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Training

Enough With The Games

October 13, 2013

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image16021254When I was a personnel development executive, I seldom used outside consultants and trainers.  Why? Because they played too many games and no one learned a thing.  They called it experiential learning, but more often than not it was so artificial that I was hard pressed to find any application or meaning in the real world of the group.  There may be a place for “walk on the moon,” “the human spider web,” and “alphabet soup.”  But, to quote Roger Schwarz,

“The group members’ own experiences trying to solve real problems create more than enough real data for me to help them learn about their dynamics and themselves as group members.”

Schwarz goes on to say,

“If you choose to use experiential exercises…to facilitate group process, consider using ones that are consistent with (your) core values and principles.”

Here are a few examples from Schwartz’s book “The Skilled Facilitator:”

  • Don’t use experiential exercises that require withholding information or relying on deception.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises whose outcome is predetermined and controlled by you.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises that demand a level of personal risk greater than what the group members agreed to.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises that are inconsistent with the group’s objectives.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises when you do not have the time to process the results adequately.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises when you do not know what to expect in terms of the range of issue that might be raised.
  • Don’t use experiential exercises when you are not confident about handling all the issues that might be raised.

I guess the real question here is not about playing games, but understanding and being consistent with your core values, beliefs, and principles.  Learning is best when it is active rather than passive, when it is problem centered rather than theory centered, when there is two-way communication, when participants share control over and responsibility for the learning, and when thought and action are integrated.  If you feel playing games will do that for you then go right ahead and play.  But if you, like me, feel these learning assumptions are best met by tapping into the experiences and work of the participants then stop all the games and make the experience real.

Marshall Goldsmith along with Laurence Lyons and Alyssa Freas, in their book “Coaching for Leadership” provide three maxims for working with groups:

  • Never diminish clients—help them grow.
  • Don’t invalidate their view of reality—help them to expand it.
  • Be wary of telling the client what to think—ask good questions that leave room for self-respect.

Skills Needed to Succeed

July 27, 2011

The most basic tools of great team leadership can be been summed up in what Marcus Buckingham called the “One Thing” that all great managers must know about great managing, “discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.” Buckingham breaks this idea down into four skills that have become a part of our team training philosophy.  First, you need to select good people.  It is always easier to hire right than it is to train right. Effective recruitment and selection are critical.  Second, you need to be able to define clear expectations.  Buckingham states that less than 50 percent of employees claim that they know what is expected of them.  That is a frightening number that should cause all of us to make sure our goals are clear.  Third, you need be able to show appreciation in a way that makes sense to the recipient, and do it in a way that leads to positive consequences.  One of the best resource in this area is a book by Aubrey Daniels titled Bringing out the Best in People, which reminds every leader of the power of praise.  Buckingham’s fourth skill, you need to show people you care.  True care is not just being “warm and fuzzy,” it also means caring enough about your team to confront problem behavior.  “Pick good people, set clear expectations and praise it, and show care for our people.”  That’s Buckingham’s list of the skills needed to succeed as a manager of a team.

Forming a Team that Matters

July 25, 2011

In Lencioni’s overview of the model he gives this warning.  “These dysfunctions can be mistakenly interpreted as five distinct issues that can be addressed in isolation of the others.  But in reality they form an interrelated model, making susceptibility to even one of them potentially lethal for the success of the team.”  For that reason, team training needs to be built in a way that links one set of team functioning skills upon another.  Start by building trust among the members.  Then provide a safe way to practice “unfiltered and passionate debate.”  As the teams learns how to have healthy conflict, move into the areas of purpose, goals, process, and planning.  Let the training mirror what they will see in their team as they link one chain with another, forming a team that matters.

Successful strategic implementation requires people at all levels of the organization who care about the outcome, people who have the necessary ownership, commitment, and will to implement them.  (Richard Axelrod)

Inattention to Results

July 22, 2011

Lencioni’s final dysfunction focuses on a team’s inability to accomplish its goals.  This is where the rubber meets the road.  Do you do what you said you would do, or do you do something else?  “There’s a part of you, deep inside your brain and spirit, that’s a bit like a heat-seeking missile, searching by instinct and feel for something of true significance, craving big goals,” writes Robert K. Cooper in his book Get Out of Your Own Way.  I am convinced most people want to do something important in their life, they want to do it well, and they want to be noticed.  A well functioning team provides that experience.  But it requires some work.  Teams need to stay focused on tangible group goals, and consistently reward members based on team goals and collective success.

Lencioni describes teams that are not focused on results as ones that “stagnate, rarely stand out or remembered, lose achievement-oriented members, encourage team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals, are easily distracted.”  Results focused teams on the other hand, “retain achievement—oriented members, minimize individualistic behavior, enjoy success and suffer failure acutely, benefit from individuals who subjugate their own goals/interests for the good of the team, and avoid distractions.”  Having clear goals is the key to helping people see the big picture, understand dangers and opportunities, and create urgency and energy for the challenge.

Teams Are Accountable

July 20, 2011

According to Lencioni, teams that avoid accountability “create resentment among team members who have different standards, encourage mediocrity, miss deadlines and key deliverables, place an undue burden on the team leader as sole source of discipline.”  Teams that hold one another accountable, “ensure poor performers feel pressure to improve, identify potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches, establish respect among team members who are held to the same high standard, avoids bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action.”

A poor sailor blames the wind.

Unknown

Demanding Accountability

July 18, 2011

Second, by not demanding accountability, you also fail to protect people from their own bad behavior or incompetence.  Letting people stumble along doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing the wrong way, is not doing anyone any favors.  You can not play to a person’s strengths and leave them in a position of weakness.  A person in trouble will often already know they are in trouble.  What they need is a helping hand, not a free ride to nowhere.  I hate to say it, but this is often the way we treat someone we are trying to get rid off.  We have decided we do not want them on the team so we just let them flounder along until they destroy themselves.  Be careful, they may just stay to spite you, and then you will both be miserable.  Honest may be the best policy.  It may also be one of the hardest things you will ever do.

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Micah 6:8

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”

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