Teaming – Organize-to-Learn & Execute-to-Learn
The nature of work and teamwork has changed and will never be the same. It’s more uncertain and dynamic than ever before. However, despite the changes like working from home and variations of remote working, the lockdown regulations and rules, the latent potential of people will remain and can be harnessed through effective virtual teamwork or teaming. Technology makes it all possible. As a means of getting work done, you’ve got to focus on creating conditions with online instrumented learning that will help team members learn to work differently. Learning instruments are psychometric tools that pose relevant questions related to work issues and give feedback, ideally suited for adults who learn best when they,
- Are self-directed
- Can draw on a reservoir of accumulated experiences
- Are ready and willing to take in new information, whether it’s provided in planned or spontaneous situations
- Can immediately apply new knowledge
- Are motivated to learn by intrapersonal needs, not external factors
‘Teaming’ – The Learning Imperative
The key issue is ‘Learning’. The most prevailing mistake most team leaders make is to assume that people ‘learn’ how to work effectively as team members by simply being part of a team – wrong. Team leaders have a direct responsibility to deliberately organise team work in such a way that people can learn from it and use the execution thereof as learning opportunities. Especially working from home or other forms of working remotely. Self-discipline is the determining factor. Operational online measurement, reflection and feedback are the key ingredients to ensure learning takes place and work gets done. This means people can also do it remotely and getting good at ‘teaming’ – reaching out, getting up to speed, establishing quickly who they are and what they bring, and trying to make progress without a blueprint. The skill set involves knowing what is necessary to improve, interpersonal awareness & skill, skillful inquiry, and an ability to teach others what you know. Teaming is very different from the idea of building a high-performance team to fit a known task. It is rather more dynamic, immediate, demanding; learning and execution occur simultaneously.
Instrumented Learning in the New Workplace
Intégro provide online learning instruments to measure how effective the team is working and how to improve it, the type of work behaviours that will make you more effective, how much you contribute to team performance and what to do more of, less of and what to keep on doing, establish performance KPI’s and related goals, how to improve team contribution to the company bottom line. They provide options and directed guidance for doing things better.
The Power of Framing and Reframing
The terms frame / reframing suggest the idea of looking through something at something – the way you see things, and perception is reality. A frame directs attention to features of the object of interest in a subtle way. It affects individual and group learning directly. For example, people can ‘frame’ a task as a performance situation or as a learning situation. Each frame of reference brings with it its own boundaries and limitations. By changing your frame, point of reference, you will change the boundaries and limitations you hold. It’s the difference between building relationships remotely vs. only dealing with them as if nothing has changed. You are not in the work you do; the work you do is in you. A different mind-set is called for. Examine your points or frames of reference and change them where necessary to improve your team’s performance.
Sources: Johan Cronjé, Specialist Team Performance Coach, Intégro Learning SA; Amy C Edmondson, “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy”
Johan Cronje – Johan is a specialist team performance facilitator and coach, bringing more than 35 years of practical experience working with teams across a wide spectrum of industries and businesses. His wide experience enabled him to develop a unique team software package called ‘Team Superior’. It is interactive and Internet based. My website is www.teams.co.za and cell no. is +27 82 8016312. You can always get better results.