Speak Using Both Sides of Your Brain,

Like a Collaborative

Leader

Toastmasters District 60 Spring 2014 Conference

Susan Antoft, MMath (CS),

MBA, PMP, ACS, CL skantoft@sympatico.ca

Select the messages to foster team collaboration, according the development stages and dynamics of the team

After This Session, You Will be Able to...

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Describe a model for speaking like a collaborative leader (Hint: See the slides with the )

Be able to ask questions that build and sustain trust that is required for collaboration

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When we collaborate, we achieve great things that are not possible when we are divided.

How Do You Define Collaboration?

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2 Collaboration is harnessing the power of many, to do, create, or invent something better or otherwise impossible.

3 Collaboration is sharing and collective action oriented toward a common goal in a spirit of harmony and trust.

4 Collaboration consists of recursive interactions of knowledge, engagement, results, perceptions of trust and accumulation of activity over time.

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Obstacles to Collaboration

Large teams

Highly educated team members

Limited face-to-face working time

Team has limited motivation to be collaborative

Team members don’t know each other

Team members have diverse backgrounds and perspectives

Work can be uncertain or chaotic or complex

Team membership is short-term and fluid

Gratton, L. and Erickson, T.J. (2007). Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams. Harvard Business Review.

Weiss, J. and Hughes, J. (2005). Want Collaboration? Accept – and Actively Manage – Conflict. Harvard Business Review

Corporate Executive Board. (2013). How the Future of Corporate IT Impacts Skills

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Team has limited skills needed for collaboration

IT staff who LACK the collaborative skills needed for their work: • Business Results Orientation • Communication • Influence • Relationship Management • Teamwork

90%

• Compensation only for individual contributions to outcomes

• Team members are simultaneously on several teams

• Bad prior team experiences • Senior people won’t / can’t work

with junior people

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Lack of trust 10

Collaboration Gaps and Impacts

Project Chicken Team Failure

Team members are unwilling or unable to support the project.

*Vital Smarts. (2006). Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution

http://cms.vitalsmarts.com/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/baf1dafa-24f8-4108-8d0e-3813fbe96d80/Silence%20Fails%20Full%20Report.pdf?guest=true

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• 1,000 senior executives, project sponsors, project leaders, and project participants

• 2,200 projects, ranging from $10,000 IT projects to billion-dollar organizational restructuring

• 40 companies - 90% on Fortune 500;10% smaller, regional firms: pharma; fast food; construction; airlines; financial services, government agencies and consumer products

Team leaders and members don’t admit when there are problems with a project but instead wait for someone else to speak up first.

Measures of Collaboration Gaps Team Failure Project Chicken

Number of participants who reported this problem 80% 55%

Percentage of projects affected 30% 31%

Persistence of the problem on these projects 80% 76%

Describe the issue as difficult or impossible to resolve 76% 61%

Someone spoke up at all 49% 42%

Someone spoke up skillfully and had some effect 14% 13%

Able to solve the problem 24% 26%

Impacts of Collaboration Gaps Team Failure Project Chicken

Exceeded budget 73% 78%

Missed deadlines 82% 86%

Missing or wrong functionality, or quality problems 77% 74%

Damage to team morale 69% 54%

Long list of problems to be resolved AFTER the project ended 24% 23%

Manage

Tasks Sustain Relationships

What Collaborative Leaders Do

Gratton, L. and Erickson, T.J. (2007). Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams. Harvard Business Review.

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Vocabulary of Collaborative Leaders

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

• Production • Schedule • Budget • Risks • Status • Roles • Outcomes • Tasks • Plans • Results • Reports

• Relationships • Mindsets and behaviours • Culture and practices • Input and advice • Individual and team

performance • Conflict resolution • Trust and respect • Enjoyment of the company of

the team • Mastery of task and

relationship skills • “We value people”

7 Kozlowski, S. W. J., Watola, D. J., Nowakowski, J.M., Kim, B. H., & Botero, I.C. Developing adaptive teams: A theory of dynamic team leadership. In E. Salas, G. F. Goodwin, & C.

S. Burke (Eds.). (2008). Team effectiveness in complex organizations: Cross-disciplinary perspectives and approaches (SIOP Frontiers Series).

Telling

Questioning

How Collaborative Leaders Speak

Schein, E. (2013). Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. Berrett-Koehler Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R. and Switzler, A. (2002). Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. McGraw-Hill

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What is Your Favourite Side of Your Brain?

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

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Computer Scientist Project Manager Ottawa Technology Anglophone

Bio-chemistry Lab Managers Toronto Government / Regulatory Anglophone

Information Technology Systems Analyst Montreal Government / Regulatory Francophone

Collaborative Leadership Case Study

Chemistry Lab Managers Montreal Government / Regulatory Bi-lingual

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Collaborative Leadership Advances Team Dynamics

Storming Norming Forming Performing

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399. doi: 10.1037/h0022100

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Tasks Relation-

ships Tasks

Relation-ships

Tasks Relation-

ships Tasks

Relation-ships

Forming

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

• Set the vision for the team and work • Establish roles and responsibilities • Confirm decision-making processes • Expect diverse views for the tasks, solutions,

and outcomes • Provide the process for escalation • Establish your leadership, by using more talking

time

• Enable team to get to know each other and feel included

• Open the floor for “What will we be known for?” • Give team members a fine reputation to live up to • Generate the Rules of Engagement • Describe team behaviour norms:

• That we expect conflicts and we resolve them

• That we share information • That we build on each other's ideas • That we focus on both tasks and

relationships • That we encourage contributions from all • That we speak more of “AND” over “BUT”

• Purpose and goals for the team are unclear • Members feel varying degrees of commitment • Members are cautious, don’t initiate and avoid responsibility • Communication is low and a few members often dominate • Members are dependent on directive leadership

12 Catalyst Consulting Team (2005). Catalyst Desk Reference. http://www.catalystonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Catalyst_Desk_Ref.jpg

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Storming

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

• Revise and reinforce roles and responsibilities • Support task completion and skill development • Plan, Execute, Monitor, Control • Intervene and lead task, process or business

conflict resolution / problem solving • Establish feedback cycles for work processes and

tasks: • What we should STOP doing • What we should CONTINUE doing • What we should START doing

• Listen and Paraphrase • Coach individual and team performance:

• Accommodating; Competing; Comprising; Avoiding; Dominating; Conflicts

• Create safety for team to speak up • “What do we want as a team? What don’t we

want as a team?” • “Could I check something with you?” • “Could we build on the idea from Evelyn?” • “Could we hear from Jeff, because he knows

about...?” • “Are you open to feedback?”

• Differences and confusion arise over goals and roles • Struggles erupt over approaches, direction and control • Team members react against boundaries, roles, team members and leadership with

counterproductive behaviours • Team is uncertain about how to deal with issues openly • Team wrestles with issues of communication • Members act from an independent stance

13 Catalyst Consulting Team (2005). Catalyst Desk Reference. http://www.catalystonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Catalyst_Desk_Ref.jpg

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Norming

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

• Facilitate processes • Support task interactions • Encourage alternate approaches • Get the work unstuck

• Celebrate wins, big and small • Listen and advise • Get the relationships unstuck • Encourage learning and skill development

• Team gains confidence and feels a sense of momentum • WHAT, HOW, WHO and WHEN become clarified • Team develops agreements on approaches, goals, communication, and leadership roles. • Team builds relationships with externals (customers, key stakeholders) • Members begin to relate interdependently

Catalyst Consulting Team (2005). Catalyst Desk Reference. http://www.catalystonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Catalyst_Desk_Ref.jpg

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Performing

Sustain Relationships Manage Tasks

• Get out of the way of immediate work and decisions

• Introduce strategic changes • Set the stage for the next initiatives • Solicit ideas for process, product and business

improvements

• Observe and support • Coach for high performance and next roles • Celebrate big wins • Develop talent

• Members take full responsibility for tasks and relationships • Team achieves effective and satisfying results • Team takes the initiative to continually assess external forces • Team facilitates itself easily • Members work proactively for the benefit of the team

Catalyst Consulting Team (2005). Catalyst Desk Reference. http://www.catalystonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Catalyst_Desk_Ref.jpg

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Collaborative Leadership: Signs of Success

Tabaka, J. (2006). Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders. Addison-Wesley Professional

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Are self-organizing vs. perpetuate a command and control top down organization

Are empowered to discuss, evaluate and make decisions vs. being dictated to by an outside authority

Understand the project vision and goals, and truly believe that, as a team, we can solve any problem to achieve those goals

Are committed to succeed as a team vs. individual success at any cost

Have the confidence to continually work in improving our ability to act without fear, anger, or bullying

Are engaged in participatory decision-making vs. bending to authoritarian decision-making or succumbing decisions from others

Are consensus-driven vs. leader-driven. Team members share opinions freely and participate in the final decision

Are able to negotiate through a variety of alternatives and impacts regarding a decision, and craft the one that provides the best outcome

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Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Would you agree that we as a team...?