Teamership: Creating Better Connections
Professor Brene Brown defines connection as “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued”.
How we contribute to teams and across multiple teams determines the difference that we make in our roles, the performance of our teams and our organisations. In many teams and organisations, poor connections and coordination can cost a lot - sometimes millions of dollars. In rare circumstances, the cost gets into the billions!
This Time Magazine article tells the story of the James Webb Telescope, which ran 15 years and at $9.5 billion over initial estimates - at least partially due to the inability to connect and coordinate. In fact, one NASA official was quoted as saying that “the majority of problems we encountered with Webb during its [previous] six years were people and team problems.” I’ll explore this particular case study in a bit more detail in the weeks ahead.
It might not be costing you billions, but there is a good chance that poor connections and coordination are negatively impacting your performance.
I have seen instances where procurement was slow or where didn’t use an organisation’s combined buying power to negotiate a better deal with suppliers. On other occasions, different parts of the same organisation were making similar errors because there was no way for that information to be shared.
The whole point of operating as teams and networks of teams is to achieve outcomes in a way that is not possible working independently. It follows that improving the quality the interaction of people is central to being a great team member. Professor Brene Brown defines connection as “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued”.
Viewing connections as an energy source is powerful. This allows us to contribute to others by helping them “feel seen, valued and heard”. Great team members seem to do this intuitively. It is also something that we can all do with a bit more attention and design.
Connections drive adaptability as they create a more resilient network that can better respond to a range of changes. Connections drive greater levels of effeciveness as individuals and teams can operate with a broader appreciation of the context that they are operating in. Connections accelerate learning as success and failures are more readily shared.
There are many ways that we can each drive and support better connections. Here are a few questions for you to consider this week:
How might you create better connections within your teams?
How might you create better connections between your team and other teams?
How might you create better connections beyond your organisation?