Team Development - A Fresh Approach!

I have been experimenting lately with a new form of team development combining three successful and time tested methodologies:

• Action Research
• Story Editing / Story Prompting
• The Drexler Sibbet Model

Here’s the technique in a nutshell:

• The team and the team leader contracts with me to create an experiment to improve their team performance significantly
• We all agree to use an Action Research Design and to jointly design and conduct the research and the intervention.
• We make use of the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Inventory to collect and publish the “current reality” for the team. This inventory reports how well the team has resolved the critical issues relative to developing a high performance culture. It also significant insights into current group dynamics that may be helping or hindering team performance. Finally it helps to create a positive and safe atmosphere where tough discussion topics can be aired and resolved. This work typically takes one day.
• The second day we frame up where we are and where we want to go. To get there we use several powerful story-editing techniques that we have developed over years of practice. These exercises, performed in small groups, create a reframing experience for the team, based on positive norms developed in small groups. Our experience has been that the norms created in the small groups carry over to the large group. The story-editing sets in motion a series of positive actions based on  strengths that enables the team to redirect itself and create highly positive outcomes. The team acts together to bring the new story into being. The whole process is fueled by discovery combined with creation. Its differs dramatically from the old problem solving / team building approaches.

The entire process takes two days. We do all the data collection and story editing around the real work the team must do. We are seeing extraordinary results.

Larger Teams Require Different Methods

As teams get larger team leaders need to organize their team around optimized sub-teams. Teams are increasing their members these days. It’s not uncommon to find that there are 12-20 members on teams. These numbers make team meetings difficult to facilitate in that “air time” becomes difficult for team discussions. Two little known rules for team development apply in these cases, and I will even throw in one of my own. 

The first rule is that the norms that get established in small groups, get carried over to the large group. As much as possible organize your meetings into small groups that can work and feed their information to the large group. There is no need to break out to do this. Table groups work fine. In fact I call these “break-in” sessions where we assign the tasks to the small groups. 

The second rule is to optimize the real working sub-teams. Every large team has sub-teams, members that have to work closely together to achieve the results. These teams are the key to producing outstanding results. Map the sub-teams and have them do real work at the meeting. In many cases these teams also have to combine and re-combine in all the ways necessary to get the work done. Map this as well. Nowadays team members need to work face-to-face, virtually, alone, in pairs, and in different combinations. Aim for small. Less is more. Make sure only the actual people that are responsible to accomplish the work are on the sub-team. As a facilitator, work with the leader to set all of this up, and then get out of their way. It is critical that these teams find their own way. 

The third rule I call the rule of Twos and Threes. I got this rule from Yogi Berra, who reportedly once said, “Pair up in threes.”  This rule, maximizes air time and is useful for break-in sessions. Use threes as much as you can and when the numbers don’t work out, break out the remaining members in pairs. Small groups of threes are powerful. As two talk, the one can observe, give feedback, play devil’s advocate etc. Pairs are not at helpful. Paring can lead to distraction and flight from the work. It’s common in groups for pairs to collude, complain, retreat as the two support each other. 

Keep these rules in mind as you lead and facilitate larger teams. 

The Orientation Stage - Drexler Sibbet Model

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
Plato

Orientation is the beginning of a new team. It is a time of rich potential and tremendous energy. The task is to agree to sign up for the work, by answering this Question. Why am I here? Each members has to answer this question individually and the members have to answer it together. It is the time to sign up for the work at it broadest, say YES to the possibilities and identify where I can make a contribution.

If teams are a journey from freedom to constraint, and back to freedom again, this is the time where freedom reigns. As a team, the members have lots of possibilities and many choices to make. They need to define their purpose first and foremost by answering the question, What do we want to accomplish together? Clarity is essential in Orientation. The clearer the picture of the Purpose and the End Result, the easier it becomes to identify with it.  In doing this work, and becoming a team that understands what it is to do, the members also begin an exploration of what is needed, what obstacles and challenges they will face, and what skills and resources they will need.

Clarity of Purpose leads to Self Awareness and Team Awareness. The team, through its members is embarking on a journey, and making all the initial assessments necessary for a successful completion. This is a time of high disclosure and high learning. In this process team members start to create a team culture and a team identity. Norms (undiscussed ways of working together) form fast. At this point team members are creating norms for how they will work with each other. Sub grouping may be happening around work or other issues. Optimizing the sub groups may also be beginning. Team members begin to feel their “membership” on the team. Supportive and Defensive routines are being played out and settled.

All in all, this truly is a most auspicious time in the life of a team.  If all goes well, team members have a solid answer to the question, “Why am I here?” They have signed on to the team’s Purpose as they feel their Membership and establish their own Team Identity.

If not, the team has work to do.

“ There are two mistakes one can make along the path to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.”
The Buddha

The Begats

Growing up in Brooklyn, we didn’t really have gangs, more like social clubs, teams really. And one of our favorite games was to see who had memorized the “begats.” In the Bible there is this passage about who begat whom, Abraham begat Issac… It sums up the lineage of the prophets up to and including Christ. Later while studying Aikido for many years, I was taught the lineage of how my current instructors could trace their teachers back to O”Sensei, the Master. When I studied the shakuhachi flute, same thing. We discovered we could trace our teachers back to the Fuke sect in ancient Japan.

And so, to me, lineage is important. Who you learned from and who they learned from has always been of interest to me. Here is what I know of how the Drexler Sibbet Model came into being.

Allen Drexler and David Sibbet met, and hit it off. Allen brought the fundamental ideas of how teams form and develop. His description was clear, concise, and based on years of building teams in his organizational development practice. Allen worked extensively with Marv Weisbord in those days. David brought an incredible understanding of process, combined with an amazing ability to represent his thoughts graphically.

The roots of Allen’s contribution come from the work of Jack Gibb, famous for his work with the concept of building trust in organizations. David’s mentor was Arthur Young, cosmologist, and famous for being the inventor of the Bell Helicopter. Integrating these theorists through rewarding conversations, David and Allen created the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Model. Their work was collaborative from the start, and remains so to this day. Along the way they picked up another terrific consultant - Russ Forrester who happened to be a psychometrist besides an organization consultant. The addition of Russ brought the Team Performance Inventory into being. I have had the unique experience of having worked with, and been taught by each of these characters (including Marv). My clients know from my flip chart drawings that my skillset emphasizes the Allen / Russ connection more than the David connection :-)

Today you can capture the flavor of how their creation has become a force of its own in Organization Development. Check out how this concept has grown by visiting David’s Grove Consulting Organization. You won’t be disappointed.

Tomorrow I will go more deeply into the Model itself and how we use it in our practice.