AmazinglyTeam Effectiveness
Every day, in some way, you are part of a team. The question is not, “Will you participate in something that involves others?” but, “Will your involvement with others be successful? Without doubt, effective teams really do help make successful organisations.
The idea that people can achieve much more by working together with others rather than attempting to do things on their own is one of the primary reasons for the focus on effective team-working in the workplace. Working as part of an effective team, could represent a unique opportunity for some individuals to develop and experience personal success beyond what they could achieve on their own.
For others, team working offers a source of friendship, enjoyment and job satisfaction, which altogether adds to the general well-being of people who work in organisations.
Building and maintaining successful teams is not a simple task and although there are many team competency profiling and team psychological assessment tools and techniques available on the market, the task of getting a mix of the ‘right’ individuals with complementary skills, knowledge and experiences to ensure effective team-working can still be a daunting one!
If you want your teams to be more than the sum of their parts, exceed expectations, rather than ‘just get by’, be a team that everyone wants to work with and be a part of, then help is at hand!
One Approach
Using the ‘Whole Brain Thinking’ methodology to develop effective work based teams – Everything we do starts with our brain – the way we think, react to and work with others, make decisions, communicate, approach tasks, manage people – it all depends on how you think! The Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) uses whole brain thinking to provide a common language with which to understand the range of different thinking styles that may be apparent when a team of people work together. In addition NBI helps all team members to value the diversity of those styles in order to maximise individual and team performance and ultimately, job satisfaction.
The NBI is founded on brain-based research and on observable evidence that thinking styles can be described as a combination of four different thinking selves divided into left and right brain preferences.
Left-brain thinking preferences:
- L1-Quadrant Analyser: Logical thinking, analysis of facts, processing numbers
- L2-Quadrant Organiser: Planning approaches, organising facts, detailed review
Right-brain thinking preferences:
- R2-Quadrant Personaliser: Interpersonal, intuitive, expressive
- R1-Quadrant Visualiser : Imaginative, big picture thinking, conceptualising
Different working patterns and behaviours will emerge, depending on the thinking diversity of your team. E.g. Teams made up of individuals with the same thinking preference are likely to achieve consensus of opinion quickly. The power of this approach lies in rapid consensus building which can be advantageous when time is short. However, it tends to produce less innovative results. On the other hand, teams of a mixed thinking preference can experience difficulty in reaching consensus, but may be synergistic and therefore ideal for creative, innovative tasks.
In order to optimise team performance, it is essential that teams have a climate of tolerance and are able to celebrate the range of thinking difference that individual members bring to the team, so that unnecessary friction is minimised.
Thinking preferences have a great influence over how we communicate, interact, build and maintain relationships, develop as individuals and participate in teamwork. When we apply the NBI ‘whole brain technology’ to any team activity, and value and build on the team’ thinking diversity, far more innovative and creative solution will arise as well as building far stronger team relationships and effective working behaviours and practices.