The most reliable predictor of how a team will perform in the future is the drive to continuously improve on how they’re working together. Listen to the conversations that are taking place after a failure, and you will learn everything you need to know about the future of that team.
Healthy teams take time to deconstruct and learn from their failures. They are continuously having conversations about how to improve their communication. When there is a gap in trust, they take ownership and look for ways to rebuild trust. When there’s a breakdown in accountability, they stop and talk about how to improve accountability.
Every team has gaps in how they’re collaborating. The question is are you active and intentional to work on the gaps? The conversations we have about the gaps tell the real story about the health of a team.
This is where 100% Responsibility comes in. When individuals on a team take 100% Responsibility for how the team is working, it moves team members to speak up when the team is falling short. It moves them to take ownership for their part and seek ways to improve in the future.
Unfortunately, too many teams tolerate the gaps. Individual team members engage in prison thinking by choosing to complain, blame and point fingers rather than engaging in crucial conversations to improve their relationships.
You get more of what you tolerate. When team members take 100% Responsibility for how the team is working together, they are refusing to tolerate mediocrity. This is the key ingredient to building a high performing team.
We can apply this same principle to every relationship we have. When we take 100% Responsibility, good things happen, and our influence goes up. This is the path to excellence. It is also the path to engaged, high-trust relationships.
Almost every one of our clients is engaged in some form of continuous improvement of processes and systems to achieve excellence. What would happen to your team’s performance if members of the team applied this same discipline to how your team collaborates?
The short answer to this question is you would be unstoppable.
100% RESPONSIBILITY
How to Be Agile in an Era of Adversity and Rapid Change