39: Building High Performance Teams

Helping teams to be more collaborative and grow is a challenge for everyone. This show dives into a fabulous tool, the Generative Relationship STAR, which will give you new insights as to how to grow the productivity of a team.

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Welcome to the Misha Rouser Show. I'm Misha, an organizational psychologist, and I'll be taking you down a path towards achieving professional success while still having fun. For over a decade, I have been guiding individuals and organizations through professional transitions. The goal is to help you, your business or organization create a successful, engaging atmosphere without sacrificing a positive culture. So let's get started. Hello, everybody, and welcome to my show. This is Misha. And again, we are talking about leadership and professional development, everything you need to know to be more competent and confident in your professional life and business life. And so, Benny, how are you doing today? Doing very well. We're leading the way for everyone. That's why we're here, right? Leading the way, that's right. We are giving you lots of tips so that you too can lead the way. So everybody can lead the way. All right, so here we are. Today's show, what we're going to be talking about, speaking of leading the way, is how can we foster more success within our teams? So when I'm thinking about teams, we're going to be talking about either teams that you manage or supervise, or if you're part of a team. And this could even be something that maybe it's made up of different stakeholders that have come together to accomplish something. So we're going to be talking about how to foster success within that team. But before we get into that, let me go over some logistics. One is, again, remember that all of these radio shows are recorded and turned into a podcast. And you can grab those podcasts on iTunes. And remember to, if you do subscribe to iTunes or you do enjoy the podcast, please do give them a consider giving them a one or two recommend, one or two sentence recommendation or just, you know, the stars. Again, by doing that, then that will help erase the attention of the show to others. So again, that would be really fabulous if you're enjoying these. Share them with others by rating them. And then another thing, too, is keep in mind that these shows are also transcribed, and you will be able to find those on my website. That website is MishaRouser.com, and that's spelled M-E-I-S-H-A-R-O-U-S-E-R. And you can go there to download other shows to get the transcripts. Also, for example, in this one that we're talking about today, there will be a graphic that if you're trying if you're having a hard time trying to imagine what I'm talking about, you can go there and download the graphics and so forth at my website. Also on the website, that's where you can also submit questions. So if you do have any questions for me, please do submit them to me on my website, and I'd be happy to get back to you and get those answers. And possibly too bring those up on a show for a future time. So anyway, a lot of good resources on the website. Okay. So talking about building and fostering a successful team. So what we're going to look at today is a tool that you probably have not heard of. And so I like this tool quite a bit because it helps understand and where your team is. It's kind of like a snapshot of where are we right now in the moment, and what can we do to generate a better relationship so that we can grow together. And so this tool is called the Generative Relationship Star. It's a pretty simple tool, but it's really fabulous. It was created by two people. The first person is Brenda Zimmerman. She's a professor of strategic management at the Scholak School of Business at York University in Toronto. Her primary research applies complexity science to management and leadership issues in organizations, especially the voluntary sector and the not-for-profit organizations experiencing that are who are experiencing high levels of uncertainty and turbulence. And then her colleague, Brian Hayday, has his career has spanned as a CEO, executive director, lecturer, and consultant with government and non-governmental agencies and organizations, especially in health, education, and social services sector across Canada. And Brian is a graduate of both York University and Loyola College, Montreal, in interdisciplinary studies. And he frequently uses the frameworks of complex adaptive systems as the basis for practical recommendations that derive from robust strategies. So as you can already tell, this tool comes from the complexity sciences. And again, their goal of trying to how can we take something as complex as the relationships and the dynamics that's going on inside of a team, and how can we make some meaning around that to then help determine better ways to become more efficient as a team? You may have heard about this tool before also with liberating structures and Keith McCandless, I had him on my show a little bit earlier, and he has a variety of tools that he has pulled together to help create conversations and to foster creativity and growth within organizations. And this is one of his tools that he also uses. Okay, so what is this generative relationship star? And why do we need it? So one reason we need it is again, teams and people that work well together are obviously able to create a relationship that has the ability to generate new ideas, take action, and grow together. And that's what we want to do. We want to create those types of teams. However, many teams face complex issues and are challenged by either, you know, two areas we found. One is at the structural level, in other words, how and who should come together and form the team, and then also the conceptual level, where everyone on the team is working in alignment with one another towards a shared goal or purpose. So why are we working together? And so that's more of your conceptual level. Why are we here and what are we doing? And so the generative relationship star identifies four key aspects necessary for a team to be in generative. In other words, for them to continue to work together towards something larger. And so each point on the star represents one of these aspects. And the goal basically is to find a balance between the aspects or to understand where you're strong in your team based on these aspects, and what do you need to do to be able to maybe bring in, like if you're if you're feeling stuck, what aspects could you be looking at that maybe you're not as strong in it in that particular moment? And so one way you can get a visual of this is to just draw a plus sign. So it's kind of like a compass, you know? So a line up and down, a line across, and so you're gonna have, and and you can almost think of this, um, the star is almost like a compass, so with the north, south, east, and west. So we're gonna start at the top, and so at the very top, which would also be north, that's gonna be S and the beginning of star. And then each point going clockwise is gonna be S T A R. So the north point is S. The East side is gonna be the T, on the bottom is gonna be the A, and on the west is gonna be the R. Okay, so you can think of it that way. And then it's helpful when we as we get into this tool to plot it and think about it as this star, because then we're gonna show how you can use it to help understand where you are in balance or not in balance in the star. So how this star can be used is um it's one way that you can look at and take an assessment of your of your team. So, in other words, if you're managing a team or you're on a team and you can say, okay, what's going on and what aspects may need between to get this team to be more harmonious or to be able to take action or to be able to um grow. And then another way you could use this is to even think about yourself on the team. You could take it yourself and to say, okay, um, how am I doing and how am I interacting? But that one of the biggest aspects that I have found that's really helpful in using this star and then this tool is to have all the members take it and have all the members go through and say, okay, where do we think we are in each of these aspects, these four aspects? And then that opens up the ability to have a conversation around, okay, well, what could be keeping us from moving forward? So the tool, in other words, like I said, gives you a snapshot of where you are right now, here today. It's another reason this tool can be really helpful, is because it'll also, you as you take a snapshot and say, oh, okay, maybe um we need to take more time to get to talk and to to um listen to one another, then you can use the tool again, maybe in a week, a month, six months from now, and use it as a tool again to say, okay, now where are we? How have we changed? How have we grown? How have we, you know, maneuvered through this? So again, wonderful, wonderful tool to be able to use multiple ways when you're working with your team. Um okay, so let's go into now what is this? So as I explained, you have the plus sign, you have going from the top point all the way down to each point is S-T-A-R. What do these points stand for? So the S, and these are your four key aspects. The S stands for separateness, or in other words, the way you can think about that is how much diversity is there? So is the is there diversity of opinion? Is there a diversity of background? Is there a diversity in skills and perspectives, um, to trainings that people have? So, because if all the parties in the team are very similar, then they may enjoy really nice heated debates, for example, but then they leave untouched or unchallenged assumptions. And so they they really are are kind of just staying within their own ideas and they're not able to see outside perspectives or to see outside challenges or to see outside ways of looking at things. So remember, differences is a really important part that you want on your team. Um, differences allow partners or groups to see things from different perspectives, to allow, for example, facts to be seen as maybe these aren't facts, but these are just our interpretations of what we think are facts. So how diverse is your group? Those are the kind of questions you want to ask when you're thinking about the S aspect or the separateness or diversity of the group. How do you draw out diverse perspectives among members, for example? All right, so the next one is then talking or the T stands for talking or listening. And it also sometimes refers to that T as tuning. So how well are you tuning in to one another? Um so I tend to like using tuning more because we tend to do a lot of talking, which keeps us from tuning in to one another. So with this one, what you want to be thinking about is there needs to be real opportunities to talk and to listen to each other with permission to change the status quo, to say what needs to be said, to talk about the sacred cows or the implicit assumptions of the context. Um the concept changes in the complexity comp context, if if you can think about, okay, what are my assumptions? And am I allowing other people to speak? Am I listening to them and getting other ideas? It gives you, if you have a really safe environment and you're really tuned in with each other and able to listen and you feel safe to speak, then it gives the opportunity for reflection so that the parties can grow together and talk about things and and dissect things. Um so a few things you might want to ask yourself here are are conversations dominated by a few people? Is everyone able to speak and share their opinions? How about does the group respect one another and really listen to all the opinions versus just trying to get everyone to accept their point of view? Okay, so thinking about how well are we all tuned into each other and how much respect do we have with each other. Okay, so I'm gonna take a pause here really quick so that we can take a quick break. And when we come back, we're gonna continue exploring this tool and then how you can actually continue using that. So we'll be right back after this break. Today we are diving into then what's called the relationship, the generative relationship star. And this is a fabulous tool for helping you to get your team to perform at a higher level or to figure out what might be going on if there's some dysfunction or if there's um some things going on in your team and you're not accomplishing what you would like. So we talked about, again, making a cross or um kind of like a compass. And the top of the compass is S, and the S stands for separateness or the differences within the team. Uh the T, which would, as you go clockwise around the points, the T would stand for tuning. And that's kind of thinking, are we talking too much? Are we listening to one another? Are we tuning into one another? And then the next one, which would be down like at the south point of the compass, is A. And the A stands for action. So these are like, are we taking action? Do we have action opportunities? For example, so talk is great, right? We can talk all day long. And I know some of you have been in these kinds of meetings where we do a lot of talking, we really love getting together with each other, but we're not taking a lot of action. And we just kind of keep chasing our tail around things. So A, that aspect is thinking about, okay, are we able to move forward? Are we taking action? Um also, so the things you want to be asking yourself in this one is are things getting done? All talk, for example, no action again makes for an effective team, but we want to be able to take action. How much do we act together? Um, how do we get things done? How, and one of the things I mean by that too is are we taking action in an effective way? In other words, maybe we are taking a lot of action, but we're going off on our own path, or we're still doing things very individualistically, or we're not including or thinking about the impact of what how what we're doing. And so we're just taking action mindlessly. Okay, so those are some things you want to be thinking about when you're thinking about the action side of the team. And then the last point of the star, the R, is stands for reason to work together. So, in other words, do we have a shared vision? Do we know what we are doing? This one can be a little bit tricky because a lot of times I'll see this where we think we have a shared vision, but really we don't. Or we do have a shared vision, but we have a difference of opinion on as to how we're going to get there. And that's what we're conflicting with. So some of the things we want to be thinking about then is um do the parties have a reason to share resources and ideas? Um, to act together as allies, even if for a short period. Um do they have a clear vision and goal? Is everyone on the team clearer? Or on not only the team's goals, but also understands what this goal means to each of the players or individuals? Everyone needs to understand, in other words, the needs of each of the players or individuals and what they need from the team. So for example, let's say that if you're um if you're you you're a department head and you're and it's the executive team and you are um responsible for, you know, let's say manufacturing aspect. Well, does the purchaser understand the types of ways that you want things to be to be delivered in a sense so that you can be more effective and how you're gonna be ma per per uh manufacturing these parts. Um so in other words, I actually just ran into this. Somebody was saying, okay, well, we're ordering, you know, uh 16-inch, let's say it's I don't remember what it was, but like steel tubes. Well, we're having to cut those in half. And so, but purchasing is thinking we're saving so much money by buying the 16-inch, we'll actually spending we're spending a lot more money and time having to cut those in half, where if we could just order them cut in half, then that would save time. So then what is our goal? You know, what is my purpose? And are we actually really in sync with each other of what we're looking for? Okay, so some of the things again to ask yourself on the reason side, um, another question might be is how important is it that we work together? Is everybody here need to be here? Do we need other people that maybe need to be part of this? Um, how clear is our purpose and what is it that we're trying to accomplish? Okay, so when you're thinking about those four aspects, now here's how you use the tool. So one of the ways you could do it is you take the compass and imagine now where the points all come together in the center. That means that you're gonna have a kind of low, and then it goes out from there. So as the star grows and gets larger, it means you have more ability and more um you're stronger in those aspects. So for example, if you have um, if everybody is very similar on the team, then probably you're gonna be closer to the center point of the compass versus moving outward on that line of the northern axis of the separateness. And so sometimes what I have people do then is put a little dot on the line as to where do they think their team is. Are they close? Do they have low? Are they would they rank themselves low in that particular characteristic? Or do they rank themselves pretty high and they're maybe out towards a tip? And by the way, this star does not, there's not a limit to it. It just keeps growing and it can get bigger, and that's what it also means by being generative, is it continue to generate and grow. So some things that you might want to be thinking about then is that so go around and put your you know, mark on there, you know, where are you in separateness, where are you in in tuning and listening and taking action and reason. Um and again, you could do this as a team too, and then compare, compare aspects. What I really like to do is have individuals do it themselves, and then to get with their neighbor, like if we're doing a um using this as a tool for a whole team, then they would get with some one person in their team and compare, and then maybe go the two of them compare with two other people and then bring it to the group, and so that it's slowly they've had some time to talk about and to share their opinions and why. And by the time they get to a group conversation, there's usually some pretty good things that they're talking about that they're uncovering about themselves as to hmm, maybe this is why we are strong over here in this point, but where maybe it could be taken away from us in this other point. So let me give you some examples there then. So, for example, um, a couple things to think about too, when actually, real quick before I get into example, is that the S T aspects of this, those are more on the conceptual level. Who needs to come together? How are we coming together? How are we working with each other and who's involved? Whereas the A action and reason to work together, those are more of the conceptual level. Okay, what is our shared goal? What is our what kind of action are we taking and how do we want to take that? Okay, now to now going back to some examples. So let's say, for example, that you have a really strong separateness and a really strong tuning relationship. Well, what that usually means is it's usually a relationship where they're the representatives from the whole of the team come together and are really pretty coherent with each other and they're really respectful with each other. They have pretty good diversity, and they're able to talk and share with one another very nicely. Um, sometimes, though, in those types of situations, is they that's where we have the niceness syndrome in an organization. And because of that, then they tend to lose focus of, well, why are we here together? Other than the fact we really like each other. You know, what are we doing here? What are we accomplishing? What actions are we taking? All right, so that's an example of if you're really strong in the ST and lower on the other two of A and R. Now, what about the opposite? If you're really strong in taking action and the reason for working together, well, then sometimes what that can mean is that you're taking a lot of action and just getting things done, and we know that there's a goal. And sometimes teams that are also really deadline driven and time is of a resource, is a limited resource, the the team sometimes will tend to go over there and to start taking, I call it sometimes mindless action, where we're really not thinking through, are we taking the right action? Um, yes, we're trying to get our goals accomplished, but in the meantime, we may be leaving a bit of a wake of destruction in the back and behind us by you know not including everybody and thinking about how this is impacting everybody. Okay, so a couple other things to be thinking about there where um where the stars can come into balance or not into balance is let's say, for example, that you're really strong maybe in separateness, and so you have a lot of diversity and you're really good with talking and so forth and tuning in with each other, and you understand your goal, but maybe you're low on the action. Okay, and you start to realize, oh, okay, well, why are we not? I mean, we're strong everywhere else. Why is it that we find we can't take action? And that can raise a great conversation. Well, what is it? It could be something bureaucratic, could be something very obvious. Well, we can't. We're waiting for something to happen for us to be able to take action. But sometimes it can we can you can start a conversation around, well, is there something else that we could be doing, though, to still take action and keep moving forward? Another example of how um you can balance this star is let's say that you're really strong in all the aspects of of tuning with each other and taking action and the reason for coming together, but you're s but you're low on the on the the S part or the separateness or diversity part. And in that case, and it's it's maybe thinking about okay, what's going on there? Do we maybe need other pe uh another person to join the team to um bring in a divert more diversified opinion? Or are we really heavy in one opinion and maybe we need to back off a little bit in that? So we don't need three engineers, maybe we just need one engineer. It could also be a really good um indication that maybe we need some type of team building skills to help open up, but maybe we the reason we're not feeling as open with each other is because we don't feel safe. So maybe even though we're really strong on talking and taking action and how and why we're working together, maybe doing some team building to create a safer environment so that we can feel more comfortable giving our diverse opinion. Okay, so see how wonderful this star can be to be able to work through and look at your team or look at, have the team look at itself to figure out, okay, where are we right now and how are we doing? Are we feeling pretty balanced in all of these aspects? And it's just a great way to do a quick team checkup to see, okay, how are we? Are we are we able to keep growing and learning from each other? Okay, so that one I thought was a great tool. And again, I will have this information on my website, so you're welcome to um download the transcripts or look at you know, what does the star look like. I would also highly recommend that if you want to try using this within your team, go to liberatingstructures.com and they have a great um template there for stepping through how to work through the generative relationship star within your team. Okay, so again, if you have been enjoying this and you're enjoying listening to the podcast, please do consider rating those. And um, we have some fun new topics that are coming up, so we're gonna have some fun stuff on our agendas. So in the meantime, you have been listening to the Misha Rouser Show. Thank you so much, and have a fabulous day.