3. What the Leader Wants May Not Be What the Team Needs
In Step 3 of our 12-step course in how to design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop, you’ll learn how to:
- Reflect what you heard the leader say they want to achieve.
- If the leader’s outcomes were symptoms, you will offer potential root causes for those symptoms.
- If your root causes are correct, they will be addressed in the workshop.
- You will design team building exercises that will remove or transform the root causes.
- Begin Writing the First Draft Plan.
Let’s Start with the Root Cause Story
A very good team leader once asked me, “Can you teach my team that three-day facilitation workshop in two days?” I agreed and asked, “What specifically are you wanting to achieve? What behaviors are you looking for?”
He said:
Our team meetings are horrible, and if everyone knew just how hard it was to facilitate them, they wouldn’t be so disagreeable and hard to get along with!
I said, “OK, how about letting me interview your teammates, which is Step 7, and then I’ll come with a detailed plan?”
He agreed. Note that we had not completed the Step 6 survey. Nevertheless, I created this a First Draft Team Building Plan because I wanted to show teammates their leader’s desired outcomes.
We agreed on the following first draft outcomes:
- Discuss and agree on how to improve meeting effectiveness.
- Discuss and agree on how to improve team communications.
So, off I went. I interviewed all 12, mostly engineers and geoscientists, teammates. Yes, everyone agreed their meetings were horrible. But their view was very different from the leaders. Nearly every teammate said something like:
Our meetings are so bad because when one person brings up a different opinion, others jump in, interrupting and arguing, and then aggressively saying something like, That won’t work!
After reflecting on the leader’s initial outcomes and what I heard in the interviews, I knew exactly what the root cause of the problem was:
these teammates did not know how to argue or how to fight fair.
I went back to the leader to propose the following real-world team-building plan.
- We will devote two hours on the first day to key facilitation and communication skills
- We will create Work AgreementsA Work Agreement is a collective teammate promise to transform non-productive, adversarial behavior into collaborative teamwork behavior. More as to how teammates will present contrary opinions and resolve conflicts
- Finally, for the remainder of the workshop, teammates will use their Work Agreements to actually resolve the team’s real issues: work ethic, customer service, and teammate roles
The leader loved the idea. So did his teammates. They had a very successful workshop, creating three Work Agreements that, if properly implemented, would resolve five interrelated conflicts.
A few months later I called the leader to inquire how the team was functioning. He replied,
I wish I had brought you in six months earlier, because not only are our meetings much better, we’re making much better team decisions.
IMPORTANT: The RMT approach advocates resolving root cause issues; otherwise, your team building evades or, even worse, fuels the real issue behind the team’s dysfunction.
How about another true story?
Another leader asked us to improve leadership trust and to help a poor-performing partner. Instead, we created a strategic plan. To read that story, go to the Resource section of your book: Another Root Cause Story.
Address Root Causes; Not Symptoms
You are primarily responsible for helping the team find and resolve root causes. This is not hard, but the more often you do it, the more skilled you will become.
How to Identify a Root Cause
- The leader in our story wanted his teammates to understand how to facilitate.
- Now, assume that facilitation is not an outcome but a symptom.
- What could be a root cause?
- Team conflict.
- What could be the root cause of team conflict?
- No agreement on how to argue.
So, by creating a conflict resolution Work Agreement, the team now knows how to facilitate meetings that might contain conflict. The leader gets what he wants. Teammates get what they want. Make sense?
Here’s another important way to understand this root cause lesson.
This well-meaning leader wanted a training class. If I had done that, I would have given him exactly what he wanted. But I would have failed both the team and the leader.
This is why you must never assume team leaders are right. Many times they are right, but you must verify their opinions by using the survey and teammate interviews.
In this situation, he asked for a class, but I ended up designing a real-world Right-Minded Teamwork workshop. If that’s not a legitimate and healthy “bait and switch,” I don’t know what is! 🙂
Tip: You simply can’t teach yourself out of most difficult teamwork situations. That is why leaders should be very hesitant about sending problem teammates to training classes.
But wait. There’s more. Go to the Resouce section in your book and read A Way to Identify a Root Cause.
It’s OK to Tell the Leader – “You’re Not Always Right.”
Using your best communication skills, tell the leader that, while you will start the design process with their outcomes, you must incorporate all teammate’s ideas into the final agenda.
Say something like:
I’m sure you will agree that none of us is as smart as all of us, so it will be far better to have all team members’ design input. It will create genuine excitement for achieving the workshop outcomes rather than resistance if we just design something without their input.
With that said, if your team leader does not allow you to interview teammates, run!
Do not facilitate the session. Politely explain that you are committed to Right-Minded Teamwork principles and you would not be acting in integrity if you did not properly prepare.
Begin Writing the First Draft Plan
This is where you begin to make sense of what the leader said. Give yourself several days to complete this step. You might even call the leader to test a strategy or ask for clarification.
Just start writing. Use the First Draft Team Building Plan example in the Resource section of your book. It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, but it must accurately reflect what the leader thinks they want.
Think too about how you will present the plan. You could email it the day before your meeting or you could just show up and present it.
Remember that you must have the outcomes solidified by Step 9. That means the outcome discussion between you, the leader, and the teammates can evolve between Steps 2 and 9. Let it be a natural process where you add, edit, and even delay some outcomes to future workshops.
OK, you’ve reflected. You’ve started writing your plan. It’s time to finish the plan and present it. You’re now ready for Step 4, which will arrive in a few days.
Can’t Wait? Links to All 12 Lessons
Over 2 Hours of Audio Instruction from Dan Hogan, Certified Master Facilitator.
These lessons will continue to arrive in your email.
Introduction – How to Design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop |
Step 1 – Start with the End in Mind. Leader Defines Purpose |
Step 2 – Leader Meets Facilitator. Shares Purpose & Outcomes |
Step 3 – What the Leader Wants May Not Be What the Team Needs. Facilitator Uncovers Root Causes |
Step 4 – Facilitator Presents First Draft Team Building Plan to the Leader |
Step 5 – Leader Announces Workshop and Prepares Teammates |
Step 6 – Facilitator Conducts 9 or 20 Question Right-Minded Teamwork Survey |
Step 7 – Facilitator Interviews All Teammates |
Step 8 – Facilitator Presents Second Draft Plan to Leader |
Step 9 – Leader & Facilitator Finalize Agenda and Workshop Plan |
Step 10 – Achieve Workshop Outcomes |
Step 11 – Track & Report Progress for the Next 90 Days |
Step 12 – Leader & Facilitator Begin Designing the Second Workshop |