If you can personally commit to:
* Seeing
others as free to choose and being accountable for outcomes
* Using
language for disclosure and engagement
* Choosing
accountability for the success of the whole
* Forgoing
compliance for consent and commitment
* Grieving and letting go when necessary
And when you conduct yourself by:
* Sharing
your point of view truthfully and with goodwill
* Taking
the other’s person side
* Owning
your contribution to a difficult situation
* Framing
choices for yourself and others
* Acknowledging doubt, concern and failure
then you will be having authentic conversations that build highly effective teams, organizations and communities in which we can believe.
We've long believed and taught this, and we recently discovered a 1999 study by Marcial Losada, cited in the Nov. 20, 2009 Ottawa Business Journal by Craig Dowden, that backs this up. Team performance was assessed on three metrics: profitability, client satisfaction and 360-feedback scores. Dr. Losada examined the “interpersonal dynamics” (conversations) and coded statements by the meeting participants as positive (content of the message was supportive, encouraging or appreciative) or negative (content of the message conveyed disapproval, sarcasm or cynicism). For the highest performing teams the ratio of positive to negative statements was 5.6:1 and for the lowest the ratio was 0.36:1 (3 negatives for each positive).
Dr. Losada found “ . . . the single most important factor in predicting strong team performance was the ratio of positive to negative statements,” says Dr. Dowden. By using advanced analysis techniques, he also was able to show that positive communication (conversation) patterns caused the high performance – not the other way around.
Positive statements are not code for insincere platitudes, nor does it mean that it’s unacceptable to raise difficult issues. You can be positive by focusing on the content of the conversations, managing yourself using the commitments and conversational skills listed above, and choosing for goodwill — even when things get tense. The commitments and skills of authentic conversations allow any of us to engage issues directly while being respectful and empathetic to each other. And that is the foundational step for building high-performing teams.