Team Dynamics and Assessments

So I might want a lot of feedback, but I don't show to people that I'm open. Or I might not want control, but I'm always in control. And so one, that is just deciding on how I'm congruent with myself, what's my disconnect between my wanted and expressed? And then if you compare it to a team, where if I have high wants for all of this, I want to be in control, I want to be included, and I want feedback, but everyone else on my team is low in all of that, we're going to miss each other. That's one of the ways that it shows up.
MK:Great. One of the things that I, when I work with my client or when we work with clients in the Center, I introduce the Tuckman's model, and this is how teams come together, right? They form, then they storm.
NM: Mm-hmm.
MK:And then they start creating these norms and then they can start performing. How does this assessment come into play as teams? What do you recommend using this for existing teams or new team members coming in, to kind of help with that Tuckman's model to help people through the process of forming, storming, norming, and then performing?
NM: That's a great question, Matt. And I think assessments are best used early and often. And what I mean by that is, early in the team's formation, as team members come on, and really doing a deep dive, which is why I don't think you should just send a report without a debrief, and then have a working session around it. So it becomes part of our language. For example, on our team, we actually have very low needs, our own Center for Individual Organizational Performance needs. We don't usually need to be included, we don't usually need affection, and we don't usually need control. However, people would observe the people on our team to be high control people because we will fill a vacuum if it's there.

And so when we have language around that, that ultra responsible people feel vacuums versus all of us having a power struggle, we can start talking about it neutrally. So my need for control, or the control vacuum, same thing with my need for feedback, or you can use the term affection, is very easy to talk about rather than, "Gosh, you just need a lot of attaboys here." So it's a neutral language. And as the team updates, we absolutely want to update the assessments. Again, have people go through it so that we're equalizing the playing field, we have equal knowledge of the information, and are able to talk about it fully.
MK: Yeah. You just brought a huge, very important piece to this formula here, when a new team member, this is that Tuckman's model, when the new team member comes in, you are forming and storming again because just the culture change, the norms are different until the new person gets onboarded and understands the culture. So if I'm hearing you correctly, not only is this useful to see the gaps of the team, current state, but when a new player comes in, you're recommending that this assessment is taken to see how this person's going to fit into the team.
NM: Absolutely. And that first workshop your whole team will do, might be two hours or three hours. The second workshop should be of a substantive amount of knowledge time for the new person, so they don't feel left out, at least 45 minutes. And it shouldn't be as long so that we can understand them. And as you said, Matt, which is really important, once you've done the assessments for a team, before you hire, we now know the gaps. We now know the diversity of experience to bring in, the places that we're not seeing because we tend to like people like us and that's who we're bringing onto the team. And you wouldn't believe if were looking at quadrants or however it's shaped, it can be circles or quadrants for the team report, depending on what we're doing for you, you'll see, pie pieces or whole squares that have gaps. And that's just really saying for you, there's a perspective you're missing.
MK: That's great. So I don't think you touched upon this, so I'm going to ask the question. Why are we looking at team results, if people are taking individual assessments, right? Because you're not doing this on a team base, you're doing individual assessments and then running a team report. Is that accurate?
NM: That's accurate. And it's a great point. Partly, we do the individual debriefs alone because the information is new. And again, it's self-awareness so there might be a part of you that is a little embarrassed, surprised that you had this feedback. Why we do the team is so that we can hold each other accountable. And not only can we hold each other accountable, but we're able to support each other in the growth pieces that we've set up. This happened with our own team, I use that example of control, where, we also, except for one member of our team, two members of our team were really low on inclusion. We don't need to go to anything together. One member has higher inclusion. And so then we have a reasonable way to accommodate one another. And so that's actually important too. So once I know something about you, how do I end up meeting you where you are and how do I then get to let things go? So that example of control, we now rotate control because none of us wants it all the time.
MK:Excellent. Well, Natalie, thank you so much for taking the time out of being part of our podcast series. It was a pleasure to talk with you today.

If you'd like to know more information about this specific assessment, you can visit our website eisneramper.com/CIOP. Natalie, thank you for being with us today.
NM: Thanks Matt, always a pleasure.