Why?
Trust, mindset, team spirit, … after research these appears as to be one of the most important ingredients of successful teams or groups. And it takes time to build. But when we become aware of it, it becomes possible to speed up and improve this valuable ingredient for collaboration.
Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results.
Margaret Heffernan
Frederic Laloux, in his book “Reinventing Organizations”, speaks about Safe Space:
“Creating safe workplaces starts with raising everybody’s awareness of the mindsets, words and actions that create or encourage a safe working environment. Some organizations find it is important to write a document that spells out detailed ground rules for how people interact within the organization. Such a document speaks of the kind of words and actions that are encouraged, and the kind of words and actions that are considered unacceptable, as well as the underlying assumptions and mindsets. One can view such detailed ground rules as taking the shared values that many organizations define, to the next level: if these are our values, what kind of behaviors do we want to encourage and which declare unacceptable?” (link)
Questions
- What kind of trust do we want?
- Are we confident in the competences of each other?
- Do we lead by example? Are we role model?
- Do we communicate openly?
- By how much do we know each other personnaly? Do we feel connected?
- Do we avoid blaming?
- Do we discourage cliques?
Journaling
- Have I met a person with “dominant” or “marginal” behaviour?
- Can I describe some of his behaviours? How did they affect the collaboration? The mindset?
- Could I describe the global mindset and how it affects me?
Tools
Creating Intimacy beyond words
A film by The Liberators. Music: Eyes Wide Open by Tony Anderson
Video from KarmaTube
Directed and edited by Peter Sharp. More at The Liberators.
Video from KarmaTube