Let’s be honest, we all behave badly on occasions.

Go on, fess up!

This post isn’t about the events in your life which have shaped the way you are. The inside as it were.

Rather this is about how the external environment can present stressors which trigger how you feel (e.g. fear, anger, hurt, distrust etc..) and how you act. Sometimes unthinkingly so.

YOUR TEAM…

Think now about your team as a working environment.

It is easy to think of this as being “simply” made up of a physical or virtual space and a set of relationships.

And this is why so many team development interventions don’t deliver on their promise.

They try to “fix” behaviours by simply writing down nirvana and hoping people will play nicely.

THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO PUT IN PLACE…

And to continuously nurture.

Here are 11 questions against which you and colleagues can self-assess your team. Either red, amber, green. Or a scale of 1 – 4 (with no easy middle number!).

Team Self-Assessment Here

OFFER…

Valid until Friday 16th August 2024.

If you are interested, we will be delighted to offer you a more in-depth questionnaire-based team health-check at no charge (assuming team size less than 10).

We will review responses and present you with a high level summary and offer some suggestions around the areas of greatest risk of dysfunction.

SO…

If you have been wondering why your best efforts to create a highly effective team aren’t hitting the mark, why there are some stubborn behaviours still in play, why all the decisions end up on your desk increasing your frustration and stress, then maybe a team health-check could be a good place to start.

Read here for some case studies covering the work we have done for various sizes of teams across multiple sectors and industries.

Offer valid until Friday 16th August 2024.

We help leaders build highly effective teams. Part of our work involves conducting TEAM HEALTH CHECKS and helping teams create TEAM CHARTERS, TEAM OPERATING MODELS, and TEAM DEVELOPMENT ROADMAPS.

We also help teams develop a suite of collective TEAM SKILLS.  In this blog we cover Red Teaming.

WHAT IS IT?

Originating in the military and now used more widely, notably in cyber-security contexts, red teaming is a way of testing systems, strategies, plans, policies, decisions etc. – and the underlying assumptions, biases, and world views including groupthink – by applying independent critical thought and alternative perspectives.

A red team can be contracted in (this maximises independent critical thought), or use the organisation’s employees, or a mix.

WHY DO IT?

It invites you to walk in the shoes and understand the world through the eyes of those you seek to serve as well as those who would seek to disrupt your operations; and to identify possible responses to and consequences of your intended action.

It challenges you to test the reliability of evidence you are using. It helps identify faulty logic and flawed analysis. It helps you and colleagues develop shared situational awareness.

It can help you identify critical gaps in knowledge, and the questions you need to find answers to.

In so doing, it helps you and colleagues recognise and step beyond the emotions, bias, and assumptions that are in play. Ultimately, it provides an opportunity for richer conversations, better decisions, more effective action, and improved resilience.

It also develops your critical thinking capabilities, useful across business and life!

HOW TO DO IT?

Create a team of critical and creative thinkers, subject matter experts, non-experts who can ask naïve questions, and role players (e.g. devil’s advocates). 9 maximum.

They do not all need to come from the leadership team. Involving other staff, including externals, will freshen things up and mitigate group think.

Conduct the red team event in three stages.

#1   Diagnostic Stage (Testing Beliefs). Is the information being used accurate, well-evidenced, logical and underpinned by valid assumptions?

#2   Creative Stage (Wider Possibilities). Is the definition of the problem that the system, strategy, policy, or plan etc. seeks to mitigate artificially constrained? Have all possible options been considered? What further builds and development are possible? Have the consequences been thought through?

#3   Challenge Stage (Robust Choices). Are the options offered robust? Are they resilient to disruption or external challenge? Which of the options is the strongest (and what criteria determines this)? What are the chances of a successful outcome? what more could/should be done?

HOW LONG?

Very simply, depending on the subject (and the level of risk involved), this can be run as a mini-workshop over a couple of hours or a more involved event over a couple of days.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

In addition to our own experience we drew on the following UK Government publication.

CAN WE HELP YOU? YOU BET WE CAN!

To re-iterate the initial points around independence of critical thought and alternative perspectives, we can offer you the following support:

• Red team training.
• Facilitation of the red team process.
• Provision of external red team members, in-person and online.

INTERESTED?

Get in touch by emailing info@freshairleadership.com or calling +44 7776 153428.