How diverse is your team’s thinking?

When I saw a small copse on a recent walk, I was struck by the way the individual trees have grown together to make something that has a shape all of its own.

It isn’t possible to see how many trees there are unless you look at ground level, but each is playing its own unique part in creating the overall result.

Similarly, in business, everyone in a team has a unique part to play, but it requires everyone in the team to be intentional about working well together.

One model I use to great effect with the senior leadership teams I work with is ‘The 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team’ developed by Patrick Lencioni.

The first and foundational behaviour is vulnerability-based trust, where each team member values the different backgrounds, perspectives and ideas of their teammates, even (and especially!) when they differ from their own.

It’s trusting that other people are motivated to serve the good of the team, rather than their egos, reputations or departments. At times, it’s also being willing to concede that someone else’s idea is better than your own for a particular situation.

Even within an apparently homogenous team, there can be diversity of thinking; how much more so when you have a genuinely diverse team! Getting to this point is not necessarily easy, but it is achievable if you give it the necessary focus, time and attention.

Our programmes with senior leadership teams typically take around a year and involve a series of interactive workshops, with theory reinforced through practice and group coaching, and supported with some psychometric testing to increase self-awareness.

Please get in touch if you’d like your team to work more effectively together or check out our web page.