Five things we've learned from running team collaboration workshops.
Over the past few months, myself have the team have been leading our signature team collaboration workshops across a range of industries, teams, and company sizes. What was interesting were the patterns that started to emerge which we can only attribute to the fact that no one was spared the changes and challenges brought on over the past few years.
So I decided to share our insights as it can often feel like you’re the only one with the problem and everyone around you has it figured out.
Leaders let go.
Take the time to be intentional with your team on what they need from you to take more ownership.
[How might we]….work better as a team?
We had founders reach out to us to help them shift their leadership style in order to create better team dynamics.
We had a CEO with a renewed sense of purpose and energy want to revitalize her leadership team to think bigger and bolder
We had an overworked Discipline Director who needed her team to take on more ownership and needed an external voice to facilitate the process
We had a new leader who wanted to be able to participate and engage with the team on vision and priorities instead of lead the session
Despite the wide range of asks and content, at the core the problem we were solving for was simple:
How do we get all voices in the room to be heard
Align on where we are going and how we will get there
Create clear ownership and shared engagement to take it forward
What we learned…
We’ve boiled them down to five core themes but there’s more where this came from!
“People are so much easier to work with in person”
Direct quote. It’s been fascinating to watch brick walls get built up when working with a new colleague in a remote setting for them to be smashed down in an instant of being in the room together. My take is that because we don’t build in time to get to know each other, there’s less space for humor and banter, the gluesticks that make a team feel connected.
It can feel weird and ineffective to take time on a video call to get to know each other but without it we don’t connect. Lines are drawn, assumptions made and our ego will look out for signals to reinforce that this person is the LITERAL worst.
We’ve been helping teams to open up (online and IRL) using our question cards and it’s been SO fun to watch the walls come down.
OverTime Leader’s conversation starters for leaders.
2. “I’m so surprised to see how aligned we actually are”
We’ve heard this in every session so we aren’t usually surprised but it’s more interesting to see that folks make some big assumptions about what they are here to do and why they do it. We angle this exercise around; big ambition, personal motivation, and the experience we want to create. It’s a more holistic approach to seeing what is driving the team both intrinsically and extrinsically.
For those that aren’t planning to do a workshop with us, after two years of post-pandemic fire fighting, now might be a good time to check in with your team around your mission and vision and how they each play a part in shaping it. You might be surprised with what you discover.
3. “I wish I had known that before…”
My heart sinks when I hear this, especially when the sentence trails off and fades. This typically means that they have likely made a decision with a lack or outdated information OR (worse) they have answered a key question to a team member with wrong and outdated information. Regardless, upon hearing this new information they realize they have just added a daunting task to their long list of things to do and have to go and backtrack if salvageable.
One of the biggest differences in workshops I’ve run this year is the extra time I’m having to build in for “catch-up context”. Basically, it’s as if ALL the watercooler chats we aren’t having in the remote world have been compounded into my sessions. That’s okay because it’s necessary but it makes me worry about those that aren’t taking the time away to do something like this. For new joiners or those that live in the more remote timezones, often lack significant context in order to do their jobs well. I’d say 99% of organizations did not have much in place in terms of a wiki or repository for pandemic joiners to reference. They are running blind and this has to stop.
Safe for who?
If you’re leading a team ideation, challenge yourself to stand back and prompt instead of jumping in and steering.
Pro Tip: Start a closed FAQ doc for your leadership team where you can add questions you’re getting from your teams and build on the answers together so everyone gets the shared context and your answers are consistent. Win - Win!
4. “Taking the lead doesn’t mean you take responsibility for getting it done”
It often feels like the air gets sucked out of the room when we start looking for folks to volunteer to own the initiatives they’ve agreed to run. As an outsider, it often feels like I”m watching a Uni group project where a small few keep raising their hands to either break the tension of silence or because they have the most context that they don’t take the time to share. The worst is when a brave soul puts their hand up for it to be taken down by a usual suspect.
It’s an uncomfortable truth for teams to address when ownership doesn’t feel equally distributed across the team. For those that are always putting their hand up, keep it down as ask how you could support someone else to take the lead. Your priority is to support and enable not drive everything and be the bottleneck.
5. Communication, communication, communication!
A key element I’m now building into our sessions is an internal comms moment. Too often teams will invest all this time in an offsite and nothing is played back to their teams. I stop and get them to play back to me:
“What’s the one key message you need the team to hear after this offsite?”
And help them along by sharing my all-time favorite comms framework to guide them.
There have been many shifts leaders and teams have had to adapt to with the drastic change in how we work and internal comms is the one I keep seeing left to the wayside.
Do it well and often and it will become a relatively low effort and have an immensely HIGH impact. Do it staggard and infrequent then you’ll make it high effort and low impact for yourself.
What comes next?
We will support teams ongoing with accountability and team coaching calls to be there as they implement their new behavior and rituals. One thing we will often ask., and will leave for you as a parting reflection is":
“What have you decided to leave behind as part of this process (i.e. is not serving you)?
“What are you taking with you to help you on this journey (serving you)?”
My facilitation
style described to perfection.
I’m curious, how is this resonating with you?
I’d love to chat to see if we can set up something similar for you and your team. [Send me a note]
You got this.
Gillian