Creating Strong Working Relationships

Sometimes members of my book circles ask me if I can do more than just book circles. They ask me if I can do something with their team that doesn't include reading a book.

My answer: "Of course. What do you have in mind?"

Earlier this week, I met with a team of 15 - some of whom had been part of the team for a while, and 6 of them were brand new.

I didn't want to do some gimmicking, team building workshop, and decided to focus on CONNECTION - my go-to in most instances.

The team leaded trust me and essentially gave me a blank slate to create. Of course, I used books as my inspiration.

Using the concept of the Johari Window, I wanted to create a workshop that would open up the "known to me" and "known to others" window with information that would truly be beneficial to create a strong working relationship-- not just if they preferred cats or dogs.

After welcoming and checking in with a turn to your neighbors, we moved into self-reflection, using the 5 BPR questions from 📚 Michael Bungay Stanier's book How to Work With (Almost) Anyone. (I had also sent the Qs several days ahead).

After reflecting, they moved into triads where they had what MBS calls a "Keystone Conversation" with their peers, where they each, in turn, shared their answers to the 5 questions.

I gave them 2 other instructions:
⁉️ If an answer seems incomplete, feel free to say, "Tell me more about_________" Or "What about __________ matters to you?"
⚠️ The goal is not to fix them, give advice, or otherwise problem solve. We are simply sharing what works best for us.

Many of them had never thought about the questions themselves, nevertheless shared them with others. Thanks MBS 😉

Their homework is to continue to have these conversations with the rest of the team.

Next, we moved to Miro where I gave them the opportunity to self-identify along 11 different spectrums. As you can see from the brief snapshot, there is a wide range of working styles among these 15. (It's quite pretty, too, isn't it?)

They then went into another round of breakout rooms to discuss 2 questions:

• What do you notice?
• What implications does this have for your team?

Finally, we ended with actions steps based on those implications.

What helps you have a strong working relationship with your team?

If a workshop like this would help your team, Iet's connect.

Originally posted on LinkedIn with comments.

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