people instead of their ideas
9 people won't raise their concerns until after the meeting
10 team members' departments compete with each other
11 differences of opinion on who is the leader
12 discussions focus on blame rather than solution
13 meetings blindly stick to the same agenda every time
14 meetings are cancelled if the manager can't be there
15 meetings consist of tedious presentations of data
16 people can't explain how their work fits into the whole
17 people can't explain how others' work fits into the whole
18 managers aren't inspired to share meeting news with their own teams
19 nobody reads the reports before the meeting
20 members do not meet outside formal meetings
21 no-one can state the mission of the team of the purpose of its meetings
22 meetings are held even though none is needed
23 different departments are told different stores about what happened
24 high turnover of team members
25 reluctance to allow outsiders into meetings

I have avoided the higher level stuff like "atmosphere" and tried to stick to the actual behaviours. Feel free to add more in comment, if you think I have missed something!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd

Democratically Elected Leaders

2006-07-31T20:03:00.000+01:00

It's not just fashionable these days to support the concept of democracy, it's virtually unthinkable in many parts to even question its status as " the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried" (Churchill in characteristically tongue-in-cheek mode, see here)

Recent news stories attacked GW Bush for his decision against allowing embryonic stem cell research. There are two main apparent discrepancies: the papers focused mainly on Bush's emphasis in saving children's lives contrasted with the widespread death in Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon; I'm interested here in thinking about Bush's many speeches about promoting "democracy" in other countries while he takes an executive decision that goes against the majority public opinion in his own country.

I think Bush had no choice other than to veto the legislation, and I think that it is the workings of democracy itself that gave him no choice. Having said that, you'll be glad to hear that I agree with Winston that democracy is better than "all those other forms that have been tried"!

When we look at team leadership, is democracy the best system? Is it better for the team leader to be elected by members, someone liked and popular, someone with the popular support fo the team?

As you know from previous posts, I've been reading Belbin's seminal book Management Teams. His research at Henley Managment College seems to suggest that teams with democratically elected team leaders don't perform as well as those where the leader is appointed from outside for having appropriate skills and characteristics.

I wonder whether to some extent the elected team leader is hamstrung by their own popularity in the same way that Bush is hamstrung by the party machine that backs his campaigns?

I also wonder how many of us have ever worked in a team where we got to vote for the leader?

That's enough politics. Good night, everyone!

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

What NOT to do with Belbin's Team Roles

2006-07-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

In the 80s, I was involved with a campaign group trying to get an arts centre set up in Newport. One of our publicity stunts was to organise a festival drawing together many of the artistic organisations within the borough (as it then was).

We had a fantastic and effective Chair. She facilitated discussions, gave her own views no greater weight than anyone else's and ensured that everyone was both able to contribute and understood what they were commiting to.

Chairman is one of the team roles described by Dr R Meredith Belbin in his 1980 book, Management Teams; many of you will already be familliar with the rest of that roll-call: Shaper, Plant, etc. etc. etc. (Going a bit Yul, there!)

I was surprised to find out yesterday that Wikipedia had no article on Dr Belbin and his model. Wikipedia being what it is, I was able there and then to start to correct this oversight. Please do have a look at the article and of course, feel free to add to it in the spirit of true Wiki.

What I was not able to put in the article of course was my personal opinions. That's what blogs are for! Here's my ten pence worth:

1) Do not treat team roles like personality types. There are similarities: shapers and resource investigators are more likely to be extraverts; team workers and completer finishers are more likely to be introverts. But tools like MBTI and Insights describe our Jungian psychological preferences, while team roles describe jobs that have to be done within a team in order for it to manage its processes effectively.

2) Do not photocopy the Belbin questionnaire you were given last time you did a half-day course on Team Building for £50 funded by your local Business Link. The questionnaire is a) Copyright; and b) 26 years out of date - his website says there's a new one which has been "fully normed". (Any statisticians out there can plain-English-ify that for us?)

3) Do not deselect an otherwise qualified team member simply on the basis that they do not fit your preconception of the "roles" that will be needed in the team. Rather, ensure that the team understands what these roles are and let them allocate them accordingly. These are jobs to be done, not personality types.

Of course, you could hire a talented facilitator to make sure your team did this and did it effectively...

Anyway, enough gratuitous self-publicity, back to Lindsay. She was a highly effective Chair. Clearly naturally introverted but with a great interest in process and balance. You might think. Nope. Lindsay was a passionate and determined campaigner for the things she believed in, just not while she was in our committee meetings. Her personality type fitted Shaper to a T, but she knew her role as Chair, and she stuck to it and did it well.

Don't treat roles as pigeon-holes.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Four Keys For Groups

2006-06-24T07:10:00.000+01:00

A team I was working with last week came up with four key ground rules for their team building session. As their facilitator, I was impressed at how the four keys matched up with the Insights Discovery model. The keys were:

Say What You Think
They all agreed that it was important that if someone had an idea, or an issue, they should raise it and not bottle it up.

Watch What Happens
We all tend to live a lot of our lives on "autopilot". To get the most from teambuilding we have to raise our awareness of ourselves and others and what is happening.

Support Each Other
This is the caveat to "Say What You Think"! Disagreements can be expressed in a constructive way; don't let things get personal.

Have Fun
Some people had come to the session straight from an overnight shift, with just a packet of biscuits for breakfast! Their ability to dive in and be as enthusiastic as everyone else really impressed me.

How you you use these four keys to make sure you get the most out of working with others this week?

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

Encouraging Mutual Support

2006-06-15T22:59:00.000+01:00

I attended a networking event with a difference this morning. Paul Cornish of CW Concepts facilitated the meeting, where each individual was asked for one challenge they were currently facing. Other attendees then asked questions, gave suggestions and provided encouragement. I personally came away with some very useful and practicable ideas and so did many of the others, I'm sure.

How can we use this idea to make our teams more effective? The fact is that for any one person in your team with a problem, there are often at least two with potential answers. If you've created an atmosphere where people feel comfortable to speak up about challenges, it's an easy step to open each one to the whole group to provide suggestions and advice.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com

The Power of Self Awareness

2006-06-08T06:48:00.000+01:00

I did some work recently with the national sales team of an international manfuacturing company. I called the manager yesterday to get some feedback on how the team are doing, and what they are applying, and was just overwhelmed by her enthusiasm for the changes she's seen in her team.

One of the things she mentioned was their changed behaviour in team meetings; previously only "the usual suspects" ever spoke up, conversations tended to be circular, the manager's requests for ideas and contributions were met with embarrasing silence. (Think wind and tumbleweeds!)

During the sessions we used a personality model http://www.insights.com to raise their self-awareness and give them a non-judgmental language to describe behaviour.

Now she's seeing enthusiastic, creative discussions, everyone contributing, team members not flinching when confronted with their "difficult" customers, and a significant increase in sales figures.

The team building effect of raising people's self awareness through an accredited personality theory such as Insights Discovery or MBTI is amazing. People seem naturally fascinated with this stuff - which makes it easier to teach - and can actually apply the model to themselves, to colleagues, to customers, the moment they walk out of the seminar room.

Getting a new team working together effectively doesn't need to be black magic - it could easily be Blue, Green, Yellow and Red magic! (Go the the Insights website if you don't know what I mean!)

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com