Articles categorized as:
Steve Ritter
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August 8, 2019
When Teams are in Triage Mode
Crisis has a way of bringing teams together. The urgency of the moment defines roles and creates a common objective. The medical profession treats a crisis as a normal event by moving into triage mode. More than just setting priorities, triaging assumes the problem is bigger than the resources. Waste and politics are subtracted from the process. It doesn’t have to be an emergency to enter this mode. Consider these five ground rules.
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July 30, 2019
Bringing Remote Teams Together
More than ever before, teams don’t share the same space. The challenge of getting everyone aligned is more difficult when face-to-face exchange is limited. Monthly or quarterly check-ins are barely enough to cover the myriad topics that arise between contacts. Often, the result is teammates heading in different directions. They may be running fast and working hard but they are not necessarily in synchrony. Products get sold and services delivered but not at the level that would be possible with full coordination of efforts. Here are some basics for remote teams.
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July 15, 2019
What You Tolerate You Sanction
Productivity and profitability are not always indications of a healthy team. Often, they occur at the expense of employee satisfaction and workplace culture. When money is being made, it’s easy to overlook the soul-sucking interactions that get normalized over time. Anyone who has ever been in this type of environment knows the compromise. Sunday nights are filled with dread yet you drag yourself in on Monday morning. Friday brings relief and Saturday is devoted to recuperation. Weeks turn to months and months turn to years. Before you know it, you’re old.
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June 24, 2019
Why Toxic Teammates Leave on Their Own
Even when all the coaching efforts and performance improvement plans have been exhausted, it seems impossible to move disengaged employees along. The HR wheels turn slowly and toxic teammates often find a way to stay an inch short of termination for cause. What would it take for them to leave on their own?
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June 18, 2019
4 Stages, 3 Questions
Every team is in a state of transition. Some are regrouping following a major change. Others are building a culture of trust and accountability. Still others are using that platform of trust to generate something new. Many teams are anticipating a transition and bracing themselves to cope. Whatever stage your team is managing, there are always three questions to ask.
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May 21, 2019
Why Teams Get Stuck
Please enjoy this excerpt from The 4 Stages of a Team: How teams thrive… and what to do when they don’t.
The ideal team flows from challenge to challenge, moving over, under, around or through obstacles. Team members understand the purpose of their struggle and keep working on the problem. Because all living things move through predictable cycles, each transition provides an opportunity to get stuck.
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May 2, 2019
Qualities of the Best Bands
What makes a great band? It’s more than good music that resonates with your feelings. That part is easy. You write and perform songs that use the principles of music theory to generate physical and emotional changes reflecting the mood and message of your audience. Rock, rap, blues, jazz and reggae appeal to certain people at certain times because of the visceral and cognitive response the music generates. But keeping the group that composes and plays the music together requires a much different set of skills.
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April 16, 2019
A Team of Two
My guitar teacher has been honing his skills as a musician and educator for about 25 years. I have been working on my chops for about 50. It has taken me twice as long to get half as good. Face it, practicing thirty-to-sixty minutes daily will never achieve the results of devoting three-to-six hours each day. Even if I step up to his pace, there aren’t enough years remaining in a human life span to learn to play at his level.
This is why I selected him for my team of two. I will always have new goals that seem nearly out of reach, yet attainable with hard work. This partnership has an unspoken recipe.
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April 1, 2019
Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders
Teachers seek students. Students seek teachers. There is a natural synergy in the teaching-learning relationship. The traits that describe the best teacher and the best student are similar: open mindedness, willingness to challenge, hunger for growth and solid preparation to name a few. Take a look at the best mentors, coaches, professors, advisors and counselors in your life. What do they have in common? Consider these qualities when building your team.
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March 21, 2019
The “We” and the “Me” on Teams
Two things happen on teams after a significant change. First, teammates feel depleted as the energy of the team is consumed in managing the emotional impact of the transition. Second, teammates find a way to embrace the new circumstances. As a team, everyone must answer the question, “What does this mean for us?” Privately, most teammates are wondering, “What does this mean for me?” Fortunately, you can’t answer one question without answering the other. With this, the exercise of coping effectively begins.
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March 6, 2019
Which Actions Build Culture
It is easy to sit around the conference table and wordsmith a mission statement. Everyone can contribute favorite values like “collaboration,” “innovation,” “compassion,” and “commitment to excellence.” The entire team can voice a commitment to behave in a way that reflects the spirit of the vision. The Human Resources department can reward good behavior and punish violations. Leadership can have the words painted on the wall where employees enter the workspace. Although a good start, these are not the actions that build positive culture.
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February 19, 2019
The Space Between Pain and Problem-solving
Growth happens for many reasons. The demand for your products and services exceeds your capacity. Your business plan calls for expanding to new markets. An acquisition doubled your headcount overnight. Whichever the cause, the employee engagement surveys identify the same pain point: constant change. Constant change energizes some teammates and exhausts others. The team quietly divides into subgroups separating those who embrace the speedy transformation from those who need time to process the impact. How do we bring these sides together?
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February 7, 2019
Wasting Team Energy on Office Politics
Zero-error is the goal in many industries. Transportation companies have mastered the skills of full disclosure, root cause analysis, and proactive risk reduction to keep people safe in the air on the rails. Healthcare attempts to apply the same principles yet continues to hurt people at surprising frequency in clinics and hospitals. In businesses where the stakes aren’t quite as high, it becomes a matter of efficiency and productivity.
You have to know where the source of waste or error is before you can make the world a better place. Often, the greatest misallocation of resources is the energy spent on managing team politics. Team dysfunction takes many forms and depletes the system. Assess and solve every disruption. Below are the symptoms of broken culture and suggestions for corrective actions.
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January 23, 2019
Have a Bad Day!
Seriously, we wish you a bad day. May struggle fill your agenda. May you confront problems never before faced. May your ability to adapt be tested. May you become aware of your weakest link. May demands stretch your team’s capacity to the brink of failure. Invite the tension. Seize the opportunity. Discover the resolution. What happens next is game changing.
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January 9, 2019
Strengthen One Relationship
Time is precious. The team’s highest priorities get attention and less important things get neglected. Unfortunately, the subjects of neglect are often people. When someone feels like a low priority, engagement suffers. These teammates come to work, do their job, go home, and collect their paychecks. Why would they go the extra mile? Yet, when we invest in people, they grow. Sleepwalkers become evangelists. Look at your team roster. Identify the teammate most likely to thrive if fed. Sponsor his or her development. Here’s how.
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December 26, 2018
Team Renewal
Beyond quarterly and annual performance goals, December 31st is an artificial renewal. New Year’s resolutions abound and businesses big and small reset strategic direction. Arbitrary markers of progress track movement but rarely refresh the system. Rebirth usually follows significant change. Norms are disrupted and teammates adapt. Other than calendar transitions, consider these drivers of team renewal.
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December 4, 2018
Below the Tip of the Iceberg
What you can’t see sometimes has the greatest influence. What is visible isn’t always an accurate reflection of the whole picture. Teams go to great lengths to portray a workplace culture where anyone in their right mind would want to work. Add a ping pong table and a meditation room and you might be able to sell a “best place to work” rating. Sometimes, it’s not until you’ve accepted the job that you realize you’ve been oversold. Consider what lies below the tip of the iceberg.
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November 21, 2018
The Consequences of Growth: 3 Vulnerabilities
Like the sprinter who discovers his shoelaces untied in the middle of a race, sometimes we’re moving too fast to fix a critical problem. Such is the challenge of rapid growth. The demand for our services outpaces our ability to add resources. We enter triage mode. Everyone focuses on the highest priorities and agrees to neglect less important needs. Over time, this takes its toll on a team. What would happen if the sprinter stopped to tie his shoes?
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November 7, 2018
Taking a Snapshot of Team Wellness
Some teams don’t need a rigorous consultation engagement to get their business on track. If nothing is terribly broken, a small tweak might be enough to make a big difference. Strong relationships of all varieties get in the habit of regular self-checks. Usually, everything is fine. Sometimes, though, the team is alerted to the beginning of a problem. If you catch it early, the trouble never has a chance to take root. Here are some key questions to ask if your team needs a minor adjustment.
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October 17, 2018
10 Ground Rules for Innovation
The most innovative team in the history of Team Clock® engagements never stops their strategic planning activity. Their approach is not a time-limited series of steps that lead to a single vision. Instead, they embrace an ongoing, perpetual, cyclical process where the vision constantly evolves. The result is unparalleled discovery and invention. How do they do it?
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October 2, 2018
Company Culture is More than Morale
Morale is not the path to culture. Positive morale is the outcome of strong company culture. A healthy workplace draws talent in and makes them stay. The reasons people come and remain engaged are as varied as the diversity of the team. Some want growth and learning while others seek to make an impact. Some teammates prioritize compensation and benefits while others value a family-like atmosphere. Whatever the draw, the culture must attract multiple generations and a spectrum of personalities. That’s a tall order. Here’s where to start.
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September 18, 2018
Why Teams Need Loss
The first reaction to a loss is usually disappointment. Something has changed. Things aren’t the way they used to be. When a team is in transition, it’s difficult to see the benefits. When you add stress to the situation, it’s even harder to appreciate the value of the loss. Energy gets depleted and hope is diminished. So, why do we need to lose something to gain something?
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September 6, 2018
When to Walk and When to Run
The normal human reaction to success is to celebrate. Often, this is the moment the opponent seizes to catch you back on your heels – while you’re celebrating. Martial artists master the timing of a counter-strike to take advantage of their opponent’s vulnerability immediately after an attack. In sports, championship teams avoid the natural letdown that follows achievement by refocusing and staying in the zone. They don’t get too high after a positive moment and they don’t get too low after a negative one. Can you apply this to your workplace?
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August 23, 2018
When You Join or Lead a Team
“…Think hard – really hard – about what it means to join or lead a group of people.” When Seth Godin endorsed Team Clock in 2009, he urged readers to consider the accountability they own for being a part of a team, regardless of the role. By linking people together, everyone shares responsibility for the wellness and productivity of the group. What roles have you assumed?
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August 7, 2018
Starting the Next Season
Sports teams and schools measure their progression in seasons. The chance to regroup is built into the rhythm of the annual cycles. Players and coaches come and go. Teachers and administrators change roles. The off-season provides the opportunity to recover from the depletion of the past year and gear up for the beginning of the next round. Even if your team doesn’t have defined seasons, the need to refresh is just as important. Here’s why.
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July 23, 2018
Beginnings, Middles, and Ends
The rookies bring energy and the veterans bring wisdom. Those in the middle provide the network of connections. These are among the stereotypes of teammates in early, mid, and late stages of their careers. Let’s look at a lifespan model of professional development.
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July 11, 2018
Changing at Lightning Speed
Sometimes change happens faster than humans can cope. Despite our best intentions to adapt with maturity, the pace of change surpasses our stress threshold. Most teammates want to be their best selves during transitions. Unfortunately, rapid and unexpected transitions have a way of bringing out the child in some of us. What kind of teammate do you become when the pressure is intense?
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June 28, 2018
Your Team’s Stage of Development
Every team has a lifespan. The building blocks of development are constructed during the team’s infancy and tested throughout its childhood and adolescence. Once the team has matured into adulthood, performance is measured and remeasured as teammates manage obstacles, challenges, and changes through many cycles of growth. With each round, a new opportunity to thrive is welcomed. In what stage is your team today?
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June 13, 2018
Targeting 100% Engagement
How much sickness is normal on a healthy team? The Gallup organization has been measuring employee engagement for decades and, until the past year, the numbers haven’t changed much. 30% of your teammates would run through a wall for the company. 50% come to work, go home, and collect their paychecks. 20% are some version of dysfunctional. Have you accepted these ratios as normal on your team?
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May 24, 2018
Choosing Your Role on the Team
When Seth Godin endorsed Team Clock: A Guide to Breakthrough Teams in 2009, he stated, “This book made me think hard – really hard – about what it means to join or lead a group of people.” Whether joining or leading, everyone has a role. Often, your role on the team is not defined by your job description. Usually, it’s determined by the way you choose to interact with your teammates during key moments in the team’s lifespan.
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May 8, 2018
The Three Most Likely Issues Affecting Your Team
As complex as human behavior can be, the problems that get teams stuck are surprisingly simple. Because living things grow in cycles, any team is always at some stage of challenge. Peak performance is one of these stages, but it is usually not considered a problem. Often, performing well is the natural consequence of addressing issues in these other three areas.
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April 18, 2018
When Your Teammates Act Like Children
Sometimes the influences of team behavior are in the here and now. Teammates are responding directly to each other and managing present day challenges. Other times, teammates behave in reaction to historical patterns and traumas. Colleagues become siblings. Bosses, managers, and supervisors become parents. This can get messy.
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April 5, 2018
The Recipe for Engaged Performance
Performing in “the zone” is a team endeavor. Most people can nail just about any solo skill with focus, discipline, and repetition. The pressure is largely internal. When you add other humans to the mix, however, the ability to find the zone is more difficult. Sometimes the effort to perform becomes the failure to perform when under pressure.
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March 20, 2018
Finding Your Team’s Cadence
The easiest way to understand the value of cadence is to think about the steady, calming effect of rhythm. Cadence takes on a different meaning in music. It’s more about movement as notes, intervals, chord progressions, and syncopations transition from a state of tension to a state of resolution. What movement brings cadence to your team?
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March 6, 2018
The Path from Vision to Execution
Another change has been announced. The team is still reeling from the last transition. The new future, while visionary, may not have factored in the view from the ground level. The team will be asked to achieve ambitious goals crafted by colleagues in a boardroom. How do we make it real? Everyone has a role.
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February 21, 2018
Staying Calm in a Storm
Someone on the team needs to stay focused when chaos hits. Once adrenaline is dumped into everyone’s blood streams, the fight-flight-freeze instinct takes over. Our best intentions to remain calm get hijacked by the contagious emotion of the group. The teammate with the best coping skills becomes the leader. Here are some tips.
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February 6, 2018
The Problem with the Mirror
It’s impossible to see yourself accurately in a mirror. Self-assessment comes with an inherent bias. While most strength and personality tools are self-sorts, the best information comes from outside validation. Those who know you best usually have an angle you haven’t considered.
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January 22, 2018
Choose 4 Team Qualities
If you could only choose four, what ingredients would you include in a recipe for a thriving team? Begin with the broadest range of history, experience, and perspective. Add a commitment to a common goal. Sprinkle in the energy of new ideas. Finish with resilience in the face of change. Diversity, cohesion, creativity, and adaptability. Together, they keep the team moving forward.
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January 8, 2018
The Quick and Easy Team Assessment Tool
Take a snapshot of your team. Do you share closeness and connection or are teammates guarded and distant? Is your work built on collaborative interdependence or courageous independence? Depending on where your team falls in each of these quadrants, specific team dynamics are activated. This tells you both why you are struggling and what to work on. Let’s look at each quadrant.
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December 19, 2017
The Fragile Path to Trust
Trust is the secret sauce that enables teams to thrive. Once it is anchored in a relationship, growth and innovation become possible. Without it, much of the team’s energy is spent managing interpersonal chaos. This is the value proposition for most teams. The less time and resources consumed by office politics, the more time and resources focused on the organization’s mission. As elusive as group trust may seem, there is a proven path.
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December 6, 2017
Values-driven Decision Making
Change takes many forms. You can grow or shrink. You can give or take. You can fight or flee. You can accept or reject. You can attract or repel. You can be honest or lie. You can feed or starve. You can keep trying or give up. You can engage or resist. You can take a risk or play it safe. Each choice unfolds into a different future. What’s the role of your values?
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November 28, 2017
A 10-Step Merger Prenup
Often, the task of blending cultures begins after the merger/acquisition has been consummated. The integration decision is made upon the faith that both sides can blend their similarities and differences like mature adults. Unfortunately, the human dynamics that fuel struggle are usually beneath the surface when potential partners size each other up for marriage. Imagine how the new relationship might get off the ground if both sides could see what was hidden.
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November 14, 2017
Seeing the World Through Your Teammate’s Eyes
Our contribution to our teams includes a history of bias. We each see the world through a unique lens filtered by a blend of past experiences and learning style. Often, innovation is hampered by bias. We believe we are considering every possible angle yet we’re limited by the boundaries of our own perspective. Alternate views are alien and cause discomfort if they don’t fit the tidy little universe we’ve created. What might happen if we turned it upside-down? Reflect on these two examples:
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October 31, 2017
The “Chemistry” Factor in Teams
What’s the secret sauce? On paper, it’s easy to assemble the right mix of talent to predict team success. Just stock the team with leadership, deep skills in the specialization area of the project, a diligent group of worker bees, and reliable administrative support. The rest will take care of itself, right? Unfortunately, not. Once you blend in the human element, most teams find ways to struggle as conflict, mistrust, fear, and resistance to change impact the group’s direction. So, where does positive team “chemistry” come from?
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October 19, 2017
5 Windows of Opportunity
Strategic plans age quickly. Conditions often shift within months of consensus and clarity. There are many drivers of changing priorities: talent, technology, financial pressure, acquisition, and loss to name a few. Any change opens a window of opportunity to rethink direction. Consider these 5 key places to invest energy following a disruption on the team.
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October 5, 2017
The Personal Side of Work Friendships
Most of our waking hours are spent with professional colleagues. Family and friends own the biggest portion of our hearts but work teammates win the quantity contest. While the setting and the stakes might be different, the recipe for building strong connections is the same whether at home or at the office. Let’s look at the ingredients.
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September 20, 2017
Insight Minus Action Equals Frustration
Doctors diagnose before they treat. Teachers assess learning needs before crafting lesson plans. Risk managers evaluate danger before implementing safety measures. Coaches scout defenses before designing offensive schemes. Action follows insight. Understanding what to do is a much different task than doing it. Unfortunately, many teams get stymied after the analysis. You can build a strategic plan with good intentions but you only frustrate the team if everyone is too busy to execute.
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September 6, 2017
The Reasons Teams Get Stuck
The ideal team flows from challenge to challenge moving flexibly over, under, around, or through obstacles. Despite the dynamics that get most teams stuck, they understand the purpose of their struggle and keep working the problem. As diverse as teams are, there are four common causes to derailment.
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August 24, 2017
Ten Advantages of Face-to-Face Exchange
It’s easier than ever to conduct business without ever coming face-to-face with another human being. Smartphones, video conferences, texts, emails, and any number of social media platforms have made it possible to communicate from afar. There’s safety in not having to worry about pace, tone, mood, posture, body language, and eye contact.
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August 8, 2017
The Partnership Impact
The wellness of a team is often determined by the health of the partnerships in leadership. In families, the quality of the marriage has a significant impact on the life of the children. In business, the relationship with the chief executive and his or her operations leaders usually shapes the delivery of the organizational mission. Likewise, dysfunction in these partnerships is the fastest way to undermine a team’s effectiveness. What if you could quickly assess the health or sickness of your most important partnership?
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