The State of Teams - Teams That Learn Together Flourish Together
In my previous newsletter, I shared the #1 reason teams flounder is because members don’t feel safe to speak their truth or challenge each other’s thinking.
The #2 reason teams flounder is as significant, given it’s a symptom of the first: team members aren’t open to learning with and from one another. They resist seeking feedback, avoid admitting to mistakes, and rarely ask for help.
But here’s the truth: teams that learn together, flourish together.
As a team coach, I believe more important than learning to team, is teaming to learn.
From a decade of coaching leadership teams, one pattern is consistent: teams most open to learning - by asking for help, owning mistakes, and giving feedback - are the ones that transition to become more high-performing, collaborative teams.
To flourish is less about the smarts and skills of the team and more about the curiosity and courage in the team. By being more curious, teams grow in wisdom and do smarter things.
Here are three ways to help your team learn and grow in wisdom:
Invite peer-learning partnerships - Learning is social process - it thrives on reflection and dialogue. Pairing team members into peer-learning partnerships creates safety and support, making it easier to experiment, fail, and grow. We learn best with and from our peers.
Give the “gifts of 1’s and 5’s” - A rating of ‘3’ on a 5-point scale signals no learning. But a ‘gift of 1’ highlights the greatest opportunity for growth, and a ‘gift of 5’ celebrates a strength we encourage more of. High-performing teams generously gift each other “1’s and 5’s”.
Identify other’s learning priorities - Teams that flourish, take responsibility for each other’s growth. Mutual accountability grows when members identify one another’s learning priorities, not just their own.
INVITATION
To access more of your team’s wisdom, demonstrate your courage and vulnerability by asking them:
How could we be wrong in our thinking?
What must we unlearn to learn?
How may we be contributing to the problem?
Leaders distinguish themselves by their knowledge; teams distinguish themselves by their wisdom. However, knowledge is finite whilst wisdom is infinite. As Julio Olalla, founder of the Newfield Network, said, “knowledge is a love affair with answers and wisdom is a love affair with questions.”
To access more of the team’s collective capacity and capability and grow in wisdom, be more curious. Curiosity is the source of all innovation and creativity.
May you flourish.