Team habits support Inclusiveness
Well, we made it! We are in 2020. Another decade and, since we are in the month of January, my guess is that many of you have made some New Year’s resolutions for 2020 or perhaps, for this new decade. As I may have mentioned before, I do a lot of my thinking at the gym. I do not know if it is the physiological exchange of O2 and CO2 while I do my cardio in particular, or the fact that working out involves repetitive actions that I have been practicing for many decades, and my brain seems to go in overdrive, coming up with my best thinking, only second to hikes with my dog.
In this particular morning, I was doing some indoor rowing listening to a podcast NPR Hidden Brain. It involved a conversation with one of my favorite writers, psychologist Wendy Wood. Wood lectures at the University of Southern California and is also associated with the Boston Consulting Group. She wrote a book entitled “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick”, which I would recommend any leader to read. The book basically goes into detail in a very entertaining and illustrative manner on how to build habits to make life and work more productive.
The reason why this podcast activated my interest was two-fold. First of all, as it is the beginning of the year, the YMCA that I go to, was packed. It is something that I have noticed every single year — around beginning of January, right before summer and sometimes before Christmas time, people show up at the gym seeking quick and fast fixes to lose those extra pounds and seeking their beach bodies. Needless to say, that, in my experience, those individuals’ commitment usually do not (unfortunately) last throughout the year. And still, they will try again and again. Wood mentioned in her NPR talk, research that mentioned the closer the gym to your house, the most likely you are to keep it up. She also mentioned the concept of friction — lowering those obstacles that make it easier for us to sustain a good habit or that prevents us from getting rid of a bad habit. We should try to eliminate those obstacles that make it more difficult for us to develop a good habit, such as choosing a closer gym if we are trying to increase our gym active participation or avoid having unhealthy food in the house if we are trying to improve our eating habits. The same goes for getting rid of bad habits, for example, starting our grocery shopping journey in the Oreo’s aisle or going grocery shopping when we are hungry.
The second reason, and the most relevant for this blog, is that we, as leaders, should create our own team habits that promote the inclusiveness that we are seeking to improve overall performance.
In several previous blogs, I have mentioned how it is important for leaders to involve everyone in the team. In the current VUCA business world where we operate, diversity of ideas and different perspectives provide the organization with the best chances to succeed. There is an “old” story on how the FAA reduced incidences in airplanes and drastically improved safety — they made mandatory the review of flight check list, where the pilot and the co-pilot would just check different steps to prepare the airplane for a flight. Pilots were falling into bad habits that caused safety problems for the airlines, so the FAA asked all pilots to review a check list as they prepared to fly. The requirement was made more robust by involving both pilots (pilot and co-pilot) in the process, becoming accountability partners, and therefore, improving the odds of finding any potential issues and, of course, increasing the odds to thoroughly complete the preflight check by holding each other responsible for the process.
Hence, it would be beneficial to develop, for example, meeting habits that promotes listening to all team members. One easy practice would be to include in the meeting agendas specific times to hear everyone. One way to do this is to schedule 10 minutes, for instance, after a topic of discussion. At that time, the meeting facilitator should invite every participant to voice their opinion, add comments or provide feedback.
Another method that could be used during meetings is to ensure that one individual is assigned the duty to develop questions or play “devil’s advocate”. This helps reduce the effect of group think. Have a set of questions that could be asked to challenge a certain decision, not forcing to change the decision but to ensure that all perspectives on the matter have been contemplated. This is similar to the “tenth man rule” used by the Israeli Intelligence. When everyone agrees, have a designated individual that asks the hard questions to try to find flaws in the decision or bring up the “unthinkable” or “impossible” scenario. It just forces everyone to contemplate other avenues.
It is also important during meeting to check with everyone on how the meeting is progressing. Are they happy with how the talks are evolving? What about the type of topics that are being addressed? Are they leaving anything important out of the agenda that should be absolutely discussed? Does everyone feel included? And, most important, do not wait until the end of the meeting to ask those question. In my opinion, schedule a power pause mid-way. You need time to adjust if needed. Better to have at least half an effective meeting than no effectiveness whatsoever.
Finally, I am fond of the 1–3-whole activity. This is something that I used with my graduate level course and my executive workshops. Basically, bring up a topic but give a couple of minutes for everyone to reflect on the topic, without voicing any opinions yet. When the reflection is completed, as the participants to form groups of 2 or 3 and review each one’s reflections, building on it and coming up with better suggestions. Finally, after a period of discussion, ask each group to share their conclusions. This is an excellent way to avoid group think. It is a type of brainsteering, a technique originally developed by McKinsey Consultants to move away from brainstorming.
Developing good habits that promotes inclusiveness within a diverse team should contribute to the productivity and effectiveness of the team. It all starts with a conscious decision on the changes that we want to implement within our team. Of course, leaders can and should involve all participants in this process. Then, once agreed on what changes need to be implemented (such as the ones related to meetings that we just talked about), do a hard implementation, adding them to the process in a purposeful manner (for example, adding the items to the meeting agenda; designating a “devil’s advocate”). After several implementations, make sure to ask again if these new practices are meeting everyone’s expectations, and readjust if need. With purposeful practice and conscious implementation, inclusiveness should become a habit that improves the team’s performance.
