Imagine this: your teammates are skilled and inspiring people, everyone's talents are beautifully expressed in their roles, everyone is motivated to achieve a common goal and contributes fully to it. There is room to anticipate and innovate, but also to solve problems. Short and long term are given adequate attention. Customers are extremely satisfied and the results exceed all expectations.
The other day I was at an organization that told roughly this story: everything is running smoothly, there is a good flow in all parts of the organization, everyone is happy: customers and employees, management and board get along well. Should we get carried away or should we get worried?
This was a thriving organization. Of course, there is always a next level... the hunger for improvement, innovation, future-proofing. It had been at least 10 years since I had experienced this. So it exists, but the reality is usually different and more unruly. It is almost like an ideal relationship or marriage: it exists, but it is increasingly rare.
Flourishing as a team and organization
To look at teams and organizations, I like to use the metaphor OIL, which I introduced 1.5 years ago in my book (OIL, How Organizations Get Moving). OIL is about the mental mindset and energy that people, teams and organizations need to thrive. So, not only to function well and effectively, but also to work and make impact with pleasure, deep satisfaction and in a meaningful way. To work and collaborate in a way that makes you happy and joyful.
It exists and it is accessible to any organization or leader. And it is not even very difficult to achieve. It is a profession, though. And it requires people-centered leadership! We often make it harder by - unconsciously and unintentionally - focusing on reason and control, using systems and processes, and ignoring human nature and psychology. That's what my book is about: the 5 keys to which you can can and must turn to achieve this.
It's going pretty well
When things are really not going well in teams or organizations, the urgency is so great that interventions are usually made. These are the familiar and visible interventions: reorganization, new CEO or interim director, new strategic direction, and so on.
Less obvious and clear is the middle part: you are not really thriving as a team or organization, but there is no crisis or conflict either. Things are not going quite right, but they are going pretty well. 'Pretty good' in many cases is a way of covering things up to keep the peace and be content with how things are going. Just as you see in relationships or marriages: quite content with each other, but not happy. Things can be better, more beautiful and sparkling.
Symptoms of lack of oxygen in teams
Everything starts with critical reflection and awareness. Taking a moment to reflect together on the question: How are we really doing, as people, as a team, as an organization? Not about the axis of content, but about cooperation and perception.
For inspiration, I like to share my insights on the top three symptoms of team or organizational stress that call for beneficial intervention. Or put another way, what do you recognize the lack of oxygen?
- Harmony and comfort: there are frequent tensions, conflicts of interest or discussions (who is right?). But the real, in-depth and honest conversation is avoided; it is a bit of give and take or forbearance. Or settling for the whims of others: he/she is always like this. The "desire" for harmony can be very strong and eventually lead to dysfunction. The biggest deception lies in not recognizing this symptom: after all, it does not really hurt, it is at most uncomfortable and (sometimes) frustrating. The cure: cleaning up the underwater world: learning to speak up, checking assumptions, learning to give and receive sincere feedback, deepening talent and motivation in collaboration.
- Permanently in overdrive: trying to solve everything with harder performance, speed and pressure. Almost all plans and projects are labeled "priority. These are teams and organizations that see speed and performance as the solution to getting ahead, in all areas and topics. They get a lot done, but it is often at the expense of people's well-being and energy. Haste, fatigue and exhaustion lurk. The medicine is more in the category of learning to slow down and reconnect with other talents and needs, rather than linear and constant performance. Think: really listening, delaying judgments and asking through, personal motivation and meaning, starting the conversation about everyone's legacy.
- The sameness and comfort of one's own silo: teams and organizations in which specialties or departments form into islands or sometimes strong bastions. It all looks and feels solid, but the connection is weak. Self-interests become more important than the general corporate interest. When things are not going so well, there is a need to assign blame. This is not only visible in the culture (reactive, defensive, explaining), but often also in the management meetings, where the emphasis is on explaining and justifying. And thus not on cooperation and strengthening each other (from a common dream and ambition). Here the remedy must come from another angle: (re)discovering the power of connection, having open conversations, empathy and good listening, learning to feel comfortable discussing discomfort, getting to know each other's triggers and your own and learning to deal with them in a mature and connecting way.
Patterns of the subconscious
The above symptoms often form unconsciously and unintentionally, and that is immediately the difficult thing about them. They are therefore perpetuated in the system even when they no longer provide any real benefits.
And as with many forms of wear and tear, ingrained patterns in this case, you don't notice it right away and get used to it. And that's a shame about a team's untapped potential. All the greater the relief when we get teams back in the right flow. That's the best part of our job!
Want to learn more about how to work on a flourishing team?
Then check out how SOURCE can help you and your team. Get touched, challenge yourself and discover how desire can reoxygenate leadership, culture and collaboration.
Would you prefer to spar with Jempi? Then contact [email protected], then we will make an appointment without obligation.
