Lesson Category: team

People communicate with each other from their value systems. Different value systems can create tensions and ensure that there is no good cooperation.

By knowing the other person’s values, you can make a good estimation of how the other person understands you. Because when working together, it is important that you first understand and then want to be understood. Values and value systems play an important role in our cooperation.

In the Collaboration programme we take the following steps:

• What is the team’s natural communication style based on the People Change Scan?
• Which styles fit your team and its value system?
• Why do teams communicate with other value systems in their own way?
• Learning team value systems from understanding and respect.

Rogier Offerhaus has written the book “In search of Cultural Change” which we use in this improvement program.

Those who want to lead others must first understand them and then want to be understood themselves. In recent years, People Change has continuously researched how we can develop a team in the most effective way and achieve our goals.

In this People Change improvement program you will work directly on improving your existing team to improve collaboration and team effectiveness.

In People Change Team Improvement program we answer the following questions:

• How do you come to a common definition of being a successful team?
• What controls 95% of our behaviour in a team without you knowing it?
• How do you get a team that works together to the maximum?
• How do you develop new, effective habits in a team?
• How do you effectively deal with relapse and setbacks in a team?
• How do you guide your team through change?
• How do you use the People Change Scan for your team?

TEAM stands for Together Everybody Achieves More!

Just how do you get this done?

Teams can achieve great achievements together such as winning the European Football Championship or flying to the moon together. But teams can also work together very negatively and badly, so nothing succeeds.

The People Change Scan can indicate exactly where a team stands now, how the team members on a personal and team level can best work together and where they want to go together with the team. During a team analysis we discuss the results of the People Change Scan with the entire team, discuss what is going well and what can be improved. Based on this, the team itself can develop action points to take the next step together. We also discuss the different levels of cooperation in a team and the team will make agreements with each other.

In People Change Team analysis we answer the following questions:

• Where does the Team stand now?
• Where does the Team want to go?
• What’s the best way to get the team there?

Goal

• What is the objective? What goal do you want to achieve if the situation is successfully resolved?

My manager, Jan van Marel, wants to know in 2 weeks (on March 15) why the setup of the client-panel is still not realized. If he would have a customer panel he will be better able to discuss the intended propositions.

Janny Troost is responsible for fulfilling Jan’s request to deliver a customer panel.

Reality (current situation)

• Please describe the situation. Try splitting it along the values- and results-axis

Jan has asked Janny several times directly, as well as through his own employees, to the employees of Janny to supply the customer panel. But the panel is still not there and according to Jan this takes far too long.

Janny has indicated to Jan that the person who has to take care of the panel is very busy with other work. She also indicated that she would like to look at some other options/combinations with other client-panels before a (new) client-panel comes up. I don’t think Janny is very concerned about Jan’s planning.

• Which of the behavioral characteristics along the values go well and which can be improved? With yourself and with the other(s)?

I think they know from each other what they want, but not why. I don’t think they trust each other completely either, because there is too much talk about it in the corridors. I have understood that they will soon sit around the table and want to have a clear idea of who is responsible for what.

I myself advised Jan to have that conversation and to possibly be a third party. But Jan thought that a 2 to 1 situation would arise and indicated that he wanted to do it himself.

• Who is ultimately responsible, and who is operationally responsible, for the result to be achieved?

I myself think that Jan is the person with final responsibility and that Janny has been given operational responsibility by him, but I am not sure whether Janny’s request to Janny really was a request or an assignment. I wasn’t there.

• What are the results to date?

Not much yet. A lot of grumbling and uncertainty about whether we can achieve our own planning.

For Jan it is clear what a customer panel should do. He wants to understand why it has to take so long. Jan doesn’t really care which customer panel will come, as long as only one comes soon. Jan also wants to make sure that he has a customer panel from his own budget. Actually, he thinks that his department can also take care of a client-panel itself.

Janny indicates that the panel will be up and running in week 13, but Jan finds that surprisingly late.

Options (what alternatives are there)

• What are/were the options for resolving the situation?

1. Do nothing
2. Realize the customer panel in week 10 by asking more people for help
3. Put an expert on customer panels in charge
4. Accept that the customer panel begins in week 13

Will

• What are the action points from what you know now?

The decision is to ask an expert in the team to free up extra capacity to organize the customer panel in time in week 10.

The GROW model is a simple means to increase a person’s professionalism and solution-oriented ability by discussing their person in relation to certain experiences and work-related issues. GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will. We use this model as a basis to discuss work-related cases that aim to improve personal leadership and business. This can be result-oriented or values-oriented.

The GROW model in a case:

Goal (what do you want to achieve?)

• What goal is being pursued? What goal do you want to achieve if the situation is successfully resolved?

Reality (what is the current situation?)

1. Describe the situation. Try to split it along the values- and results-axis
2. Which of the values systems and/or core values of the organization are going well and which could be improved
3. Who is functional and who is operationally ultimately responsible for the result to be achieved?
4. What are the results to date?

Options (what alternatives are there?)

• What are/were the options for resolving the situation?

Will (what next steps are you going to take?)

• Keeping in mind what you know now: What will be the action points from now on?

It is our experience that this method of working strongly contributes to a considerable increase in awareness about how to deal with situations and how to work with others. Based on this experience, we invite you to experiment with renewed behaviour.

The Team Result-oriented model indicates where the energy of the organization leaks away in realizing the agreed strategic goals. The scan answers the question: “How many goals are actually realized?

During interviews with specific key employees and their supervisors, it can be tested whether the objectives on which they say they steer are clearly set at an individual level (the light green columns) and adjusted (the dark green columns). There is no weighting of the goals. The simplicity behind the philosophy is that apparently every goal we measure is important. It appears that in the mutual coordination and in the coordination between departments a lot of energy and efficiency is lost.

The Result-orientation model can be used to show how much energy is ‘leaking’ into the operational control system: compare the last dark green column with the first dark green column.

The less energy leaks away, the more is realized. When more is realized, we move to the right on the horizontal axis of the Insight Model.

The Leadership Model gives all employees and managers of an organization the opportunity to score themselves on their individual values and results. By doing this, all employees and managers get a good picture of their own functioning and can discover the direction of their personal improvement points.

The model has two axes on which the vertical axis shows the organization’s core values that can be indicated as poor, moderate, good to excellent. Someone who scores excellent on this axis functions completely according to the agreed values and behavioural characteristics.

The horizontal axis indicates the results that someone has achieved. It runs from: below target, on target, above target, far above target. This means that someone who has achieved far above target, has achieved more results in the agreed period than she or he had agreed.

For all employees and managers, when they are D4, they have a preference for instructing and managers are intimidating leaders who are waiting for change processes.

For all employees and managers, when they are C3, they have a preference for persuading and are instrumental leaders undergoing change processes.

An employee or manager who sits on B2 has a preference for consultation or is an honest coaching leader who supervises change processes.

An employee or manager sitting on A1 has a preference for delegation or is an inspiring leader who initiates change processes.

Within the organisation, the Team matrix means very concretely that you focus on scoring on both the results and the values axis. This applies to every employee, every manager!

Whether someone applies the core values in his daily business can be determined with the following scale:

• No understanding or expression of values and behavioural characteristics.
• Conceptual understanding of values and behavioural characteristics.
• Investigates values and behavioural characteristics in itself.
• Is values and behavioural characteristics conscious after he has had an interaction with another.
• Examine the values and behavioural characteristics in the moment with himself during an interaction with another.
• Recognises and uses the values and behavioural traits in the moment in itself but is not consistent.
• Values and behavioural characteristics are applied consistently in daily work. Strong positive intention to work with values and behavioural characteristics.
• Values and behavioural characteristics completely integrated into one’s own personality and uses them competently, unconsciously.

In one-to-one leadership relationships, the style is tuned per employee, per task. Two important dimensions are ‘motivation’ and ‘expertise’. In leadership relationships in relation to a group, the degree to which the working conditions (situations) appeal to the motivation and expertise of employees is decisive for the choice of leadership style.
Four leadership styles are recognised: Instructing, convincing, guiding and delegating. We deal with them briefly.

Instructing

Individual instruction is possible in cases where:

• the motivation is high;
• the expertise is low.

One is then open to receive the instruction. Be absolutely clear. Do not expect ‘you know that anyway’. Do not speak the language of the expert. Recognize the technical terms and explain them. At the end of the instruction ask if the person who received the instruction wants to repeat the assignment in his own words. These ‘own words’ are important because they allow you to test whether your instruction has been understood.

Collective can instruct you for example if:

• in (production) situations many planned and unforeseen events occur, which disrupt a normal course of events;
• there is a need for many clues;
• there are more emergencies which require immediate action.

Convincing

Convincing is a way of influencing. You make sure that the other person takes over something from you: an opinion, an idea, or a proposal. Convincing is a technique you can learn. But you can only be convincing if you are convinced of your message. The content and quality of your opinion and arguments are almost as important as the way you deliver it. Some people have it naturally: they have such an aura that others actually immediately accept from them what they say.

Individually you can guide in cases where:

• motivation is low;
• expertise is low.

And collectively you choose to convince, for example if:

• in the situation the mutual interaction must be intensive to achieve results;
• in the situation the employees are strongly dependent on each other to work effectively (teamwork);
• there are issues where more than one effective solution is possible and consultation increases the quality of the solutions.

Discussing

Individual consultation is done in cases where:

• the motivation is mediocre;
• the expertise is mediocre.

And collective for example if:

• the situation of the employees requires creativity and technical skills;
• the situation requires a high degree of involvement of the employees;
• the employees themselves can choose which method, means and approach they want to use.

Discussing may approach the principles of coaching the most. Stimulating, sometimes just pretending. Attentioning in time, without saying ‘yes’. But above all, let the coachee himself get to work. Give feedback. Continue what is going well; identify points for improvement; first give the coachees the opportunity to do it themselves.

Delegating

Delegating is clearly transferring tasks and own decision-making powers to the right employees and supervising their implementation. This also means: always making agreements about feedback. ‘Keep me informed by telephone once a week’, or in extreme cases ‘As long as I don’t hear from you, I assume things are going well’. But then you really have to be sure of your business.

Therefore you can delegate individually in cases where:

• the motivation is high;
• the expertise is high.

And collective for example if:

• the tasks are to be carried out well and the employees themselves can assess their own effectiveness;
• the work itself is motivating and attractive to employees;
• work and working methods are carried out according to established principles.

Achieving maximum Force of Growth usually does not happen in a straight line. The transformation curve or learning curve has a number of known phases that everyone goes through during drastic changes. The phases are named as follows:

Phase	Name	Alternative name	What’s happening?
1	Subconsciously Incompetent	The situation is stagnating, it is time for a new vision. You don’t yet know exactly what to do. The urgency to change is growing
2	Consciously Incompetent	You let go of the old and step into nothingness. You take very small steps to develop and/or achieve your new vision.
3	Consciously Competent	You know what you want and what you need to develop. You are already a long way on your way in the transformation.
4	Subconsciously Competent	You have found a new balance on a new level of competence.

For most people it is difficult to let go of the old without a clear vision of where you want to go. It is therefore important for managers to provide as much information as possible in advance in the event of an emerging change. Nevertheless, it often happens that people are confronted with unplanned changes or that people strongly resist letting go of the old. This causes stress and resistance among those involved. For the facilitating manager it is important to realise what people go through when they go through a change. The following diagram shows what happens in the ‘valley’ or in the ‘pit’:

As a manager, it is important to be aware of the emotional and mental barriers that employees create before they change. The best way to guide employees through each step is in the following way:

This transformation curve is applicable both in the guidance of cases and in the guidance of an organization in long-term change.

The Insight Model shows how an organisation works along the two axes.

The vertical axis shows how we work together. Whether we deal with each other according to the agreed behavioural characteristics, or whether everyone works from their own values. When the team is high up on the vertical axis, managers and employees work well together according to the agreed core values and the associated behavioural characteristics. When the team is sitting low on this axis, the right of the strongest often applies. The organization wants to prevent this at all times, because then the soul goes out of the business unit.

The horizontal axis is about the Task orientation (movement to the left) or Result orientation (movement to the right). When the organization is on the far left on this axis, it is very task-oriented and the focus is mainly on the execution of tasks and activities. Within the organization we are used too much to steer on job descriptions: on what and how something should be done, and less on who, what, when it will have been achieved. The results we achieve with this are not really made clear or agreed in advance. When the organization is on the far right on this axis, the organization is very result-oriented and all managers and employees work on realizing the results they have agreed with each other beforehand.

It is important for any organisation that wants to grow that it achieves the results that customers demand every day.

Force for growth is the ability of every employee (and of teams) to achieve the (individual) objectives in line with the organization’s core values on time and to the target standard.

Conclusion: we want to move up and to the right.