Come Back to the Circle Over and Over
2020 Issue 4 | GearedUp
58
Most members of business teams do not sit right next to one another . They are working in different departments , buildings , cities , states , provinces and countries . They have different functional responsibilities . It ’ s mostly a myth that team members regularly interact on a daily basis . Mostly what team members do is their various jobs , which are separate from one another .
So how does a group of people who are spread out geographically and in terms of their activities become a true team ?
Let ’ s start by thinking about what constitutes a team . A team is a group of individuals who support one another toward fulfilling a meaningful purpose and achieving important outcomes . Also , team members share values . Values are what people believe is so important that they drive their behaviors on a consistent basis . Team members respect one another even if they don ’ t necessarily like each other or spend a lot of time together . They are openminded to hearing each other ’ s ideas and to learning from each other . They care about the success of the other members of the team .
Let ’ s break that down even more . Team members share a common purpose , goals , values , mutual respect , open-mindedness and caring .
And yet , there is one more thing . They share a circle . A circle is when team members come together and talk with one by Dan Coughlin another . This could be in the same physical room or in a virtual room . There should be frequent times when the circle comes together . Intentionally Bring Your Circle Together I think the word teamwork gets thrown around too loosely . People will say , “ Let ’ s have the communications team meeting tomorrow at 9 ,” or “ I ’ m a member of the operations team .” But these often are not real teams . They are a collection of people