Part two to Cue It Up, Carry It Out, Close the Loop – Keeping them all cool with each other takes some team building.
Sometimes, the planners, doers, and closers get on each others’ nerves. Here are some things to anticipate throughout the group development experience.
Cue It Up
The planners have to stay flexible as everything in the next steps will not be followed exactly how they imagined. That’s okay if it doesn’t get so derailed that the objective is out the window.
As I said, last week, this is my favorite part–the planning. This isn’t just in my work life, I love planning parties. My husband and I used to host an annual holiday party and seeing that unfold taught me that how the doers do is really none of my business.
For instance, about 80 people would filter in and out of our home in roughly a four hour period. Adults and kids. The kids you have to keep an eye on, but the adults can be left to their own devices, for the most part. In my planning, I would anticipate conversation areas and neatly place chairs where I thought it would be convenient for others to sit and chat. I noticed at the end of the evening each year, they figured out what was right for them. An end table became a bench for two, an ottoman became a table for a family of four to enjoy their bounty from the buffet. And, regardless if I wanted the area to be used, people would venture outside to the patio, they always did (mental note: must clean the patio every year!). I learned that some groups created conversation areas where I would have never anticipated. It was better to have little bowls of dry fodder there than a platter of hors d’oeuvres that everyone would like to reach and couldn’t around a small group of gathering guests. This is when I started thinking of the doers (in this example, my guests doing what I wanted–connecting and having a good time) as re-arrangers. They were literally rearranging my home to work for their purposes right then. I admit it took a bit for me to relinquish this control.
In my volunteer life, I learned, somewhat humbly, that sometimes people were afraid to tell me that they wanted to do it differently (and likely in a better way). I was squashing the rearranging. Ugh!
Planners need to feel respected and appreciated for the creation of the plan, and direction. Planners also need to get out of the way of progress.
Carry It Out
Doers love the task at hand, and as I mentioned last week, some are super mindful of how their work fuels the process and can make or break the operation. They sincerely want to improve the project. Those same people need to also be mindful of the egos at play. The plan was not put together on a whim. Insulting the planners will not win the doers any favor, anymore than the planner squashing the doers’ ingenuity wins favor from the planners.
Likewise, the doers can feel rushed and micromanaged by both the planners and the closers. They are being told what to do, what not to do, how to do it, how to do it better, what they forgot, how to do it faster … they can feel very defeated if the parameters for “winning” (for lack of a better term) were not all set-up at the beginning and clearly communicated. The planners and closers might not agree so the doers are very much caught in the middle.
The “build the plane while flying it” idea is extremely uncomfortable for this group. In my opinion, that kind of project is when planners and closers merge together exploring possibilities, and the doers work elsewhere on a clearly defined process like orders and shipping after the product is built. Part of the cause of their discomfort is that they are not entirely certain how their work will be measured. In this scheme, the planners cannot tell them what to do because they don’t know yet–it’s extremely free-form. It’s finger painting versus paint-by-numbers.
Doers need to feel secure and part of a plan. In the end they need to be appreciated for the amount of work they’ve done, and the quality of work they’ve done, all within the prescribed timeframe. They like tangible recognition like certificates or a write-up in the company newsletter.
Close The Loop
The closers are managers, time keepers, evaluators, and cheerleaders. There are a combination of skills used by these very talented, thoughtful, and patient people. Well, I admit they aren’t always patient. They want things to be done. Think of the people working in the control room on Earth during a rocket launch.
On the contrary, many of them are so intrigued by the process that they are mesmerized by what they are studying in the project’s success. All of the intricacies become things to evaluate and possibly integrate into other projects. It’s all fascinating to them.
They are comfortable measuring the metrics of the proposed plan, but they will also create more metrics from a 30,000 foot level. The plan might be great, the doers did, and the goal was achieved, but they may see other things. They might have noticed positive group development, great team building, or the lack of those attributes which might have killed the project or counter-intuitively fueled it through competition.
The closers can sometimes be seen as intrusive, even though they are applying directions from what they know to be true from their expertise and experience. The planners and doers need to feel like they are all a part of one team with equal importance and contribution.
Closers need to see completion. They feel defeated if the process stays too long in the planning or doing phase. Sometimes those phases are stymied due to lack of resources. For their own satisfaction, they need to move on to other projects that can be completed.
Communication & Team Building
The dedication to improvement is not the problem, everyone wants the project to work, but the communication can stand in the way. The best way to uncover the differences and create mutual respect is through team building exercises. If that makes you groan, don’t worry. A half or full-day retreat is ideal (says the facilitator) but activities in your regular meetings are easy to implement. A quiz and discussion can take a 30-45 minutes and are extremely worth the time.
Here are some ways to keep all of your team members active and excited about the project.
- Plan a meeting to discuss the project and then play a game in which natural roles will emerge. Who wanted a plan? Who wanted to do? Who kept reminding the group of the time? Then havre a discussion about that!
- Make sure people establish a way to communicate that means the same for all of them. We perceive information with the history we carry with us and different things mean different things to different people. Here’s an example of some simple misinterpretations.
- Have your team members learn how other people on the team think, do, manage, and thrive. Using a personality instrument from Myers Briggs or DISC can be helpful.
- Simply have them identify what part of the project they like. Simply ask them if they like to cue it up, carry it out, or close the loop. Then have each group gather and chat, then share what they need to give their best.
- Discuss how they like to give and get feedback to improve your communication across the team. I will draw your attention back to some previous post about Giving Feedback and Receiving Feedback.
I would love to help you if you want to bring in a facilitator so you can participate as well. Email me with the subject line I NEED TEAMBUILDING HELP! to Leslie@mccormickla.com
Leslie A.M. Smith, a 30+ year veteran of marketing and public relations, is the author of Laws of Promotion, a 50-page marketing guidebook for small businesses and local nonprofits. If you are feeling confused and overwhelmed by the constant barrage of new ways to promote yourself, enjoy her no-nonsense approach. You can learn more about it in this free 30-minute webinar, ESCAPE MARKETING MANIA right now.
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