Clearview® Performance Systems brings you ... ... a Culture of Results & Engagement™
Here's the next in our series of weekly managerial TIPS (Techniques, Insights, and Practical Solutions)
to help you better engage your team in the activities that lead to higher performance.
CORE Bites Issue #47
During an Education-Business partnership event, I had an opportunity to tour a high school using Project Based Learning (PBL) as its core teaching methodology. One of the teachers we met explained that in PBL the expectation is that students will collaborate and apply content to solve real-world, authentic problems. Because the emphasis is on collaboration, teachers in this school spend a significant amount of time teaching students how to work better together as a team.
While the tour was fascinating in and of itself, the most valuable take-away for me occurred when we were introduced to the school's "24-Hour Check-In Rule." This rule—agreed to by all students—simply states that if another person says or does something that rubs you the wrong way, you are obligated to either:
In essence, the person who feels wronged in some way owns the responsibility to deal with it in a mature, responsible way or he/she relinquishes any rights to letting the situation interfere with the team dynamic. Wow! What incredible learning for these young adults.
If you've had experience building teams, you know that trust is one of the principal components necessary for a team to produce extraordinary outcomes. Once trust is established, teams have a solid entry point for addressing issues and conflict as they come up—as they inevitably do. However, if a team is conflict-averse; if a team doesn't have a code of conduct—a "24-Hour Check-In Rule"—the fear of conflict will eventually breed animosity or, worse, contempt, and lead to a disconnect between group members.
The HVA listed below will help your team deal proactively with conflict before it festers into relational gridlock:
I'd love to hear how this HVA works for you!
Neil Dempster, PhD, MBA
RESULTant™ and Behavioral Engineer
"Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on."
— Criss Jami —