Master Series: Episode 03
Teamwork
Trailer
Hello listeners! In our third Moonshots Master episode, we provide a comprehensive breakdown of TEAMWORK.
Subscribe today to our Master Series!
First up, we find inspiration in our quest for great teamwork! We hear from the master, Grant Cardone, and how nobody starts anything successful by themselves. We then bathe in Patrick Lencioni’s passion for teamwork, and how it is the greatest competitive advantage. We also delve into Google’s enormous research program, Project Aristotle, on teamwork and why some teams are successful.
Now we’re inspired, we get into team behaviours. We listen to Simon Sinek on how anyone can be a leader, before digging deeply into Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a team.
We close the show by learning about the design and strategy of good teamwork. We learn about Dr Meredith Belbin’s Team Roles and responsibilities breakdown, and Bruce Tuckman's Form, Storm, Norm, Perform, before closing out with Tyler Waye’s belief in the value of perseverance and how good teams stick together.
TRANSCRIPT
Mike Parsons: [00:00:00] hello and welcome to the moonshots master series. It's episode three. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as always I'm joined by the ultimate team player himself. Mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning, mark.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Hey, good morning, Mike. You're right. We are diving into a brand new topic from members on the Patreon, moonshot or level and subscribers to apple podcasts today.
Mike, we're getting into that magic mystery of great teamwork. Aren't we are in Dade and it is quite the mystery teamwork. You know it when you see it and when you don't have it. Oh my gosh. Do you want to get it, huh? Yeah, for me, as I reflect on all the teams that I've been a part of in my career.
It's. Unknown. There are some times when things click and the team just collaborate really well. You can see them skyrocketing Connie, you can see confidence, you can see results, [00:01:00] but sometimes that team just doesn't quite click together. And the cogs grind each other a little bit.
And it might, there might not be anything intentional about it, but for some reason it just doesn't work. And I think today, Mike, what I'm hoping we can start to uncover is wow. That might be the case and what we can go out and learn about teamwork in order to get the best results and in successful projects.
Mike Parsons: Yeah. Cause a great team when you see it, like when you see the Chicago bulls doing their thing, or whether it's a great sports team or a great company, you just know it when you see it. But it is interesting. I'm going to say that a lot of the time companies focus very much on skills. Can you do the spreadsheet?
Can you work a piece of software for example, but do they pay equal attention to teamwork and how we behave? And I argue mark [00:02:00] that companies simply don't put the same emphasis on how we work. They're very focused on what we do. Not so much. How are you? What do you think? It's an interesting idea, isn't it?
Because without having a good teamwork in place, the results that you're going to see from a project results from the individuals that you've delegated work to and so on, it's never going to be as good as it can be. It's almost like cooking a meal halfway through and leaving it to one side.
It's never going to be complete without cultivating that good team. And without focusing on creating that good mechanic inside the business, it's never going to achieve the operational on of good success. And I think you're right. I think businesses companies, smaller businesses and so on we all can take it for granted.
We're focused on the results rather than how we get there. And I [00:03:00] think it really starts with getting that right team. It does. And we, again, to show you how to do that. Today on this show, we have got a blockbuster of a show. So listeners check this out. We are going to start with going to some great, inspiring thoughts to launch us into the world of teamwork.
When you hear from one of the great team work experts, Patrick Lensioni, but it doesn't stop there. We're also going to break it down and look at what it takes to get teamwork behavior happening in your team, regardless of work at home or anywhere in between. We'll even hear from one of our moonshots favorites, Simon Sinek, and we ain't done cause we're going to get into some of the greatest models, frameworks, and strategies for building great teamwork.
This is everything you need either to lead a team. Be part of a team, [00:04:00] whether it's at work, whether it's at home or whether it's somewhere out in your community, we have got it for you. This is the ultimate master class in leadership, and this is no better place to start than teamwork. And to set the scene for us, we're going to hear from grant
Who's going to tell us about this interesting idea, this fallacy that we have about being a solo preneur nobody's ever done it by themselves. So the O the entrepreneur that's popular right now is the guy that works from home. He's a solo preneur. I don't know if you have this term rehab. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a complete misnomer. Nobody is ever existed on this planet and done something successful by themselves. No, it's never. So there's no, there's zero examples of anybody that's done any. [00:05:00] Jesus had 12 of course had 12 guys he was rolling with right. Alexander the great had an army Gingiss con had a, had you're not doing this thing by yourself.
Nobody does, like for too long, I ran by myself and it took a lot of energy. It took a lot of energy. It takes more energy running by yourself. Ryan Seco here, the captain, the pilot and the real estate dude, he always says, dude, it's just more fun to run with the team. And he's right. Yeah.
Henry Ford people said to Henry Ford made the car out of his garage. I said, yeah, but the company didn't make, they didn't make the yeah. Yeah. Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was made out of a dorm. Facebook was made when he moved to Silicon valley and started a company Steve jobs, Steve and the other dude was.
Yeah. Yeah. They built the Apple supposedly built it out of their garage. Yeah, no, nobody knew about apple until he moved the company and started [00:06:00] and added employees. So nobody's doing anything great by themselves. Isn't that a quick ice bath, as we're surrounded by stories of individuals, entrepreneurs, ruling the world, capturing our attention and our enthusiasm.
I think it's quite revealing to take a step back and think, okay, they may have started in their garage or their dorm room, but it didn't land from a successful perspective until they onboarded the right team and got team members to help them. I think that's a great kind of immediate lesson that we can learn about teamwork.
Yeah. And grant makes a great point there. It is so much more fun to, to do it to climb a mountain with somebody else than just being out there on your own. And I think it sets us up for this idea that in no matter how much individual talent that you have, it's teamwork that wins the championships.
And I'm paraphrasing a [00:07:00] great quote from Michael Jordan here. The real thought here is get over yourself. It is a total myth no one. And so he's even referencing Jesus Christ here. Nobody did it on their own to get over that idea and be ready to work as part of a team to lead in everything that you do in your contributions.
It is essential because don't even think you can sit in some lofty tower by yourself and get it done. At some point you got to get out and interact with the world. At some point, you've got to be open to this idea of teamwork. Yeah, and I love that called out to fun. The idea of working with others totally gets me going if I reflect on my favorite projects that I've done throughout my life, it's invariably, because I had a great group of individuals around me either going through that [00:08:00] same pain, figuring out the obstacles, or in fact, it's the same team who are laughing along with me that breed, it breeds passion in your business.
And I think that's ultimately what makes it really fun and enjoyable to actually stay in companies when you've got that good team around you. Yeah. And like the ups and the downs all get better because if you're down, then everyone else can lift you up. And when you're up, you can share with people, some great achievements.
And it really is. So fundamental to our success, because there will be moments when you're floundering and your teammate picks you up, or whether you need to pick up your teammate and if you've got enough of that trust in a team, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, you can go to the moon, but somebody else who believes teamwork [00:09:00] can take you to the moon is Patrick Lencioni.
In fact, we're going to hear a fair bit from Patrick and we did a big show on Patrick Lencioni. So if you are very interested in his book on teamwork go to moonshots.io and you will be able to find our whole back catalog, including Patrick Yoni's deep dive on the five dysfunctions of a team, but let's hear from Patrick.
Now, let's hear about in life and in business, the greatest competitive advantage. My interest in teams really stems from my childhood because when I was a kid, my dad used to come home from work frustrated by his company. Now he was a great salesman. God rest his soul and a great guy, but he was always complaining about the way he was treated at work and how dysfunctional things were.
And I didn't know what that meant when I was a kid. But later on when I got my first job as a consultant, I was dealing with things like strategy and marketing and other operational issues and business. And I found myself distracted by this issue of [00:10:00] teamwork, because I thought, man, if we could get people working in teams, really working together well, it would change everything from the way we dealt with customers to the bottom line and to the way people enjoyed and felt fulfilled in their work.
I've come to the conclusion that teamwork truly is the greatest competitive advantage that any group of people can have. And it's not bad. Complicated. It's pretty simple, but it is hard because it requires a lot of work over time. And a lot of courage, I think it's actually an intentional strategic decision we have to make.
And by making that decision, we'll be much more likely to accept the cost and the sacrifice that it requires, and that will make it possible for us to encounter the full power of teamwork. If I could say anything to leaders of teams, it would be this one day, you're going to retire from your job and most people that want to retire think about doing other good things in life, serving people doing missionary work or [00:11:00] helping the poor something.
Wonderful. That's great. I want you to realize that while you're leading this team, you are having a bigger impact on people's lives than you may ever. You change the way they go home at night, the way they treat their family and their friends and strangers on a bus, you affect their self esteem and that's going to carry over throughout their life.
So let's not wait till we retire to realize the impact we can have on people's lives and your ability to build a good team, to help them feel a part of that team might very well be the most altruistic thing ever do
well, an inspiring clip, Mike, it really reminds me of the effects that I can have on those colleagues and teammates around me. But it also, I think, importantly, calls out that teamwork for leaders does require a little bit of work, right? Yeah. And how, when an interesting reframing of our daily work that he's [00:12:00] wake up, this might be the greatest contribution that you'll ever make because when you're working with others, helping others, leading others, the positive impact you can have on their lives is wonderful.
So don't defer your sense of. Philanthropy until till you retire, rather you're doing it right now, right? Yeah. Isn't that a, so I'm sitting here smiling now because suddenly I'm thinking, okay, why can I feel a bit motivated now to take a little bit more time with colleagues, teammates customers, and so on who are slowing things down, or maybe they need a little bit of help because you're right.
Reframing it in a way that shows me, oh, I could have a positive impact on this individual. Maybe I take a little bit of extra time. Maybe I factor it into my day schedule or whatever it might be from a practical perspective. The [00:13:00] knock on effect is going to be really positive. Not only for our production.
Collaboration or project, but you're right. Much broader than just the individual that I'm getting interacting with the fact that it impacts the rest of their working lives. And so that's yeah, it is. I would say that's a philanthropic concept to bear in mind, isn't it? It is. And don't underestimate the good you can do in helping those around you, which is a great lesson from Patrick Lencioni.
And it's not the only lesson we'll learn from him and mark, because you are the first matter of the two of us. Do you remember which number show Patrick Lancey? Anyone? Yes. For listeners and members and subscribers, you can go in and check out episode 101 in the moonshots podcast, which you can access via Spotify, apple podcasts, as well as moonshots and.io.
And the episode number is 101 Patrick Lencioni's five [00:14:00] dysfunctions of a team. Patrick is not the only one that's been thinking about the dysfunctions of a team. In fact, Google thought about it a lot as well. And the interesting thing they decided to do was to study it classic Google. They spent two years studying the behaviors, the performance of over 180 teams, and it's called project Aristotle.
And they wanted to get to the very DNA, the root, the foundation of teamwork. They wanted to understand like what makes great teams work and what happens in teams that don't. And we are really fortunate. Now we are going to listen to a complete breakdown of project Aristotle and what it discovered to find the magic in teamwork, technology companies encourage their employees to work together because studies show the teams tend to innovate faster.
It's you higher? [00:15:00] See mistakes more quickly and find better solutions to problems yet. Not every team is successful. So how do you build a highly effective team that is capable of delivering expected results? A study run by Google will shed some light on this question and help us identify traits that all successful.
We will teams shared several years ago, who will launch an internal project Aristotle, which was a huge data study focused on the teamwork. The tech giant spent millions of dollars tracking 180 separate teams with three years. The goal of the project was simple yet ambitious to find out what are the traits of the highest performing teams.
In other words, the company wanting to know why some teams stumbled while others soared. Initially the researchers hypothesis [00:16:00] was that maybe best teams have members who liked each other a lot, or there was a healthy mix of personality types, or the team members were friends outside of work. Yet none of these seem to matter.
The researchers could not find any meaningful patterns in the data. Basically, there was no evidence that mix of specific personality types or scales or backgrounds made any difference. The who part of the equation then seem to matter. As the research has continued to study the groups, they noticed two behaviors that all of the mass.
First is that the team members spoke in roughly the same proportion, a phenomenon, the researchers call inequality in distribution of conversational turn-taking on some teams, everyone spoke during each task while on others, leadership shifted among [00:17:00] teammates from assignment to assignment, but in each case, at the end of the day, everyone had spoken roughly the same amount.
In other words, as long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well, but if only one person or small group spoke all the time, the collective intelligence declined. Second, the good teams all had high average social sensitivity, a fancy way of saying they were skilled at reading how others felt based on their tone of voice, their expressions and other nonverbal cues.
One of the easiest way to determine social sensitivity is to show someone photos of a person's eyes and ask to describe what that person is feeling in exam known. As the reading, the mind in the eyes, people on successful teams scored about average. [00:18:00] They seem to know when someone was feeling upset or left out people on last effective teams in contrast scored below average, they seem to be less sensitive towards their colleagues.
By the end of the project, researchers came to a conclusion that it didn't matter who was on the team. What mattered was have team members treated each other teams where everybody talked and everybody showed respect by listening and bank attention created psychologically safe atmosphere inside the team and psychological safety of each member in the group had a positive effect on the team's ability to succeed.
Wow, it's classic Google. Isn't an Mike spending years with 180 teams gathering all of that data in order to exactly to bring out the science for us. It's a huge [00:19:00] body of work. And I feel really grateful that someone went and did all that work to confirm. It's really about the creating these this environment where people get to speak without being shut down, where people really back each other up that there's clarity in structure and roles that the work is meaningful and that they're getting results.
And. Just even this idea that everybody got to speak in equal amounts and that everyone actually had a voice was really instructional as to whether they would succeed as a team. I think in this, we have the perfect partner to the work of Patrick Lensioni, it's the definitive guide to us on teamwork and the role that we can play as leaders to create those five factors that are startle found.
Now here's my [00:20:00] question for you, Matt. Five factors, which of those is the most provocative or powerful to you? Which one do you look at and go, whoa, that one's B I think Mike, the thing that really stands out for me. Is the safety. And I think the safety of enabling a team to collaborate together in an environment where they're willing to speak equally and also have the empathy to understand what the other individual was saying from a a barrier free environment.
That for me is a classic demonstration of what maybe I've experienced in my favorite team teams that I've worked on in the past it comes down to not necessarily as Google's project Aristotle calls out that we're all friends outside of work and so on. But during the work, during the projects, having the ability [00:21:00] to talk openly and have that little bit of sensitivity towards it.
Yeah. That. And then the safety that's where I'm immediately going towards and thinking, this is the kind of foundation of what makes good teamwork. It really is. Isn't it? Because if you can admit something is a struggle or a challenge and feel that you won't be criticized for it then you're actually able to unpack it, solve it, get on top of it rather than it getting on top of you.
Yeah. Look, this reminds me of some of the other shows we've done on the moonshot show where you delve into the challenges of being focused or being patient or struggling with things day to day with our workloads and so on. Yeah. By not having an avenue to share either ideas or [00:22:00] frustrations or obstacles or anxieties, or I think what you've just said to build on it breeds that insecurity and it breeds a almost like a poisonous atmosphere within a team.
And I think you're right, unless you've got that avenue reinforced and positively encouraged, a team can struggle to really voice those concerns or an individual within a team can struggled to voice those concerns and therefore not play particularly well as a sports team, as a business producing team.
Yeah. And I think if teams aren't feeling safe mark What w what we tend to see is behaviors that are very corrosive to the team and its performance. Things like there's a lot of politics. There's a lot of talking behind closed doors. [00:23:00] There's a lot of criticism. There's a lot of complaining.
There's other power struggles. All of these things happen when people don't feel that they can be together and safe and open and take risks together when it becomes fight or flight. That's when the team is most guaranteed not to perform. Yeah. And struggles that I think myself I've probably had in the past with teams, it's when I can see.
There's conversations happening outside of the collaboration processes. We might establish daily scrums or daily collaboration pieces, but suddenly when those things start falling apart and there's frustrations happening, I think that's a classic telltale sign that something's not quite right.
And that sort of thing, the wheels are starting to wobble. We've certainly painted the [00:24:00] picture of not only some inspiring thoughts around teamwork and leadership, but the other thing is mark. What we've learned from Aristotle is there's a lot of behavioral work to be done. If you want to have great teamwork, we've even highlighted.
It can get pretty messy if there's not that safety and that trust. And so many other things that you need to get teamwork happening. But before we get there, mark we have to remind all of our moonshot is whether they're listening via. The apple iTunes podcast subscription, or whether they're a Patreon member we should remind them, there is a place out in the far wild world of the internet that they can get everything they need.
Not only for teamwork, but much, much more. You guys, you can all pop along to www.moonshots.io, where you can check out a vast number, 145 episodes. Mike, on individuals, entrepreneurs, authors, sports [00:25:00] members who have demonstrated to us values and traits and behaviors that we can learn from day to day and every week that inspire us to be our best version of ourselves.
moonshots.io. You can check out Patrick Lencioni's book five dysfunctions of a team episode 101. You can even check out our episode on Michael Jordan, which was episode 78, and that's all about teamwork. And there's a wealth of content over there. Mike, we've got show dogs, transcripts, video clips. You've got all manner of reading lists.
You've got everything that I think you would need in order to try and be that best version of yourself. And of course you'll get a full transcript and all of the tools and the links for this show. So head over to dementia study, and you will find a world of inspiration where you can learn out loud with us and all of our listeners too.
Okay. Mark, are you ready to hit part two of this journey into [00:26:00] teamwork? I am sufficiently inspired. I'm starting to see the value of good teamwork within organizations. And I understand that it isn't a solo sport. It most definitely is not. It's a team sport, whether it's work, whether it's home, whether it's your world out in your community, it's all a team sport.
But before we hear from the grand master Patrick Lencioni, who has some really epic advice for us on how we can do teamwork, how we can encourage teamwork with our peers, colleagues, family, and friends. We're going to hear from a moonshot heavyweight, one of the grandmasters of moonshots, Mr. Simon Sinek.
And what he's going to do for us is remind us that not all leaders are big, loud, talkative extrovert. Can an introvert become a good leader? Oh, absolutely. I'm an introvert. People think that because I stand on the stage, I'm an extrovert, but I actually [00:27:00] try to avoid sort of big gatherings and things.
I'm a, I'm an introvert, but absolutely. I get asked this all the time what are the characteristics required to be in a vision in a charisma? I know some fantastic leaders who don't have big Steve jobs, the envisions I know some fantastic leaders who don't have like tons of energy and bouncing around and charisma, they're quiet and keep to themselves.
However, what all great leaders have in my opinion is courage. They have the courage to do the right thing. They have the courage to speak truth to power. They have the courage to do something that's unpopular or put up with the extreme amounts of pressure from external sources that are pushing them to do something more expedient, more short-term to do something that's better for the long-term and for the people courage.
Is it so absolutely. Fantastic. Fantastic leaders. A lot of great leaders are introverted. We don't all need to be Steve jobs as leaders. [00:28:00] Again, Mike I'm feeling reassured because even though there are many lessons and values that I'd want to emulate from Steve jobs, it can take a little bit of.
Extra confidence to get there and the hearing that anybody can be a leader. Yeah. That's a good weight of my shoulders. Yeah. And I think that's an invitation to contribute to your team that you don't have to be the loudest or the most talkative. You can be contributing in a more humble fashion and a less noisy fashion.
And that being a key part of a team doesn't come we don't all have to be the six foot, two California blonde haired quarterback making all the critical players. We can all make a contribution. It can come in different styles, different flavors. And what we heard from project Aristotle [00:29:00] is it's the quality of the spread of conversation amongst all team members.
That's a really important thing. So it's not just that one person is dominant. Rather that is all that are contributing. And I think that is very important when we shift now into how we do teamwork, how we do leadership. It's important to remember that you can contribute, even if you're not an extrovert.
I think that's very important because I think a lot of people probably pull back a little bit in those teams, situations don't email. I think you hit the nail on the head with the word hustle. I think humble and to steal the work of some cynic in that previous clip being humble and having the courage to be humble can actually be quite a challenge.
It's very easy to fall into the, I need an action or I now, so I'm going to tell everybody what to go and do. I'm going to write at work for them. They're going to go and do it. And I'm going to get the results or the inputs that I, or the [00:30:00] deliverables that I need, but actually having the confidence and the courage to say, okay hang on.
Let's pause. Let's understand all the pressures of those different team members and colleagues. Let me be humble. Give them a chance to learn, ask questions suddenly that. Just saying it out loud, Mike, it makes so much sense. Doesn't it? You building a more of a concrete foundation to build it.
And it's really interesting that the more we learn it's about growing, helping others grow, serving others. Scenic even has a great book, great leaders eat last and there's a whole body of work there to suggest that putting others before you is the highest form of leadership, but we digress.
We digress mark. Now we need to become laser focused on teamwork. And I think we are about to unload the two most important clips for anyone wishing to master teamwork. [00:31:00] I believe we're coming to the work now with Patrick Lensioni and it has been enormous. I cannot, I can't really cannot tell you how much it has affected the way I think about leadership.
How I think about teamwork and it, for me paints a very clear picture of what we need to do in order to create teamwork. Now, mark, before we play these two clips, it's important to say we're not going to do all five pillars. From Patrick Lencioni's book, the five dysfunctions of a team, as we've mentioned, we've done a show on that.
You can access that@moonshots.io. We're going to start with the first two. Aren't we mark that's right. We're not going to dive into the big five because you can go and find the demonstrate the designated episode for that. But Mike, these first two for me and you and for our listeners are the essential groundwork and foundations that Lencioni paints for us.
And that first one, Mike, the first step to [00:32:00] that great teamwork. It's all about trust. The first thing I'm going to tell you is so ridiculously simple. It's almost embarrassing. Okay. The first thing that a team needs to be able to do. If it wants to work together is trust each other. How frigging obvious is that right?
Can you believe they pay me to tell you that if you want to be a great team, you need to trust each other. Okay. Moving right along. But here's the thing about trust. Trust for most people is not exactly what I'm talking about. When I talk about trust, see, most people think of trust is where you and I have known each other for a long time, so we can trust each other.
We can predict one another's behavior. That's what I call pre predictive trust. I can trust that this is how he's going to react. If I say this to him, because I've known him for a long time. Any group of people that's known each other for a long time or worked together for a long time, we'll have predictive trust, but that's not what makes a team great.
When I talk about the kind of trust that makes a team great. I'm talking about something called vulnerability based trust. [00:33:00] Vulnerability based trust is when human beings on a team can and will genuinely say things to one another. I don't know the answer I need. I really screwed this up. You're much smarter than I am.
Can you teach me how to be like you or I'm sorry. I was a jerk to you yesterday. I apologize. I shouldn't have done that when people can be that buck naked emotionally with one another. When you know, they're not going to hold anything back, they're going to be completely raw and open with one another.
It changes the dynamics on a team like nothing else. And if there's one thing you take away from this talk today, I want you to realize that if you can go back and make the people help, the people you work with and yourself become more vulnerable with each other, it makes your team a completely different one.
And the best way to understand how powerful that is, is to think about times that you've worked on teams that didn't have vulnerability when people couldn't be that open vulnerability. Mark, that's the real trust. Isn't it? It is not. Just about, Hey, I know the [00:34:00] guy we've been working together for ages, but can you tell him, you just don't understand or can you tell him, I don't know how to do it, or can you tell her I'm stuck?
That's trust. It's so true. Isn't it? That raw openness or as Lensioni so eloquently puts it when you're buck naked, vulnerable, trusted, disturbing vision. It's really hard. Mike. It's really hard. I even want to compare it to one of those really valuable, but really difficult lessons you learn as a kid.
The power of saying, sorry, because of that, when you say, sorry to somebody that I think is showing a vulnerable trust moment, because you're putting your hands down, you're saying, I'm sorry, I made a mistake or I've got something to confess. It didn't quite work out or whatever. And yeah. I for me, Mike, I find it pretty challenging and pretty [00:35:00] difficult because I guess it's difficult because you want to be, not that you don't want to be right.
You don't want to let people down. I think that's where this valuable lesson from Lindsay only really comes into its own in my experience, in my mind, because it's reminding me to not let my own disappointment of my behavior, perhaps get in the way of the team being able to improve and being able to rectify whatever that situation is by raising your hand and saying, Hey guys, I'm sorry, but I've messed things up.
That's okay. Because now we can move on and make it better. Yeah. So let's break this down. The the, it, let's say we're working on behalf of our listeners who are maybe struggling to find that vulnerability. Now here's the thing. If we don't. Get vulnerable and speak to the things that really challenge us, [00:36:00] concern us, or worry us per se, in the workplace.
All we're doing is deferring down the line. A bigger problem, because let's say an executive is really struggling with piece of work, but this work is crucial for the future of the company because they don't want to admit their struggles. They blunder their way through. And the work that they deliver is not good enough and puts in the long run the entire company at risk.
So you have to weigh things up. Can I find the capacity to talk with, to be open, to be vulnerable with my colleagues? Oh, can I encourage them to be vulnerable with me if they're struggling? Because think about the choice here. It's do I take a small hit now are much bigger one down the track. That's how I work through [00:37:00] this.
I'm not saying it's easy, but as a way of getting myself in the right head space, I think giving voice to these now and tackling things early. My lesson has been when I haven't done that, I've just been beaten so badly in the long run. I'm old enough to have made enough mistakes that I can oh gosh, I should say something if something's not right here.
I think we've got to find that now. I'm assuming that there's a good environment in which you can do that. And if you can't, then you should get the hell out of there. Sometimes it really comes down to us putting that first foot forward and saying, you know what? I've got to be vulnerable. I've got to put this out there.
Yeah. There are definitely been times for me when I've perhaps kept something to my chest, hoping, [00:38:00] praying that situation or obstacle will rectify itself and then realizing another few days or a week or so on that suddenly it's still a challenge. And now it's even bigger being honest and vulnerable and trusting with my colleagues.
We could have perhaps improved upon this final situation a little bit quicker, maybe with less work. I think Mike, I can, or I can be honest and put my hand up as well. I've probably got emotional scars from doing exactly the same. Yeah. And I saw, I think it there's a couple of things that we can all do.
Mark. I think we're all with you. I don't think anyone finds it particularly easy of. Okay, good. We're all with you here. I think asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength you need help be willing to express how you feel to say what you think is [00:39:00] required. I would even say just slow down and gather your thoughts, try and write them out.
And don't allow the fear of vulnerability to prevent you from making something that's like a level five problem. Don't let it fester. So it becomes like a level 10 critical problem down the track, right? Yeah. I think as I reflect on in mic, it does remind me of the work we explored with Ron holiday.
And the idea of losing face and pride this first step to great teamwork from Lencioni and the idea of vulnerable trust. I think you've really got to get past any concepts or ideas of your own ego in order to do that. And I think you're right, the idea and the act of writing something out, reflecting upon it, revisiting [00:40:00] it, really breaking it down and compartmentalizing it yourself will help you realize or help me realize, I should say, okay it's not that big a deal.
Why would I let an invisible. Mindset of ego get in the way of a great project outcome, great teamwork, or even a great life. Why do I want to carry that level of anxiety around with me all the time? Surely by like you say, expressing it as a level five is better than a level 10, because it's going to be much, much easier.
So now what is if teams build this trust through the vulnerability, they can go to this kind of next step, which is having the tough discussions. And if you have the tough discussions, then you can all be heard and get committed. And if you're all committed, To the objective, you can hold each other accountable to getting there, and then you can pay [00:41:00] attention to the, both the intermediate and the end results.
This is the pyramid that Patrick Lencioni has built in. Understanding. Teamwork relates very strongly to project Aristotle. So let me mark, let's just go dark for one moment here. Let's paint the picture of what happens in a highly dysfunctional team. There's a complete absence of trust, right? People are not vulnerable.
There's a fear of conflict. So everyone's bitching behind each other's backs. Then there's a lack of commitment. No one even believes in the goal. Anyway, everyone's getting away with misbehavior. There's no accountability whatsoever. And guess what? They don't hit the results. These are the five dysfunctions of a team.
And we've heard about the first one, this picture that I've painted for you, mark. There is nobody in the world who wants to be in this situation. Absolutely. No one, not only from a leadership perspective the leader, seeing their team [00:42:00] function in this way. You don't want to see that, but also as an individual, who's part of that team surrounded by teammates.
It doesn't work for them either. Nobody wants to be in a situation where there is no trust. There's that fear of conflict and commitment. This just breeds that insecurity and kind of unhappiness with work. Yeah. And so I think what becomes really interesting is we do have the ability to get ourselves out of this.
And I would say that the important thing is to understand. That what we have done and where we are in the second part of the show is we're really deep into the behaviors. We're really into the the things that people do and how this can truly affect the [00:43:00] outcome of a team. So here's, what's really interesting if you think about what I'm saying, let's take basketball.
For example, it doesn't matter. And Jordan said this, it doesn't matter how talented each of the individuals are, unless they are really trusting each other and being vulnerable. If you ensure that all the team members have a say these first two steps, building trust and getting into these tough conversations, if you don't do these things, it doesn't matter how talented the athlete is.
Just it doesn't matter how smart the executive is. If you don't tackle these five dysfunctions of a team. Okay. So we've talked about an absence of trust. Okay. This is really important that you make the first step in being vulnerable. That's number one, number two, making sure if you want to tackle the conflict [00:44:00] challenge, the fear of conflict, you've got to make sure everyone's safe.
What did we hear from project Aristotle, mark? Same thing, right? Same thing. The idea of everybody having that same almost percentage of conversation. Everybody's willing to say something out loud right now. Lack of commitment. A really good thing to understand here is a lot of people in a team, let's say, take it back to the office.
Don't have a clear expectation understanding of the expectations that are made of them. So it's really important to take a snapshot with people. Do you understand your role? Do you understand what you're meant to deliver? Do you have any misunderstanding around that? Do you know what you need to be working on in terms of areas of improvement?
You've got to get their buy-in to that and how that then contributes to the overall goal, because if they understand, if they're empowered, Is for the benefit of [00:45:00] themselves and the company, then you start to get them committed to getting this done. Now, avoidance of accountability, this is the fourth in Patrick.
Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team. What is critical at this point is when people are not doing what they said, you have to have uncomfortable conversations. And here's the key word early, just like when you're a parent, you have to create boundaries for your children early because winding those back once the horse has bolted, it's very hot.
So you've got to get in and say, oh, you know what? You've only just started, but I'm seeing a few things we've got to talk about. Okay. You've got to create that accountability goals. You've got to talk about goals. If you want to get the fifth thing done and that's solving the inattention to results, you've got to keep bringing people back.
Our objective and talk about what it's going to take for the [00:46:00] individual's contribution to make a wider contribution to the team's goals. Because if you mark, if you, our listeners understand what you're doing is contributing to the overall goal of the team of the business, that the family of the community group, then you are going to be way more self-accountable self-direction or to get it.
There, you'll be way more autonomous because you truly want your own improvement to be a reflection of the team's improvement and overall success. This is the five dysfunctions of a team. If you can address these, you are on the way to a high-performance team. Mark. This is a big one to digest. Isn't it?
It is a big one. And I think as Lensioni caught out in that clip, we heard a little while ago. It almost sounds. Obvious starting with trust, but it really isn't is it's really a nuanced art to build [00:47:00] and recognize a good team. And I think as a leader, as a people leader, as a team leader, being able to notice maybe some of these elements occurring within your team are really important because then you can push, you can try and drive that focus on some of those individual moments that you caught out in order to try and ladder up towards that.
Great, perfect teamwork and team behavior that we're all striving towards. Absolutely. So I'm want to play one more Lensioni clip. I want to get into perhaps mark. I think. This fear of conflict might be one of the vulnerabilities had this fear of conflict in saying what you truly think, how one one's pretty hard.
I think a lot of people struggle with that. What do you think? Yeah, that's definitely going to be the most difficult one. [00:48:00] So it's more so than vulnerability you think? I think it's going to be, obviously it's part and parcel, but I think raising that hand and not saying things behind their back or not being able to say that concern or that piece of conflict out loud without feeling exposed.
I think it is. I think it might be the hardest piece. The good news is we have a clip here from Patrick. Lensioni talking about why conflict should be well. They have different conflict norms in different places, different families, different companies, different cultures. You just have to know what that is.
I don't care if it's Japanese or even here in the U S we have different conflict norms. It seems we have a transient nation, but somehow out here in California, there's very different conflict norms. And on the east coast, and I saw a cartoon years ago that showed somebody on the west coast. It was in LA and it was two people [00:49:00] in an office.
And one of them said to the other one good morning, but the bubble showed what he was really thinking. And ineffective said, screw you the next frame, shorter guy in New York city, say to somebody, screw you. And the bubble said, good morning and it's just true. And you got to know where you are and what your team is and you got to set conflict norms.
So everybody understands who we are and how we do this. But what matters to me is not what those norms are. What matters to me is that you stick to them and that you know that nobody's going to hold back there. If something is important, no member of that team is going to say, oh, I'm not going to say anything.
Cause I'm going to calculate the political cost of this. Or I don't think this would be the right thing to do for my career. No. On a great team because there's trust because there's vulnerability based trust and everybody knows they're comfortable being buck naked with one another. They are not going to hold back their opinion.
Why would they, with trust when you're vulnerable with each other? Conflict is nothing but the pursuit of truth or the best possible answer. Why [00:50:00] would I, if I trust you implicitly vulnerable with vulnerability, why would I be upset with you disagreed with me? Cause I know all we're trying to do is figure out the right answer.
That's a great thing. If there's not trust, if we don't have vulnerability, conflict is a very bad thing. Then it becomes manipulation and politics. Now I'm just trying to. Because see, I'm not going to listen to you, even if you disagree and have a good point. That's why as much as you might want to say, we need to get better at conflict.
You've got to start with trust. You've got a star with trust and again, it's valuable and confronting as well. I guess I'd say to hear that and try and remember it and try and work through it. But I think Lencioni is really demonstrating to me, Mike, that this idea of welcoming conflict breeds, better collaboration and more honest communication and discussions.
[00:51:00] And I'm immediately trying to determine whether there have been times in my career when I've intentionally avoided moments of conflict, because I didn't have that level of trust within the team or within my own. Collaboration within that team when I wasn't feeling vulnerable enough. And therefore I avoided raising a hand or raising a point of view that might contradict somebody else was saying, it's like those movies, when something happens and you get that awkward feeling, this is not gonna work.
Yeah, exactly. When it's those classic moments where the actors in the movie have made a decision and that ominous music stars come, you're like, I'm not sure they took the right option. And it's so important to speak up and isn't it interesting mark, how all of these relate to each other, [00:52:00] like the capacity to be vulnerable and the capacity to have those really tough conversations, they go hand in hand with.
No commitment and understanding your roles, being accountable to what you've committed to getting your attention to the results. They're all deeply interrelated and what a marvelous body of work that we have from Patrick Lensioni to guide us to put some light on the path for creating better teamwork, both at home and at work.
And I would build on that and say, it's a ladder. You have to climb sequentially. If you're trying to get to better results, you can't just jump straight up to the top. You need to work through and build and establish those different layers of the triangle. Before moving on to the next one, like I say, I can raise a hand if I don't have the ability or the willingness to be vulnerable to [00:53:00] others.
And I can't take absolute accountability unless I've got that commitment in place they're so intercut connected and there's. Sequential that, that ladder it's of it's again, quite relieved. It's a relief, Mike I kind of fear finally feel like there's a map that I can follow, not only as a leader, but also as a teammate in order to try and get us to a successful result at the end of the day.
Yeah I totally he this is a great roadmap and mark, just a reminder, we have pulled together a bunch of additional reading. We've got like the eight best team effectiveness models. Where are we going to find all of those things? Where do we publish everything? Moonshots related, everything moonshots related ends up on www dot moonshots dot I O all of our show notes, all of our links, reading lists, transcripts.
Audio clips, [00:54:00] everything can be found@moonshots.io. Think of that listeners, subscribers members as the bill and end, or the comprehensive destination for everything that you would like to dig into from the menu. Absolutely moonshots.io. Now let's just remind ourselves where have we been? We have got some inspiration.
We've got this message from a grant Cardone, Patrick Lensioni, everyone's got an Italian sounding name. Don't they? And we really got a reminder how nobody succeeds on their own life as a team sport. And this project Aristotle really reminded us, oh my gosh. It's not just the skills here.
What's really key is behaviors. And boy, did we get some magic from Patrick Lencioni and Simon Sinek? We can all be participants in creating the trust, having the tough conversations and going right up through that pyramid of team dysfunctions and conquering each and [00:55:00] every one of them. So this brings us to the third part of the show where we really start to get into the strategy, the big picture of teamwork, where we can understand where we are in this journey and how the great teams get to their greatness.
The first place we're going to start. Is with a new model, a new framework. We just had Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team. The great news is there's actually a lot of good frameworks around teamwork. In fact, one of the links we just mentioned is to the eight best team models. Okay. So you can go check those out@moonshots.io.
We've picked a couple of those to really break down so that you can actually do teamwork as a team member or as a team leader or anywhere in between. And the model that we thought would be great to kick things off with is Belvins models. So let's have a listen [00:56:00] now to the first of many models that are going to help you put teamwork into action.
Why is it that some teams work together so productively while others struggle to get things done? Good collaboration depends on more than people being enthusiastic and communicating. Between them, they need the right mix of skills and behaviors to service the team too. One way to work out what's missing from your team and equally what might be overemphasized is to understand Belvins team roles.
Then you can start to put things right. Dr. Meredith Belbin showed that individuals in a team tend to behave and one of nine ways each fulfilling a different role. You divided these roles into three types, action oriented people oriented and thought oriented roles. The three action oriented roles focus on challenging the team to improve its performance.
Put the ideas into action and meet deadlines and brief shapers are [00:57:00] extroverts and question assumptions. They can offend implementers, bring self-discipline to the team and get things done, but they can be resistant to change completer, finishers, pay attention to the smallest detail and make sure things are done right.
They might worry too much people oriented roles, draw altogether people and ideas. The coordinators in a team will guide listen, delegate and bring calm and order. They might be manipulative though. Team workers support their coworkers and can negotiate diplomatically, but sometimes get stuck in indecision resource investigators use their optimism and curiosity to develop outside contacts, but they can lose their enthusiasm quickly.
People in the thought oriented roles tend to analyze options or provide technical expertise. The plans are usually introverted. Lone workers who come up with the most innovative ideas and solutions, which might break all the rules. [00:58:00] Monitor evaluators will coldly and critically assess the team's options.
They too can appear to attach the times, specialists, know their subject and maintain their professional standards, but might miss the bigger picture. Who do you have on board right now? Take some time to observe your team at work. What does each person contribute and how do they interact with one another now match their behaviors to Belvins model or my art me, I love understanding strengths, weaknesses, roles personality types.
I find this level of science and analysis, so fascinating. And I'm so pleased. We're able to include one of the different frameworks around teams into today's episode, because this for me just speaks volumes. The thing I love about the sorts of archetypes and personas is I instantly think about who [00:59:00] my colleagues what they match to what I matched to, but I think the first thing we do before we do our own self analysis here is what do you think.
The Belbin model is really telling us in terms of before we look at these as ingredients all those different roles, the shape of the implementer, what are they, what's he trying to tell us with the recipe? And I think there's an important point here. What do you think mark, when he provides this, outline, this checklist, this ingredient list, what's the recipe he's leading us to.
I think he's trying to demonstrate to us that each team will have a set number of individuals and it isn't necessarily that you need to have
that you need to have sorry. Was that pause for me for a second mic? Was that just a note for later? Okay. [01:00:00] Sorry. Hang on. Now I go for a minute. Okay. I think Mike, the recipe that the bell. I think Mike, that the recipe for the Belbin team role is really understanding how teams can structure together. I don't think, and I'm interested to hear your point of view here that he's calling out that every single team should include one of every single role type that we were just hearing in that individual clip.
I think instead, what it's calling out is understand the behaviors and the patterns, and maybe the habits of those on your team in order to best utilize them. Amazing individual. If I know where my strengths and weaknesses are, I can improve upon them. I can reflect upon them. I can learn. Likewise, if you're a team leader and you're able to understand the motivations of the behaviors and the habits of all of your team, you can start to see maybe patterns.
You can see where they might be [01:01:00] playing out a position perhaps, and therefore be able to utilize your understanding to maximize the results that team's outputting. I really, I think it's such a good exercise to benchmark, to have that empathy and understanding, I would say. I would challenge you a little bit and say you want some general balance between action between people are entitled roles and think of roles.
Because for example, if you had a team full of thinkers, how much do you think would get done? Exactly. There's going to be no action-orientated people, right? You're just going to have everybody sitting around dreaming up great ideas, but perhaps putting them into place. Or if you had a team full of people, orientated things, what do you reckon would happen again?
You're not going to have the right level of thinking. That's being pulled them hard and being creative, whole lot of talk and not a lot of doing. And there's [01:02:00] actually right. Which general category are you orientated towards yourself? Mark is the self analysis, but do you feel like you're more action orientated, people orientated or thinker?
I think Mike, where I am right now, as I'm learning about these different models and the different ways of maximizing, how I lead and play a role within a team, I think I'm within the people orientated role. I think I'm in that attended to try and be collaborative. Try to coordinate with one another, have open discussions.
I think I fall into that bracket. What are you. I think you're D you're highly people orientated. So you can check yourself off against either resource investigator, teamwork, or coordinator. These are all parts of Belden's model. The other interesting thing is there are these other roles.
There's that cerebral role. I love [01:03:00] have this specialist monitor, evaluate it, and then check out this one, mark. There is the plant for all. Am I actually, I'm quite like the plant roll, their creative imaginative, unorthodox solve difficult problems. And perhaps I see a little bit of myself in that. So that's pretty interesting that I think I might be a plant and the other hand I'm I love to get things done.
I could be a shaper or an implementer or. Complete her and finish it. I'm probably a bit more of a shaper compliant combo. Pretty good to understand how you work with any team. Isn't it? Yeah. These archetypes are so fascinating because you're right. If you and I were both plants or perhaps both shapers wouldn't work, I imagine that we have great conversations.
We'd really enjoy ourselves, Mike, but the problem is we might not get around to actually go to bed. [01:04:00] It's a very, it's very true. We've had a look at Belvins model, very powerful. I think mark in, in really guiding us to the sort of people we can expect inside of our teams, how we might do a little bit of self-analysis, which is always good to do.
Now, let's look at we've looked at the individual parts. Let's look at the, the hero's journey that a team goes on and we're going to use Bruce Tuckerman's stages of team development. And you might've heard of these before. They are form storm, norm, and perform. Sometimes people throw in an extra one that rhymes with Ryan's with these words, but form storm, norm performance, generally speaking.
The way the journey, the steps for high-performance team, they have to go through those important steps before. So let's now pivot [01:05:00] from looking at the individual ingredients and looking at the journey of team development in a perfect world. New team members would work effortlessly together from day one.
They would get along communicate well and predictably focus on the team's mission. Unfortunately, we live in the real world and as we know, it takes time for teams to reach peak effectiveness psychologist. Bruce Tertullian first identified four stages of team formation in the mid sixties. These are forming storming, norming and performing.
They described the process teams go through as people form bonds, and then to work together effectively in the forming stage. Most team members are positive and polite, but some of them might feel like. During this period, people make an effort to get to know each other the next day, just storming. At this time, people push against boundaries.
There's often conflict around personalities and different working styles. As people become frustrated with one another's [01:06:00] differences in approach, some people might even question the team's goals and avoid taking on tasks. Some teams never make it past the storming stage. The third stage is norming. This is when people start to resolve their differences, build on one another strengths and respect you as a leader.
The last stage is performing your team members reach this stage when they're able to achieve the group's goal. Without friction as a leader at this stage, you can delegate more work and spend time developing each person to be the best they can be. Most teams go through each of these stages and there's a lot you can do as a leader to speed the process up to help you people get to the performing stage.
Mike, what I really like about the Bruce Tuckman process of team development is the, each of the phases are similar to where we were reflecting on Lencioni's triangle. I believe that there are essential sequential moments [01:07:00] that our team has to go through in order to get to that ultimate goal of being a good performing team.
I believe that those four stages would feel extrinsically important for any team who are coming together to, to go through. Would you agree? I have seen this pattern in relationships, community activities, work home family. I think this forming storming norming performing. I think it's like a ubiquitous process, but let's break down.
How we see these playing out. And then what we'll do is we'll look at how we get to wards the performing side. So let's break down forming. And of course, if you're listening to this show, make sure you go to moonshots.io, because we have a link to all of these charts that we're discussing.
So you can actually browse them with us as [01:08:00] we're actually going through them. So head over to mend shots. Forming. So it's the early days everyone's being nice and everyone's generally polite and I'm not talking about anything too crazy, right? That would you say that's a good kickoff to any kind of project or initiative, man?
It's the honeymoon phase, isn't it? It is such a perfect way of describing forming is all about the honeymoon. But then we moved to a slightly more awkward stage. That's the storming phase, right? Where there's a bit of resistance. Some people are a little bit grumpy. There are competing ideas.
Maybe people are starting to get a little hot under the. Yeah, I hot emotions are running wild and people are starting to maybe resist the ideas of each other. That's when the honeymoon phase is if the honeymoon's [01:09:00] ended, this is when they've moved in together and now they have to live with each other's bad habits.
Okay. So we've got forming storming norming. Norming is a much welcome relief after the storming phase. That's where we're like, we're getting in our groove. Aren't we, when we're norming. Yeah. You've started to align together a little bit more. I think that relief again comes in with anxiety getting lowered because you're starting to get onto the same wavelength and the same pattern of things.
Yeah. And then stage four of the model is performing that's when you're hitting the home runs winning championships and all is good in the world. Those are the four big steps of Bruce Tuckerman's team development work now. How do you get from forming to storming? And I would [01:10:00] say this is really about giving everybody clarity on what's expected, giving them the context of why on earth.
We are together as a team and making sure that communication is really crisp between everyone. That's for me, some of the best practices of getting from forming to storming in a team. Is there anything else that comes to mind that might help us get from falling to storming? I think forming is the realist establishing phase.
I think it's setting not only the project content or the goal that we're trying to achieve. It's also bringing in the patterns of collaboration, perhaps we were learning from Lensioni so that vulnerability and being metaphorically, but make it with others is I think, where you can really establish that behavior.
And that willingness to collaborate in that phase. So setting the boundaries for in fact, lowering the boundaries [01:11:00] and the barriers for raising a hand and encouraging. Teammates to really demonstrate that willingness to trust. I believe that's where that will start coming in and the best yeah.
Moment. And to pick a word from Lensioni to put it in this forming stage, it's all about building the trust. Isn't it being a bit vulnerable, being a bit open you're right, exactly. Building that trust again in the honeymoon phase, it's all about getting that trust across each other. And without that it's going to blow out much quicker.
Now let's say we built that trust and we've got ourselves into the storming phase. I think the essential thing here is the capacity to have tough conversations, to give everyone a voice and actually grind your way through the issues to get to a point where everyone's we actually, it was hard.
It was awkward. It was a little hot to get there, but we actually. [01:12:00] Tackled those and started to get a resolution that's for me, the success of the storming phase, where the tough topics actually get addressed properly completely. And with everyone's participation, that to me would be a good storming phase.
Wouldn't you say? Yeah, absolutely. That's when everybody feels as though they're on the same wavelength, or at least they've got the ability to raise a hand whenever they need to provide feedback or facilitate those uncomfortable moments, perhaps. Yeah. And I think the thing was stoning is you've got to the end of stowing where this relief with this resolution that gets you into that norming stage and norming is where things are starting to, you're really on the uptake here.
You're like, oh, thank gosh. We're really sat in a move. We resolve some big issues now. Producing. And this is where you start to see things like people calling out each other saying, well done, good feedback. Hey, if you could just tweak this, it would [01:13:00] be better. And I think another way of saying it, the energy is good in the room, right?
Yeah. And th there's honesty I think that's, that always breeds a good team. Isn't it? When you can say, Hey, yeah, I really enjoyed that bit of work. That was great. Well done. Keep it up as well as, oh yeah. You'd nearly had it just that little bit more. That's real foundation. That's a real good DNA at that moment.
Isn't it? When all the waves are starting to flatten out and we're getting into that normality moment that's really nice positive experience to go. So you get all that done, then you get to performing. So this is the four stage, the phases of team development. We've done forming, storming norming.
We're now performing. And I think when you're a performing as there's a really high energy deadlines are being met, deliverables are being met. There is celebrations, there is positivity, and there's a real capacity of our self-organizing team that like, bring it on. We'll solve it. We'll tackle it.[01:14:00]
Nothing's a problem for us forming storming, norming, performing. I think the beauty of this is it tells you, gets you into the future and shows you what could be for a great team. But I think equally is it helps you go where are we and what should we be doing to resolve this, to get up further up the food chain here.
I think this is a very powerful model DEMA. Yeah. It feels as though it's very actionable as a roadmap. And when you're going through a project it's quite easy to get caught up in the delivery Headspace, isn't it. I've got to get this thing done. I've got to get working on whatever it is.
And you can often forget to nurture the team development in order to get it performing to its maximum capabilities. And you're right. Having this as a reference point [01:15:00] To look at it and think, okay where am I? Oh, you know what? I'm still in storming. Okay. That's interesting. We are finding a little bit of resistance between each other and there are uncomfortable emotions that I'm starting to sense.
What can I, as a leader? What can I, as a teammate, try to encourage all of us to start doing today in order to get us out of the storming quicker and into the norming phase. So we can start delivering those results and planning work that little bit better. I think having that as a reference point is really handy and very practical to try and help the teams that I'm part of tackle problems a little bit more efficiently.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What we've got here is we've used Belvins model, which is about identifying the individual. And then we deliberately picked a Bruce Tuckerman's model, the form storm non-performing model, which helps you see the journey that might be months or years that are of a journey of a team and how you might get to [01:16:00] really that highest level of performance, how you get into that high performance zone and the things that it takes to do it.
Very interesting model head over to moonshot study if you're interested in it. But mark, before we wrap up this masterclass in teamwork, we do have one more clip don't we do to close out the show that we've really delved into and try to provide a comprehensive look at the idea of teamwork. Mike is tied away telling us that good teams can stick together.
1986, Steve jobs was forced out of apple and bought a small company for $5 million. That company was Pixar and he stayed Pixar CEO until 2006. During that time, Steve jobs taught us valuable lessons about the difference between good teamwork and bad teamwork. In 2000 Pixar was moving offices and they had plans to build three separate offices, one for computer scientists, one for animators, and one [01:17:00] for Pixar executives.
When jobs learned about the plans, he scrapped it immediately. Why? Because he knew the entire Pixar team needed to be together to have one big space and a meeting place right in the middle, because he knew that great teamwork requires connection. See every, team's got to figure this out at some point, this is how teamwork goes.
That everything goes great until it doesn't. And then what, when things get hard, you're losing the championship game. The business stops making. Your marriage is strained. That's the true test because every team reaches that moment and they never expect to. So the difference between good teamwork and bad teamwork is defined, not when things are easy, but when things get hard, that's when great teamwork comes down to these three things.
First, during the tough times, do you drift apart or stay connected? It's a critical distinction. Steve jobs knew how important [01:18:00] that fork in the road can become for a team. He knew there'd be tough times. So his answer stay together. We build our office to always be connected good times or bad times. We're going to keep running into each other.
We're going to keep figuring this out. The Chicago bulls dynasty lost many times before they finally won the difference was they stuck together during the bad times, they didn't drift apart. They fixed the problems because they didn't run from the problems. FC, Leon, the amazing women's football team, perhaps the most successful team in the world.
Needed to break through before they went on to win seven titles in 10 years, when things get hard, grow together. The second key between good teamwork and bad teamwork is trust. For years, Google ran some internal research called project Aristotle, which was Google's deep data dive into what makes highly effective teams.
And the two top determinants were feeling safe on the team and feeling like others were dependable. It was trust. Trust that my voice will be heard. That'll be [01:19:00] valued. It will be appreciated. And at the end of the day, we'll get our work done teams. Aren't always the happiest groups. They always make life easier.
In fact, oftentimes they make it harder, but when push comes to shove, a good team trusts each other, and everyone has a voice. Think about the best leader you've ever worked for. Their bar height was high work. Wasn't easy, but it was fulfilling. You had a role. Others had a role too. And at the end of the day, Everyone could trust each other.
And that trust is so vital because of the third key between good teamwork and bad teamwork that teams plateau before they peak the foundational research into teams was really clear on this point. People like Bruce Tuckman and Timothy Briggs back in the 1960s and seventies figured this out teams have a natural plateau.
They get together, they start figuring things out. Then their performance starts to normalize and level and not the level they could be capable of, but at a natural threshold and to reach their peak performance. In order to break through that threshold teams need some kind of [01:20:00] leadership to push the bar up.
That's a big part. Why leadership matters now that leadership can come in lots of different forms, a motivational breakthrough, a moment where people rally agitating people out of autopilot, something like that, but oftentimes that leadership doesn't come without some pain without some discussion. And if you don't trust each other, when you try to break out of that plateau, you simply break apart.
Think about the years of hard work before the success arrived. That's a difference between hitting the plateau and reaching the peak. It takes the foundation of trust. Then the leadership to push it, think about Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, or think about what Steve jobs brought back to apple. When he rejoined that push from plateau to peak, it's the fundamental law of teams that everything goes well until it doesn't.
And then what that's when bad teams unraveling good teams rally. So don't get caught off guard. That these teamwork challenges are coming, whether you're facing them now or not. So build a structure to stick together, build trust at every moment, even when you don't think it matters and foster [01:21:00] leadership that will push you from a plateau to the peak.
That's good. Oh my gosh, what a great summary clip it's like he was being listening to the whole show Tyler way. Just said, let me summarize mark and Mike, they're going on for too long. I'll just do it in one damn clip. It is almost convenient that Tyler has really summarized and helped us recap, Mike, at the end of episode three on teamwork.
And for me, my there's really a number of key call-outs that he's referring to there. And just to summarize them a little bit together, the things that have stuck out to me and stuck out to Tyler away are really the following. You've got to cultivate that trust in the teamwork have those uncomfortable conversations, have those moments of vulnerability.
You can only get. By creating [01:22:00] and establishing that form of trust. And what I liked as a, as an, almost like a build that Tyler calls out is knowing where you are knowing that difficulty will come. And that's really what we saw in that form storm, norm, and perform from Bruce Tuckerman. Isn't it, this idea that every teamwork will go into those different stages and having that as a awareness, a moment that you should anticipate to come in the process as a leader, or even as a teammate, it just releases that stress that you might have wondering where you are wondering where you might be in the process and whether you're doing things correctly.
And that final moment that he was really demonstrating as a build on this journey that we will go through is the plateau. Plateauing with the stresses or the anxieties, or maybe that resistance in the teamwork, getting ourselves to peak is possible for every team, as long as we're able to reflect on how we [01:23:00] collaborate, how we communicate and how we can work together as a team in order to reach that final result.
For me, there's just such a level of consistency. Mike that's come through in the work and the frameworks and the science and the clips that we've heard from today. That all point us toward how to cultivate as well. Help build and grow that team, whether it's something that you're creating from scratch, or it's a team that already exists teams that I'm already part of.
I now have more of an awareness of what I can do to try and help us get into the right stream of things a lot quicker. Said, Mike, that was it. It was a great wrap. And what I think as we start now to reflect on the body of work in this show, what we see is there is this very primal need for [01:24:00] safety and trust and the capacity should be vulnerable in order to set the scene for everything that comes after that.
Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It really is. It's really setting that strategy early on in order to define it. Where you're going to go in the long run. So having that awareness I would just challenge you to, I would say to not set a strategy, but to behave as humans, we must trust.
We must create safety for each other. Forget the strategy because it doesn't matter if there's no trust right now. You're right, it's the empathy, isn't it. It's being remembering the world human. And that the individual that you're working with is human too. That's really the fundamental point.
And so forget all of the talent and the you could be the best slam dunker. If you don't have four other great players that choose to be together with you and trust each other, it doesn't matter how much you slammed on it. Does it? No, it doesn't know how much you stand on, because at the end of the [01:25:00] day, you're not going to be a great team.
If there's only one person doing it. Exactly. And and the funny thing is Jordan said teamwork is what wins championships and his coach at the time set is when Michael learned to pass the ball was when the bulls became great. Isn't that great when he learned to pass is so much in that it's really powerful really powerful.
W when I, and I think as a teammate of Jordan, I would feel more confident if he's passed me the ball, knowing that he might be the ultimate slam dunker. The fact that he's positive to me, that shows respect. So I have more confidence as a teammate and maybe I'm a great dunker as well, but without having the opportunity to have the chance to find out, I'm always going to be in the background.
We're lacking that a little bit of confidence or courage. [01:26:00] Absolutely. Absolutely. What an epic show, what an epic master series into teamwork. The first of our leadership topics pretty intense, pretty deep, broad, comprehensive stuff. Do you feel jammed? Do you feel like ready to spring into teamwork or you're just trying to digest a very heavy meal?
My, yes, I struggled. I struggled. Yes. I think that demonstrates in fact that there is a lot churning in my brain, the form storm norm perform is my standout framework that I'm going to be taking not only into the work I'm doing currently, but also into the future as I joined and work with new teams, because that to me is such a, almost like a cheat sheet that I can just refer to them and say, okay How do we get out into the [01:27:00] next stage?
It's okay. That we're here. That's okay. It doesn't matter because everybody goes through it, but how do we get out of it quicker? That for me is such a huge moment of almost a heart and relief as I reflect on yeah. Being in teams. Yeah. Well done. Mark, thank you to you for being part of this epic journey into teamwork and thank you to you, our listeners for joining us in our first exploration of leadership here in the master series and the core topic today was teamwork here in episode three, and we had three big parts.
First part, it started with grant Cardone telling us that nobody started anything big by themselves. And then we heard that teamwork truly is the greatest competitive advantage. And it's not what you know, it's how you do it. If you look at the deal. From project Aristotle by Google, it was all about [01:28:00] psychological safety.
Then once we were full of that inspiration, we learned that anyone can be a leader, even introverts, like Simon Sinek. And then we went to the two foundational ideas of Patrick Lencioni's works, the five dysfunctions of a team trust and conflict. He helped us understand what is required to go right up his pyramid right up to the results.
And we wrapped every. With Belvins model the nine archetypes. The big question, you mean shutters? Which one are you and what are your colleagues? Because you need to get together. As Bruce Tuckman would say to known to stone, to form and perform. These are all ahead of you. If you understand what teamwork is all about, and if there was one great fundamental lesson, is it won't be easy.
In fact, what we heard is that good teams stick together through thick and thin. So moonshot is thank you for joining us in learning out loud. Thank you for bringing your minds to teamwork [01:29:00] has been an absolute joy here on the moonshots master series. That's a wrap.