Creating the right culture for your team to be high performing during and after Covid-19

What do I mean by culture? It is one of those words that gets banded around a lot, especially in the corporate world. It is certainly up there in the top five things that clients talk to me about when they approach me for help (along with lack of effective communication, inflexibility of processes, lack of bonding in the team and struggling with problem solving and strategy planning).

So why is culture such a buzz word??

Well, firstly you should not consider it as just a buzz word. It is the absolute bedrock of a successful team/business. Culture is a 360-degree, organic thing. It is made up of individual and collective behaviours, the myriad of micro-languages used during interactions and conversations, the psychological contracts between employer and employee, the ritual habits that you observe and the ‘brand’ of who you are as a unit. You are not separate from it, you cannot point at it and say ‘that is the culture over there’ – you are immersed in it and the things that you do every day either change or perpetuate the culture you are in. This goes for every member of a team. Culture is partly made up of history – what has been before and that is either changed or perpetuated by you, the team members. The actions and behaviours that you choose to adopt make your culture what it is.

If the culture you have is not working for you then only you (the team) can change it. No excuses! I have heard hundreds of times that, ‘we don’t have time’, ‘it’s not my/our job’, ‘there is too much resistance from above’, etc., etc…THESE ARE ALL EXCUSES! If building a high performing team is your goal, then let go of these excuses and start acting – take action! (More about taking action in chapter 5).

The recruitment process is the vital first step in building a high performing team. Now this might seem obvious, but it never fails to amaze me how many
organisations still get this wrong. Your business and team may be attacking
innovative thinking and stifling high performance (not to mention morale) through
a lack of clarity and communication between the business/team need and the
recruitment process.
Before recruiting for your new team (or moving people around internally if rejigging
your existing team) establish the POINT of the team. I cannot emphasise
this enough! This really needs some thought – do not just write down a load of
corporate words. It is all well and good putting lots of thought and effort into
recruiting amazing people who are highly skilled AND have the right mind-set etc.,
but why are you doing that? What is the point? The first thing is to establish
your purpose.

If the culture you have is not working for you then only you (the team) can change it. No excuses!  I have heard hundreds of times that, ‘we don’t have time’, ‘it’s not my/our job’, ‘there is too much resistance from above’, etc., etc…THESE ARE ALL EXCUSES! If building a high performing team is your goal, then let go of these excuses and start acting – take action!

The recruitment process is the vital first step in building a high performing team. Now this might seem obvious, but it never fails to amaze me how many organisations still get this wrong. Your business and team may be attacking innovative thinking and stifling high performance (not to mention morale) through a lack of clarity and communication between the business/team need and the recruitment process.

Before recruiting for your new team (or moving people around internally if re-jigging your existing team) establish the POINT of the team. I cannot emphasise this enough! This really needs some thought – do not just write down a load of corporate words. It is all well and good putting lots of thought and effort into recruiting amazing people who are highly skilled AND have the right mind-set etc., but why are you doing that? What is the point? The first thing is to establish your purpose.

"Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: 'Who do we intend to be?' Not 'What are we going to do?' but 'Who do we intend to be?”

Max DePree

Here are a few questions to ask at the very start of your high performing team culture journey:

So, at this stage, each team member will have their own piece of paper with answers to the questions and three things that summarise how they feel they are and how they come across to others).  Now, everyone put that piece of paper away – keep it safe, you will come back to it in a bit.

Here comes the more challenging bit – ask every team member to write down three words or short phrases that sum up each other person in the team.  Put one word or phrase on a single Post-it so you will end up with three Post-its per team member (you can do more if you wish).  Again, be completely honest – how do they really come across to you?

Now get the team to hand the Post-its out to the respective team members.  You will probably get a mixture of laughing (nervous and genuine humour), gasps, smiles, frowns and the odd expletive!  Let everyone read and absorb the comments/words and ask them to also categorise them.  If people have put the same or similar, then put these Post-its together.  Now ask them to take out the piece of paper with their own thought scribbled on and look at how well their own words and phrases correlate with what the rest of the team have said about them.  Have two piles of Post-its (keep this high level and simple) – pile one consists of the Post-its from others that match (or are very close to) what you have said about yourself.  Pile two consists of the Post-its from others that do not match how you feel about yourself/see yourself.

Open a team discussion.  Initially it may be useful to let people ask individuals to clarify what they mean and to expand on their Post-it points.

Ask other team members questions like; what makes me seem that way to you?  What actions do you observe in me that make you feel that way? How does this impact you and make you feel?  What impact do you think my actions have on the team dynamic?  This can be a long session but let it run.  Keep it professional and if it seems to be getting a bit heated take a break.  The aim of this is to find out how you actually come across to others and the impact that you have.  This transparent and open approach is vital if the team are to succeed together.

Now come back to the initial questions (why does the team exist?  What do they do?  what values underpin what they do? What drives them individual? What does success look and feel like to them?  Are they happy?) and openly discuss all of these as a whole team.  Look for correlation and discrepancies.  You will see that there will be areas that people agree on and others that are further apart.  For the team to be successful you need to bridge those gaps.  For example, the reason that the team exists or what success looks like are different to different people then how do you formulate a strategy and plan to get there?

You will hopefully see quite quickly the dynamic change as this discussion progresses.  People become more animated, involved and sometimes more emotional.  This is all good – let it happen and don’t fight it.

This is just the starting point - more to follow...