Improving Team Working

Particularly in today's economic climate where companies are being asked to downsize, make cuts, lose jobs - there is the need for an effective methodology that has been tried and tested, and one that also gives options to ensure that there is the "right mix of people" for the job. Soft skills are sometimes hard to learn and often underestimated. Required job skills can be trained either on the job or in other ways. But personalities sometimes will just clash.

How can this be made easier? Is there a magic wand? In short there is no magic wand. Everything requires work, which is sometimes a problem as human beings just don't want to do the work themselves, it "should" be someone else. After all we all know "it's their fault" and we are entirely blameless.

There are tools and techniques - the often misunderstood NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is not just a trail of techniques to make you feel good, change habits etc. Rather, NLP is something that is neither whiz bang nor is it hocus-pocus. It's actually about language and skilful use of language and recognising the language that is used by the people we want to influence. By becoming skilled in recognising this language and using skilful questioning techniques we can facilitate a climate of understanding, easing stress and becoming the ideal company to work for, not just because we are a company that pays well (it helps) or has good employee benefits. Instead, we will be a company that takes time out to listen, and respond in an appropriate manner and will carry through the things that we promise.

Add the Language and Behaviour Profile to NLP and you have "Words that Change Minds" and it might be your mind not theirs that changes.

CASE STUDY

A company intends that within two years its staff will work from home. To prepare them for this, interviews were carried out using both of the techniques mentioned above together. What happened?

In the first place the team leader Harry discovered what perhaps he always knew that he is too fast for the remainder of the team. Good in some respects, yet when explaining to the rest of the team what needed to done, the others were often still thinking about the first part of sentence A, whilst the Harry was on sentence D. What did they do? Well the Harry learned a little more about himself and what type of language and behaviour patterns he was using. Harry learned how to slow down and deliver what needed to be said, sometimes using language that was unfamiliar to him (he was highly visual, Proactive - getting things done, quick thinking, Moving Towards - goal focussed). He also learned the right language that worked for his staff about prevention, so talking avoiding this or that, about the problems to be avoided rather than the benefits (which would have been Harry's preferred choice).

Another member of the team complained that the Harry "doesn't listen when I talk to him". The profiling showed that Harry prefers to see things, so the suggestion was made that the team member put what he or she wanted to say either on a simple spreadsheet, or preferably on a PowerPoint slide with some neat graphics, and would physically take a print-out to the team leader and ask "May I show you this and talk you through it." Did it work? Well the team leader emailed the consultant (people with a visual preference like emails) and wrote "I see you've been giving my team tips. Guess what? It worked! I was more prepared to listen".

A further team member is very good at getting work done. But she leaves the others behind, more so than Harry, whilst Paula bulldozes on regardless, with no regard for the culture she is working in, or the culture she is living in, in this case. There are conclusions to draw from that, as she is not really ideal in this environment.

The end result of the profiling is that each individual knows more about him or herself and is given tips and recommendations on how to understand their own language and to alter it to influence others in an ethical and appropriate manner. It's not necessary to change who you are, just to come a little closer to others and open up a new way of understanding what makes them tick, what's really important to them.

Some of this management team showed during the face to face interviews that they are not suited for working at home; they need to be with other people. They work best with others around them, not because they want to chat, they just need human company. (As do most people. If we wanted to be hermits we'd be living on faraway up a mountain).

This type of profiling requires skill and can be learned with some application. It's always carried out face to face, as the practitioner needs the behaviours of the person to qualify the answers, as well as the skill to drill down into the interviewee's criteria, as the first answer we give is often the one we think we "should" give and not necessarily the right one.