Step Five: Develop a Relational Culture

14	Mar
	2013

The New We

The preparation for productive relationships starts long before you face specific challenges. The positive attributes that encourage relational collaboration must be embedded into the team’s culture, which will produce various positive outcomes:

Faster decision-making and more innovative thinking;
Common team purpose, vision, trust and commitment to success;
Peer-to-peer accountability, for both change and results;
Transparency and courage in meetings and direct conversations;
Visceral rejection of any violation of team’s values and rules.

Here's how to get there.

Rule 1: Understand the Psychology

Make sure all team members have a robust, data-driven understanding of the psychology and anthropology of human behavior and team dynamics. One crucial aspect of developing overall team cohesion is to push team members to develop four crucial mindsets: candor, accountability, generosity, and intimacy.
Rule 2. Set clear rules

Agree on rules that, in pursuit of mutual success, team members are willing to follow and hold each other accountable to.

Rule 3: Taste, experience, process, repeat...
Behavior doesn’t change overnight. But facilitated problem-solving and other intimacy exercises can break through the barriers that discourage social risks. Leaders should have the tools they need in order to replicate these methods outside of formal meetings. A few of the practices we've found to accelerate strong relationships include team social events, self-disclosure on the part of leaders, personal/professional checkins, gratitude roundtables, and humor.