MBA1043 Guest Teacher: Dan Stones – The 5 Steps to Building An Unbeatable Team Culture

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Thanks, Omar. And hi everyone. It's a real treat to have this opportunity and spend some time talking to you about teams and building team culture. But before we get going, a quick question. Why should you care about building team culture? Isn't that the domain of the business owner or the founder? The answer is it could be. But research tells us something very different. The Gallup Organization, one of the world's leading research companies when it comes to the workplace, recently released two damning statistics in this area. The first is that just 23% of employees in the United States agree that they can apply their company values to their work every day. And the second is that only 27% of people strongly agree that they believe in their company's values at all. Now, a lot of people hear those statistics for the first time and simply think, I could have told you that. And while that might be true, that particular opinion is usually based only on the company at which the person is currently employed. And that's why these stats are important, because they show that not only is our opinion correct for our workplace, but it's actually the same at almost every workplace. So the question remains, what can be done about it? And that's where I come in. The steps we're about to go through have been tried and tested on teams of all kinds. Not only workplace teams, but community based teams, schools sporting teams, and even virtual teams. So let's go. Here they are. The five steps for building an unbeatable team culture. Step one, Aim for clarity. Whenever you share an objective, make clarity your aim. So what do I mean by aim for clarity? Well, typically, whenever we aim for clarity with the team, it doesn't always turn out that way, does it? Think about it for a second. How many meetings have you sat in where the team was set a task and at the end of the meeting, everyone nodded, yes, we understand. But you knew that people didn't have a clue what to do next? Happens all the time, right? The good news is that it's pretty easily fixed. Here's what you need to know to ensure clarity. You really only need to cover off four what you want. Why it's important when you want it and who will be responsible. Now, I've probably left something out. Maybe you know what it is and you're thinking it right now. Of course, the thing I've left out is how. And the how part obviously impacts clarity. But here's the thing. I don't want you to mention anything about how. When you're trying to give clarity to the team, you see how is always what screws everything up. Think about going to a restaurant and ordering your favourite meal. What would happen if suddenly you told the waiter not only what you wanted from the menu, but also how to cook it? How much more complex would everything get? And not only that, how confused would the chef be when they received your instructions? We're racing through this, but it's the same thing when it comes to clarity with your team. Leave the how out. How belongs to the team. Figuring out how is usually why you hired them in the first place. Okay, step number two. Consciously decide on which approach you want to take. Did you know that there are three options for building a team culture? Let me explain each one and as I do, see if you can recognize which one fits your current situation. The first approach is what I call the organic approach. This is all about set and forget. The way it works is that you simply allow people to figure it out for themselves. You let whatever shows up over time to become the team culture. If I can put it bluntly, really it's doing nothing with the team at all. Second is the top down approach. Now, signs of a top down approach include mission statements and company values plastered all over the walls. And a huge amount of time spent in meetings telling people how things have to be done. Now don't get me wrong here. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It generally does come from a good place. It's just that it isn't effective. And the stats we just saw before are proof of this because they reflect directly the results of a top down approach. Our third approach is bottom up. Now, before we talk about this one, I need to tell you about two types of cultures that exist in every organization. That's right, there's two. Firstly, we have the corporate culture. This is made up of what we'd like everyone to think about our company. It's usually wrapped up in shiny internal marketing campaigns, posters on the wall, the same company values on everyone's desktop wallpaper, you know, that sort of thing. And then there's the second type of culture, the team culture. Now, team culture is what people live and breathe and build every Day. It's how teams on the shop floor work together. It's how the customer service team works together. It's how the accounts payable team works together. The question I have for you is what type of culture do you think has the greatest influence over the destiny of the organization? The corporate culture or the team culture? Now, the corporate culture is almost always created using a top down approach and there's no real surprise there. Conversely, the team culture is almost always created from a bottom up approach. Now, for any business owners out there listening, I need to let you in on a secret. If you only remember one thing from this podcast, let it be can never own the team culture. At best, you can only learn how to influence it. So now it's decision time. Which culture did you say would have the biggest impact on the fortunes of the organization, corporate or team? Now, as a result, which approach should you now adopt to build that culture? Is it organic, top down or bottom up? Great. You have your answer. Okay, so right around here is where things can get a little bit testy. This is where some business leaders start slowly backing up as I'm talking to them and they ask me a question or sometimes they just yell it as a statement. Do you honestly expect me to just hand over the keys of the business to the team? And if they haven't left the room by the time they finish accusing me of being crazy, then they'll almost always follow up that question with this one. How can I be sure about what sort of culture they're going to build? And that's why we have step three. Now remember, you can't control what team culture will be built, but you can influence it. And in fact, you can do another thing as well. You can also measure it. So how do you measure team culture? And that's another question I get a lot. But really, it's not that hard. After all, we measure things we can't see every day. Air quality, temperature. What about in business? How about profit? The trick is we need to understand what we're looking for. We need to find unique properties of team culture that are consistent, relevant and specific. Let me give a real quick example. Using profit, can you think of two unique properties of profit that are consistent, relevant and specific? Of course, it's revenue and expenses. The same goes with team culture. But what are those unique properties in this context? Now, I'm going through this at light speed and I want you to know that I can devote two days to talking about this next point, but I really don't have the time here. And I've still got two more steps to go. So here's the most unique properties of team culture. The ones that are consistent, relevant and specific. This is what you must know in order to measure team culture. I call these the essential keys in no particular order because there isn't one. They are trust, awareness, and finally, purpose. If you can master your understanding of these three essential keys and measure them regularly with the team, then you're ready to build an unbeatable team culture using a bottom up approach. Now, at this point you're going to be asking, how exactly do I measure the essential keys? And that's a great question, but I have to press on. Okay, I'm teasing a little bit. Well, really, I don't have the time. But just for listeners of the Hundred Dollars MBA podcast, I'm going to provide you with a link to a special $100 MBA page on the Shifting Peers website. And that's going to take you to my Discover the Upside assessment. This is the exact tool I created to measure whole teams on the three essential keys. And I'm going to give you the chance to try it out for yourself. Now let's press on. Step four is all about creating the right environment. So what does create the right environment mean? Well, it's all about creating a productive mental space for the team to be successful. I have a list for this step and it was actually a secret weapon of mine that I held throughout my corporate career. I used it hundreds of times to help build successful teams all around the world in all sorts of industries. The environment you want to cultivate is one where the team is challenged enough to grow, inspired enough to contribute, skilled enough to act, and safe enough to care. Having these as my default focus points created that space for the team to figure out how to do the job that needed to be done. The way it worked was my mind was kept so busy on those points that it couldn't engage in trying to solve everything for the team. The second benefit of step four is that if you really put some effort into it, this is your ticket for being able to influence the team culture in the best possible way. Now, quick tip. Don't fall into the trap of sharing these with the team, or posting them on your team's Slack page or sharing them on Facebook. If you do, you'll simply be creating a bunch of slogans that lose all power and meaning. Remember the keys to create the environment, not simply to talk about it. Now, we're almost there, but I do have to tell you about Step five. The Last step for building an unbeatable team culture. Be aware of the leader's dilemma. Now, what does that mean? Well, there are two ways we can use information. Well, it's not technically right. Let me say that again. There are two positive ways for us to use information. One is for us to share information to benefit ourselves and others. And the second is to use the information to make better choices. This information you're receiving right now is intended for the latter to help you make better decisions, specifically a better decision about how you're going to approach the development of team culture in your organization. As a result, you must avoid the urge to tell the team about these concepts. And here's why. Imagine in the next team meeting, you stand up and say something like, hey everyone, I've got something really cool to tell you. I've just listened to this amazing funny smart guy on the $100 MBA podcast. We're all good so far and he taught me a new approach to building a stronger team culture. It's called a bottom up approach. I want us to use it and here's how it works. Now, did you see what happened there? Even though my intention is clearly positive, the message and the information I'm sharing is going to be immediately received and perceived as a top down approach. And we know that when that happens, the majority of people in the room, around 70%, will disconnect and think, here we go again. Another speech about how I need to do my job. So what should you do instead? Well, my recommendation is that you engage the help of someone who understands team dynamics and specializes in a bottom up approach. Now, if that's me and my organization, fantastic. If it's not and you know someone else, brilliant. My point is it probably shouldn't be you. All right, this has been my five tips on how to build an unbeatable team culture. If you want to connect with me, I'm on Twitter and Instagram using the handle that Danstones and you can also catch me on Facebook by searching for our company, Shifting Peers. Lastly, if you want to take the Shifting Peers upside assessment, then be sure to check out the link in the show notes or simply head over to discovertheupside.com 100 MBA that's 100 MBA. Back to you, Omar.

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What a great lesson by Dan Stones. Thank you so much for providing those insights and those five steps. Don't forget to pick up his freebie the Upside assessment over@shiftingpeers.com 100mba I totally agree. Building a great team culture is so important and you have to be mindful of it and you have to be active about it. You have to constantly be influencing your team culture as much as you can while maintaining its organic growth. I find that your team culture is basically a mixture of all the personalities of your teammates. This is why we stress so much that hiring the right people is so important, because they're gonna make up the culture of where you work. Even if you're the CEO, the leader, the founder of the company, you're only one person. If you're surrounded by 5, 10, 20, 30 people that have a personality or a culture or an attitude that you don't jive with, you not going to be a happy camper. So understand that culture is organic. It has a lot to do with who you hire. And yes, you can influence it like Dan mentions, but you also have to cultivate it and nurture it along the way. And that could be something as small as praising your teammates, recognizing their great work, and making sure you have enough time to communicate not only work matters and meetings and deadlines, but also just getting to know them on a personal level. Have a little bit of time of socialization on your calls or in your slack channels or in your emails. You should be able to say, hey, here are my teammates. These are their interests. This is what they do in their free time. If I had to guess what they do on the weekends, it would be this and you should be pretty spot on. If not, you may want to explore getting to know your team a little bit more and giving a little so you can get a lot more back. All right, that wraps up today's lesson. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks Dan for the awesome lesson. If you love what you hear, leave us an iTunes rating and review. We love to hear from you. I read every single review. It lets us know what you love about the show. It also lets others know why you love this show so much so they can hit subscribe too. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. You may not think that building a great team culture is a huge priority if you're just getting started, like it's just yourself or maybe somebody else or you have a VA or a part time worker. But it's just as important when you have a small team because you have to be intentional about what kind of team you want to work with, what kind of values you want to have. And there's one thing to have mission statements like Dan said, and it's another thing to actually practice what you really believe in. But get clear about what you do believe in. Get clear about what kind of team you want to have, kind of workplace you want to have. So when your team does grow, it's super clear for every new hire. All right, thank you so much for listening. I'll check you in the next episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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