I am in Bangalore right now. I came here about a week back and had the privilege to attend a three-day offsite with the extended management team. The offsite was facilitated by a coach who put us through the rigors of many exciting team-building activities. We also had a debriefing at the end of every activity to reflect on what the teams did well.
I captured some conversational points that came out of those debrief sessions. As I pen them down, I realize that these could be the foundational elements for any form of team success. This is the language of winning teams.
- “Everyone in the team was fully involved.”
- “We were successful because everyone in the team knew exactly what we had to do. “
- “We trusted each other and we were confident that we would be able to complete the task.”
- “We encouraged and supported each other.”
- “Everyone in the team valued each other’s contribution, and we trusted each other.”
- “What outcome is expected? This was crystal clear and helped us plan and deliver on the task.”
- “We had strong communication between the team players.”
- “Before jumping into execution, we did a lot of planning on the processes at the outset and ensured that everyone understood the process.”
- “The team leader understood the strengths and weaknesses of our team members. Team members were only assigned to tasks they were good at.”
- “It did not feel like we were a team. We were gelling so well, like great friends, trusting that everyone was going after the same objective.”
- “When things were not going well, we had to make some tough calls, and as a team, we were willing to take some calculated risks to recover and improve.”
- Each team member took responsibility for what we were expected to deliver.”
- “We were having fun, which allowed us to look beyond the issues.”