What is Right-Minded Teamwork, and why does it work?
First, let’s start with what RMT is. I created this high-level definition in 2005.
Right-Minded Teamwork (RMT) is a business-oriented, psychological approach to team building where acceptance, forgiveness, and adjustment are teammate characteristics, and 100% customer satisfactionCreating 100% customer satisfaction is a primary goal of Right-Minded Teamwork. More is the team’s result.
Furthermore, Right-Minded Teamwork is practical. It produces positive business results by getting real work done. And above all, it naturally motivates teammates to grow.
The process framework consists of 5 continuous improvement performance elements that are guided by this vital philosophy of…
“Do No Harm. Work as One.”
It advocates and supports Right-Minded Teammates in being firm and direct while being gentle and compassionate at the same time.
Essentially, these teammates do not blame themselves or others.
Instead, they accept, forgive, and adjust their attitudes and behaviors. They seek solutions to team mistakes and look for ways to improve difficult situations.
Right-Minded Teammates simply – do no harm, and they work as one.
As for your second question about “why” RMT works, I’ve actually just answered that.
But to elaborate a little, think for a moment about any high-performing team you have experienced in the past.
When a team mistake happened or when a difficult situation occurred either with a customer or even with another teammate, what did you and your fellow teammates do?
You collaborated. You looked at the problem without blaming anyone. You brainstormed solutions. You decided how to recover by either changing a work process or creating a work agreement that will collectively adjust teammate work behavior.
When you did that, you were “doing no harm, and you were working as one.”
And when you did that, Right-Minded Teamwork – worked!
I’m not familiar with RMT. What’s the best way to get started?
Click Here for this article that presents a Quick Start Plan and a link to RMT’s Standard Implementation Plan which are more thoroughly presented in these three books:
- Right-Minded Teamwork in Any Team: The Ultimate Team Building Method to Create a Team That Works as One.
- Achieve Your Organization’s Strategic Plan: Create a Right-Minded Team Management SystemAn enterprise’s Team Management System (TMS) aligns all teammate attitudes and work behavior throughout the organization. More to Ensure All Teams Work Together as One.
- Design a Right-Minded Team-Building Workshop: 12 Steps to Create a Team That Works as One.
What are the 5 continuous improvement performance elements?
The method’s framework consists of several essential components or elements.
Once you understand each element, it will be clear how applying Right-Minded Teamwork will benefit you, your team, and your team’s customers.
Your team may be struggling with issues that feel insurmountable, but with Right-Minded Teamwork (RMT), smoothly navigating rough waters is possible.
The framework’s 5 Elements include two goals and three methods:
1. Team Business Goal: Achieve 100% Customer Satisfaction
2. Team Psychological Goal: Commit to Right-Minded Thinking
3. Team Work AgreementsA Work Agreement is a collective teammate promise to transform non-productive, adversarial behavior into collaborative teamwork behavior. More: Create & Follow Commitments
4. Team Operating System: Make It Effective & Efficient
5. Right-Minded Teammates: Strengthen Individual Performance
To learn more, read this post “How Team Leaders Achieve Effective Teamwork.”
Why is it named Right-Minded Teamwork, and who decides what is right?
The easy answer is simply this: our minds choose how to “do no harm and work as one,” and teammates are the ones who decide what is right and wrong.
Therefore, Right-Minded Teamwork was the perfect name for a group of people who have consciously decided for themselves the right teamwork attitude and behavior to ensure they do no harm and work as one.
To delve a little deeper into the RMT process, you will find the Right-Minded Teamwork Choice Model, a teaching model that will help your teammates choose your team’s right attitudes and behaviors.
Right Choice promotes the concept that every person has free will. Free will means you are 100% responsible for how you respond to every situation, circumstance, and event that happens.
When difficult team situations occur, you either choose to demonstrate accountable, responsible, and Right-Minded behaviors or you choose to react as a victim or victimizer.
You only have two choices, and the latter is an obvious wrong-minded choice.
Wrong choices seek to blame and punish teammates. They guarantee solutions are not found because teammates are busy blaming others and defending themselves.
Right-Minded choices are the only sane response to all circumstances, especially difficult team situations.
So, Right-Minded Teamwork is the right name for this process, and the good news is that your team’s right choices are captured in your team Work Agreements.