Introduction
After working with team leaders and teams for 20+ years, I have developed a simple blueprint for working with teams. It begins with a conversation where team members are challenged to face up to the key questions surrounding identity that I outline in Start With Who (2022):
- Who are they currently being?
- Who do they believe they can be?
Exploring such questions that deal with the core beliefs of the team members form the foundation of powerful team development initiatives. It is always tempting to jump into the current issues faced by the team, but if the objective is sustainable growth in results and team development, then context exploration is always necessary alongside content discussion.
Exploring context is not one and done. Once it has begun, the team can always revisit it as the initiative continues. It operates in the same way as an operating system on a computer. Once you know it is there, you can work with it, assess its efficiacy for the tasks at hand and upgrade it as necessary. However, you can only do that once you have acknowledged its existence and learned how to work with it.
With the “context wheel” spinning, it becomes possible to work with the “content wheel” at a deeper level. This blueprint operates as a simple axle between these two wheels.
The 3 Pillars of Productive Teams
1.Purpose
Purpose is fundamental in all elements of life, not just teams. It not only provides a focus and lens through which to assess action, it also provides meaning to even the most routine, everyday actions.
This search for meaning is fundamental to human beings. It is central to our ontology.
In his seminal work, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Viktor Frankl makes the claim that purpose is a key factor in overcoming challenging times. When we see our daily struggles as contributing to a larger purpose, we become better equipped to deal with adversity.
“When a team adopts a purpose to which it is both intellectually and emotionally connected, that purpose provides a compass for all action”
It offers powerful motivation and a well of resilience that would otherwise quickly run dry. Creating alignment to a powerful purpose is a fundamental step in the journey of any productive team.
Purpose is also strongly linked to the other two pillars.
2.Excellence
A clear purpose fuels motivation to achieve excellence.
When team members are emotionally and intellectually connected to their purpose, excellence matters. A big, powerful purpose may never be fully manifested in the world, but its ongoing presence fuels the day-to-day efforts of the team.
Attachment to a clear purpose is not only a source of energy, it also stimulates appetite for risk taking, creativity and innovation. When purpose matters, the status quo or ‘business as usual’ is not enough.
“When purpose is important, excellence becomes paramount”
A case where this often shows up in a team environment, is with feedback. Team members are far more likely to give and be open to receive, honest feedback (from each other and their stakeholders) if they are powerfully connected to their chosen purpose. If the purpose isn’t important, or simply not clear, then why bother taking the risk of being open?
It is also important to recognise that true excellence encompasses both performance and behaviour.
“The achievement of outstanding results via dubious practices is not excellence and neither is principled behaviour that results in mediocrity”
Excellence in the sense that it is used here, exists in both the tangible and the intangible domains.
Understood in this way, excellence drives continuous improvement and represents an uncompromising stand for the highest standards in the domains of being, doing and productivity.
The third pillar binds everything together.
3.Integrity
Integrity is most commonly understood to exist in the personal domain, in relation to honesty, trustworthiness and consistency.
A person of integrity is someone who is seen to match their words and their actions. They espouse strong moral values and they act on them, even at the risk of personal cost or loss.
This is an important element for team members to exhibit as part of the intangible element of excellence, as defined in the 2nd pillar.
However, there is another critical element of the word ‘integrity’, sourced from the world of architecture and structures.
A building is said to possess ‘structural integrity’ when it is able to remain standing, even when facing challenges and when subject to external and internal pressure.
Every part of the building, foundation, walls and roof, can withstand not only its own weight, but also whatever the elements may throw at it.
Understanding integrity in this wider sense amplifies its importance and the critical, unifying role that it plays in productive teams.
The Purpose Pillar is critical, but having inconsistent or contradictory purposes inside a team is a recipe for disaster, because it undermines this structural integrity.
Similarly, the Excellence Pillar will not be achieved if the team does not have this element of structural integrity. If people (or departments) are pulling in different directions, fuelled by competing purposes, then productivity is inevitably compromised.
The Integrity Pillar is therefore the glue that holds everything together.
“Integrity is to a team as authenticity is to an individual”
A Note on Integrity and Diversity
It is important to understand that this focus on “Integrity” is in no way inconsistent with diversity.
A structure built to excellent standards and with a clear purpose is made up of many diverse materials (bricks, mortar, water, iron, wood, concrete etc) and has structural integrity as a result. The same is true for teams.
Welcoming diversity of opinion, approach and points of view from all members of the team is critical (necessary, even) if excellence is to be achieved and the purpose is to be realised.
Creating an inclusive and diverse team with high levels of trust, that champions psychological safety, is therefore a key part of the intangible (behavioural) element of the Excellence Pillar, as previously articulated. Thus understood,
“diversity is not an end itself, but rather acts in service to an overarching purpose and a passion for excellence”
This is similar in nature both to the American ideal of “E Pluribus Unum—”Out of Many, One” that underpins the constitution and appears on their coinage, as well as the Indonesian concept of “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika–“Unity Out Of Diversity”.
“Working with thus understanding of integrity, in service of an over-aching purpose, while maintaining an unswerving focus on (tangible and intangible) excellence, is often the biggest challenge faced by team leaders”
Conclusion
Taken together, the 3 Pillars of Purpose, Excellence and Integrity form a blueprint or backbone for a high performing team. One is not more important than the other. Their power comes from their integration and capacity to reinforce one another.
As stated at the top of the article, this blueprint operates as the axle between the ‘wheels’ of contextual enquiry and content discussion.
As with with all ontological approaches,
“these pillars are created and sustained via the facilitation of productive relationships and effective conversations between team members who possess high levels of self-awareness and consciousness, marshalled by high quality leadership”
Postscript
For people interested in further exploration, I have written another article here:
Should you wish to know more about this path, or about engaging with an ontological coach/facilitator then please contact me at
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