Volume 7, 2006

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Featured Topic: Creating The Perfect Team

Inside This Issue

The Perfect Team

If you ask ten people what was a perfect vacation, you may get ten different answers. A perfect job depends upon what you like to do. A perfect mate varies as much as do perfect houses. Since perfection is so subjective, just what constitutes a perfect team?

Perfection implies that nothing should be changed, lest it become imperfect. Teams are made up of people who are constantly changing and growing. Striving for a perfect team may not be the best idea. The very best of anything will not remain the best unless it continues to meet the needs of the present.

Perhaps ‘perfect’ can be an acronym that describes what makes successful teams work best.

Prepared. Every team member needs to come to the meetings prepared. Assignments are completed and thought has gone into the next phase.

Eager. Members need to feel an eagerness about their tasks. A short activity at the beginning of each meeting can focus the energy of the group on the task at hand.

Roles. Each team member needs to understand his/her role on the team. Some will create new ideas, others will take those ideas and advance them, someone will critique the plan, another will carry it out, and someone needs to make sure that every role is fulfilled.

Flexible. Each member needs to be adaptable and the team as a whole needs to adjust to current conditions and trends, especially in long-term teams.

Elected. In a perfect world, people would volunteer or be elected to be on the team, just as the leader would be elected. When you gather together a group of people who are motivated and qualified, you have a team that wins.

Communicates. The team members must express their own voices during the meeting and report with one voice to everyone outside of the team. This requires cooperation and communication skills. Being respectful to listen to what another says can not only make you courteous, it can make you smarter.

Takes time. Teams go through phases. Early on, they may fight. This causes some team members to want to take flight. Finally, they unite. This process takes time. An investment of time will usually pay dividends.

Before you become frustrated with your team, use the acronym above to build a stronger team. That way, it will be perfect.

What Our Clients Are Saying

Vincent has tremendous enthusiasm and energy. As a customer using Vincent's services, I observed he gave the job his 'all' each and every time. He listens intently to customers' concerns and then delivers. He is committed to client satisfaction.

Dan Hamrich

Split Hairs

A perfect team can work through differences efficiently without splitting hairs. So what do hairs and their being split have to do with a team working together? We will not split hairs and not keep you waiting any longer!

Splitting hairs has a mysterious origin. The earliest recorded date of this saying was initially captured in 1620 in one of the first drafts of William Shakespeare’s play, A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. The expression, split hairs, described something nearly impossible to do. And if you spent the time to do it, what would you do with only half a hair?

As this expression became widely popular, to split hairs represented any task that was so arduous and time consuming that is was trivial to spend time feuding over it. Problems undoubtedly occur. Solutions have to be found and deadlines must be met. We know these to be inevitable. The key to having a perfect team (or at least a better one), is to have a system in place for solving problems. The trick is to take the time to focus on solutions and get everyone to agree to the process.

Avoid splitting hairs about discovering this on your own. Call the communication architects at TLC. We will build stronger teams for you!

We’ll help you avoid splitting hairs (and keep you from pulling yours out!).

A Perfect Jigsaw Puzzle Still Has Odd Shapes

Vincent Ivan Phipps

Which of the following would you say is the perfect team?

  1. A team where everyone always agrees.
  2. A team where everyone thinks alike.
  3. A team where a complexity of skills and diverse viewpoints unite.

Is there really a right answer? Some might lean toward "C" as the answer. In departments and offices, sometimes it seems we’d settle for "A" or "B."

Remember that "perfect" is in relation to the overall goal. Whether you want to complete a project on time, reduce expenses, or develop something new, each task may require a different team. Those teammates may also change.

My Grandmother loved jigsaw puzzles. Her strategy was to do the corners first. She was able to find those pieces quickly by their unique shape. She taught me that everything has meaning. The trick to being good at anything is first to understand how your peices of information fit together. I parlayed her philosophy to the teams of which I am a member. Often I am the "odd one" whose ideas and criticisms don’t fit with everyone else’s vision. Sometimes I am the sane one (that’s scary!), just wanting the odd team member to jump on board and reduce the negativity.

I see a perfect team as a group where all strengths are utilized and all weaknesses are reduced. For example, I am very creative and quick to offer my opinion. My eye for details and following a routine are lousy. If I was surrounded by team members like me, we’d have some great conversations with many ideas, but how many of those ideas would see completion? If completed, what details would be left out? I bought my first home without looking inside of it!

At TLC, we teach that a perfect team has 4 major components. While more than one person may have the following skills, for a perfect team, it is essential that these skills are present to make your team perfect:

Task - Extrovert: They will drive the team. They focus on getting the job done. Their relentless pursuit for completion can be inspiring because they’ll lead by example trying to out-work everyone else on the team.

People - Extrovert: They will influence the team. They will bring a much needed energy to everyone. Either with humor, wit, or charm, they can make the most mundane task seem invigorating.

People - Introvert: They will stabilize the team. They will be the support and the behind-the-scenes members. Since they don’t crave the spotlight, they are comfortable doing all of the necessary, laborious assignments that might bore the extroverts.

Task - Introvert: They will analyze the team. Actually, they will analyze everything! These persons will make sure that no detail is left un-scrutinized. If you can get an idea past them, you know it has a higher degree of success.

What contributions are you providing to make your team perfect? Sometimes we have to conform to fill the missing skills required to make a team better. Be the odd shape of the puzzle; in the end, you’ll see a perfect picture!

Want to learn more about how your team can aspire to accomplish more? Give me a call at 423-622-8255 or vip@talklisten.com.

Dear TLC

I’ve read so many of your articles about how you help others; hopefully you can help me. Just so you know, I am a perfectionist. I spent 8 years in quality assurance.

Now I work for a different company in the sales department. Because of my nature of looking for and finding problems, I am now left out of emails and not invited to meetings.

Addressing what’s wrong is my way of contributing. Others feel as if I am killing creativity and stifling the process. I want to help, but I’m too stuck in the "pessimism" mode. Please advise.

-Pick Ricky

Dear Pick Ricky,

There is nothing wrong with finding and addressing problems. That’s a part of a team that is seemingly needed most. Here are some suggestions:

Happy Birthday

To our clients celebrating in October, Happy Birthday!

Featured Service - Buiding Teams Can Be Fun

At TLC, we combine our vast knowledge of people, how adults learn best, and communication skills and we add all of this to the science of fun. While some companies take you away to laugh or compete physically to increase team bonding, at TLC we go a step further. We know that adults want learning to be relevant so each activity is fun, has a purpose, and a discussion following to make the transition from gymnasium to the office.

Participants engage in various fun activities that help them realize that success comes through cooperation with teammates and that adapting their approach to each other is often necessary to get the job done. Take a fun round of relay. Teams are given time to plan their strategy, keeping within the guidelines. They put those strategies into action, adapting along the way. Afterwards, the team is led in discussions that articulate the insights discovered and also how these insights are relevant to the workplace.

Most people like a good healthy competition, yet most people also want to win some of the time. For this reason, the activities vary. Some are physically challenging, others are mentally challenging, and a few just require the individual to let loose. There are also combinations of individual, small group, and whole group activities to keep the entire team working together.

A TLC Fun Day is experiential team building. Call 1-888-BECAUSE today to schedule a Fun Day for your team.

Team Roles

When you think of team roles, you may think of the leader and participants as the obvious roles. While these two roles are common, a successful team recognizes natural talents of its members and how these fit into the needed roles.

Some people have the talent for coming up with new ideas. They tend to be creative and outgoing. Some of their contributions may seem ‘off the wall’ at times. You may get frustrated because their ideas are not grounded in a solid plan. They come up with a dream, but no plan on how to turn that dream into reality. At TLC, we call these contributors Launchers because they launch new ideas, sometimes as adventurous as the maiden voyage of a new vessel.

At the beginning of a new project, those who launch will be quite verbal throwing out possibilities. Other members of the team may feel left out because they cannot keep up with the exchange of ideas. Others will become frustrated because they cannot see the structure behind the idea.

This is the time for the members who have a talent for taking an idea offered by another person and building upon it. We call these people the Energizers because they take someone’s contribution and make it better.

You can imagine that those who launch and energize get along very well. At the beginning of a project, they have much to do. The one who launched the idea is grateful to see the idea advanced. The one who energizes is also grateful for an idea to work with.

When the idea is complete with a plan of action, the third talent takes center stage. This is the person who can quickly see problems with the proposed plan. We call these people the Analyzers. These team members are not as popular with the whole team, and especially with the Launchers and Energizers, because they are the ‘nay sayers.’

A team without Analyzers is a team that will be very excited and yet who may fail in accomplishing what is needed. The Energizers need to jump in and edit the plan to include solutions for the potential problems that the Analyzer found. It can also be helpful if the Analyzer suggests some solutions along with the problems. Sometimes, the plan and idea have so many faults, the Launcher will need to come up with another idea. Then the cycle begins again.

Only when the idea and plan pass the test of the Analyzer, does the fourth team talent take off. We call these people the Runners because they execute the approved plan. They have been patiently waiting while the zany Launchers create, the enthused Energizers plan, and the critical Analyzer examines. Now it is their turn.

Patience pays off. If the Runner jumps the gun and tries to execute a partial plan or an idea without a plan, of course, failure will occur and the talented organizers will run out of patience for the team. It is interesting to see the other team members be impressed by these quiet Runners as they bring home the gold.

And just how does all of this come together? It comes from the fifth talent who has the ability to guide the team. At TLC, we call this person the Navigator. This person understands the flow and process of the team and encourages each role to be active at the right time.

Sometimes small teams do not have all five talents represented by their members. Here it is important to have members take on a necessary role in order to get the job done. If you don’t have an Analyzer, you don’t need that role in the very beginning because criticizing the idea or planning too early can result in a total shut down. Someone would need to take on that role before the project is handed to the Runner.

Understanding what talent you bring to a team and when to use it can lead to satisfactory results. When it is well coordinated, it will seem like the perfect team.

CEO - Chief Executive's Opinion

Beverly Inman-Ebel, M.A., CCC-SLP

The ‘me’ in Team

Since the team concept came into vogue, I have heard the phrase, "There’s no ‘I’ in team." Bear with me as we review grammar. ‘I’ is the subjective pronoun representing oneself as the subject or focus of the sentence. ‘Me’ is the objective pronoun representing oneself as the receiver of the action. Are you still with me?

While there may be no ‘I’ in team, there most certainly is a ‘me’ in team by taking the second and last letter in the word and then inverting them. The familiar phrase about there not being an ‘I’ in team is to remind us that it is not about us. It is, however, about them – all the me’s in the group. They are usually tuned into WII FM (What’s in it for me?)

If you are going to create and lead a perfect team, remember that team members want to be included. People only feel a part of a team when they are contributing. Understanding team roles and talents is very helpful when it comes to including various members.

Last year in London, I was a member of an international team that was creating a new organization. There were one to two representatives from six different countries and everyone did not speak English. Near the end of the meeting, assignments were suggested for various members. When all was done, we realized that no assignment had been given to one attendee from Australia. Although she was immediately added to a committee, it was obvious that she had been over-looked and her inclusion did not necessarily fit her interest. I was saddened, but not surprised, when we received her kindly worded letter of resignation within a month.

Where teams are concerned, WII FM does not always mean that the ‘me’ in the team has to get something tangible or even receive accolades. It does mean they want to contribute in a meaningful way.

Some might say that certain people are not team players. I would counter that those people may be on the wrong team. Michael Jordon was awesome on the basketball team, yet he did not shine on the baseball team. Some people do not fit a team because of a lack of talent or an excess of talent in one area.

The perfect team will encourage and demonstrate flexibility. It may have several potential leaders or people who create new ideas, yet no one to analyze the solutions that the creative people are launching. One of the ‘me’s’ on the team needs to step up and receive the action just like the objective pronoun does in the sentence. There are no I’s in the team, yet let us reach out to all the me’s and build a stronger team together.

Together, live your dreams!

TLC establishes long-term relationships with our clients. If we have helped you or if you believe our approach to change would work for someone you know, please request a proposal or phone 1-888-232-2873. We work with individuals and groups on the following subject areas: attitude, listening, body language, voice, leadership, compliments and corrections, behavioral style, teamwork, effective meetings, public speaking, accent reduction and much more!.

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