Advancing Team Performance – 3 Keys to Integrate a Common Language

The literature is extensive… for people to change behaviors from any learning, people must vigorously incorporate any new knowledge and norms into their workplace culture to improve competence and engagement. Employee values, mindset, and behaviors have evolved rapidly in the past year. For example, the newfound value people have around working from home or virtually has challenged teams and teamwork to be more conscious of individual needs and working styles These changes may take many forms… so leaders and all members of a team have the opportunity to proactively build the right culture now to maximize a team’s success.

Where Whole Brain® Thinking has been introduced, it is important to take steps right away to integrate the methodology into the culture of the team. This is a new common language that takes reinforcement to develop. Otherwise, the risk is high that the investment becomes a one-time event and little change will be seen in team dynamics.  Best practices show multiple ways this can be done. Leaders (and all team members) can support this growth using the ideas and tools below:

#1. Interpersonal Relationships

• Share profiles with each other in person as well as on the Thinker Portal.
• Understand the needs and working styles of each person on the team as well as with all stakeholders including direct reports. Adjust your positioning and influence towards other’s PROOF SETs.
• Look for CLUES all around you with everyone to get a sense of how others think.

#2. Team Effectiveness

• Use the Team Collaboration walkaround below to guide a groups thinking through all aspects of a new or existing challenge and/or strategy.

• Use the Team Effectiveness Dashboard to get real-time feedback on 16 key areas and monitor the team’s progress over a period of time.
• Brainstorm ways the methodology can be used more extensively to support culture and/or the brand a team wants to be known for within the organization. (Hint: use the process below)

#3. Using the Model as a Process and Guide

The Whole Brain Model can be used to do just this! Depending on the challenge, a team may want to decide what quadrant to begin in to identify and diagnose an existing challenge. But many times, a “Steven Covey” approach works well when a team is innovating or looking for a creative problem-solving discussion. This means: Start with the END in Mind as he has offered. In that case, a D-A-C-B process may work the best. It looks like this: