Stories are incredibly powerful.    In college I took a wonderful course called The African Storyteller.  Professor Harold Scheub spent decades traveling primarily in southern Africa with tape recorders and note pads. (Remember them?)   He teaches those of us far away from any similar experience, the universal truths in those stories, along with the techniques storytellers use to create easy, enduring learning.

It isn’t about technique.   Often, sharing stories just requires willingness, openness, and opportunity.   Last week, I worked with a brand-new team of fire officers, charged with maintaining excellent and consistent performance across multiple fire stations.   We began by connecting with one another, through simple stories that illustrated the experiences, values, strengths, and even fears that each member brought to the team.  The remaining tasks – establishing team goals and operating principles, etc. – were truly effortless, because new team members were excited to work together, and to learn more about one another over time.   Stories made the difference.

Many people love using assessment tools  to understand themselves and their teammates.  How many times has someone offered or asked about a Myers-Briggs Type, or a DiSC profile?  Do you nod knowingly when you find out this information?   What conclusions do you draw about the person based on their profile?   These tools place us within a theoretical framework, which can provide insights into how we function.   There is undeniable value in the effective use of sound assessment tools.

The risk, though, is that we let the learning stop with the framework.   No phenomenon as rich and complex as a human being could ever be captured fully in a quadrant or a pair of letters.  That isn’t even what those tools are intended to do.  They may, however, provide a useful context for understanding a person’s actions and stories, in the same way that Tasler combines theory and narrative to teach us useful concepts and skills.

For my part, I’m most interested in getting to know people by listening and observing, especially to their stories and our shared experiences over time.   I’m an INTP, and an Expressive/Dominant, but I’m also a picker, a grinner…(and while nobody has ever called me Maurice, I still welcome stories about the pompatus of love)*.

Let us continue to learn about one another, to grow together, through the timeless and universal practice of sharing stories.

*Apologies to songwriters Ahmet Ertegun,. Memphis Curtis, and Steve Miller.

In order to accomplish something significant, you can’t do it alone.  Often times this means you are part of a team.  Being on a successful team can be an extremely invigorating and exciting experience – everyone working together and accomplishing something that would have been unattainable as an individual.  The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.  Nirvana.  Utopia.  High-five!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work this way.  We have all experienced being part of a dysfunctional team.  It may have been a department at work, a church committee, a Board of Directors, a volunteer group or maybe even within your family.  There are community issues needing to be addressed, yet, dysfunctional teams are alive and well within our society.  But, why does this matter?

Having a dysfunctional team, at best, limits a team’s ability to optimally achieve their goals; at worst, it cripples a team from accomplishing anything.  Patrick Lencioni has written an entire book on dysfunctional teams.  It can be extremely frustrating to be part of a team that is not accomplishing its goals.  Your time is being wasted.  Your energy is drained.  When this is happening, it is essential to take a step back and ask yourself, “Why is this happening?”

You may be a team participant.  You may be the team leader.  Either way, it is important to assess your team’s capability to work effectively together.  There are three things to look for when initially assessing your team:

• Trust – Team members trust one another.  They believe each team member is a good person and each team member is willing to show their vulnerability and mistakes.

• On the same page – Everyone is trying to accomplish the same goal(s).

• Open communication – Each team member engages in the discussion.  No one is afraid to share their ideas and opinions.

When building a team, it is absolutely critical to only add team members that will meet these criteria.  Time and time again people are added to teams because of their talents and skills to do the job/task.  The interviewers think they could work with them.  But a good team member, in addition to having the talents and skills necessary to do the job/task, also earns trust, trusts others, listens, and shares thoughts and opinions.  Also, the team member’s goals and objectives align with the goals and objectives of the team.  You can easily build a very talented team, but that doesn’t equate to success.  This philosophy not only applies to building a team, but also to when considering joining a team.

Of course, the million dollar question, “What if I am already on a dysfunctional team? What do I do?”  I have my opinions and thoughts, but I want to hear yours.  What do you do?