How To Adjust Team Principles To Level The Social Playing Field
Increasing engagement requires leveling the social playing field. And to do that, you need to adjust the principles of the team and create behavioral change. Even in a fully co-located team, the manager has a responsibility to ensure that each person has an opportunity to be heard and that they are operating on a level that is on par with everyone else.
Below are some approaches for adjusting team dynamics.
Engage with video and audio – be present without being live
This method increases the mode of human interactions and removes stage fright concerns. It is important to engage in a rich medium like video and audio and not to rely on text or email which does not have the “human” element of engagement. Instant messaging is a much weaker medium than video, especially when dealing with non-routine matters, and does not adequately provide the necessary “context” that video and audio can do efficiently.
Value each team member's input
Transforming team behavior into a “safe” environment where thoughts and suggestions can be expressed and received positively is an important foundation to achieving a level social playing field. This may take some effort and time but will build with repetition and practice. It is important to provide an equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of seniority or role, to voice a suggestion or other constructive thought in a team setting.
Remember that some people will use more words to say similar things than others, so it is not about volume. It is not realistic to quantify with specificity that everyone will have exactly x number of minutes or y number of words to use so try to avoid this level of restriction. The intent is to give everyone the same number of opportunities to be heard.
Professional familiarity is often overlooked in teams that are task driven. The relationship between team members, and the knowledge that each person has about other team members improve trust and cohesion. There are many team-building exercises to use in “ice breaker” sessions like “introduce yourself and tell us all something special about you”. The creative questions and answers are limitless and as long as they are professional, these are valuable to building appreciation of value and understanding between members.
Being a part of a team that fosters participation from everyone is critical, and without such participation, skill development, both hard and soft, becomes significantly inhibited. Conscious steps to level the social playing field offer an outsized way to do this effectively.