MORE THAN TEAMWORK ... INTERDEPENDENCE

MORE THAN TEAMWORK … INTERDEPENDENCE

Teamwork by itself doesn't cut it anymore. Sure, teamwork is still important, but in most organizations teams are most often only collections of individuals who come together to contribute individually to an overarching task, complete the task, and disband. They have done their part.

In the Dual Age of Information and Connections, businesses cannot afford to waste one valuable—and expensive—human resource. To be smart and competitive and survive in the interconnected world of the twenty-first century, we have to make sure we succeed and that our partners succeed. We can no longer simply look out for ourselves—we must look out for everyone. The commitment to mutual success must be a part of the culture and embedded in every action we take.

The ability to be comfortable with such a high level of interdependence depends on our ability to master the competencies prefigured by the other five partnering attributes, since each links with the others to form a partnering culture. For example, if you are uncomfortable self-disclosing and offering feedback, you may have difficulty building trust. If you can't build trust, you may have a problem being credible proposing a win-win solution. If you have a past orientation, you may have difficulty accepting change, and so forth. When designing and constructing a partnering culture, you can take specific steps to enable interdependence in the business. Although we have covered most of these steps in previous chapters, we will recap them here as nine reminders to reinforce that if you leave out any component in a system, the system will never be utilized to its full capacity.

Reminder 1: Align Goals and Objectives with Vision and Values

Being clear on the organization's vision and values is the first step. Closely linked with vision and values is clarity on the business's mission and strategic directions. We refer to this series of steps as the strategic framework. It must be shared with everyone from the interview process on and reinforced in as many ways as possible. Help people understand their own personal vision and values and ensure that there is a fit between their intrinsic personal motivation and the mission of the business.

Reminder 2: Communicate with a Passion

While many leaders talk about communication strategies and when to tell what, we believe that leaders must consistently communicate with a passion. The reality is that rumors have probably already worked their way around the office, and people will have gotten an inkling of what's going on anyway. Not sharing information provides grist for the rumor mill; left to their imagination, people will always assume the worst-case scenario. Tell them … tell them again … and again. You cannot overcommunicate in the Dual Age of Information and Connections. When people do not get information, they make it up. And if what they make up contradicts what you say later, they'll call you a liar. Then when you deny that you're lying, they'll say, "Now I know for sure he's lying." Get ahead of the curve.

Reminder 3: Build Trust

Trust energizes creativity and innovation. Lack of trust drives fear, and fear is a mind-killer. You must build trust—with your customers, suppliers, and most important, your employees—if you want your business to be a credible concern. They are your fountains of information, and you cannot afford to have the spigot turned off.

Reminder 4: Build Diversity in Your Team

Having diversity of race, gender, and so on is great. Having diverse perspectives, ideas, worldviews, and processing styles and having dissention is even better. Worse than having everyone look the same is having everyone think the same. Figure out how to turn differences into strengths and then build on those strengths. Build teams that bring in many viewpoints and manage the creative energy by using communication skills, win-win problem solving, and trust-building exercises to maintain creativity and eliminate fear.

Reminder 5: Encourage Creativity

Creativity generates energy. You have only so much human energy available; use it wisely. Remove fear and give people information and get out of their way. Let them decide how best to use it to serve customers and build value within the business. Let them ply it, shape it, share it, and morph it until you've outdistanced competitors and delighted customers. Your competitors will be scratching their heads wondering how you did it. It's no secret; you've got a dynamic partnering culture that's unbeatable. Linus Pauling, who earned two Nobel prizes, once said in answer to a question about how he came up with so many great ideas, "The secret to coming up with great ideas is to come up with lots and lots of ideas. Then, toss the bad ones out."

Reminder 6: Create Win-Win Outcomes

Never, ever create losers. In the end, the chief loser will be the business. You must craft team behavior and environments so that people walk away feeling like winners, even if they didn't get their way. How you manage dissent and get to the win is critical, and understanding your inherent conflict resolution style and that of your team members is an important tool in getting to that win.

Reminder 7: Let Go of Control

Sometimes, even our best intentions can cause problems. We want the best for our teams. We have a vision of the outcome and what it should look like and do … but that doesn't mean we have to control how it is accomplished. Such micromanagement defeats the purpose of teamwork. You must be clear about your vision, articulate your expectations, provide the team with the resources, remove obstacles—which may include yourself—and let them get to work.

Reminder 8: Use the Foundation for Openness

Allow people the opportunity to talk about their feelings, aspirations, and dreams. These elements move a team from the mundane to the extraordinary. Communicate, provide feedback, share information, and dare to dream the big dream. Encourage people to be connected to their work in more ethereal ways than solely contributing to the bottom line—you will be amazed at the outcome. Most everyone would prefer to do well by doing good.

Reminder 9: Weed Out Destructive Forces

Despite a leader's best efforts, negative forces can creep into the organization. You've done your best to hire people with partnering competencies and trained people to master the Six Partnering Attributes, but sometimes people don't fit within a culture, for whatever reason. You must quickly identify and remove them. They can do a lot of damage in a very short time.

With your organization embracing connectivity for agility, you are now positioned to bring all the components of the Powerhouse Partner Model together to create resilience.