Evolutionary Team Effectiveness
The team effectiveness concepts that I share in Teamwork 9.0 are based on a system called the Enneagram. In this video, I share an overview of the nine Enneagram dynamics and give you a peak under the hood of the underlying mechanisms that drive motivations and behaviors of the nine Enneagram types. Understanding your own Enneagram type is the first step for leaders to better access all Enneagram types depending on circumstances. Which Enneagram types resonate with you?
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation on July 27, 2020, 53% of US adults report feeling worry and stress related to corona virus. That’s up from 39% in May. The effects of this stress may be showing up among your friends, family and colleagues. Here’s how to spot it and tips for what you can do.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-identify-stress-your-colleagues-tips-what-do-matt-schlegel
As a Gen X parent of two Millennials and one Gen Z, I have had a front row seat experiencing how these generations have come of age. Their experience couldn’t be more different from my own, when I grew up in a Boomer-dominated education system. The Millennial generation’s childhood experiences color their preferred leadership and decision-making styles, presenting challenges and opportunities for organizations.
Pods not Rows
As a young parent, I remember walking into my oldest child’s elementary school classroom and being stunned. All the desks were clumped together into groups of five or six. When I was growing up, the desks were all in rows, all separated, and all pointing to the front of the class at the teacher. My classroom was designed for me to learn from the teacher. Not so with Millennials. From the outset of their education, they were expected to work with and learn from one another.
Importantly, Millennials were taught that learning from classmates was as important as learning from the teacher. Millennials were raised to work in teams, and not simply follow the instructions of an authoritative figure. They were given autonomy and flexibility to be creative.
What Millennials learned in Kindergarten continues to influence their behaviors in the workplace. Millennials expect to have more say in decision making. They will question why things are done a certain way and not take anything as a given. They want to ensure that their teammates are included in decision making and will listen carefully to what they say. They want to work together, collaboratively, to solve problems.
Flat Organizations
The Millennial’s team-based collaborative style has led to the rise of “Flat Organizations.” These organizations have fewer levels of hierarchy in the management structure and more emphasis on teams working together, collaboratively leading themselves. Millennials tend to have higher self-awareness and an understanding of their own strengths and weakness as well as those of others. This understanding informs their team efforts and allows them to share leadership and delegate tasks so that the team benefits from the strengths of all players. Having conversations about collaboration from the time they were young makes it very natural for them to bring collaborative behaviors into the workplace.
Collaborative Leadership and Decision Making
The nine-step collaboration strategy based on the Enneagram that I describe in my book Teamwork 9.0 overlaps with the Millennial style of leadership and decision making. Unsurprisingly, the Millennial generation’s interest in self-knowledge has led to a surge in interest in the Enneagram, a tool used for understanding personal motivations, feelings and behaviors. There are vibrant communities on social media, in particular YouTube and Instagram, centered on the Enneagram.
For example, I was fascinated by a recent book entitled Millenneagram by Hannah Paasch. Paasch has written an Enneagram book for Millennials by a Millennial. She brings the wisdom of this system directly to her generation in a way that is highly tuned for them. If you already know the Enneagram, you can learn a lot about Millennials by reading this book!
The Teamwork 9.0 method assumes that employees will work together to creatively solve problems, precisely the way Millennials expect to work together. Here is a breakdown of the nine steps in terms of how Millennials want to work:
Step 1 – Collectively decide which problem to pursue
Step 2 – Make sure that everyone is included
Step 3 – Listen to everyone’s ideas for how to solve the problem
Step 4 – Pick the ideas that everyone likes
Step 5 – Analyze and validate the ideas that are most likely to work
Step 6 – Build a plan based on everyone’s talents and contributions
Step 7 – Make sure that everyone is comfortable with the plan
Step 8 – Move forward together to solve the problem
Step 9 – Make sure that everyone is happy with the outcome
In Teamwork 9.0, I describe these steps in detail. I also include chapters on shared leadership, leadership growth and contributions, and creativity—topics important to Millennials and how they work together.
Intrinsic Motivation
Teams derive great joy when working together with autonomy, choosing which problems to tackle and how to tackle them. That joy has been instilled in the Millennial generation and provides the intrinsic motivation for how they work together to solve problems. The top-down command-control approach simply does not work well with this generation. Nor do extrinsic motivation techniques like the dismissive, “we’re paying their salary, so they should do what I say.” Intrinsic motivation is much more powerful than extrinsic motivation. Successful organizations tap into the Millennial’s intrinsic motivation.
Participation Award
Life is a team sport—we’re better when everyone participates. One of Boomer parent’s gifts to the Millennial generation was setting the expectation that they participate. Making the effort to participate is itself enough for recognition. And though some thought this trend was fodder for mocking humor, the Millennial kids did not. They took it to heart. We trained them to be team players, and now they expect to participate on teams and expect others to do likewise. This expectation can present a challenge for organizations that are structured in a siloed hierarchical fashion. Millennials have learned to vote with their feet. They will seek out organizations that welcome and embrace their collaborative style.
OK Boomer
Boomers and Gen X express frustration with how to manage Millennials and how to lead Millennials. They frequently claim that Millennial and Gen Z workers have a sense of entitlement and that they do not appreciate the value of starting at the bottom and working their way up the ladder as their generation did. And with that sentiment, Boomers reveal their misunderstanding. There are no ladders in the minds of Millennials. Instead there are teams, collaboration and networks. They learned how both to listen to others and to share their own thoughts. They DO expect others to listen to them. While Boomers may think Millennial employees on the “low rung of the ladder” are entitled, it’s just because those employees expect to be heard. Boomers can learn much about leadership by understanding how Millennials collaboratively lead themselves.
How are Millennials assuming leadership and decision-making roles in your organization? What’s working well? What’s not?
Faced with extraordinary challenges, boards of directors are establishing committees and task forces, teams of people responsible for formulating plans to address acute problems the organization faces. Here’s how to organize your task force team to solve problems successfully with maximum stakeholder buy in.
Structure
Your task force will benefit with a bit of structure. The structure serves as a framework that helps focus conversations and keeps your task force team moving forward towards a successful outcome. I detail a framework ideal for task force teams in Chapter 2 of Teamwork 9.0.
Nine Steps
The framework consists of nine steps that takes your task force team from Step 1, defining problems and goals, to Step 9, assessing the solution’s effectiveness. Here’s a summary of the nine steps:
Step 1: Problem-Goal — Identify the problems and define the goals.
Step 2: Stakeholder Identification — Recruit the committed team.
Step 3: Ideation — Generate ideas for solutions.
Step 4: Emotional Reaction — Select ideas with the most positive response.
Step 5: Logical Analysis — Study and score the ideas.
Step 6: Planning — Select the most promising idea and build an action plan.
Step 7: Promotion — Passionately promote the plan and get approval to proceed.
Step 8: Implementation — Execute the plan and solve the problem!
Step 9: Integration — Confirm the problem is solved for all stakeholders.
The successful task force will carefully dedicate time to each step as they work through the initiative. Inadequate time in a step, or worse skipping a step, will result in poor outcomes at best and a stalled initiative at worst. Here’s an example of what happened when a task force skipped Step 2.
Don’t Forget Step 2!
At a workshop in which I took a group of policy makers through this nine-step framework, one of the attendees came up to me afterwards with excitement in her eyes. “Now I get it,” she said, “now I understand why my task force stalled. We skipped Step 2!” Step 2 is the step in which you consider the perspectives of all stakeholders who are impacted by the problem or will be impacted by the solution.
This policy maker reported that her task force team didn’t dedicate time listening to all the stakeholders who would be impacted. After defining the problem and setting the goals, they skipped Step 2 and went on to Steps 3, 4, 5 and 6. When they got to Step 7 and presented the plans to solve the problem, there was outcry and backlash from various constituents of the community. Why? Because they had not considered everyone connected to the problem in Step 2 and had not incorporated their concerns and perspectives when defining problems and goals. This reaction from the community compelled the task force team to return to Step 1 with a reconstituted team of stakeholders.
Leading Your Unique Team
Every task force team will have a unique set of characteristics. The nature of your organization influences these characteristics as do the personalities of the individuals on your task force team. Teams love to play to their strengths and downplay their weaknesses. For instance, a highly analytical team may love spending time in Step 5, but be reluctant to move on to Step 6.
As the task force leader, you need to recognize the distinct tendencies of your team and when it may spend too much or too little time in each step, so as to ensure spending adequate time and energy in each step while not feeling rushed to jump to the end. The framework helps you do this. It provides you with a vocabulary and enables you to communicate clearly the importance of each step to the overall success of the initiative. Another benefit of this framework is that it gives everyone a chance to participate, not just the most outspoken team members.
How have you led your task force team? In which steps did your team excel? Which steps were skipped? How could the results have been better?
This is a video of a talk I give to groups of CEOs about how to lead a team through change during challenging times.
This leadership framework is based on the method I describe in Teamwork 9.0. Specifically, check out chapter 2 of the book.
Here is a transcript of the talk:
A global pandemic sweeps across the earth killing hundreds of thousands of people in its wake.
Economies are wracked by recession, with no end in sight.
40 million people are thrown out of work in the US alone.
People are fearing for their lives to simply go to work or go shopping for groceries.
Nationwide, protests erupt-against police violence, and the police respond with …. more violence.
2020 has killed hyperbole.
In normal times, a CEO faces existential threats to their business, every day.
Your organization has a mission and you’ve grown a team to deliver on that mission with ever more effectiveness and efficiency. Your team excels at operating in-the-business.
They know how to respond well to all known threats—HR with employment issues, your safety team with worker safety and compliance issues, your sales team with the competition. They’re expert at dealing with these threats.
But what happens when the threat comes from outside the normal course of business? When the normal patterns of behavior no longer apply? How do you and your team agree on the nature of the problems and coalesce around solutions that will lead to new behavioral patterns, behaviors that will allow your team to survive and even thrive in the new environment?
How do you create a-new-normal?
It was with this type of challenge in mind that I wrote my book Teamwork 9.0. I developed a problem-solving framework that organizes teams to solve big, challenging problems with maximal buy in from all stakeholders.
[Slide 2 – Enneagram]
I developed this framework based on a powerful tool called the Enneagram. The Enneagram is commonly used as a personality dynamics system. It’s extremely useful and valuable for understanding yourself, your friends, family and team members, and the interpersonal dynamics that occur.
Not only can it be used in this way, I discovered that it can also be used as a problem-solving-framework for teams.
I had a question: Why is the Enneagram Type 1 the 1, why is Type 2 the 2, and so on. Why couldn’t Type 1 be the 7, or Type 5 be the 3?
It turns out that the number assignment is not arbitrary. There’s a specific reason for the order. The numbers represent the order of a process. If fact, it’s the order in which humans–solve–problems.
[Slide 3 – The Circle]
The problem-solving nature of the Enneagram is described by the outer circle. Each of the nine Enneagram dynamics describes a specific step in problem solving. This use of the Enneagram is not commonly known or understood, which is why I was compelled to write my book, Teamwork 9.0, and share my discovery with you today. Let me briefly go through each step
[Slide 4 – Step 1]
What’s the first step in problem solving? It’s realizing that you have a problem. Enneagram Type 1 is often called the Perfectionist. They are often the first type to point out that things aren’t right, aren’t as they should be.
They also have a clear vision of how things should be.
In problem solving, describing how things shouldn’t and should be corresponds to problem definition and goal. Problems and goals are two sides of the same coin, and the-first-step in problem solving.
[Slide 5 – Step 2]
So, who cares about the problem? Step 2 is where you identify the people who have an emotional connection to the problem. Enneagram Type 2 is often called the Helper. They understand the emotional desire to solve problems and want to chip in and help.
In Step 2, you establish your team of committed stakeholders – those that will help solve the problem. This is your problem-solving team.
[Slide 6 – Step 3]
Your team will have many ideas for how to solve the problem. Step 3 is when you capture all the ideas. Enneagram Type 3 is called the Achiever. They are constantly looking for ideas that will lead to success.
Each team member may have a different idea of what success looks like. You’ll want to understand each member’s perspective. It’s important in this step not to react negatively to any idea. You want to create a positive environment, encourage everyone to contribute, and capture all ideas.
[Slide 7 – Step 4]
Anytime anyone expresses an idea, you’ll have a reaction. That idea’s great! Or, that idea sucks! You can’t help yourself; it happens naturally and instantaneously. Enneagram Type 4 is sometimes called the Artist—they are the type most in tune with the emotional impact of any idea.
In Step 4 you want to determine the set of ideas that are most favorable to the team. These are ideas that have the most positive emotional energy, energy your team will need to carry the project through to successful completion. I usually use a simple vote on each idea to make this determination.
The combination of the Idea Step 3 and Reaction Step 4 reminds me of the saying, “throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.” It’s this combination that allows your team to come up with the ideas that they want to pursue.
[Slide 8 – Step 5]
Having a handful of positive ideas to explore, it’s now time to turn to the left-brain activities starting with analyzing each idea for feasibility. Enneagram Type 5 is often called the Analyzer, and in Step 5 of problem solving you perform pro/con and cost-benefit analysis of each idea. Out of this step comes the top 1, maybe 2, ideas to solve each problem that the team is pursuing.
[Slide 9 – Step 6]
Step 6 is where your team takes the most promising idea and builds a project plan that gets you all the way to the goal – who does what and when. Type 6 is often called the Questioner. Their brain is constantly asking questions—what if this happens; what if that happens? They’re constantly on the lookout for pitfalls and developing strategies to avoid them.
In Step 6 of problem solving, you’ll want the team to build a low risk plan that gets to the goal; the plan can include risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans.
[Slide 10 – Step 7]
Now that you have your plan, the team needs to take it back to the broader set of stakeholders for buy in. Enneagram Type 7 is often called The Enthusiast. They are the ones who get people excited to try something new.
In Step 7, you socialize the plan with your organization. You remind everyone of the problems they face and show how the plan will solve those problems. Done well, this socialization will lower barriers and resistance during implementation.
[Slide 11 – Step 8]
In steps 1 through 7, what have you done? Talk, Talk, Talk. Step 8 is the time for action. Enneagram Type 8 loves to get to action. They will be the type that is most frustrated as the team works through the first seven steps. You will want to coach the Type 8s on your team to have patience during these early steps.
But, in Step 8, the team gets action! With the approved plan in hand, your team’s now ready to march ahead, solve the problem, and achieve the goals!
[Slide 12 – Step 9]
YAY! –you’re DONE! The team finished the project. How did they do? Whenever you undergo a transformation, some toes will be stepped on and feathers will be ruffled. Enneagram Type 9 is called the Harmonizer, and in Step 9 you want to debrief the project and listen to feedback from the stakeholders. If you have your detailed list of problems and goals from Step 1, now is the time to review that and score the project.
As you have these conversations with the stakeholders, you’ll uncover that there may be lingering problems and perhaps new problems that need to be addressed. And, this is why….
[Slide 13 – Process + People = Purpose]
…the Enneagram is a circle, not a line. Step 9 leads right back to Step 1 and illustrates the human desire for continuous improvement.
The aspect I love about this problem-solving framework is that there’s a direct link between each step in problem solving to a specific personality dynamic that is particularly suited for that step.
Now more than ever, organizations are being challenged with threats that require everyone in the organization to collaborate and find new ways to survive and thrive—working ON the business not just IN the business.
Using a step-by-step-approach-to-problem-solving can get your team to focus on the challenge and invent a new path forward.
