Sometimes teams are mandated to meet and are expected to be productive during an unfolding disaster – a period in which their own lives and the fate of loved ones may literally be threatened. Amid chaos and danger, these individuals are required to be brave and are compelled to make critical decisions that determine the fate of your business.
As I write this, leadership teams around the world are not only working through a global crisis, but many are doing so from home. Keeping everyone on track means thoughtfully scheduling highly productive meetings.
These no-nonsense gatherings would seem to be the last place to pause for an “icebreaker” or personal check-in. And yet, I would like to suggest that doing so has never been more essential. If you do not take care of the human beings gathered together to solve your business problems, the human resources you hired (the portion of them you pay for) may not be as productive as you’d like.
During a crisis, many team members start a meeting distracted. Their reptilian brain is stuck in fight or flight mode. They enter a room (either physical or virtual) with an intent to listen, think and contribute, but without the ability to do so.
So, let’s re-examine what an icebreaker could potentially do to rapidly purge and unify group members.
I’ve got one that takes less than fifteen minutes. The results it creates can vastly outweigh the costs. It uses a simple tool called the Life Disruption Index.
Click here for a free copy of the instrument which has been tailored for use with Covid-19.
The exercise asks each person to create a three-digit score to reflect their current personal state and then share that number with the group. It should only take a minute to read and select a quick score and another minute per member for people to report their numbers.
Consider the final number a consolidated answer to the broader question, “Are you okay?”
By separating the score into three components (I, My Loved Ones, My Business) it also pinpoints areas to probe, if the numerical response equates to, “Not so well, thanks.” Those with high scores in any category can be asked to elaborate on how they are coping.
For example, I recently gave myself a 1-3-6. That would suggest my concerns are mostly business related. The six is not as alarming as expected.
Imagine how dramatically that contrasts with a healthcare service provider who scores a 6-3-1 or 3-6-1. Same numbers, different order. Massively different sources of stress and concern. Probably much more in need of elaboration.
Some of my Type-A Alpha colleagues may ask, why do we want to dwell in negativity? Why invite team members to share with the group things group members can’t change?
Well, the answer is simple. For the purge. To exorcise a demon, we must speak its name. When we do this in a group setting, we create community. With it, we can fight the demon together.
We used an exercise like this recently to start an all-day executive leadership team session for a healthcare service provider on the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis. There was already time on the calendar for an icebreaker, we just shifted the topic from something inconsequential to a simple but sincere “Are you okay?” What we discovered was stunning.
While all the shared experiences were important to hear, two team members were being confronted with true life disruption. They faced threats to family members and an entire way of life.
One member talked about how a lifelong dream of a daughter’s wedding had morphed into a logistical and financial nightmare that was creating deep rifts between normally close family members. Another spoke of senior parents in a foreign country living in a high rise that had just reported multiple cases of Covid-19.
Neither of the people reporting these issues would have normally burdened others in the room with their personal dramas.
Plus, other than shed tears of empathy, no one present could actually do anything to directly affect either situation.
We could, however, acknowledge the pain and concern they each felt.
We could also understand if they are abnormally distracted or a little slower to respond to routine requests.
We could ask them to keep us appraised and hope or pray for their situations to reach rapid positive resolution.
Thus, we did.
And doing so positively impacted the quality of the decisions we were able to make on the business front. Demons exorcised, we quickly changed gears and spent the rest of the day brainstorming ways to guide the organization through crisis.
So, there it is, a simple tool for surfacing and purging team demons.
Please use it. Modify it. Share it. And let us know how it works.
Garold (Gary) Markle is the creator of Catalytic Coaching and author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review. He brings real world experience from 17 years in HR leadership in major corporations coupled with 20 years of teaching small and mid-sized organizations how to cultivate their leadership and ditch their detrimental performance reviews for a proven Coaching process.
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