Teaming for Cooperative Advantage

Is this Service for You?   It is for visionary organizations and business systems that want to deliver superior performance through deep synergy among employees, customers, business partners, and other collaborators. It is valuable for large global organizations as well as smaller niche players. Most organizations have many teams, workgroups, and processes from which to choose.   A pilot project that demonstrates outstanding cooperation is a good way to start if you have a clear priority for where outstanding cooperation is most necessary and the people are ready.

Most efforts at teaming especially across functions, units, or organizations fall short

• Meeting time is inefficient
• People end up reacting to each other rather than actively listening and understanding
• “The elephant in the room” stays unacknowledged and/or “sacred cows” prevent exploration of the team dynamics that limit the team’s effectiveness
• Valuable insights and perspectives stay hidden due to dominating personalities squashing input from the quieter members of the team
• There is too much advocacy; too little inquiry and learning
• The group is unable to create true synergy from the diversity of perspectives
• A pervasive dissatisfaction permeates the team atmosphere resulting in avoidance and backbiting
• Deadlines get missed and coordination falls apart when needs and resources shift

Yet today we have the knowledge necessary to do better

• Traditional management methods focus most of our attention on what we can easily see and measure including organization structure, work and operational processes, and tangible assets. These methods also assume behavior is rational and the business environment is predictable and stable.
• But today’s world is fast-paced and uncertain and people’s motivations and behaviors are complex. Innovation and collective effort are shaped by intangibles that when attended to effectively can dramatically improve motivation, creativity, and skillful interaction.
• New findings in fields — including strategy, creativity, positive organization, positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics — provide new insights that can revolutionize the way we lead and allow us to engage the disengaged, dramatically reduce the negative side effects of business, and more consistently deliver superior performance.

Our teaming service gives you the knowledge, practice and practical experience you need to update and revolutionize how you work together. It:

• Is designed for your world where change is the only constant and the best employees and partners have a choice
• Is practical yet grounded by leading research in fields, such as strategy, creativity, positive organization, positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics
• Provides you with:
  • Knowledge – Findings and insights across a wide range of relevant fields that provide a foundation for a powerful approach to leadership
  • Team Vision – A clear vision of the team you aspire to be, an understanding of the strengths you want to leverage and gaps to be closed, and a prioritized program of practice for achieving your vision
  • Practice – Experience using a set of core individual and group practices that help everyone build the capacity to operate at their best more and more often to foster outstanding creativity and cooperative action
  • Application – Your team works on the activities and priorities it already has; practices are integrated into the work that needs to get done

Teaming for Cooperative Advantage Core Practices

Cooperate from Your “Best Selves” group practices for creativity and action

1. Engage for High Creativity: Enlist deep listening and dialogue to spur innovation
2. Coordinate for Impeccable Action: Improve performance and build trust through clarity, commitment and follow-through

Act From Your “Best Self” individual practices to support your collaborative and individual performance and effectiveness by helping you:

1. Increase Your Awareness and Sharpen Your Focus: Manage your attention and focus inwards, outwards and on others
2. Act from Center and be “In the Zone”: Notice when you react based on your conditioning and shift to a more expansive, inclusive stance
3. Access Your Insight and Creativity: Open to your deepest source of insight and creativity
4. Work at Maximum Effectiveness: Manage your priorities and energy to maximize your impact and contribution

Practices to Manage Your Continuous Development

1. Live from Your Highest Goal: Clarify and live from your most compelling life purpose
2. Improve and Change with Intention: Build competence, overcome limiting habits, and improve effectiveness through deliberate practice

We tailor our assistance to best meet your needs

• We customize our work to fit your situation and typically make use of a series of team working and governance sessions with one or more larger workshops.
• Our process typically includes:
  • Upfront assessment, goal setting, and program design
  • Participating in a number of team meetings, illuminating limiting team dynamics, and introducing practices in real time to deal with challenges and opportunities that arise
  • Providing a tailored program of practices to foster deep synergy and develop supporting individual competencies
  • Measuring progress.

Contact us or call 415.696.3307 for your free teaming strategy session to clarify your situation and needs and understand whether teaming service offering can help you meet your priorities.