Thriving teams discuss culture… twice.

A few years ago, I was working in Brazil, leading a small team of Brazilian women. After a few months of working together on our project, I had the bitter surprise that one of my team members was spiralling…downward. She was losing motivation, losing trust in me and believed that I did not trust her. At that stage, I was concerned that our team was not only going to fail in reaching its set objectives, but that I personally was ruining what could have been an exciting and rewarding experience for this young woman.

In order for a team to thrive it needs to discuss culture… twice.

• The first discussion needs to revolve around the personal cultural influences of each individual.

• The second discussion should be an exploration of what kind of culture the team wishes to create.

A team’s various cultural influences create cognitive diversity

With the team in Brazil, I had made the mistake of starting off our project talking about the team’s objectives rather than talking about our cultural influences. A team’s various cultural influences create cognitive diversity. Teams that have high cognitive diversity are usually the most high-performing because they are able to view perspectives from very different angles and they have different means of processing information.

I should have been more inquisitive about the team’s cultural influences. By understanding my teammates’ values, I would learn what was important to them and in particular, what motivated them.

When we talk about cultural influences we are looking at all experiences in our life that have shaped the way we perceive the world. These influences affect our behaviour and the way we do business.

Thriving teams discuss culture to eliminate assumptions

When we talk about cultural influences we are not just discussing the values of the country we were brought up in. Our cultural influences have a far wider reach. Amongst other things, our cultural influences are related to:

• where we were brought up in the world
• education, (formal and informal)
• profession
• our religion
• different abilities
• our gender and our age, to name a few

As each team member discusses their personal values and what influences them the most, it allows their colleagues to become aware of why that particular person behaves the way they do. This in turn helps eliminate forms of judgment and prejudice that can exist in a team.

“My manager is pretentious.”

Let’s look at the anecdote at the beginning of this article. For the sake of anonymity, I shall call my colleague Isabela. What had been happening when I finally noticed that Isabela was losing motivation and that she felt I did not respect her?

For weeks preceding this moment, Isabela had been giving me some important feedback on how to best reach my objectives when dealing with Brazilian stakeholders. I had not understood her feedback and therefore didn’t react to it. I had not understood her because I had not adapted my listening skills to her communication style. Isabela had been giving me feedback in a way that I was not accustomed to. When she noticed that I was not making any changes to my behaviour, she likely started to think the following:

“My manager is not interested in what I say to her. She probably thinks I am not experienced enough. She’s a bit pretentious and thinks she is the only one with any experience. I’m not going to give her any more suggestions, she doesn’t care anyway.”

Trust is the glue that helps a team reach high-performance

By then, Isabela was likely thinking that I didn’t trust her. Trust and therefore psychological safety is an important attribute of thriving teams. Individuals feel they can open up and discuss important matters without being laughed at or ignored, when there is trust. Trust gives them the feeling that it’s “safe” to be themselves. This is what leads to inclusion and to a positive team culture.

If I had taken the time to discuss Isabela’s values before starting off on our project, I would have discovered that she was very relationship-oriented and that she needed time and trust to open up and give feedback to her work colleagues.

Thriving team discuss culture twice

Step two of creating a thriving team is for the team to discuss culture… again. At this point though, the team needs to discuss what kind of culture the individuals would like to work in. When we talk about “team culture”, we are asking team members to acknowledge what behaviour is reinforced and rewarded by the team members. It therefore also indicates what behaviour is not acceptable.

It is the individuals of the team that should create the culture they wish be a part of. These team members know what motivates them to spend the extra hours dwelling over a problem. They also know (at this stage) how to deal with disagreement, and how to contradict one another in a way that will not offend other team members. They also know how to give one another constructive feedback.

Further topics of the team culture discussion can include items such as:

• problem solving: for example what do you do when 2 out of 5 team members are not comfortable with brainstorming?
• how does the team debate a topic when 3 out of 5 colleagues usually avoid conflict
• how should the team make decisions when some of the members are not comfortable voicing their opinion

The discussion is the most important part of creating a positive high-performing team culture

The information shared and exchanged during such a discussion is the beginning of creating a safe environment. This discussion avoids making assumptions about your team members. Incorrect assumptions can lead to negative judgments that are often wrong.

If you feel your team might be lacking in communication or starting to mistrust one another, consider running through the above two activities to help create a thriving team culture.