teamwork Archives

#048 – Camp customs – The power of ground rules

19/12/202411/01/2022 by Mike Clargo

Strategically decide your team and meeting freedoms for best results – Develop your own ground-rules for ensuring healthy productive teamwork

Please help us to get the word out in just two clicks – click here – then click the like button

Why take this challenge?

Better quality of relationships and interaction in your team

Improved creative impact from challenge and conflict

Efficient meetings with a positive feel

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

This week’s adventure is about the use of ground-rules as a means to improve meetings and teamwork.

People tend to think of rules as the opposite to freedom, but they are not. Good rules apply common sense and fairness in determining how we can act freely in ways that don’t damage the freedoms of others. And the extent to which others can act without impinging on our own freedoms.

As such, rules can have a massive impact on the effectiveness of teams and meetings. They can make it easier for people to make choices that improve performance. And they can help ensure healthy positive interactions which raise the energy and satisfaction of those involved.

The article Rules for Effective Teamwork explains more on this. It also provides a simple means for teams to generate their own ground-rules.

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

Reviewing your ground rules

The green track this week is simply to review the situation on ground-rules in your own work.

Make a list of the teams and meetings that you are a part of. Then place five columns against them, and title them as follows:

Does the team/meeting work well?
Do ground-rules exist?
Are they applied?
Do I (and others) have a copy?
When were they last reviewed?

Then reflect on the list and consider whether you can see a relationship between ground rules and performance.

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Setting new ground rules

The blue-track this week is about developing a set of ground-rules for one of your teams or meetings. To help you with this you will find a helpful Jamboard in the Pack section below.

Use the ‘rules’ article in the pack to explain to the team the potential value of ground rules.

Lead onto the opportunity to think about what we like about how the team interacts and what we don’t. And then to decide whether we want to use this as a contract between us.

Then just follow the guidance on the Jamboard.

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

Article: Rules for effective teamwork
Guidance on ground rules and examples

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

Introduction to Leading by Adventure  |  What we mean by spirituality?  |  Why Adventure
Adventures to date   |  I did it, but it didn’t work very well   |  How do I know if it is working
Bringing this thinking into your meetings   |  Adventure & Mental Health
Leading by Adventure community   |  Explore Strategic Support options

Bulb held over water and a metaphor for gaining new insights from problem sharing

#040 – Problem Sharing

09/11/2021 by Mike Clargo

Accelerate your progress to resolving conflict within or between teams – Reconsider how we see problems and our own part within them

Please help us to get the word out in just two clicks – click here – then click the like button

Why take this challenge?

Resolve problems faster and more sustainably

Help breakdown silos and blame between different people and groups

Establish better teamwork from the outset of improvement projects

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

In my thirty-odd years as a consultant I have found that most things I am called to help with involve groups of people who see things differently to each other. They are struggling to find common ground on a way forward, but don’t realise that the issue lies in unreconciled perspectives on the start point.

Einstein is attributed with saying that if he had an hour to solve a problem he would spend the first 55 minutes understanding it. In good problem solving methodologies, the first, and usually the longest, step is ‘defining the problem’. And yet my constant experience is that people tend to want to rush immediately to solutions. They think they know the problem, and they assume their view is correct and complete, even definitive. Even though, this is rarely the case in practice.

Problem sharing, developing a shared view of the problem helps resolve this.

Dave Rawlings wrote an insightful piece that is pertinent to problem sharing a few years ago. His explanation is really useful in helping people understand how our own internal maps lead us into error in this way. I believe such understanding does a lot to make us more mindful of using ‘the first 55 minutes’ well.

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Both right

When I was sourcing ideas for adventures, a number of people suggested the importance of problem sharing – of working toward a shared perspective on the problem.

Oscar Alting proposed a creative technique to explore disagreements from an explicit baseline assumption that ‘we are both right’. The resulting dialogue, and the level of respect and listening inherent in accepting the assumption, does much to help shared understanding and identification of the key areas which would benefit from further investigation.

So the blue track is, in your next disagreement with someone, pause the discussion and try out ‘both right’ together.

Simply ask the question “What if we were to assume for a moment that we are both right, that both x and y are true, what might be the implications of that?” And then carefully, respectfully, and working as a team together, take it from there.

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Problem Sharing Exercises

The big advantage of exercises (including the ‘both right’ exercise in the blue track) is that they can help to take the emotions and egos out of the dialogue, and provide dispassionate perspectives from above the issue, or from a different angle. In doing so, they can help to reconcile individual perspectives and bring people together to solve a common problem.

The meeting toolchest includes a number of problem sharing exercises that can help in this way. Ones that you might like to consider the next time you encounter a lack of alignment over the problem to be solved are:

Six thinking Hats – https://meeting.toolchest.org/six-thinking-hats/
Fishbone Diagram – https://meeting.toolchest.org/cause-and-effect-fishbone-ishikawa
Kooshball – https://meeting.toolchest.org/techniques-to-advance-listening-and-shared-understanding-2/
Plus Minus & Interesting – https://meeting.toolchest.org/pmi/

The red track this week is to take a look at each of these so that you can have them to mind as and when you might need them.

You may find the following resource helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop.

If your work involves a lot of situations where people hold opposing views on issues, you might like to take a look at the following resource which I stumbled across online: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2070/2016/08/The-big-book-of-Conflict-Resolution-Games.pdf . I have used some of the Scannells’ games in the past to good effect, and bought a number of their books. I was quite surprised to find this one freely available online – which may be an error, so if you find it of value you might consider buying it.

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

Coloured roller process - metaphor for Kanban

#026 – The Spirit of Shared Adventure?

31/01/202329/06/2021 by Mike Clargo

Adventuring together through teamwork, support and a sense of progress – Using Kanban and daily standups to support each other’s individual adventures Coloured rollers metaphor for Kanban

Please help us to get the word out in just two clicks – click here – then click the like button

Why take this challenge?

Explore Kanban and standup as a regular basis for support and encouragement

Increase the rate of progress on projects and processes

Build a greater sense of teamwork and shared ownership of progress

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

There are a number of qualities we associate with the term adventure: Challenge; Novelty; Achievement; Movement. Sometimes we can engage with and complete adventures on our own, and sometimes we need help. And it is always good to be able to share experiences and insight.

All of these things are as true of the work environment as they are of the great outdoors. From an adventure mindset, it is great to be given tasks that stretch us. Situations that cause us to think in novel ways. The opportunity to do more than we were previously capable of. To experience personal growth and progress toward our potential.

And as we engage with these adventures, it is great to feel we are not alone. That we have others to help us think things through. To help us shift the rocks in our way. To empathise with our setbacks and to celebrate our successes.

As part of Agile frameworks, people are rediscovering this opportunity for this experience through what is known as the daily stand-up, and through a very simple tool called Kanban. And this is the tool that is the subject of this week’s adventure.

Kanban

At its simplest, Kanban is a simple three box model: To Do; Doing; Done. Within a team it makes individual victories part of a shared landscape of team success. And, in this way, it builds cohesion and a sense of collective responsibility.

New priority actions are thought out and added to the To Do box. People select items which utilise their strengths, but ideally also develop them, and move them to the Doing box. And as they complete them, they go to the Done box. Progress is reviewed daily by the whole team in a brief daily stand-up meeting, where progress is quickly shared (and celebrated), problems aired and help allocated, and new tasks identified.

Kanban charts are best set up in a prominent visible central location, but sadly this is not currently an option for many of us. However, they can also be set up virtually, and there are great tools available to do this.

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

Personal Kanban

While the Kanban works best with a team, it can be used individually to great effect.

If you have a spare whiteboard or blank area of wall that you can divide into three labelled areas, that would be great. But if you don’t, you can use our virtual Kanban.

This week’s green track is about laying out your current to do list as sticky notes in the To Do box, and then moving today’s self-allocation into the Do box, and moving yesterday’s progress into the Done box. And to see how that feels. And to imagine how it might work with one of your teams.

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Team Kanbans

The blue track this week is to try out Kanban with your team. This level of adventure is simply about the experience of trying out.

Begin to identify a team to pilot this with. It works best with an interrelated team pursuing a common overall goal where they are best placed to support and be interested in other people’s progress.

Create a virtual space of the 3 Kanban boxes that all your team can access, and work with them to layout this week’s tasks in the To Do box. Then shift today’s allocated tasks to the Doing box and agree to meet briefly first thing the following morning to update it. If you find yourself getting bogged down in a longer discussion than intended, you may need to think whether the extra time is of value to everyone, or whether the team you have included may be too broad. Or it may be about the discussion process you are using – in which case the red track might be helpful.

If the spirit of Kanban appeals to you, I would encourage you to consider setting up a Trello account. Their free version covers everything from the basics described above to something capable of running a small business (which I did for a few years, until the embarrassment of gaining so much for free prompted me to go to a paid account even though I didn’t really need it).

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Adventure stand-ups

The red track this week is to try out Kanban as part of a deliberate schedule of daily stand ups.

The key to stand ups is to ensure that their net value, as perceived by all participants is overall greater than their cost in time. Key in achieving this is the people you select, and how their interests mesh. As the leader, it is better to have multiple smaller focused gatherings than one big amorphous one.

Selected well, everything that is said is of interest to everyone. This will be most likely due to shared goals and interdependencies, but it can also be enhanced by coaching relationships, team bonuses, …

Each person (as they move any relevant sticky notes) answers the following questions …

What did you do/achieve yesterday (headlines only)
Is there anything you are stuck on, need help on (briefly)
What is your focus for today (again, very briefly)

Each person focuses on covering the main points in less than a minute. Anything that requires more time is scheduled between specific people (perhaps for immediately after, almost certainly that morning) for outside of the stand-up.

You can augment the session with a quick check round of “any other points?” – issues, ideas, recognition of achievements as appropriate.

Key to the stand-up is the energy of moving quickly through succinct focused contributions, and taking anything more involved off-line. For more information, google ‘daily standups’ or click the resources in the Pack section.

If you really are leading your team into adventure, the daily stand-up can be a great tool for ensuring a culture which supports the recognition, support, celebration, teamwork and sense of progress that goes alongside that.

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

#048 – Camp customs – The power of ground rules

Why take this challenge?

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

Reviewing your ground rules

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Setting new ground rules

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Extension strategy

Useful links:

#040 – Problem Sharing

Why take this challenge?

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

The way I see it

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Both right

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Problem Sharing Exercises

Useful links:

#026 – The Spirit of Shared Adventure?

Why take this challenge?

Kanban

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

Personal Kanban

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Team Kanbans

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Adventure stand-ups

Useful links: