“A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of themselves and their contribution to praise the skills of the others.” Norman Shidle
A fundamental part of being a highly effective team is the ability to make effective decisions as a team, but which way is the best way? In tackling this question, it’s best to understand the different perspectives with which people approach decisions and how best to connect with each of these approaches.
Action Oriented Team Mates
- Your action oriented team mate will want to make decisions quickly, so hold your ground, let them know what information you believe is missing, and why it is important to have before finalizing decisions.
- Be open and up front with conflict. Anything goes for your action oriented team mate, so don’t hold back.
- Encourage your action oriented team mate to facilitate brainstorming for the group.
Structure Oriented Team Mates
- Give structure oriented team members the facts and time to review them before asking these team members to make decisions.
- Manage conflict directly but in private; give your structure oriented team mate time to process different perspectives before asking them to discuss and manage through to a resolution.
- Utilize the logical, detailed process mind of your structure oriented team mate to identify all the elements of a problem so that it can be solved effectively.
People Oriented Team Mates
- Utilize your people oriented team members skills as a translator/arbitrator for conflict management. Their goal will be to minimize conflict, so they will actively work to deal with issues once they are out in the open.
- Your people oriented team mates are generally very dialled in to the different perspectives in the group, so they may appear to have problems making decisions quickly. However, their focus is on ensuring the team comes up with the “best” solution. Give them some time to explore but put some boundaries on the amount of time they should spend.
Logic Oriented Team Mates
- Logic oriented team mates often require time to process decisions internally before they are comfortable discussing them, so make sure you give them the time they need.
- Be direct and to the point when conflict arises, and explain the logic of your perspective.
Tap into your logic oriented team mate’s ability to work through complex issues to help make good decisions and solve problems as a team.
Lynn
Team Building Coach
Lynn is a partner at Conundrum Adventures, a team building company that delivers high quality experiential team building to the corporate market.
Lynn has held executive positions at a variety of organizations. They include EVP of a dot-com start up responsible for vendor relationship management, technology and consulting to VP Global Sourcing for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Throughout her career she has demonstrated the ability to lead and inspire teams to achieve excellent results. Lynn draws on her experience to effectively facilitate team discussions to find creative solutions to the most challenging problems. Lynn holds an HBA and an MBA degree from the Ivey Business School.