Anchor on the Power of Values - The Process and Practice

The Process:

Every so often a client calls me to help a manager deal with an errant team.  They could be senior people in a technical area, sometimes have their own teams to lead, required to work together as a cross functional team to deliver the product or service. Often they are personality clashes even fraught with allegations of racism, so being foisted into such a situation is to enter a Lion’s den.  

I don’t blame any particular person for these situations, except that in the modern organization, busy keeping up with the lightening speed of change, with high expectations and doing more with less, have let go of a fundamental piece of management, which is to lead – do all the soft stuff to keep a team humming. 

I find most managers in these situations barely hold onto the reins, micro-managing and fire fighting to keep it moving forward, so there is no time to even breathe, let alone lead.  This way of working and the system that supports it breeds a reptilian behaviour among the team – competition, a lack of trust, disrespect – leading to a drop in quality and productivity and more insidious, health and well being threats to the team members. 

I have to be creative to help them to help themselves and come out unscathed, especially if the expectation is that I have a magic wand.  I need to then anchor this situation on a foundation.    

Anchor on Values

I ask the manager, “does your organization have a set of Values?”.  There is a usual pause, perhaps a feeling of embarrassment as I prompt the manager with, “It is ok, most organizations with articulated Values have not shared them properly.  They are too busy working”.  

 

I explain that one way to bring everyone to a common platform is to ground this intervention from a non-threatening place – it is not about them, it can be about Values.

I am relieved when the manager sends me the Values.  There are the standard - Respect, Integrity and Professionalism + articulated in a variety of ways. 

I integrate the Values as a part of the hand out material and on the day, after the introductions, provide a perspective to take away the notion from a few at least – “this guy is here because of me”.   I focus on the collective to come together for a common cause and Values are a wonderful way to rally a team together. 

Values Alive 

The most important part of Values is about transforming the words to life - the link to behaviours and actions. 

I begin by asking each participant to reflect on what these Values mean and write them, in terms of behaviours - "what I expect of myself and others".  I ask them to assess whether the team works within these and put a mirror on self too – not an easy task.  The idea is to internalize the exercise, rather than it being an impersonal intellectual one.  

As each participant writes their thoughts, I ask people to pair up and compare notes to find common ground.  Typically, with a team of about 12 people, I then ask to expand the group-work to 4 people.  By this time, the energy level is getting better, as people voice their ideas and articulate feelings and needs, in relation to the Values – there is also a sense of ownership brewing.  

The Code of Practice 

After seeking comments in a plenary, I invite the entire team to self-facilitate a session to articulate and list a common Code of Practice for the team based on the Values. 

After about 20 minutes the team comes up with 4-5 items for the code. 

As we regroup, I ask for comments and reflections on their Code of Practice – is everyone in agreement, is it realistic, can it be monitored and evaluated, how can it be reinforced, will it help them to focus better on their work, to be rational and logical?. 

This usually raises some excitement with the possibilities and expectations, as everyone is stressed out - drained from the negative energy derived from the status-quo of constant storming and conflict.

I facilitate a discussion on how they would make this Code of Practice a reality and what strategies they would use to do so. 

Typically, they come up with ideas like;

• Begin every team meeting by reflecting on the Code of Practice
• Everyone should make a copy and put on their workstation
• Share with the family and have a copy at home, on the fridge or a notice board.
• Recognize and reward each other for trying hard to     follow the code 

• Wit this simple exercise on Values - we are able to deflect the acrimonious relationships that were a result of not having a behavioral framework to stay within.  The most important part of this process is that the team did it themselves – so there is meaning and purpose in being guided by their own Code of Practice. There is ownership for the process and the outcome.
  

The Practice:

Moving away from the Reptilian Refuge

When work is challenging and relationships are difficult, the threat takes us to a reptilian reaction for self preservation and there is no need to apologize for that.  This is the "storming" part that is a natural part of every team as they "form" to move towards "performing".

 

 

Tuckman's Team Development Process

The "storming" stage can be fraught with anxiety and fear that may result in disrespectful behaviour - phantom demons lurking around the corner - as our imagination and ego runs wild at 750 words per minute with ruminative thoughts like, “he does not like me, so I am getting all the messy jobs” or “I am going to get a bad performance evaluation because of my colleague and they are trying to push me out of my job”.

 

These thoughts may be totally irrational. Yet when we are stuck in a situation it is difficult to see the wood from the trees. Having an anchor of Values, and an agreement of how we are going to behave when the chips are down, as things go wrong, mistakes are made – are we going to run for cover, point fingers, get mad at each other or, we can to take a deep breath and get some space to assess the scene, as we had agreed through the Code of Practice?.   

This way, we seek a more skillful path towards "norming" and "performing"by acting positively when there is potential for conflict, for more clarity and understanding based on trust, so the collective emotional fallout from any situation is minimized, making room for rational and logical ways to solve the issue and move forward.  

Mindful Personal Practice

Having a Code of Practice alone may not suffice for many.  We require some tools and the skill to pause, to catch ourselves first before we react when things go wrong.  One way to do this is a through process I have incorporated based on the Non Violent Communications (NVC) practice. 

When I perceive a threat, I take a deep breath and ask 4 questions for clarity; 

    1.    What am I observing?

    2.    What am I feeling?

    3.    What am I needing?

    4.    What am I requesting myself to do?

Practicing this on a regular basis with patience helps me to internalize the process and make it habitual. As we rarely have the luxury of time to ask all the questions at the heat of the moment, at least, I am training myself to take a deep breath and say “observe”.   

This stops my auto-pilot reaction, giving me space of 5 seconds to recognize the negative energy I am getting dragged into and gain clarity to act differently.    

When we gain the space to act more skillfully, the clarity of the Code of Practice is a good anchor to fall back on.  

Then again, we are all fallible beings, we will drop the ball every so often, we may utter a word in a certain tone in haste, we may not feel up to it that day – it is to give each other the benefit of the doubt and to believe that most people have good intentions with an open heart to work together to find meaning and purpose in our work.    

I have seen great organizations and I have seen some move from not being so good to great organizations. Apart from exemplary leadership (The Level 5 Leader – humility yet toughness to move forward with a vision), when each team member takes personal responsibility to live the Values through the Code of Practice, we can create a happy workplace to be productive and thrive in.

Commit to a set of core Values that you will want to build your enterprise on, without changing them, for 100 years” – 

Jim Collins – Author of Good to Great.