NICK WRIGHT
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Articles
    • Organisations and leadership
    • Learning and development
    • Coaching and counselling
  • Blog
  • e-Resources
  • News
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Articles
    • Organisations and leadership
    • Learning and development
    • Coaching and counselling
  • Blog
  • e-Resources
  • News
  • Contact

Mirror

15/1/2020

29 Comments

 
Picture

Hmm. Team coaching. How to reveal the team to itself. Sounds simple, but often hard to do in practice. Why is that and how can we work through it?

Team: a group with a shared purpose. Yet the notion of group is an abstraction. What we have in the room, or virtually, are actual people, individuals. Team is a dynamic, a way of thinking about what happens between the people: how each conducts him or herself in relation to the others…together. So, if a team is to see itself, it needs to see the interfaces, the what happens in the spaces between.

Think Johari Window: reducing blind spots through reflection and feedback. A self-reflective approach: ‘How are we doing?’ That invites collective reflection on group process and results. ‘How am I influencing our performance?’ That takes humility and courage, curiosity and trust. ‘How is this team influencing others’ performance…and vice versa too?’ That takes a wider picture, a systemic-cultural view.

How do you work with teams? If you do it well, what then becomes possible?

Do you want to enhance the inspiration and effectiveness of your team? Get in touch! info@nick-wright.com
29 Comments
Marc Lawson
15/1/2020 10:49:55 pm

13 individual students, each with different motivation and willingness to work hard. Everyone gets the same support. Everyone should do their best. But everyone defines the best differently. And the way there too. So some are often annoyed by the attitudes of others. Self-reflection helps some who want to improve themselves. Others don't care. 13 individual students ... 1 team?

Reply
Nick Wright
16/1/2020 11:51:36 am

Hi Marc. What a great illustration of some of the realities and challenges of team coaching! Three questions come to mind: 1. Do the students have a shared purpose (e.g. a team goal), or are they working on separate assignments? 2. If so, what would make the goal compelling and convincing for them - important enough to unite them in pursuit of it? 3. What part do the students have in shaping the methods used to achieve it? Food for thought. Some tips in this short piece may be of interest? http://www.nick-wright.com/building-an-effective-team.html

Reply
Marc Lawson
17/1/2020 01:13:25 pm

Thank you for sharing the resource article! The problem is that each student thinks about their own goal, the presentation and later the exams.They don't have to care whether it reaches the other Students. They only feel as a community when we go on a school trip. And it takes place anyway, regardless of whether the whole class has reached the goal or not. At school everyone is more or less a lone fighter. Because the challenge is missing: If everyone achieves this goal, then we will ... do together.

Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:51:55 pm

Hi Marc. You're welcome. It sounds like part of the question is whether students perceive and buy into a wider vision and shared goals that extend beyond their own personal goals?

Pam Rigden
16/1/2020 11:36:58 am

I have adapted an NLP Master Practitioner technique - Values Elicitation - to use with teams. The group work in pairs to elicit each other’s Values as you would with an individual client and once they have worked both ways we list all of the Values and look for the most popular, common Values. There’ providing all members can buy into them, become the Team Values and the Team write a ‘mission’ statement to reflect these. They may be entirely different from the organisation’s Values which are often picked because they sound good / out of a hat.

Reply
Nick Wright
16/1/2020 12:15:08 pm

Thanks Pam. I would be interested to hear more about what the pairs do to elicit each others' values, using NLP techniques? I found these short articles interesting on that front:

https://cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/289/1/The-Value-of-Values-elicitation-with-NLP/Page1.html; https://cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/289/2/The-Value-of-Values-elicitation-with-NLP/Page2.html

Some of the techniques remind me of Motivational Interviewing in the counselling and therapeutic arenas.

I led a couple of values-eliciting initiatives: one in a global NGO and one in a national UK charity. We used Appreciative Inquiry to surface values: share stories of peak experiences and then explore what made them so positive for those who experienced them.

You can see more, if interested, under 'Culture' in this article: http://www.nick-wright.com/a-journey-towards-od.html. Let me know what you think!

Reply
Pamela Enz
16/1/2020 05:33:04 pm

I explain the Johari Window when I work with groups of people. Many haven’t seen their blind spots explained in this way. It’s a non-judgement way of explaining we have blind spots and they have effects on this with whom we work and interact. I have them ask the folks they live with about it too.

It’s good to know yourself and how what you do enters the TEAM and what it does.

It’s cool stuff.

Reply
Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:45:51 pm

Hi Pamela. That sounds good. I'm interested. What do you do if it becomes clear that some member(s) of the team are not interested to address blind spots?

Reply
Pamela Enz
17/1/2020 01:53:10 pm

Good question. I use the Wiley DiSC Assessment and the group has already read their profile statement. The Johari Window is a part of a whole day workshop on turning conflict upside down to understand why it’s important and useful. In that context people seem to be open to the Johari because the whole purpose of the workshop is to understand individual and group behaviors.

Does that make sense?

Nick Wright
17/1/2020 03:39:31 pm

Thanks Pamela. Yes, that does make sense. If a team has contracted into using something like the DISC profile, they are more likely to be open to the idea of seeing and addressing blind spots. In my experience, contracting is key.

Ian Henderson
16/1/2020 10:27:42 pm

Nice piece Nick, which I agree totally. The Johari Window can be very useful although there are many other ways of building feedback and exploration. That said, I think the first step in this process is to get folks to be open to receiving feedback which, sadly, is not always the case. As a customer service director said to one of my colleagues "Take no notice of that CS survey. It's not our fault that the customers don't know how good we are". And that is genuine by the way!!!!!!

Reply
Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:42:42 pm

Thanks Ian. I'm curious. How do you 'get folks to be open to receiving feedback'? Do you have any practical examples from experience you could share here? (I love your customer service director quotation!).

I tend to approach this from a values-perspective, e.g. 'What would receiving feedback enable you to do?' or 'What feedback would you find most useful?' Seeking feedback is very different to having it thrust upon us.

Reply
Jeremy Francis
16/1/2020 10:28:40 pm

How to reveal the team to itself If the team is made up of it is a mature,mutually supportive members here is an approach you can use.
1. Hand to each team member a piece of flipchart paper. Include the team leader.
2, Each person writes their name at the top. Underneath they write 3 headings equally spaced apart for other team members to write comments under each heading.
Headings are:
PLEASE CONTINUE

PLEASE STOP

PLEASE START

3. Team members pass their sheet to other team members who fill in their comments and initial them.

4. When all done, the flipchart paper returns to the owning TEAM MEMBER.

5. Starting with the leader each one reads out the comments. They can seek clarification and examples but cannot argue or reject the feedback.

6. Team members commit to responding to the feedback positively.

A safe but very revealing team relationship building exercise!
Try it.

Reply
Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:49:06 pm

Hi Jeremy. Thanks for sharing such a practical technique. I imagine it depends on the quality of contracting with the team and the level of trust between team members and the facilitator?

Reply
Jeremy Francis
17/1/2020 11:11:52 pm

Yes, absolutely Nick.

Nick Wright
17/1/2020 11:12:21 pm

👍

Karen Chambers
26/1/2020 07:27:33 pm

I like this technique. Thanks for sharing, Jeremy.

Beverley John-Gomes
17/1/2020 01:10:29 pm

For a team to work together they first need a shared vision.

Reply
Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:35:43 pm

Hi Beverley. How you do enable a team to reach a shared vision, especially if they disagree on what the vision should be..?

Reply
Beverley John-Gomes
20/1/2020 10:09:21 am

I find that getting them to understand one another and to find a shared language helps build the vision. Build trust and a sense of "family" and over time the situation will begin to change. You need a catalyst.

Nick Wright
20/1/2020 10:10:23 am

Thanks Beverley. Interesting. Do you have an example from experience you could share here?

Barbara A. Mellor
17/1/2020 01:11:23 pm

The Pawn in Chess is not just a give away; take one across the board and you win a Queen if you want one...and that’s the trick.

Reply
Nick Wright
17/1/2020 01:37:21 pm

Hi Barbara. I guess that highlights the value of every team member, including those who, on the face of it, may appear less valuable? Can you say more about 'that's the trick'...and how you achieve it?

Reply
Barbara A. Mellor
18/1/2020 08:33:24 am

Hi Nick
The pawn in chess is a forward line of both offense and defense...in business those who are not management do the day-in day-out defensive and offensive calls or paperwork. This creates a way for management to be better & more effective....what say you, Nick?

Nick Wright
18/1/2020 08:34:43 am

Thanks Barbara. I love that metaphor! 😀

Chris Lever
14/2/2020 09:36:51 am

Great reflections Nick. I love your sophistication, so skilfully and simply stated.

Reply
Nick Wright
14/2/2020 09:37:58 am

Hi Chris. Thank you for such encouraging feedback! ☺️

Reply
V.S. Kumar MCC (ICF)
19/2/2020 07:21:47 pm

Nice note. To be in the team one has to be truly connected with the one common purpose we all want to achieve and in the process adopting to the situation, Listening, Supporting others to add their contribution, respecting eachothers with their boundaries. What we become by being in the team is invaluable and helping us to grow is the gift to be cherished always.

Reply
Nick Wright
19/2/2020 07:25:27 pm

Thanks V.S. Nicely put. The key questions I try to bear in mind are: What are we here to do? What should we focus our attention on? How shall we do this? How can we enable one-another to contribute our best?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    ​Nick Wright

    ​I'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? ​Get in touch!

    Picture
    Like what you read? Simply enter your email address below to receive regular blog updates!
    Subscribe to Blog
    Picture
    Picture


    ​Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011

    Categories

    All
    Abc
    Ability
    Accountability
    Achievement
    Act
    Action
    Action Learning
    Activism
    Adaptability
    Adaptive
    Advent
    Adventure
    Africa
    Agency
    Agile
    Ambiguity
    Angle
    Anticipation
    Anxiety
    Appraisal
    Appreciation
    Appreciative
    Appreciative Inquiry
    Approach
    Argyris
    Asia
    Assumption
    Assumptions
    Asylum
    Attachment
    Attention
    Attitude
    Audience
    Authenticity
    Authority
    Autonomy
    Avoidance
    Awareness
    Behaviour
    Being
    Belief
    Beliefs
    Bias
    Bible
    Body Language
    Boundaries
    Brainstorming
    Brand
    Calling
    Care
    Career
    Censorship
    Challenge
    Change
    Character
    Charity
    Child
    Choice
    Choose
    Christ
    Christian
    Christmas
    Clarity
    Client
    Climate
    Coach
    Coaching
    Coactive
    Cognition
    Cognitive
    Cognitive Behavioural
    Commitment
    Communication
    Community
    Compassion
    Competence
    Competencies
    Complexity
    Concepts
    Confidence
    Conflict
    Confluence
    Congruence
    Consciousness
    Construct
    Constructs
    Construe
    Consultancy
    Contact
    Content
    Context
    Contracting
    Contribution
    Control
    Conversation
    Corruption
    Counselling
    Counterintiution
    Counterintuition
    Countertransference
    Courage
    Craziness
    Creativity
    Credibility
    Crisis
    Critical Consciousness
    Critical Reflection
    Critical Reflective Practice
    Critical Reflexivity
    Critical Thinking
    Critique
    Cross
    Cross Culture
    Cross-culture
    Culture
    Curiosity
    Customer Care
    Customers
    Customer Service
    Death
    Deception
    Decision
    Deconstruction
    Defence
    Defences
    Deferred Gratification
    Definition
    Delusion
    Democracy
    Depression
    Determination
    Development
    Deviance
    Deviant
    Diagnosis
    Disaster
    Discernment
    Disclosure
    Discovery
    Discrimination
    Disruptive
    Dissent
    Dissident
    Dissonance
    Distinctiveness
    Distortion
    Diversity
    Dream
    Dynamic
    Dynamics
    Easter
    Ecology
    Edge
    Edi
    Education
    Effectiveness
    Efficiency
    Ego State
    Eliciting
    Emergence
    Emotion
    Emotional
    Emotional Intelligence
    Empathy
    Empowerment
    Encouragement
    Energy
    Engagement
    Environment
    Equality
    Eternity
    Ethics
    Ethiopia
    Evaluation
    Evidence
    Evocative
    Existential
    Existentialism
    Expectation
    Expectations
    Experience
    Experiment
    Experimentation
    Exploration
    Explore
    Exposure
    Facilitation
    Faith
    Fear
    Feedback
    Feeling
    Feminism
    Figure
    Filter
    Fit
    Flashback
    Focus
    Forgiveness
    Framework
    Freedom
    Freud
    Fun
    Future
    Gender
    Geopolitical
    Geopolitics
    Gestalt
    Global
    Goal
    Goals
    God
    Gospel
    Grace
    Grief
    Grit
    Ground
    Group
    Guidance
    Healing
    Health
    Hear
    Heidegger
    Hero
    Hope
    Human
    Human Givens
    Humanity
    Human Resources
    Human Rights
    Humility
    Humour
    Hybrid
    Hypotheses
    Hypothesis
    Icon
    Ideation
    Identity
    Image
    Imagination
    Impact
    Impostor
    Inclusion
    Independence
    Influence
    INGO
    Initiative
    Injustice
    Innovation
    Inquiry
    Insecurity
    Insight
    Inspiration
    Instinct
    Integrity
    Intention
    Interdependence
    Interference
    International
    Interpretation
    Intimacy
    Introversion
    Intuition
    Invisible
    Jargon
    Jesus
    Journey
    Jungle
    Justice
    Keys
    Knowing
    Knowledge
    Labels
    Language
    Lateral Thinking
    Leader
    Leadership
    Learner
    Learning
    Lesson
    Liberal
    Life
    Light
    Listening
    Logic
    Loss
    Love
    Management
    Manager
    Marathon
    Matrix
    Mbti
    Meaning
    Media
    Mediation
    Meetings
    Memory
    Mentoring
    Merit
    Metaphor
    Metaphysic
    Mindfulness
    Miracle
    Mirroring
    Misfit
    Mission
    Mode
    Morality
    Motivation
    Mystery
    Narrative
    Nazis
    Need
    Negotiation
    Neo-Nazi
    Networking
    News
    New Year
    Norm
    Norms
    Noticing
    Online
    Operations
    Opportunity
    Oppression
    Organisation
    Organisation Develoment
    Organisation Development
    Origin
    Pace
    Panic
    Paradigm
    Paradox
    Partnership
    Passion
    Pastoral
    Pattern Matching
    Peace
    People
    Perception
    Perfectionism
    Performance
    Perseverance
    Personal Constructs
    Personal Leadership
    Person Centred
    Perspective
    Phenomenology
    Phenomenon
    Philippines
    Philosophy
    Physicality
    Plan
    Plans
    Plato
    Play
    Plot
    Polarity
    Policy
    Politics
    Poor
    Positive
    Positive Psychology
    Posture
    Potential
    Potential#
    Poverty
    Power
    Practice
    Pragmatism
    Praxis
    Prayer
    Preference
    Preferences
    Prepare
    Presence
    Principles
    Priorities
    Priority
    Privilege
    Proactivity
    Problem Solving
    Process
    Professional
    Progressive
    Projection
    Projects
    Prompt
    Propaganda
    Protection
    Protest
    Providence
    Provocative
    Psychoanalysis
    Psychodynamic
    Psychodynamics
    Psychology
    Psychometrics
    Psychotherapy
    Purpose
    Quality
    Questions
    Race
    Radical
    Rational
    Rationale
    Rationalisation
    Rationality
    Reality
    Reason
    Reasoning
    Reconciliation
    Recruitment
    Reflect
    Reflection
    Reflective Practice
    Reflexivity
    Reframing
    Refugee
    Refugees
    Relationship
    Relationships
    Release
    Religion
    Representation
    Rescue
    Research
    Resilience
    Resonance
    Resourcefulness
    Respect
    Responsibility
    Responsive
    Responsiveness
    Revelation
    Reward
    Rights
    Risk
    Role
    Role Model
    Rosabeth Moss-kanter
    Rules
    Sabbath
    Satire
    Satnav
    Saviour
    Schemata
    School
    Science
    Secure Base
    Security
    See
    Selection
    Selective Attention
    Self
    Sense Making
    Senses
    Sensitivity
    Serendipity
    Servant
    Shadow
    Significance
    Silence
    Simplicity
    Sin
    Skills
    Snake
    Social Construct
    Social Construction
    Social Constructionism
    Social Media
    Social Psychology
    Socrates
    Solution Focused
    Solutions
    Solutions Focus
    Solutions-focus
    Space
    Speed
    Spirit
    Spiritual
    Spirituality
    Stance
    Stealth
    Stereotype
    Stereotypes
    Story
    Strategic
    Strategy
    Strengths
    Stress
    Stretch
    Structure
    Struggle
    Stuck
    Style
    Subconscious
    Subjectivity
    Success
    Suffering
    Supervision
    Support
    Survival
    Sustainability
    Symbol
    Symbolism
    Systems
    Systems Thinking
    TA
    Tactical
    Tactics
    Talent
    Teacher
    Teaching
    Team
    Teamwork
    Teenage
    Theology
    Theory
    Therapy
    Thinking
    Thought
    Time
    Touch
    Toys
    Traction
    Trade
    Tradition
    Training
    Transactional Analysis
    Transference
    Transformation
    Transition
    Transitional Object
    Trauma
    Trust
    Truth
    Uncertainty
    Unexpected
    Vallues
    Value
    Valued
    Values
    Violence
    Visibility
    Vision
    Voice
    VUCA
    Vulnerability
    Vulnerable
    Waiting
    War
    Wealth
    Weird
    Wellbeing
    Will
    Willingness
    Window
    Wisdom
    Wonder
    Words
    World
    Worth
    Youth
    Zoom

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Articles
    • Organisations and leadership
    • Learning and development
    • Coaching and counselling
  • Blog
  • e-Resources
  • News
  • Contact