Many of our clients are trying to adapt to the new normal and would like to have a team building session. They’re probably attempting to go back to the regular dynamics their team had, and no one can fault them.
But many things happened during the last 6 months. Many people felt confused, exhausted, and disconnected as the regular, social interaction we had at the office didn’t work anymore.
There was no one checking on each other, asking people how their day was, building their social capital after meetings or just had moments to develop the professional intimacy that is so important for teams to build trust and function seamlessly.
While we are putting off fires, it’s almost impossible to sit down and reflect, but we have now developed a routine. Things have, more or less, worked well for many of our clients, and it is time to go back to some projects and regular team processes.
We believe this is the time to reflect on what happened during the last 6 months. Things that were previously considered impossible, now were not only feasible but were also done quickly. Some of these practices -more macromanaging instead of micromanaging, working from home, rebalancing of work, critical prioritization of tasks- helped teams cope with the unexpected.
It is important to set the time and have these important conversations:
- What worked well?
- What helped us to be more agile?
- What could we have done differently?
- What were some of the things that didn’t work?
- What are the skills we have developed that will help us to be more resilient?
- What are the skills that we need to cultivate?
- What are the beliefs that are no longer serving us?
- How are we stronger now (as a team)?
It is also important to remember that we need to hold a positive space for these conversations. The intention is to grow, not to criticize, discover instead of judge and encourage instead of feeding the elephant in the room.
Our new normal will continue to demand that we adapt to increasingly dynamic environments. We need to hone our skills and have better conversations that build our agility and resilience for upcoming crises.
What were the best conversations you had over the last 6 months?
Here are some tools that can help you have more of these conversations.