Diagnosis and Assessment

Let’s play “Would you Rather.” Would you rather sit in a retreat workshop and listen to the speaker drone on about the day’s curriculum…or…would you rather get up, move around the room, and see the day’s lesson in action? Hearing that a colleague is hesitant to share innovative ideas for fear of criticism is a much different experience than seeing your teammate place themselves in a location in the circle that lacks trust. There you stand – waiting to launch into innovation – while your counterpart declines the invitation to join you in the area where creativity happens. Awkward and silent eye contact usually happens next. Now what?

The aroma is clear, but the source is a mystery. The frantic search begins the moment you smell something burning. Until the smoldering whatever is located, disaster looms. Imagine treating workplace culture with the same urgency. Some percentage, albeit small, of employees are actively disengaged. Often there is a lead toxin with a few lemmings doing that person’s dirty work. Everyone can smell the fire, but the odor has lingered so long that it has become normalized. What to do?

The fastest way to eliminate possible explanations is to reach an obvious conclusion. Clinicians in the behavioral health field are taught to stay curious. If a likely cause presents itself, therapists hold it as a diagnostic ‘maybe’ until further evidence either cancels or corroborates the possibility. The urge is to rush to judgement when things don’t make sense. An answer – any answer – closes the uncomfortable gap of not knowing. Wisdom lies in enduring the discomfort and asking the question, “What would need to be true to make this data make sense?” Now let’s apply this to your team.

When you are stuck, the choice to move forward doesn’t happen until the cause is addressed. Often, teams push ahead without a diagnosis and inadvertently send the roots of the problem deeper. You can make it go away temporarily with some quick action but, unless the root cause is managed, it is sure to come back. Most likely, it will return in a form that is harder to solve. We live in a time when making symptoms disappear as quickly as possible drives decision making. What would happen if we didn’t?

As is true in nature, creative teams have seasons. There are times when things are quiet and dormant. Then the energy rises and feeds the team. Creativity spreads only to become something different. The team refuels and prepares for the next cycle. Winter then spring, summer then autumn. You could easily map the evolution of a creative team on a calendar. Let’s do that.

When teams struggle, the camera zooms in on the problem and forces an up-close perspective. Like anything you place under a microscope, you sacrifice the big picture in favor of the tiny details. Teams under duress tend to look at the dynamics playing out between teammates, often ignoring the overall wellness of the larger group. We pay attention to the symptoms rather than the causes. Let’s widen the lens.

Every challenge has two elements – naming the source of the pain (crisis) and deciding how you’re going to deal with it (opportunity). The second stage requires the first. Teams must acknowledge what hurts before they can embrace new circumstances. As quickly as you can finish trumpeting how awful a change is, commit to the task of figuring out what to do about it. Here’s a simple roadmap to get you started.

How do you know if your team is operating in a healthy workplace culture? Measurement seems subjective, at best. The task of capturing reliable metrics on team effectiveness involves knowing what to measure and how to measure it. Consider the ways teammates interact and evaluate those exchanges on a scale from function to dysfunction. Now, take a snapshot of the pervasiveness of the wellness or the sickness. Does everyone on the team feel this way or just a few outliers? Is the team unified or split into factions? How do we acquire this data?

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.

Benchmarks provide a snapshot of momentary excellence. Eventually, the measurement will be surpassed as teams strive for continuous improvement. An assessment reveals the wellness of the current state and a diagnosis of where attention would be most fruitful. Choose whatever scale you wish – unhealthy to healthy, unproductive to productive, disengaged to engaged, stagnant to growing, resistant to adaptable – and measure your team. On a continuum from “1” to “5,” with five being desirable, how does your team rank in the following metrics?

Before inspiring your team with tomorrow’s vision, perform a quick assessment. After all, an expensive strategic planning exercise wastes time and talent when the health of the team can’t support the action plan. Before you look too far ahead, measure ten simple areas of team effectiveness.

This is Sports Psychology 101, folks. The Chicago Bears are stocked with the finest talent at key positions and the highest paid player in the league at quarterback. Their global search for the perfect general manager and head coach resulted in a resounding chorus of Kumbaya. Media reporters who dare to challenge the mediocrity of on-the-field performance are condescendingly informed that everything is fine. Practices are focused. Game plans are studied. Locker room morale is high. The team is prepared. So why do they wet the bed at game time?

Whether assisting with financial, legal, or healthcare concerns, professional service firms tend to look the same from the outside. You hire a specialist who represents an organization you trust. You place delicate matters in his or her hands and hope for a better future. Behind the scenes, your trusted representative is powered by an anonymous team of talented partners who manage the operations. Who are these essential teammates and how do we measure their performance?

Take a look back through your work history and evaluate the various teams you’ve joined. Everyone has experienced at least one of the following situations:

“We just knocked it out of the park! How do we elevate our team to the next level?”
“Wow! Everything is changing! Can we slow down for a while and get our bearings?”
“We really under-performed this year but it’s hard to know what to fix to make this better.”
“This is the most dysfunctional group I’ve ever seen. This is toxic!”

Three years was enough. The pain had simply become unbearable. The symptoms could no longer be ignored. It was time to get a proper diagnosis and consider treatment options. Ever since the economy bottomed out, the team had been spiraling toward its demise. Organizational morale was at an all-time low. Top talent was jumping ship. Yet, their competitors had already recovered. Perhaps it wasn’t the economy…

What if any team could take a snapshot of their health and effectiveness at any time? Consider a world where everyone took responsibility for their individual contribution to the team’s collective goals. Imagine the impact of such performance accountability on a team’s growth and development.

Linking team effectiveness metrics to business objectives can be tricky. One seems so subjective and the other so objective.  One is art while the other is science. One is quality and the other is quantity.

Welcome back to the Team Clock Institute’s monthly newsletter. Each month, Breakthrough Teams will invite readers to participate in an Ask/Apply/Act model:

Ask: this month’s team challenge

Apply: example story

Act: action steps for consideration

Welcome back to the Team Clock Institute’s monthly newsletter. Each month, Breakthrough Teams will invite readers to participate in an

Ask/Apply/Act model:

Ask: this month’s team challenge

Apply: example story

Act: action steps for consideration