News

To complement our successful Respectful Workplace Series, PEEL brings you the Diversity and Inclusion Introductory Workshop. PEEL believes inclusive cultures and a diverse workforce can drive innovation and collaboration, create trusted partnerships with your customers, suppliers and community partners, and contribute to the success and sustainability of your organisation.

Although there is more to workplace diversity than a single workshop can provide, our introductory Diversity and Inclusion Workshop does have the ability to increase awareness, impart knowledge, and educate employees on how to accept differences among fellow employees. It keeps the team talking about Diversity and Inclusion and how it applies to the work they perform every day, thereby assisting to break down the barriers.

The Introductory Diversity and Inclusion Workshop will support your internal D&I and EEO strategies and represents an opportunity for you to educate your employees about the importance and benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Rather than focusing on telling people what not to do, what not to say and what not to believe, this 2-hour introductory workshop focuses on helping people to work out what they can do - how they can proactively build inclusive workplaces.

Specifically the workshop covers….

• What is Diversity and Inclusion about
• The benefits of valuing Diversity and Inclusion within the workplace
• What we each can do to encourage an inclusive workplace
• Generalising v Stereotyping – what’s the difference and why does it matter
• Unconscious Bias – what is it?
• To have an awareness of your individual biases

Mediation for One….try Conflict Management Coaching as an alternative.

Conflict Management Coaching (CMC) is another option organisations can access through PEEL to support the resolution of conflict in the workplace. Conflict coaching supports the early resolution or management of conflict and restoration of working relationships. Using the CINERGY® Conflict Coaching Model, CMC is a structured process designed to adopt a supportive and problem solving approach to managing conflict.

A specially trained coach works one-on-one with the coachee who is experiencing conflict with another person, working with them to improve the way they manage and interact in their interpersonal workplace conflicts and disputes. It is a future-oriented process that focuses on each person’s specific conflict management goals. CMC is not therapy or counselling. The CM Coach does not provide advice or act as a representative but rather, helps people gain increased competence and confidence to manage their interpersonal conflicts. CMC enables the coachee to talk about the conflict with a neutral third party (the conflict coach), consider options for managing the conflict and explore options for managing the conflict with the other person.

CMC is designed to help people shift their thinking, perspectives and behaviour in relation to the conflict. It is about empowering the person in dealing with their conflicts. As people generally are unable to change other people’s behaviour, coaching assists them to work out strategies that they can use in dealing with the person with whom they are in conflict.

CMC is a voluntary and confidential process which generally encompasses a series of individual sessions (the number of session will vary depending on the particular brief). The CM coach can work with both parties to the conflict or one party. CMC is can be used when you first have grumblings of conflict manifesting or post a workplace investigation when parties need to move forward with their relationships.

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Change is challenging for most people, especially if they were not directly involved in decisions which may impact their jobs. Managing your people and workplace concerns during a period uncertainty is one of the most significant challenges to be faced by Leaders and HR practitioners.

However, wide scale change is a catalyst to cultural change.Your culture will change when there are changes to direction, structures and process.Culture is the outcome of these changes.It is an opportunity to be relished not one to be fawned.Grab it with both hands and travel with it, shape it.

While the change is occurring, times will be difficult.People are not always going to love the new direction straight away.Strong leadership is required.As the dust settles, a new culture will emerge.You want to ensure the culture shaped by the new processes will be one that enables the achievement of the organisations strategic direction.

In the time before the dust settles, careful planning, focused communication and support for your people is needed to maintain a level of calm.

Most people prefer a predictable and stable work environment. Quite naturally, during organisational change, such as an amalgamation or merger, there is a perceived winner and loser and as such, people fight against change. They fear it because it presents a threat to the way they have gone about their work, they fear losing control, they fear the consequences on their remuneration, they question their competence and often struggle with the increased workloads which accompany change processes. Conflict which may have been sizzling underneath or between people and teams will often surface during periods of organisational change. This conflict can become destructive if there isn’t a willingness to collaborate and work towards a solution.

Leaders and HR practitioners must be able to recognize the difference between healthy constructive and destructive conflict. According to Robbins and Judge (2009, Organisational Behaviour), ‘conflict is constructive when it improves the quality of decisions, stimulates creativity and innovation, encourages interest and curiosity among group members, provides the medium through which problems can be aired and tensions released, and fosters an environment of self-evaluation and change’. This is where new cultures are built.Conflict can be particularly destructive if it is suppressed. Resentment and tension can build and people can explode. Leaders need to be able to identify such conflict and intervene early to de-escalate it.Leaders need to be skilled to identify healthy conflict and support it.

As a leader you can facilitate and support a culture of a healthy response to workplace conflict by:

• Modelling, demonstrating and showing commitment to desired behaviours around communication.
• Talking with employees separately.Be a sounding board and encourage them to reflect on their concerns to ensure they have them in perspective. Work with them to determine if there are any changes they can make to the situation which may affect a change to the way it is operating.
• Getting people talking with each other to resolve differences. Leaders have a role in encouraging and supporting this through providing guidance and coaching on how to approach such difficult conversations.
• Taking action and addressing issues before it’s too late. The means leaders need to be prepared to have discussions with their teams and show a willingness to listen and understand issues and concerns as this can lead to increased insight, changed outlooks and the generation of solutions to problems.
• Setting clear expectations around roles and responsibilities and standards of behaviour and be prepared to have conversations when these are infringed.
• Undertaking a team building exercise to allow staff to become aware of and talk about their work preferences – this is often a source of conflict.

Conflict is inevitable and even more so when massive changes are thrust upon people. Managing conflict and workplace concerns which erupt during these times is a critical management function.

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Patrick Lencioni, renowned author of 5 Team Dysfunctions, recently gave an interesting webinar on something that speaks to our credo. He addressed his 20 years of experience with Healthy Organisations, which are effectively high performance-facilitating cultures. The clincher for us though was his reinforcement that Healthy Conflict is an underpinning ingredient in a strong culture. Without it, all will suffer.

He elaborated on content in his latest book ‘The Advantage: Why Organisational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business’. We have summarised, for you, the key messages from the webinar that related to role of Healthy Conflict in organisational effectiveness.

Lencioni purports, that irrespective of how “clever” an organisation is, intelligence is necessary, but not sufficient. Nothing will succeed in surpassing competition and customer expectations without a strong, healthy culture. By that he describes a culture that has strong leadership, clearly communicated priorities and an acceptance of and encouragement to challenge and debate pivotal performance issues.

Lencioni spoke about obvious downsides existing in an unhealthy organisation such as sitting in a meeting when key business decisions are required and people are not honestly contributing. He described, in those circumstances, the best decisions are not made, the poorer decision is not committed to and supported with resolve and ultimately performance and productivity suffers.

Patrick Lencioni talks about the 4 Disciplines of a healthy organisation. He reinforces that the Disciplines must be driven by the Leader of an organisation –

1.Build a Cohesive Leadership Team - Start with the behaviours of the leadership team. The leadership team must be behaviourally tight. That is, they must trust each other, argue well, focus on the collective good rather than individual silos, and hold each other to account.

2.Create Clarity – The leadership team must be intellectually aligned around 6 key questions that provide clarity to the organisation. That is,

a.Why do we exist or matter as a business?

b. Our key behavioural values?

c.What business are we in?

d.What makes us different? – strategic anchors

e.Our Focus - What are our top priorities right now?

f. Roles and Responsibilities – who is responsible for this?

3.Over Communication Clarity – Constantly remind people about the key questions. Be repetitious!

4.Reinforce Clarity – Develop human systems that reflect the clarity provided by clear answers to the 6 key questions, for example, “recruit on Values”

Healthy conflict underpins these Disciplines, critical to building a healthy organisation. If healthy conflict doesn’t occur then the resolution of the tough questions and the quality of big decisions will suffer. It is necessary to disagree and have challenging conversations on the “WHAT” and “HOW” organisations deliver value.

Lencioni talked about the Conflict Continuum. The Conflict Continuum has a state of artificial harmony at one end. That is, where everyone is very “lovely” to one another and no one disagrees. He took the view that most teams cling to this end of the Continuum due to their fear of disagreement. At the opposite end of the Conflict Continuum, people edge towards destructive conflict, which Lencioni described as overt, mean-spirited behaviour.

Lencioni promoted the place to “live” is in the middle. The precise point is where he sees one more “step” will land you in the destructive conflict arena. It takes bravery to live in the middle. When living in the middle, you will occasionally step over the line to destructive conflict. But, he explained the key then is for the team to have the skills to confront what moved them into the unhealthy conflict arena and the best means to repair it.

Sound easy ? - It does but we know that somehow, more often than not, it doesn’t occur without “bumps”. A mixture of not having the skills, the bravery, the time and fearing the response are the inertial forces behind staying at the “artificial harmony” end of the continuum. We also know, as Lencioni points out, that conflict is not often encouraged. It often has a negative tag. The concept of healthy conflict is not embraced.

Lencioni described the two aspects that create more momentum for healthy conflict. Firstly, create an environment where healthy conflict is embraced. Create in team members an expectation that they will be confronted and they have prepared themselves to challenge and engage in disagreement as standard behaviour in decision making processes. They then begin to see that more active “weighing in” to the debate, produce better decisions, more commitment to the decisions and overall more purposeful, collective execution.

Secondly, when healthy conflict tips into the destructive arena there is an expectation that it will be resolved and it will occur quickly. Lencioni takes the view that when there is a hit to trust between employees, trust rebuilt can make the working relationship stronger. Our view is there is a caveat on that, trust can be rebuilt if the erosion wasn’t massive (to the point of distrust) and if it is addressed quickly and transparently. Realistically, embedded conflict is super difficult to repair and can sustain a deep scar. Sometimes, team members need a nudge to know when the line has been tipped and redirection or repair work is necessary. Leaders need to be on the look out for conflict moving into the unhealthy arena and step in, subtly initially, to support the team members to address the concern directly.

It is as easy as Lencioni describes, if you create the climate that encourages healthy challenge and constructive conflict and people have the skills to challenge in a healthy manner and resolve conflict when it tips into the unhealthy zone. Which is consistent with our previous PEEL news on this very issue. Skills can be built through our in-house programs – Healthy Conversations and Leading Healthy Conversations. Both supported by our tool-kit, Interactive Guide for Leaders: Resolving & Promoting a Respectful & Collaborative Workplace which supports leaders in identifying conflict between members early. Also our Team Collaboration Workshop works with high performing teams in moving them to hum.

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Do you have teams where there is disharmony; where communication is poor and collaboration is low?

Do you have teams who are performing but you want to take them to the next level?

Click on the below link to learn more about how PEEL is using the Team Management Profile (TMP) to work with teams to communicate and interact in a more effective and collaborative manner.

BuildingTeamCollaborationPDF.pdf

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It is common for people to wait until conflict escalates before they do something about it, often this can mean significant impacts have been occurring to individuals and teams around them in the meantime. PEEL HR now offers Conflict Management Coaching (CMC) as a proactive, alternative strategy for organisations to have in their toolkit when they are supporting individuals who are in conflict.

CMC can be implemented at any point before, during, or after conflict. For example:

Before conflict – (i.e. before an unnecessary evolution of it) – such as where a person expects to get pushback and negative reactions to the delivery of a difficult message. For example, when managers are reticent to give performance feedback or conduct a performance review as they anticipate negative reactions from certain employees or where an individual needs to deal with challenging situations, such as meetings.

During the Conflict – CMC at this point in a conflict situation helps the person to consider how the conflict can be better managed rather than letting it escalate, such as to assist them in having a conversation with the other person.

After the Conflict – (e.g. post-mediation coaching) — CMC can be used to help individuals with any unresolved responses, or to manage ongoing interactions or consider what to do differently in the future if the same sort of situation arises.

This type of coaching is ‘Dispute Specific Coaching.’ Meaning, the coach helps people to focus on a particular dispute that is adversely affecting their work and working relationships. In these situations the Coach guides the person to conduct a structured analysis of the dispute, to gain insights about their own conduct in the dispute and to engage in a problem-solving dialogue with the other person. The main objectives of this process is to coach participants to:

• Identify their goals for managing conflict effectively;
• Reflect on the ways they react and contribute to conflict;
• Consider how they react to certain triggers;
• Shift unhelpful reactions to conflict to constructive responses;
• Consider and develop alternate ways to approach conflict;
• Improve language and communication skills in order to interact and address conflictual situations more effectively; and
• Reduce the harmful impact of conflict on themselves and others.

Dispute Specific Coaching may take four to eight sessions to complete (approximately an hour for each session), with increased awareness occurring in between the sessions due to seeds planted during coaching. The CMC coach uses a range of skills, including powerful questions that engender new perspectives about each person’s contribution to the conflict, including their own. CMC seeks to move people from reaction to reflection, which ultimately facilitates a more rational analysis and choice of action.

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“Stop, Collaborate and listen” is the most famous line of Vanilla Ice’s 1990 chart topping song” Ice Ice Baby”, a song that still resonates with many today. Love it or hate it, when building team collaboration, the lyrics “stop, collaborate and listen” embody a fundamental philosophy in enhancing team effectiveness within organisations.

Teams are becoming increasingly more diverse, cross-functional, they can be dispersed across locations and are more technologically reliant, all of whom can be reporting to the same leader and working towards the same goals and deadlines. However, despite the team dynamic shift, whether they be large or small, the genesis of team collaboration requires design.The design of three underpinning pillars – team direction, team structure, and support mechanisms.

Team Direction

A clear direction for the team provides purpose and alignment. This provides everyone within the team with an understanding of what the team’s purpose and goals are, and importantly, how each individual within the team contributes to it.

Team Structure

A well-structured team allows team members to know their contribution, opportunities for interdependency and expected behaviours. There is great value in difference – autonomous thinking by team members will be more creative and arrive at more sustainable decisions through diversity of thought.

Team Structure can be enhanced through:

• Establishing a Team Charter that is particular to the team and aligned to organisational values;
• Defining team ground rules and acceptable conduct expected of each other. These rules don’t have to be complex and could be as simple as arriving to team meetings on time and not interrupting when someone is speaking;
• Reviewing the team structure and its members – is there the right number and mix of team members to achieve its objectives?
• Assessing the office setting, is it open or does it allow space for teams to break out and collaborate?

Support Mechanisms

Team members need the empowerment, encouragement, support and space to challenge, coupled with the resources and training required to effectively perform. Challenge is essential in supporting team growth and sits on a precipice that can tip to unhealthy conflict. The likelihood of unhealthy conflict within teams is increased as the size of the team increases.

Effective Support Mechanisms to enhance team performance include:

• Shared knowledge and information - whether it be via regular round table discussions or team information forums (virtual or face to face);
• Conducting Effective Team Meetings - including the generation of team ideas and opinions. When possible, face to face meetings encourage greater relationship building amongst teams, however if teams are geographically dispersed the use of Skype and other technology can support this approach;
• Learning agility – encouraging and supporting team members to continually develop through formal, informal and on-the-job learning;
• Empower healthy conflict - incorporate a team stated terms of reference for interactions that describe and support healthy conflict;
• Encourage feedback – direct feedback and structured such as 360-degree team member review;
• Creating network collaboration opportunities within the team to get to know and understand each other. When teams understand the different work preferences of team members, the team can then understand how each other utilises information, makes decisions, communicates and operates, generating greater outcomes;
• Informal mentoring to support employee continuous development, this could be done via a number of avenues including in leaders one on one discussions with employees, incorporated into adhoc discussions or inviting employees to be involved or attend senior meetings or discussions; and
• Team Collaboration provides a competitive advantage to organisations, supports the achievement of team and organisational objectives via collaborative efforts and also enhances the kind of workplace people want to work at. A recruitment, retention and branding initiative that money can’t buy!

At Peel HR we are passionate about collaboration and have facilitated hundreds of team collaboration workshops with organisations who want to build collaborative workplaces. We would love to partner with your organisation to enhance your team’s effectiveness through our Team Collaboration Workshop.

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“Tis the season to be jolly…” or so the saying goes. But for many Leaders, it can be a far cry from that. At PEEL we know December is upon us, or as we say, “The Christmas lights are on”, as our phones light up and our emails hit overdrive with a surge in workplace concerns being raised and the Christmas parties have not even begun!

Whilst it’s a wonderful time of year, unfortunately Christmas can also be a catalyst for underlying frustrations and conflicts to be aired in the workplace. Why is that? The rush towards Christmas can be overwhelming both personally and professionally. As we come to the end of the year, we all have other things affecting the way we go about our work, whether it be –

• Trying to pump out work that has been hanging about so deadlines are complete by the end of the year so they don’t carry over.
• The lethargy we are feeling from the year to date.
• The pressures of over demanding children who have iPads and ponies on their Santa lists, as we brace ourselves for the onslaught of in-laws and relatives who are about to invade our homes. Or we have the after effects of the weekends spent with sun, surf and sand and can only focus on getting more of that over the holiday break.

Overlay these with the normal work issues around resourcing, cost-cuts and unachieved work targets and it is the perfect recipe for increasing temperatures around the workplace.

In addition to communicating and distributing your Respectful Workplace Policies and Organisational Values as reminders of appropriate behaviours to be followed at work Christmas Parties (if you haven’t done this already you still have time), you might want to consider some additional strategies to assist you in keeping things ‘chilled’ in your teams as they push toward the end of the year. As a Leader we encourage you to be particularly proactive at this time of year. Talk openly with your teams. Why not at your next team meeting engage your team in a discussion about managing the pressures which come with the end of year rush. To assist you, here are our top 5 tips for Leaders as the Christmas Lights start to flick on:

• Talk with your teams about work preferences. Remind them they each have different ways in which they prefer to work. That as individuals they all approach their work in different ways – they think in different ways, they plan in different ways and they communicate in different ways. For example, some people like to crystallise thoughts by talking and others prefer to think first; or some people like to follow a plan where as others prefer a more flexible approach to their work. The key message here is there is no right or wrong preferred style of working, it is just a different preference they each have and that whilst at other times of the year they may be more tolerant of these differences, given the pressures of the year end, they may need to remind themselves to be patient with each other, to be respectful in their interactions or to talk with each other in the first instance, rather than becoming irritated or frustrated.

• Encourage your team to communicate face-to-face, especially if they need to discuss something important. Remind them that if they do have to have a difficult conversation to plan for it before they have it and to focus on trying to find some common ground, given that a difficult conversation should not be about getting what you want. Remind them to check their emotions, to be vigilant self-monitors. Is what they are about to say to their colleague an appropriate response? Would they like to have the same thing said to them? Furthermore remind them not to make assumptions, encourage them to ask questions of each other and seek clarification with each before they jump to conclusions. If they do need to communicate a difficult decision and this has to be done by email, encourage them to take a second to re-read it before they press send. Ask them to challenge themselves - Is it clear? Is the tone the way they want it to be? Would they be happy to receive the email in the manner it is written?

• Two heads are better than one. Encourage a collaborative approach to resolving operational issues. For example, if deadlines in the team are not going to be met, encourage them to flag this early with you and with each other so a more collaborative approach to resolving the situation can be taken rather than key individuals burning the candle at both ends in an attempt to achieve the unachievable, which only makes for shorter fuses in the team.

• Be supportive.At this time of year, some people report higher levels of stress or depression. Encourage your teams to watch for signs of people who are under the pump or are not being themselves. Ask them to act on it early and check in with each other - ‘R U OK’ or encourage them to escalate it to you as the Leader so further support and assistance can be provided. As a Leader, encourage your team members to leave the workplace on time as often as they can between now and the end of the year so they have time to balance their personal commitments and not feel pressured by them.

• Model the Behaviour. As the Leader - guide, inspire and motivate. There’s usually so much to do in such a short time before the sun sets on 2014. Keep a list of workplace deliverables to keep you and the team on track but be sure you evaluate your expectations, both of yourself and your team. Are you being realistic in what can be achieved between now and the end of the year? This is also the time to show your appreciation – listen, acknowledge and be present. Simply acknowledging your team and sincerely thanking them specifically for their work, their attitude and their commitment are important. Never underestimate the power of the words “thank you”.

For advice on any matters contact us at PEEL HR: 1300 665 144 or at email@peelhr.com.au or Check out our website at www.peelhr.com.aufor all course details. 1300 665 144 Read More

As market demands shift, organisations are ever-changing. The idea of ‘team’ is not just in the traditional term of a group of people who are all physically in the same location, reporting to the same manager, working to the same timeframes for similar goals.  Today, the idea of ‘team’ can also include a cross-functional project team working for a defined period of time on a specific project, or a virtual team who do not work in the same location and may not even work during the same hours of the day, or various teams combined through matrix reporting functions.  Despite the shifting defining elements of an organisational team, there is one thing that doesn’t change: collaboration is key to a sustainable, high performing team.

What do we mean by ‘team collaboration’?

You walk into a project ‘war room’ and you can feel the hum of energy.  In one corner, a group of team members are huddled around a white board, each one with a whiteboard marker in their hand, jumping in to contribute to the brainstorming session they are having on the creative name for their newly-developed product.  In another corner, the rest of the team are working together to map out where they are at on the project timeline, drawing in the information each has gathered from the group to build the inevitable Gantt chart.  The groups then come together to replay to the others what they have achieved, challenging different views, all whilst continuing to build on the ideas of the others and finish with a shortlisted proposal for the new product name and a finalised list of end deliverables for the project, to be presented to the Project Board the next week.  The effectiveness of the team is palpable.

As Aristotle said, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.

This is workplace team collaboration in motion.  Technically, it can be defined as where ‘the members of the group are known, there are clear task interdependencies, expected reciprocity, and explicit time-lines and goals’[1].  In practice, the synergy achieved through a collaborative team is noticeable through the team’s high levels of achievement, innovative and constructively challenging culture and positive energy.  The collaborative team is the team we all want to be on.

Why collaborate?

Or, should we say: Why not?  Through team collaboration, organisations can harness their competitive advantage – you can’t sell, copy or steal genuinely collaborative relationships that have been built within a team.  You build an agile organisation that is not dependant on hierarchy, but empowers ownership and accountability for success at the team level. You establish a learning organisation, constantly hunting for continuous improvement through learning from each other, building cross-functional and cross-skilled teams who thrive on developing the team’s success.  You can ensure that more complex issues are solved more easily and in a shorter time frame, based on a collection of thoughts and inputs from a diverse range of individuals who respect each other for their different experiences and backgrounds.  You also develop a group of people who positively challenge the boundaries to grow and develop your business.

A truly collaborative team doesn’t prioritise hierarchy, but does have very clear set roles and responsibilities.  This means that the team focuses on a decrease of power-based influences (whether this power is derived from status, tenure, age etc) and an increase in informational influence, based on what each person can bring to the table in their skills and experiences.  This, in turn, increases an organisation’s capacity to serve its customers, employees and stakeholders to achieve greater success.

If your focus is more on the ‘dollars and cents’, then here are some figures for you: a study completed in the USA found that, by focusing on the establishment of collaborative teams, organisations were able to increase the productivity of those teams by an average of 50%[2].  Imagine what you could do with a 50% increase in your team’s productivity …

So, again, the question begs: why not build collaborative teams?

The success factors

It can be easy to talk about wanting to build collaborative teams; generally we accept the benefits of collaborative teams in any size or structure of an organisation.  The clincher becomes the question of ‘how?’.  We have taken the opportunity to pull together some success factors in building a collaborative team, which will hopefully start and/or continue your journey to collaboration:

• Increase informational influence – When a team forms, take the opportunity to discuss the relevant skills and experiences each member brings to the table.  Everyone has the opportunity to have equal input.  This shifts the balance of the participants from social influence (based on factors such as role status, tenure, organisational experience, gender or cultural background), to informational influence (based on relevant knowledge, experience or skill, to the team goal at hand).[3]  This reinforces the notion amongst the team that everyone has input and everyone’s opinion is valued.

• Knowledge is power – allow teams to know themselves and their colleagues and you will unleash the power of collaboration.  Encourage, promote and champion diversity of thought and style. Through the understanding of different work preferences of the team, team members can understand how each other makes decisions, relates with others, gathers and uses information and how each person organises themselves (and/or others!).  A great diagnostic tool to build this awareness is the Team Management Profile™, by Team Management Systems.PEEL HR can tailor a Team Collaboration workshop for you, that draws on the individual Team Management Profile of each member of your team; to create your high performing team.

• Trust is key –  Patrick Lencioni builds his theory of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team[4] on the idea that trust is the foundational characteristic of any high-performing, collaborative team.  Without trust in each other, team members cannot be functional or perform at their best; it’s a distractor to the end game.  Trust involves being vulnerable, to enable the building of trust in and of each other. It takes courage to be vulnerable; it takes vulnerability to achieve.

• Have a clear, common goal that everyone can ‘buy into’.  Each team member needs to understand how their role and performance contributes to the team, and the organisation’s, ultimate success.

• Permit conflict – you don’t need to agree on the outcome, however to build collaboration everyone needs to have a voice.  If people disagree, they need to and are encouraged to, raise it.  No ideas are bad ideas; they should engage in health conflict.  However once a decision is made by whomever is responsible for making the decision, the team supports that position.  If further debate is required, it is done constructively and openly in the right arena; not in whispers and behind closed doors.

• Have clear team priorities – what are the outputs that, if the team as a whole doesn’t deliver, will be considered as unsuccessful.  Name the top 3 to 5 priorities and everyone contributes towards these priorities.  All scarce resources are diverted (as needed), to these priorities.  The team has clarity on what they are doing, what success will look like, and why they are doing it (what’s the end game?).

• Look after each other – professionally and personally.  We all have a responsibility to our peers to watch out for their safety, including their psychological safety and wellbeing.

• Inspire the yearn to learn – from each other, and from people external to the team.  Promote and reward continuous learning – think, do, reflect, learn, do differently.

• Have the right systems in place – reward systems, performance management systems, communication systems – all of it.  At every point, ask the question: “Does this go towards building the team?”  Each needs to contribute towards building a culture of collaboration, so that open collaboration within and across teams simply becomes ‘How we do things around here’.  Minimise individual rewards; focus on team rewards.  By being clear on the performance goals, behaviours and values that the team are adhering to, you can use the performance management system to ensure all team members are contributing appropriately. One way of doing this is through aligned team values.

• Aligned team values – This could be a team charter, or it could be a handful of key words that have a commonly understood meaning.  The team values should be particular to the team and align with the organisational values, if they exist.  The values should be underpinned by behaviours, so the team members know how to demonstrate the values.  One or two ‘Focus Values’ or behaviours may change each year, to enable you to maintain the focus of the team.  Ensure all members of the team understand the values and behaviours that are expected of each other; and that every colleague has the authority to hold each other member of the team accountable to demonstrating those values and behaviours.

• As Jim Collins said in Good to Great[5]: Get the right people on the bus.  Not everyone will be a cultural or team fit; they may have competing priorities, ambitions, expectations or experience.  Having a constructive and supportive conversation with a member of your team who is currently experiencing ‘Square Peg, Round Hole Syndrome’ enables them to find the right role for them, which will be a more fulfilling outcome for the individual, as well as the team.

• And, last but absolutely not least: Ensure your Leadership Team is leading by example; by promoting a respectful workplace that engages in constructive conversations in everything they do.

At PEEL HR, we are passionate about collaboration.  We love to partner with organisations who want to build collaborative workplaces, so if you believe your organisation could benefit from our passion and experience in building collaborative teams, call us on 1300 665 1441300 665 144.

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• Hiding. Looking the other way in the hope that the situation will take care of itself.
• Hurrying. Rushing the resolution in order to normalise things as quickly as possible.
• Handballing. Passing all difficult people matters directly to HR.

Rather than reacting like this, leaders at all levels of the organisation need the initiative, courage and skill to facilitate conflict in healthy ways. PEEL HR is excited to be launching a resource next week that will help organisations develop their leaders in this way. The resource is titled ‘An Interactive Guide for Leaders: Resolving conflict and promoting a respectful and collaborative workplace’. It contains videos, checklists and guidelines that empower leaders at all levels to know how to facilitate conflict with confidence. Click to watch a sample video.

If you’re heading along to the AHRI National Convention and Exhibition in Melbourne next week (19-21 August) come and join us at stand #93. We’d love to meet you, show you the guide, and put you in the running to win a free copy!

If you’re not heading along to the AHRI National Convention and Exhibition, you can find out more about the guide in the following ways:

• Get in contact with one of our consultants by phoning 1300 665 1441300 665 144
• Follow us on LinkedIn where we post updates and share useful resources

PEEL will also be running events and training in NSW and Victoria over the coming months that can help develop the collaborative capability of your organisation. We look forward to partnering with you!

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http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_dare_to_disagree.html. 

Conflict allows people to be creative and solve problems.  It allows the boundaries to be stretched.  Conflict should not be feared.  It should be considered as ‘thinking’.

Margaret Heffernan says organisations don’t think because people are too afraid to conflict.  They don’t ‘think’ and stretch and problem solve together, so the organisation ultimately doesn’t get the best out of its people.  We are hard wired to avoid conflict.  We can only change this and have people embrace conflict by giving them the skills to manage conflict in a healthy constructive way.  Then they wont be afraid of what follows a disagreement.  They will have the confidence to have robust discussion and know that when it is getting a bit shaky or grey they will be able to manage a positive outcome.

Doesn’t this strike you as perfect for your next enterprise negotiations?! There is a climate where you certainly won’t have echo chambers and most probably you will have conflict and disagreement.  For collaboration to occur in your negotiations you just need to ensure that the negotiation parties are thinking partners.  So there are a couple more ingredients  –

Ø  ensure the negotiation team is made up of people who think in different ways.

Ø  people have the courage to disagree at the negotiation table.

Ø  everyone is willing and open to change their minds. 

Ø  commitment to a higher goal or purpose, that is, what is the enterprise agreement going to achieve.

Of course, people also need to be given the skills to conflict in a healthy way and problem solve.

PEEL has various inhouse training programs focused on building collaboration whether it is within your teams or in enterprise negotiations.  For more info on our inhouse training portfolio click here.

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Central to collaboration are the notions of TRUST, RESPECT, and RESPONSIBILITY & ACCOUNTABILITY. Where there is a lack of these elements the way is paved for the formation of a ‘toxic environment’, which breeds hostility, creates pessimism, drives away talent and prevents your organisation from reaching its potential. However, to have these characteristics in your organisation you need for your leaders and your staff to be able to have healthy conversations with each other, diffuse conflict and demonstrate behaviours that allow responsibility and mutual accountability to flourish

“People are not your greatest asset. Our ability to manage people – to create an environment for them to succeed is our greatest asset.”
(T.Wilson: Jack and the Team that Couldn’t See.)

Q: How then do you create an environment for your people to succeed?

A: You need to work toward developing the structures, systems and behaviours that align with collaborative principles. Organisations need to be able to create the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and support systems necessary to create collaboration.

Collaboration is more than just sharing information, it is a process by which people and organisations work together, efficiently and effectively. When you have a collaborative organisation it means that you are able to:

• Have robust and healthy conversations that challenge and develop ideas
• Have conversations with your people that are open and honest
• Have a richer understanding of people’s interests earlier thereby preventing unhealthy conflict
• Ensure an alignment of values and behaviours
• Manage for positive performance
• Have goals and objectives realised

Consider the quote by T. Wilson above and then ask these questions about how your leaders interact with their teams.
Are your leaders able to….

• Clarify what is important?
• Set expectations?
• Give honest feedback?
• Hold people accountable?
• Diffuse conflict early?

Are your employees able to…

• Take responsibility and participate in resolving conflict?
• Model the behaviours expected of them?
• Have open and honest conversations with each other?

Collaborative organisations capitalise on the abilities of their people at all levels of the organisation. At PEEL we focus on building capability that supports collaborative principles across three branches – Employee Development, Leaders Development and Support Development. PEEL have upcoming programs in Newcastle and Melbourne during February and March that focus on developing the capability of your people in skills that support the foundations of collaboration. Our Managing for performance Program is running in Newcastle on 25 & 26 February and Melbourne on 21 & 22 March.

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Collaboration is the key to winning gold and having a successful fulfilled team ! The review into culture and leadership in Australian Olympic Swimming and their tribulations at the London Olympics reinforces that the management of collaboration is a critical element for a team to achieve success. The findings contained in the Culture Review into Australian Olympic Swimming submitted to Swimming Australia by Bluestone Edge was released to the public last week and reflects on some of the key gaps in the team’s values, behaviours and supporting systems.

Collaboration not only means a richer understanding of people’s interests earlier which can be harnessed to prevent unhealthy conflict and ensure alignment of values and behaviours, but it also means robust conversations that leverages differences in perspective, experience and knowledge to generate new ideas and new solutions to achieving goals and objectives.

Does your team collaborate ? Do you lead collaborative behaviours within your team ?  If you see the following behaviours in your team, you know you are on the right track.

• Team members spend time with each other supporting achieving each others goals, that is, they have a commitment to the success of the team and not just themselves individually
• Team members initiate healthy conflict and robust discussion that is topic based
• They respectfully and constructively question whether there is another way
• Team members constructively explore their differing opinions and approaches and search for solutions beyond their own
• Team members have a priority for learning from within and across teams and so provide honest constructive feedback
• Team members make efforts towards inclusion such as sharing experiences, knowledge and techniques, not hoard it
• Team members seek out and build strong and sustainable relationships outside their team
• Team members have knowledge of each other’s work, communication and learning styles
• Team members call each other on their behaviours when they are un-collaborative
• Team members take accountability and personal responsibility

Your behaviour as a leader would expand upon these and reflect your modelling of a responsive, inspiring and ethical leader.  You certainly would be willing to have hard conversations.  Your behaviours would reinforce the importance of the team behaviours, such as, responding immediately to un-collaborative behaviours identified by you or escalated to you.

Articulated behaviours provide a consistent approach and ensure the cohesion necessary for productive collaborative effort.  These behaviours should be further broken down and particularised for your team.  If you do this through an open and transparent process in consultation with your team you will educate them and achieve the buy-in to ensure everyone has a clear roadmap to achieve a collaborative and successful team.  Teams that have worked together to determine their shared goals, values and underpinning behaviours are in the best position possible to achieve collaboration and see their performance hum.

Collaborative teams are supported by collaborative systems.  Systems engendering collaboration range from grievance/dispute resolution systems with a strong preventative focus that encourage the raising of concerns and conflict in a direct and immediate manner, to more micro systems that are applied in team meetings prompting team feedback on collaborative successes and opportunities.

PEEL are passionate about assisting organisations to build collaborative workplaces.  We partner with you in system design, capability build, ongoing preventative support and remedial interventions.  We undertake Team Effectiveness Reviews and work with you in Team Behaviour Workshops.  To find out more about our approach contact us or by phone on 02 4963 7373

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