Hello [fname]:
Fall is here, and football is in full swing! Doesn't it feel good when you watch your favorite team and everything is coming together for them? They are in the flow, moving the right ways, making the right plays, and they make it look "easy." This is called synergy.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference in Denton, Texas sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Organizations at the University of North Texas. It was a great conference, and it re-energized me in the work that I do to facilitate and support the excellence of leaders, teams, and organizations.
The importance of team synergy came up more than once at the conference, and so today’s topic is focused on building super-synergy.
Owner, Synergy Builders
Contents:
1. Building Super-Synergy
REVISED FORMAT: 1/2 day, and lowered price!
What’s Synergy?
“Synergy” is when 1 + 1 is greater than 2. You have probably experienced those moments when, for example, a group of people are engaged in solving a problem. The ideas that arise from a group of people are more than what one person could have come up with on his or her own. Or, when a sports team really "clicks."
When a group has gone past the “forming, storming, and norming” stages, they are able to get to the “performing” stage. And this is when they can really shine, when the group has already developed high trust (see my September 2007 newsletter), and synergy is developed.
Leading into Synergy
Here are three ideas to help you develop your team’s synergy by bringing together their brains, emotions, and psychologies.
1) Understand the competencies of the people on your team. Great synergy-building leaders understand the competencies and areas of opportunities or “weaknesses” of their team, and they make sure that everyone on the team appreciates other team members contributions. For example, not everyone is great at numbers, but others are great problem-solvers. Who’s the “get-er-done” person on your team? Help to balance that kind of energy with the person who is good at covering the details.
Coaches Corner: Spend 30 minutes privately with everyone on your team and ask questions like: “What experiences and wisdom do you bring to this team?” “What are you good at?” “What do you like doing?” "What do you see as your contributions to the team?” “Where could you use some help?" "How can I or others support your success?” Then, get your team together to discuss these questions as a group. Help everyone understand that, as in the natural environment, diversity builds strength and sustainability.
2) Give permission to make mistakes. There’s plenty of examples and research that prove that mistakes are a natural and healthy part of human, group life. Mistakes are opportunities for learning! I like the story about Thomas Edison, who said something like: “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Some other famous “failures” are:
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Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team. He was later named the greatest athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN. |
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Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by 27 publishers and Seuss considered burning the manuscript. The eventual publisher sold six million copies. |
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Barbra Streisand’s Broadway debut opened and closed on the same night. |
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Tom Cruise was rejected for a role on the TV show FAME because he wasn’t “pretty enough.” |
Coaches Corner: If you, as the team leader, believe you must always be right, it’s time to change that attitude! Yet, some leaders believe they must not “show imperfection.” This belief can stifle the creative problem solving process and keep your team from becoming highly synergistic. When you or a team member makes a mistake, talk to your team about it - What happened? What can we learn? How can we do better next time? Is there a process that needs to be improved?
3) Play! It is interesting to watch children play. They will compete with each other, they will show fear and sometimes anger. They will invent playmates to bounce ideas off of. They will create works of art and bring all aspects of their brain and bodies into the play.
As adults, play can bring out the best and worst of us in a context that “gives permission” for us to show a range of emotions. It also “loosens” our brains for more creative problem solving and builds trust between team members.
Coaches Corner: Take time for structured and unstructured play and mental breaks with your team. Ask your team what interests them. It does not need to take a lot of time or money. Go out to a mini-race track, rent canoes or kayaks on the river or lake, have a family picnic, set up a softball team, have lunch together, have a computer game contest, celebrate birthdays, etc.
So, spend some time this month to bring your team together and build some super-synergy!
Need some coaching or team synergy assistance?
Call me at: (512) 263-5521.
Dealing With Conflict - in the Workplace or Anyplace!
REGISTER NOW FOR THE NOVEMBER 2, 2007 WORKSHOP ON
REVISED FORMAT AND PRICING!! This is now a 1/2 day course, with a substantial price reduction! CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS
Wherever there are two or more people, conflict will occur, and whether it is a business-related issue or a personal disagreement, how you deal with these conflicts will affect your relationships, your personal, team, and organizational effectiveness, and your project and business outcomes.
The next public workshop on Dealing With Conflict is November 2, 2007 in Austin, Texas.
Registration is due by October 12, 2007.
To register:
Telephone: (512) 263-5521
or Email: inquiry@synergybuilders.com |
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