I had the pleasure of joining forces recently with Andy Kaufman, current host of The People and Projects Podcast, to discuss team habits — specifically, the high cost of ignoring them — and how and why team habits ultimately shape team culture and performance.
Our conversation touched on a variety of generative topics, including offering some practical approaches to:
enhancing team dynamics
instilling a sense of belonging
improving decision-making
and addressing everyday ‘broken printers’ in professional and family life
My thinking was that the touchpoints in this episode would be of interest to our Better Team Habits audience since they offer a similar level of depth to the analysis we offer in BTH Office Hours coaching (Paid and Pro subscribers) and Quarterly Planning sessions (Pro subscribers).
Sound Bites from the Episode
“‘Time in’ erodes ‘awareness of’.”
“Be the teammate you want your teammates to be.”
“Belonging is a macro word that includes feeling appreciated at work, feeling like your contributions and perspective matter, that you have moral and functional trust.”
“We do it because it’s the right thing and because this is how we want to be together and, oh by the way, it has these amazing other benefits.”
“I would rather over-index on caring.”
“So many families have a daily ‘broken printer’ that’s called the ‘getting to school runaround’.”
“None of us show up at work and opt-in to the CC thread from hell.”
Episode Timestamps
[00:00] Introduction
[01:44] Start of Interview
[05:36] The Broken Printer Metaphor
[08:43] How We Encourage the CC Thread from Hell
[12:21] Team Dynamics
[14:56] What If You're Not a Senior Leader?
[21:18] Building Belonging Habits
[30:14] The Importance of Small Gestures
[38:34] Applying Team Habits to Families
[44:48] Wrap-up
[45:24] Andy Comments After the Interview
[50:17] Outtakes
The Hidden Cost of Bad Team Habits