Conclusion:
Demonstrating TeamWisdom from This Point Forward

CONGRATULATIONS! If you have read this book all the way through to the conclusion, I assume you are a dedicated learner who is keenly interested in TeamWisdom. You deserve to be congratulated. I appreciate your interest and thank you for your diligence.

My challenge now is to assist you in demonstrating TeamWisdom in all of your work relationships from this point forward. I say “demonstrate” because what you do is far more important than what you know, remember, or tell to others. Why? Others judge you by what you do, not by what you know or say. When we judge ourselves, on the other hand, we tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We judge ourselves by our intentions, not our actions. So demonstration is most important in relationships. And demonstration is the only way to display the integrity of what you say and what you do.

So it is one thing to consider TeamWisdom intellectually. It is quite another to internalize it and consistently apply TeamWisdom to your relationships. I know many smart people who are intellectual wizards. They have earned high grades and multiple degrees, but they don’t seem interested or able to apply what they say they know. They pontificate, but they don’t demonstrate.175

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To demonstrate what one knows takes more than intellectual smarts, it requires experiential smarts as well—what one might even call “street smarts.” What I mean is that true learning results from a combination of theory plus experience. By “theory” I mean ideas, concepts, and models about how things work. For instance, this book is full of theories about TeamWisdom, but reading and understanding these theories alone is not enough to provide you with TeamWisdom. By “experience” I mean that one must apply theories to one’s own life situations in order to truly know how they work and how to work them.

When pondering how best to practice the ideas in this book, keep the following simple equation in mind: Theory + Experience = Learning.

Choose to Demonstrate TeamWisdom

To make use of what you have learned, you must choose to demonstrate TeamWisdom in all of your relationships. Ask yourself the following question to determine if you are ready to choose this course of action:

Then listen for your internal response. At this point, you probably already know the answer.

If your answer is “no,” then I thank you for reading this book and considering the invitation to demonstrate TeamWisdom. I trust that in the future you may consider TeamWisdom as a viable option for your work relationships. If your answer is “yes,” the rest of this chapter is intended for you.

Commit to the Journey

If you answered “yes” to the above question, you are now at the beginning of an extraordinary journey of discovery, learning, and rewards. As you now know, your learning is not complete just because you have almost finished reading the book. You start a new level of learning with your attempts to apply what you have read. As you well know from a life of trying new ideas, sometimes good ideas mesh well right away with the rest of your behavior and sometimes they don’t. For instance, consider learning to walk. It took you days or weeks, maybe even months, to learn to walk, even though it was a relatively simple idea. You saw lots of other children who had all the same equipment that you had doing it, yet you just didn’t have the strength and coordination to walk when you first chose to. But you didn’t quit trying! The idea that you could do it was very strong with you.177

When you believe that a theory (model, idea, concept, principle) is valuable, but don’t see immediately how to demonstrate it, there will be a period of awkwardness and even mistakes while you attempt to apply the idea. You will attempt to put the idea into action and you will receive feedback about what works for you and what does not. This feedback is critically important. Buckminster Fuller once said that “Every time man makes a new experiment he always learns more. He cannot learn less.” You have demonstrated that principle in every part of your life so far, from walking to relationship building. The next step to demonstrating TeamWisdom is to get on with it.

A Five-Step Action Plan

There are many ways to incorporate the ideas in this book into your work life. The following five-step action plan is my suggestion for how to get started.

Step One: Assume personal responsibility for team productivity. At your next opportunity, whether in individual informal encounters or at a team meeting, announce to team members 178that you will only do work that leads to the entire team’s success. Furthermore, announce that you will not be able to meet your goals unless the team meets its goals, so it is in your best interest for the team to be extremely productive and effective. Finally, tell your teammates how you have decided to do everything in your power to help the team gel and operate at superior levels of performance.

Step Two: Get in the same boat together. At the next meeting, ask teammates to put aside individual roles and have a conversation about what you will collectively accomplish. For a moment, think of the team as a single unit, indivisible into smaller units, and answer this question: “What must this unit do?” Insist on continuing this conversation until everyone seems to share the same clarity about what the team has been formed to do. After the function of the team has been established, make that task focus your “super-objective” and give it more importance than any other objective or goal.

Step Three: Determine “What’s in it for me?” and then “What’s in it for you?” Once you know your super-objective, sit down at your keyboard or with pen and paper and generate a series of answers to this question: “What is in it for me to pursue this task, assignment, or super-objective?” Keep asking the question and writing down answers. Encourage yourself to probe deeper and generate more possibilities. When you have a complete list (five to ten answers), prioritize your responses until you truly understand your motivation for serving on the team. After you know what’s in it for you, begin to ask your teammates the same question. Ask them “What’s in it for you to pursue this task with this team?” Then wait patiently for responses. Encourage their answers and help them determine which answers seem most important or energizing. Watch for nonverbal cues like sudden smiling, twinkling eyes, head rocking back, or a gaze of recognition. These nonverbal cues can tell you when teammates have accessed an important desire. Test 179for the most important interests by asking the question “Is that important to you?” and listening for a congruent and powerful “Yes!” You can also test for commitment by asking them the following question: “If by serving in this team, we can help you get (fill in their important interest), then would that be worth your investment in this team?” I bet you the price you paid for this book, that they will say “Yes!”

Step Four: Make and keep agreements. Since you have made your interests known, wouldn’t you like to protect them? While at your keyboard or sitting with pencil and paper, inventory your “shoulds.” These are the expectations you have about how others “should” behave in your presence, in your teams, or at meetings you attend. List them all. Most people have “shoulds” about who, what, when, where, how, and why to communicate. Many variables determine communication: timeliness, confidentiality, participation, honesty, openness, respect, and more. Once you have your list, prioritize it in terms of which expectations, if actually turned into operating agreements, would gain the most productivity for you and the group. Then figure out how and when to ask your teammates to make agreements that will cause your most important expectations to come true. One of Partnerwerks’ associates, Sue Begeman, took a job once that included a peer worker who was reputed to be very difficult to work with. Sue did the exercise that I recommend here, then took this woman to lunch so they could get to know each other. Near the end of the lunch, Sue made this statement: “I want you to know that I will never defect on you. That means that I will never complain about you or undermine you behind your back. I will always be direct with you. In fact, I will do everything that I can to be on your side, and if I can’t, you will be the first to know so that we can decide together how to deal with it. Would you be willing to make the same pledge to me?” The peer worker did. Sue never had a problem with this person and enjoyed an excellent collaboration. 180

Step Five: “Call it!” By this time you know how to craft the foundational elements for TeamWisdom. But they are fragile and must be protected. While the agreements are still fresh, ask others if they will help you “call” each other on behavior that is inconsistent with the team’s task, team members’ interests, and your stated agreements. They will most likely say, “Yes.” That is the easy part. Actually keeping to your agreements is not so easy. Next, tune your antennae to recognize all actions by yourself or your teammates that are inconsistent with the foundation you have created. When you recognize inconsistent behavior in yourself or others—and you will—immediately “call it” in a manner that allows the behavior to be examined and corrected. For instance, if you find yourself blaming someone for a unfortunate position that you are in, stop. Acknowledge that you were just “laying blame” by framing it that way. Say “I think I was just laying blame on Richard, and that certainly doesn’t make me more resourceful. A more responsible way to view it would have been to see that I allowed myself and Richard to get into a situation where I would resent Richard if he didn’t come through in just a certain way.” After telling it like it is, take steps to correct the situation.

Own Your Results

There are two valuable tools that can support you at every step of your TeamWisdom journey. The first is the Responsibility Chart that appears on page 11. If you take 100-percent responsibility for the quality and productivity of every relationship at work, then you will be truly committing yourself to the path of discovery. This means forgiving rather than shaming yourself when relationships don’t work, refusing to blame unproductive relationships solely on others’ behavior, and eliminating excuses about why it is okay to stay in an unproductive relationship without attending to it. 181

The second tool is an extremely important feedback principle that will assist you in staying on the TeamWisdom path. Please commit this to memory:

True communication is the response you get.

This phrase might need some explanation in order to make complete sense. It is based on the idea that no communication attempt initiated by you is complete until you observe the effect of that communication on its target. Once you observe the response, then you know if your communication achieved your intent. Said another way, we don’t know what communication has been received by our target until we see the response.

The value of following this principle is that you will become increasingly aware of your intentions, how you demonstrate those intentions, and how your demonstration is received. This awareness will help you discover what works and what doesn’t. If you are following this principle, you will increasingly become more aware of your intentions in every relationship and every communication, and you will own the responses that you get.

Associate with People Who Expect TeamWisdom

Your journey will move more swiftly and successfully if you surround yourself with people who expect you to demonstrate TeamWisdom. There are a variety of ways you can do this:

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• Make a list of all the people with whom you work. Divide the list into two groups, those who demonstrate TeamWisdom and those who do not. I know that the dividing line separating the two groups can appear somewhat arbitrary, but I bet you will have no trouble creating two lists. This will help you to understand who will welcome and encourage TeamWisdom and who will present the most challenge (as well as the most need!).
• Initiate projects with colleagues who demonstrate TeamWisdom. Make agreements to support each other in a high-responsibility relationship. These relationships will be simultaneously safe and challenging. They are safe because you trust each other’s intentions. They are challenging because you have such high expectations for each other’s behavior. You will find tremendous opportunities to learn from each other.
• If you have not already done so, go to www.partnerwerks.com and subscribe to TeamWisdom Tips so that we can support you each week.
• Place yourself in situations where TeamWisdom must be developed and practiced. These include teams and collaborations, even task forces and committees. They do not have to be at work. Some of the most challenging opportunities exist in community and church activities.
• Download the free TeamWisdom Leader’s Guide from www.partnerwerks.com and let it help you make decisions about how to build teams in which you serve.
• Attend Being Powerful in Any Team (www.beingpowerful.com).

Take Baby Steps

The universe of TeamWisdom skills and behaviors is large and can seem overwhelming. If that is the case, here is what you should do. Select just one TeamWisdom skill or behavior that appeals to you and that you wish to apply. Now, think about the opportunities to practice this skill that are presented by your work relationships. Apply this formula:

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• When you demonstrate TeamWisdom in that situation, acknowledge yourself for meeting your intentions.
• When you don’t demonstrate TeamWisdom in that situation, catch yourself, then forgive yourself. Correct your behavior if you still have a chance.
• Commit to catching yourself sooner, forgiving yourself faster, and correcting more successfully.

A great TeamWisdom teacher once taught me that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. It is far better to commit to fumbling one’s way up the learning curve than to avoid any chance of making a mistake.

I wish you a world of productive relationships at work.