Over the last few weeks, we have focused heavily on Work Agreements—how to create them, how to keep them alive with ARMs, and how to protect them with Interlocking Accountability.
This week, I want to show you the bigger picture.
While Work Agreements are a powerhouse tool, they are actually just one of the 5 Elements that make up the entire Right-Minded Teamwork (RMT) system.
The Choice: Ego vs. Reason
In every team and in every teammate, there is a Decision-Maker—and that person is you.
Every day at work, you face a choice between two internal guides. Will you listen to the Ego, which thrives on the friction of misaligned roles, finger-pointing, and “protecting your turf”? Or will you choose the path of Reason, which advocates for abandoning blame and immediately shifting into a mindset of finding collective solutions?
To move past the friction and achieve true effectiveness, successful leaders do two things:
- They adopt the Right-Minded Teamwork® Aspiration: Do No Harm & Work as One®.
- They apply a real-world, continuous-improvement method—the RMT 5-Element Framework—that replaces “silly team games” with actual results.
The 5-Element Framework: A Map for Reason
“Right-Minded Teamwork separates the games of ‘team bonding’ from the hard work of team building. [It is] real-world team building in a realistic, direct, and safe manner.” — Patrick Carmichael, VP Best Practices Institute.
The 5-Element model is a support system that ensures your team isn’t just “getting along,” but is actually “getting it done.” It consists of two foundational goals and three practical methods.
Two Foundational Goals
- 1. Business Goals: Every teammate must understand and choose to align with the team’s performance targets, especially achieving 100% customer satisfaction.
- 2. Psychological Goals: This is your interpersonal map. Teammates must agree on how they will communicate, handle disagreements, and behave when the pressure is on.
Three Practical Methods
- 3. Team Work Agreements: These are collective promises—the “Rules of the Road”—that describe exactly how you will Do No Harm and Work as One.
- 4. Team Operating System: This organizes your work into a 90-day continuous improvement loop. By using tools like the Team Performance Factor Assessment, you define the processes that make your goals reachable.
- 5. Right-Minded Teammate Development: This focuses on personal growth. Teammates support one another, knowing that collective success requires individual accountability.
Evidence from the Field: The Power of Reason
When a leader chooses Reason, the results are often immediate. Joel Sorensen, former VP of the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant, used the 3rd Element (Work Agreements) to address a significant performance decline.
By establishing these agreements, the leadership team began to respectfully hold each other accountable. Conflicts were addressed professionally, and trust was restored. As Joel noted:
“If you had asked me 2 months ago if the leadership team would reach this level of performance, my answer would have been emphatically, ‘NO!’ Now that we are on this road, I don’t ever want to go back.”
Choosing Your Implementation Path
As the Decision-Maker, you don’t need to study all eight RMT books to begin. You simply need to choose a path that fits your team’s current needs.
Option A: The Quick Start Plan (For “Early Wins”)
If you have a specific issue or misunderstanding that needs correcting now, start here.
- Identify: Pinpoint the specific teamwork issue.
- Facilitate: Hold a workshop to define the problem and agree on a Work Agreement solution.
- Live: Track your progress and measure the improvement.
Option B: The Standard Plan (For Lasting Transformation)
This is a comprehensive 90-day continuous-improvement journey involving three focused workshops to align the Business Goals, the Operating System, and Teammate Development.
Your Next Step
Whether you choose the Quick Start or the Standard Plan, the goal is the same: to move your team away from Ego-driven conflict and toward a Reason-led future.
Click here for detailed guidance for both plans, found in Right-Minded Teamwork in Any Team.
As a retired facilitator, my special function is now to support you. If you have questions about which path is right for your team, please reach out. I would love to see these methods work for you, just as they have for over 500 teams in my career.
May the Oneness be with you.
Dan Hogan, Certified Master Facilitator