by Nikki Dixon-Foley, Master Coach and Facilitator, FutureSYNC International
Throughout May 2023, the staff at LIFTT participated in a four-part, interactive, team learning opportunity to explore the far-reaching impacts of intentionally growing unified teams. I was honored to be invited to navigate the team through the essential elements that help build team focus and produce better outcomes.
We started our learning by creating a foundational awareness of the ingredients of a unified team. Together, we explored how important it is for teams to intentionally build alignment around organizational targets, embrace the problem-solving state of mind, and find ways to craft a team’s powerful purpose. As the LIFTT team discovered, these are the key ingredients to keeping everyone moving in the positive forward momentum together.
We continued to build upon our learning in session two as we took a deep-dive look at the power of personal accountability. The team investigated how blame quickly erodes credibility and hinders personal accountability among teams. The LIFTT team was highly engaged in conversation by sharing their desires to grow their personal accountability while supporting others on the team by holding others graciously accountable.
The LIFTT team quickly recognized that high levels of team accountability would not only improve successful outcomes for their team but will also have a positive, compounding effect on all those they serve. I would have been remiss if our next topic was not to discover impactful ways to increase and grow team resiliency.
The LIFTT team and I surfaced the reality of the never-ending challenges we all face today. From changing workplace dynamics to the dramatic changes we have all witnessed in our communities over the past three years, the LIFTT team, not unlike so many other teams I work with, is running its team’s resiliency tanks low. As the group discovered, building resiliency starts with creating space for personal resiliency to grow by establishing intensely clear, personal standards that guide emotions, and optimistic vision setting.
From there, the LIFTT team unearthed the importance of building from “what is right” and not “what is wrong” to harness the “power of possibilities” thinking as they navigate complex challenges together. Together, the LIFTT team discovered that improving resiliency comes from embracing an optimistically focused mindset and intentionally creating safe and gracious team interactions.
Our final session rounded out all our learnings about building unified teams, accountability, and resiliency by addressing the importance of building organizational culture together. As we uncovered, organizational culture is the outcome of all the inputs. Each individual on the team is one of many inputs into the culture.
As the LIFTT team discovered, trust in one another is the cornerstone of high-functioning teams. The group learned that trust must be built together, trust must be extended to one another, and trust must be protected as a team to successfully navigate the nuances of disruptions, decisions, and, ultimately, the achievement of the mission. With the LIFTT team’s dedication and contributions to the learning opportunity in which they participated.
I am proud to say that I witnessed the beginnings of fantastic, team-unity transformations in real-time. The communities and people this passionate team is committed to serving will undoubtedly reap the benefits of having a unified LIFTT team working for them.