MUR5 Dysfunction of a Team, Good to Great, Superteams, and many other books share a lot of ideas that help convert a less productive team into a high performing one. These books offer various ideas and tools to guide managers and leaders to push their teams to move to the next level.
At Focus, we have been privileged to work with over 1,000 teams facing different challenges. We always talk to the leaders about their expectations before we conduct any workshop for their teams. During these meetings we see a lot of distressed leaders who feel that their teams are not going in the direction that aligns with either the leader’s or the company’s vision.
We truly believe in the famous saying – “The way one plays is often the way one works.” The idea is quite simple here: give teams an unusually different task, an atypical set of team members, a deadline, and a platform to pool their strengths, and finally, make them play together.
“This idea is great…”
“This idea would work better if…”
“Or, what if we add this…”
“I think it would be awesome if we do…”
These are only a few examples of points coming from the team members very openly during the planning and shooting stage. The movie shooting was a roller coaster ride for the participants as they accepted, rejected, and built upon many ideas that were coming from each and every individual. When they raised a request for a time extension, they realized that they had spent close to 2 hours together, having this fun. After this activity each one of the participants couldn’t stop raving about their teammates, the positive behaviors, the result, and the ‘magic’ that boosted their camaraderie.
When we sat together to discuss and share about the entire experience, we noticed that all the previously existing guards were shattered and people became much more open in receiving and giving feedback. When asked, the team came up with the top 5 learnings that they felt they would undoubtedly implement at work.
Below are those top 5 learnings:
- Fun:
Source: Flickr ‘The team that laughs together stays together’ was the core idea that was appreciated not only by the leader, but by all individuals too. They felt that when the fun goes missing, they see all the problems like fighting feedback, resisting change, doubting intentions, etc. emerge.
- Sense of Achievement:
Source: Pexels The entire experience gave them a stark reflection about setting milestones in the journey of achieving their goals. They felt that even before they achieve one goal, they set the next one without any celebration or reflection on their achievements.
- Idea Sharing:
Source: Pexels They didn’t stop for even a second to notice where the ideas were coming from. This gave them the freedom and power to openly discuss the merits and demerits of each and every idea. They noticed that they received many more ideas this way.
- Playing to each other’s strength:
Source: Pexels Teams knew for sure that they wouldn’t succeed if they don’t pick the best people for different roles. In the process of selecting the right people, even before they realized it, they started appreciating one another’s strengths. They admitted that this was a rare occurrence.
- Working towards a common goal:
Source: Pexels During the entire course of shooting the movie, everyone was concerned only about one goal – to deliver a great movie! They didn’t mind changing roles, arranging resources, planning everything to a ‘T,’ and doing the same thing time and again until their best was delivered.
The success of this team can be seen not only in their performance reviews but also in the way they cherish their togetherness. Do you see your team starting down this path? Contact us today to find out how we can help!
