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Failure to Communicate—How to Make Every Mistake!

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Working from home in a virtual team environment is a veritable petri dish for miscommunication with your remote teammates. I’ve been working with remote teams for years, yet in the last two weeks I’ve managed to make every mistake in the book! Why am I making so many mistakes?

Here’s the sequence of events that led our virtual team off track and tips for how to improve team communication skills with your remote team members.

DAY ZERO

My creative team rolls out a new feature on our website which they report to me by email. They nicely enumerate 5 points in the email; I respond to four points and say I will respond to the last point later when I have time.

Later that day, I respond to the thread with a second email in which I enumerate three issues that need correction and include screenshots of two visual issues.

Mistake #1—My creative team typically is very responsive. They responded right away to my first email, but never responded to my second email.  I did not realize this, and thus did not follow up to ensure that the issues I described in the second email were understood.

TEAM COMMUNICATION TIP—Acknowledge receipt of important email; follow up to make sure important communications are received.

DAY SEVEN

I receive an email from my creative team reporting bug fixes.  One of the fixes corresponds with one of three issues I had identified. Examining the website, I noticed that they had fixed the second issue. 

Mistake #2—I did not follow up on the third issue. I assumed they were still working on it.

TEAM COMMUNICATION TIP —Don’t assume; do confirm!

DAY TEN

I receive an email from my creative team on a separate feature that they are implementing.  After responding to the contents of their email, I added an update which included a comment that I am looking forward to resolution on issue #3. They respond immediately and note that they are looking into issue #3.

Mistake #3—By adding my comment in response to an unrelated issue, I increase the likelihood of these unrelated issues becoming conflated. 

TEAM COMMUNICATION TIP —Create distinct emails for each issue so that email threads don’t become confused.

DAY ELEVEN

The creative team’s project manager informs me the following morning that they will address issue #3.  That afternoon she sends me an email saying that they do not see the issue and attach an image of what they do see.

Mistake #4—Late that night, I quickly scan my emails before going to bed.  I read the text but do not scroll down to see the image that they attached.  Had I looked at the image, I would have discovered that the two unrelated projects had indeed become conflated, and now we were looking at completely different things. The following day I am busy with other things and don’t get back to the email.

TEAM COMMUNICATION TIP —Read email when you are prepared to address it and/or schedule follow up. Avoid reading email right before bed.

DAY FIFTEEN

Not remembering the email from Day Eleven and repeating Mistake #3, I again bring up the issue in an unrelated email thread late Friday afternoon.  This time the project manager picks up the phone and calls me.  She resends the email she sent on Day Eleven which I read carefully for the first time and discover that we are looking at completely different features!  After a 15-minute conversation, we were on track to resolve the issue, perhaps for the first time in fifteen days.

TEAM COMMUNICATION TIP —Sometimes a quick phone conversation can save a lot of email back-and-forth.

Corona Brain

Being thrust into working remotely presents extraordinary virtual team communication challenges. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for those of you working from home for the first time and having to learn all the tips and tricks necessary for effective remote collaboration. On top of that learning curve, we are all dealing with the stresses of a global pandemic, being cooped up with others 24/7 or perhaps enduring the loneliness of being isolated. Perhaps we are having to care for kids and juggle home schooling.  The pressures are intense.

My creative team and I have been collaborating remotely for nearly 10 years.  We’ve never met in person. We’ve never zoomed. We’ve worked on dozens of projects. We practically read each other’s minds!  Even we are now susceptible to the distractions of these extraordinary circumstances. We are reminded that we need to slow down, read emails more carefully and be more patient with each other as we navigate these turbulent times.  We agreed to memorialize our commitments with this blog.

How are you developing team communication and collaboration best practices? What steps are you taking to stay focused on your teammates and improve your virtual team success factors? 

Need Inspiration? Ask Ben!

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When are you at your creative best? For some it comes when you’re under stress. For others, when you’re calm and relaxed. Does inspiration come to you out of the blue or while you’re actively thinking? What are your personal creative thinking techniques?

Ask Ben Franklin

When I have a challenging problem and no ready solution, I’ve learned a technique that gives me an answer. It goes like this—before drifting off to sleep, imagine presenting your problem to someone you trust and admire. When you awake in the morning, you have the answer. It’s amazing how well this technique works for me.   The person I ask is Ben Franklin. I imagine walking down steps from the street to his basement workshop where he’s working on a project.  He looks up at me, and I explain what I need. Then I go to sleep. Just like a newspaper, Ben delivers in the morning.

Daydream Believer

How do you access your creative ideas? Do they come consciously or subconsciously?  While Ben helps me access my subconscious, intuitive creativity, mainly my inspiration comes while I’m conscious. I’m very prone to daydreaming, especially when I’m trying to read!  Ever had to reread a page multiple times because you get to the bottom and realize you don’t remember a thing?  Some of my best ideas come as I daydream while “reading.”  Daydreaming is one of my favorite creative thinking techniques.

Head, Heart or Gut?

The Enneagram model describes three centers—head (thinking), heart (feelings) and gut (intuition).  Creativity and inspiration can come from any of these three.  My daydream inspiration definitely comes from my head.  I suspect that Ben is delivering intuitive inspiration from my gut. But what about feelings from the heart?  How can I access creativity through feelings?

Chillin’ with the Remote

The most common way I engage with my feelings is by listening to music and watching TV.  There’s something in the way it moves me that invokes feelings. For me, this is much more about relaxation and recreation than inspiration. However, for musicians and filmmakers, those feelings may be fertile ground for inspiration.  The creative process is different for different people.  As is the ability to be creative under pressure.

Performing Under Pressure

How are you at thinking on your feet? Those that have ready access to their intuitive inspiration (without having to go to sleep) tend to have easier access to creative ideas while under pressure.  I believe this is also true for those that are accessing inspiration from their feelings. For those of us in our heads, it can be another story. Personally, when the pressure’s on, my anxiety levels rise and mask my ability to think on the spot. I am much more creative when I am relaxed.

Diversity of Creative Skills

Problem solving and creative thinking in the workplace go hand in hand. Creative problem solving involves ideation and inspiration. Given that each of us has a distinct source of inspiration—head, heart, or gut—with easier or harder access based on stress levels, having a diverse team with different creative techniques ensures your team has a creative source under any circumstance. The Enneagram serves as a framework for each of these creative problem solving approaches. I explain this framework in detail in chapter 6 of Teamwork 9.0. Each of the nine Enneagram types provides a distinct creative skill. A team with diverse Enneagram types can deliver diverse approaches to creative problem solving.

What creative problem-solving techniques do you use? From where do you source your inspiration? Under what circumstances are you most creative?  Do you think better under pressure or when relaxed? Knowing your creative style guides you to being your creative best!

Why Didn’t the Chicken Cross the Road?

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Do you feel the urgent need to act? Or is a patient approach best? Do you choose your approach deliberately or are you a victim of circumstances?

Chicken with Your Head Chopped Off

I remember growing up my Grandpa would chastise me for acting before thinking. Having grown up in the country near “The Egg Capital of the World” (Petaluma, CA), his colorful description for my thoughtless behavior alluded to the body of a chicken that runs around the yard after its head is cut off.  I got the point.

STOP!

Oftentimes when faced with a problem, we rush into action. Without taking a moment to think before acting, you and your team may start trying to solve a problem before agreeing exactly what problem you are addressing and how you will collectively approach the solution. Without having the restraint to think before acting, your team may try to solve different problems with different methods which will waste time. Sometimes you need to go slow to go fast.

Why?

Taking a moment to ask a few questions before rushing to action can help bring your team together, starting with the question “why.”  Once your team has agreed on that answer, the next question is “who” – who needs to be involved? After that, you decide collectively “what” you’re going to do.  Taking the time to ask these leadership questions helps you align your team and set it up for success. You can read more about leadership questions that guide your team here.

Leadership Skill

I have found that different leaders can have different leadership styles in terms of their tendency towards urgency or patience. Self-aware leaders will develop these two important leadership skills:  first—determine which situations require patience and which require urgency;  second—understand that every person, including yourself, has a natural inclination towards patience or impatience and learn to deliberately adjust your style depending on the needs of the situation.

Patience vs. Impatience

As Grandpa poignantly pointed out—I am an impatient person. I feel the need to get started on a project, often before everyone else is on board. I have learned to restrain my impatience, to be more attentive to those who are exhibiting patience, and to understand why they are doing that. This restraint is not easy for me—I am still a work in progress. Back to the chicken metaphors:  I must remind myself that if we are taking the risk of crossing the road, we better have a good reason why we are doing it.

Leadership Style

What’s your patience-impatience leadership style?  How does it help you, and how does it hold you back? What techniques do you use to adjust your style based on your project’s circumstances? In chapter 6 of my book Teamwork 9.0, I relate the patience-impatience styles to each Enneagram type.  Knowing the Enneagram type of yourself and your teammates will help you understand the natural patience-impatience tendencies of your team. This knowledge will inform you of adjustments you can make as circumstances change.

Be Patient with Yourself

In normal times, those who tend to be impatient can put a great deal of stress on themselves. In these extraordinary times, that stress is compounded. Learning to calm your sense of urgency will help you keep your stress levels down. We all need to be more patient with ourselves and those around us. How are you exercising patience during the pandemic?

Online Enneagram Workshop: Coping with Corona

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How are you coping with shelter-in-place? Join us for an online conversation in which we will share ideas and learn from one another. You will gain an appreciation for the approach each Enneagram type is taking to manage through these challenging times.  Knowledge of your Enneagram type is helpful, but not required.

Workshop Details

Date: Tuesday, April 21

Time: 7:30pm to 9pm (Pacific)

Access: Direct Message me for access to the web conference link.

Also, you can find more details here.

Hope you can make it—we want to hear your stories!

Solving Problems? What’s Your Leadership Word?

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Everyone has a go-to response when faced with a problem. Does your mind jump directly to a solution? Perhaps you stop and reflect on the problem. Or does your body just move into action. In a word, what is your go-to response?

Sequential Problem-Solving Steps

My word is WHEN. When can we get started? When will we be done.  My mind gravitates to when questions.  But is that the right question to be asking?  That depends on where you are in the problem-solving process.

There is a natural order to problem solving — a sequence of steps that occurs as you move from the beginning point of problem identification to the end when the problem is solved.  The Enneagram informs us of a problem-solving strategy that consists of 9 steps, which I detail in chapter 2 of Teamwork 9.0. 

Problem Solving 9 Steps

In a word, the nine problem-solving steps are as follows:

1 – Why?

2 – Who?

3 – What?

4 – Good?

5 – How?

6 – When?

7 – Ready?

8 – Go!

9 – Okay?

Each of us reacts differently when faced with a problem. Most often the reaction takes the form of a question — for instance, what should we do? — though for some the reaction is action and for others a feeling. We all want to play to our strengths which leads to a natural tendency to skip steps. The benefit of using a systematic problem-solving methodology is that it helps avoid skipping steps and, thereby, increases the overall effectiveness of the solution.  Systematically going through all nine steps will yield the best results.  

Problem Solving Methodology

1 – WHY? – The starting point of problem solving is identifying that there is a problem—why something is wrong and why it needs to be corrected. Asking these questions of multiple people, you will discover various perspectives on the problem.  Recording these problem perspectives and describing how things should be once the problem is solved informs the WHY of problem solving and establishes the problem-solving objectives. The WHY serves as the purpose of your problem-solving effort.

2 – WHO? – The problem necessarily impacts someone, especially problem solving in business. The second step is determining who. Who does the problem affect? Who can help solve the problem? Who may be affected by the solution? These people form the group of stakeholders who join you on your problem-solving journey.

3 – WHAT? – There are often numerous problem-solving approaches. You will generate ideas, and these ideas comprise what you will consider as possible solutions to the problem. Enlisting a diverse group of people to join you in idea brainstorming is how your problem-solving initiative can lead to new ideas.  In this step, problem solving and creativity intersect.

4 – GOOD? – Every idea will generate an emotional response—your first reaction. This reaction happens immediately, without thinking.  That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks!  This is the step in which each idea is run through your emotional filter to eliminate bad ideas and retain good ones. If you wonder whether problem solving is a soft skill, step 4, which requires an examination of our emotional reactions, implies that the answer is yes!

5 – HOW? – Any promising idea needs to be vetted, and this is the step where you analyze and determine how an idea will actually solve the problem. Ideas are run through a logical filter, out of which comes the most promising ones—your Plan A and Plan B.  Step 5 is the time in problem solving for analytical skills and critical thinking. While data analysis may have been required in step 1 to understand the problem, it may also be required in step 5 to assess the efficacy of the proposed solution.

6 – WHEN? – This is the planning step in problem solving, when you sequence all the required actions into a plan. You take all the information collected in step 5 and synthesize that into an action plan that achieves your problem-solving objectives.  In short, WHO does WHAT by HOW and WHEN to address WHY.

7 – READY? – Once your plan is formulated you need to check in with all stakeholders to ensure everyone is on board.  Depending on the scope of the problem, you will need everyone’s support, time—energy—resources, in many dimensions, physically—mentally—emotionally, to execute the plan and solve the problem. If you’ve kept everyone in the loop up to now, you will be in good shape to get the buy-in you need to proceed. Step 7 is the final decision-making point before moving into action.

8 – GO! – Finally you get to action.  This is the step in the problem-solving process where you actually solve the problem!  Up to this point it has been all talk.  Now you execute the plan and achieve the goal—problem solved!

9 – OKAY? – After step 8 you may think you’re finished, but there’s one last step: the final check-in with all stakeholders to ensure that the problem was actually solved to everyone’s satisfaction.  If you took the time in step 1 to document the goals and outcomes, those details will serve as your checklist.  Sometimes the unexpected happens and new problems arise in step 9—that takes you back to step 1.

People form teams to solve problems, which is why problem solving is important in the workplace.  These nine steps help you organize your problem-solving team to systematically address the problem.

Socratic Teamwork

Notice that eight of the nine steps can take the form of a question?  Questions stimulate conversations in which your team can share perspectives and discuss ideas. Questions form the basis of the Socratic method, a technique to stimulate dialogue, creativity and critical thinking. Organizing questions in this nine-step sequence will promote the conversations that will guide you and your team on your problem-solving journey.

Problem-Solving Skills and Leadership

What are your problem-solving skills? I am a planner, so my favorite problem-solving step is step 6. Each of us are naturally drawn towards the steps in problem solving that play to our natural gifts and strengths. Having a diverse workgroup with a range of skills makes your problem-solving team more effective—everyone using their unique strengths as your team moves through each problem-solving step.  During the step that overlaps with your particular strengths, you can assume a leadership role for the team.

What are your go-to problem solving words, and how are you delivering problem-solving leadership for your team?  Answering these questions, you may discover your own personal purpose in problem solving.

Solve Your Teamwork Dilemmas With Matt’s New Book »