The key to a good team at work

Here is a nugget that I sometimes share when speaking at leaders and managers events. I learnt this twenty years ago and it just stuck somehow. Sometimes it’s good to go over the stuff that we probably do know but can forget in the busyness of our working lives.

The key to a good team at work:

The 3B’s…

…are the basics of working with any group of people.

 

The 3B’s are so important when we want people to connect, feel part of a team and ultimately become productive.

 

Think group, think workplace, think classroom – whatever your context I’ve found this to be so true, have you?
The first B is Belong…

…people won’t believe in their workplace until they feel they belong. So share things in your group to help people to belong. You are part of a community, no matter how small, so what is it you can do to help people to belong? Don’t be afraid to share some personal stuff in this, we are often so ‘professional’ at work that we give away very little about ourselves and that makes people distant and can create disconnection. Disconnection = high turnover of staff.

Once people feel they belong then they start to believe.

 

The second B is Believe…

…when you start belonging to a group you start to believe in the values and the norms of that group. If someone feels that they belong as part of your workplace or group then they start believing in the values, the ethos and some of the wonderful stuff that you have going on there. And when that’s happened people start to behave…

 

So you have got belonging —> believing —> behaving

 

The third B is Behaving…

..if we think about it, it always goes in that direction – so very rarely do people jump straight to behaving / being productive.

Those first few days of a new staff members induction are so important.

I was brought in to a really big public sector organisation because they realised that their induction days had basically become a list of health and safety do’s and don’ts on a bad PowerPoint slide and had become very ‘samey’, so I helped to train the trainers to make induction a more fun experience for all involved.

The first few meetings that people have where they meet people for the first time is so key, do some more icebreakers at those times, share more stories about your workplace, let people see behind the front desk and pot plants, its worth it in the long run.

That all helps to get people to belong and then they start to understand what they are there for (the rules and things that are important to the workplace or community). Then they start to believe and start to behave / be productive.

But so often we just want to jump straight to the last one.

It just doesn’t work like that.

 

So remember it’s always —-> Belonging —-> Believing —-> Behaving

 

How do you and your workplace help this process lee?

Don’t skip it, use this basic principle in your induction process.

It works.

I know.