Part 2...
Working Together to Achieve a Goal
In part 1 of how a Playing to Win Together Team works, we talked about the importance of a Supportive Applied Learning Community, which is working together to achieve a goal. Inside an organization, we all have individual goals and usually work independently of each other to achieve them, which ultimately feeds into the greater, bigger goal (BHAG). This is a DIY mindset. Not bad, just not as productive. Working independently causes a lack of connectedness with your team and can delay results.
What if we followed the Playing to Win Together model?
This feedback expands the thinking, introduces new perspectives on how to handle challenges, provides encouragement, and shortens the learning curve. And it is followed by each individual making a new commitment to take the actions needed to progress on their goals, now much easier because they are practicing applied learning. They then come back the following week and report on their results. Forward progress. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
For example: One of my clients is a 3rd party logistics firm working in a very competitive reactive environment. The inside salesforce has monthly revenue goals and was told they needed to have an “entrepreneurial spirit” to succeed. Which, to me means, “If it is to be, it’s up to me to figure it out” DIY thinking. I was brought in to work with a few of the newbies, one who was having success and 2 who were struggling to meet goals.
I put them in a Playing to Win Together Team and worked with them for 12 weeks. Week after week, they learned from each other’s skill sets, one was better at selling, another was better at servicing, and the 3rd was better at building relationships. They started collaborating vs. competing with each other. One day, someone mentioned something he discovered, the other 2 applied it and the very next day all 3 of them had a huge increase in their revenues! This kept happening as each contributed from their particular skill sets.
But, had they not been working together, and left to figure it out on their own, what do you think would have happened?
