Building Team Connections
One of the best things that we can do as leaders is to facilitate conversations with our people, not just the leader directly, but facilitate conversations between teammates.
Several of our clients will pull me aside after a training session and say, "Tim, this is kind of corny." And they're right; it is at times. But it's amazing what happens between people when they find out about each other, their favorite vacation spots, what they have in common.
When you have context and commonality, you will have less conflict with that person. You will have greater collaboration with that person. I've gone through this exercise four or five times in the last year where I'll lead a session, pair up with somebody, find out who they are, their favorite vacation spot, favorite sports team, and then I move on to commonality. We get to find out two things that you have in common with that person. That forces something very fundamentally simple that we don't do very well: we have to ask questions and really listen. At times, I've had someone stand up and introduce their partner and what they've learned about them. It's amazing because it really encourages them to pay attention.
What that does is facilitate connection between people. When there's connection, there will be less conflict. When we are only focused on the work, the relationships will feel like work because the only thing we have between each other is work.
As a leader, think about doing something we call rotating peer-to-peer conversations. Rotating peer-to-peer conversations will serve your team so incredibly well.
Week #1 for 20 minutes: Focus on context.
Week #2: Focus on commonality.
Week #3: How do you like to collaborate and work with people?
Week #4: What's your relationship with conflict?
And then switch partners. Starting the next month, go through the same process with a new partner. The fiber of the team will exponentially improve.
Check out Coaching Nudges from Progress Coaching, and try out a sample Coaching Nudge program today.
