Key differences in your team you may not know about

"The way you handled the aftermath of the taxi chaos was brilliant" Liam said. Liam is a respected SVP in the sporting goods industry. He’s respected by his team for his continuous drive to empower his people and willing to do anything for the team spirit. Liam made this quote after the first day of a two day team training at the V-circle academy.

What happened?

Liam and 10 team members were planned to be picked up by two taxis at 8.30. The taxis would take them from the hotel to the training location in Laren. The taxis did arrive, but the drivers missed the people and left again. Followed by many phone calls between us, the hotel, Liam, Liam’s assistant, the taxi company and another taxi company. To cut a long story short, the training started one hour later than planned and we felt bad about what happened. Wouldn’t you in such a situation?

It’s all about perception

To kick off the training, Monique Schouten and I decided to skip the first exercise. Instead, we invited everybody to honestly share how they experienced the situation that morning. To increase trust, we shared our experience first. I explained I felt really bad. I always avoid to be dependent on others, and this situation was 100% what I wanted to avoid. I hated it. I seriously thought about driving there myself to pick them up. I have a Skoda Superb Combi, but I realized that even in that car 12 people would not fit. I had no other choice than to endure my emotional roller coaster.

                    Beautiful iceberg in lake or climate issue?

What happens when people share their perception

One by one, all team members shared their experiences. One really liked it because it gave him the opportunity to personally connect to his colleagues. An opportunity he hardly had in his typically hectic business life. Another member commented that he checked whether someone took action to resolve the situation. He relaxed when he realized someone did. A third one used the situation to process some e-mail which helped him clear his mind to be ready for the training. The guy from India lightened up the atmosphere by cracking a joke: “If you think this is a traffic problem, then come visit my country”. Hearing each story made the team realize that we all give meaning in different ways. Everybody had been in the exact same situation, but everybody had perceived it differently.

                                      Crazy traffic in India

Coming full circle

Everybody had perceived the same situation differently. As struck by lightning, they also realized this happens over and over again in daily business life.

One of the first principles people learn in our training to improve teamwork is “When you want to get know your colleagues better, be incredibly curious to how they give meaning. To how they perceive things”. Just assuming we all give meaning in the same way is a major source of miscommunication.

You can simply explain that principle, but that does not always get the message across. By using the taxi chaos as a real life example, we achieved many things at once: 1) people got the message, 2) because everybody could speak their mind, the air was cleared, 3) listening to all the different stories was hilarious and fun and 4) it proved our flexibility.

The taxi chaos became a source of inspiration to the team, triggering Liam to share his compliments on how we handled the situation and got our message across. And many more lessons followed on day 1 and 2