Every team member is an essential part of the team and brings unique qualities and experiences to bear in their assigned role. This is an axiom of team dynamics; however, it is a pure abstraction and is only relevant if each team member is made to feel unique. One of the Natural Leader’s primary goals is to develop this sense of uniqueness through quiet praise and various other subtle techniques, assuming, for the sake of argument, that the respective team member is indeed making unique contributions.
Effective multidisciplinary teams are mission critical if population health initiatives are to succeed. Further, it is questionable (i.e. highly unlikely) that “pure clinicians” have the breadth and depth of clinical and technology experience to recruit, build, nurture and reward a team consisting of the right players. One not so subtle technique for rewarding high-performing individuals is to create forums wherein team members get to shine in front of their peers. I have used this method with great success and go out of my way to look for opportunities that fit a particular individual. This is often most beneficial for journeyman and junior team members, who otherwise might not get a chance to lead the congregation. Can I get a witness?
Breaking Bread
There is something about sharing a meal together, in a social context outside of the work environment, which contributes more to team building than a thousand and one classes in sensitivity training. We are social animals and breaking bread together is probably the most socially rich experience that we partake in. Consider the fact that this is something usually done with family members, dear friends, and close acquaintances (i.e. except when contrived for business purposes or formal occasions) and you can begin to appreciate why it tends to have such a salutary effect.
Random Acts of Kindness
If you want to build a lasting bond between team members, then learn to do little things from the heart, often. It always seems to be the little things that someone does that makes them stand out in our hearts and minds. Perhaps it is the only way that human beings actually demonstrate their humanity. Kindness cannot be faked. It must be genuine and heartfelt, or it ceases to be.
Kindness begets kindness.
—Sophocles
Kindness inspires trust. It is probably a natural law that one cannot demonstrate kindness to another human being without wishing them well. It should not be surprising that we tend to respond favorably to random acts of kindness. Because population health initiatives require such specialized and individualized skillsets we are simply forced to “trust but verify” that individuals are producing the requisite critical path deliverable at the appropriate time. Trust help team members come forward when they otherwise might hold back for fear of criticism or worse.
Team Identity
There is clearly an accepted (and often expected) high-performance team sub-culture that has emerged over the last 20 years. Some of the key elements of this culture are hard work, creativity, and fun. Successful and innovative organizations such as Apple, Google, and Facebook work diligently at culture creation and building team identities. This effort ranges from creating T-shirts with team names and logos to providing code names for all projects. Why? Because these companies realize that having the appropriate culture contributes significantly to their bottom lines. It immensely improves their recruiting efforts and dramatically reduces employee turnover. It also creates an environment where creativity and productivity flourish.
Men and Women have an innate need to belong, to be part of something that is larger than self; this is an irrefutable historical fact. Whether the larger group is based on race, religion, political ideology, nationality, or the gang from the barrio, the specific manifestation often seems to make very little difference. The need is a powerful one and demands to be satisfied. A relatively small team or a number of small teams working in concert, each possessing a strong identity, often conspire to bring great products to fruition. The ability to create a strong team identity is critical to the mission’s success. It is something that the Natural Leader must establish early in the mission’s planning process and continue to strengthen during its execution. Population health initiatives are by definition transformative. A “run of the mill” project team will never achieve the mission.
Whose team is this anyway?
High-performance teams, jelled teams, killer teams or in short, great teams, require a considerable amount of energy to build and sustain. However, their complete and utter destruction can happen in a matter of hours or less. This happens most often when outside forces, not understanding the team’s dynamics, impose constraints or demands that make the contracts that took so long to negotiate, unenforceable.
The quickest way to ensure the team’s destruction is to change the Natural Leader, either voluntarily or involuntarily, without any preparation or consideration for who will assume this role. Organizations must learn to have a better ear for team dynamics. In many ways the Natural Leader embodies the team. He or she created it, nourished it, and maintained and enforced the contracts. They often command more loyalty from the troops than some arbitrary organizational hierarchy that won’t hesitate to downsize them out of existence at the first sign of trouble. Given the complexity of population health initiatives, you can be sure that the team will experience more than its fair share of challenges—that’s simply the nature of the beast.
Interfere with the dynamics of a successful team (i.e. the one working on the transformation of your business model) and you may have just shot your organization in the head. Team implosions in complex projects are legendary. One minute the magic is so palpable that you can breathe it like pure oxygen, the next minute the fire you started consumes it, and you are left choking to death. Now you see it, and now you don’t.
I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any ability under the sun.
—John D. Rockefeller
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