Building a Strong Team Culture: The 4C Model of Team Health

In today’s fast-paced, increasingly interconnected world, effective teamwork and strong leadership are more crucial than ever. Building a robust team culture is no easy task, but it is fundamental to the success of any organization. In this episode, we delve into the unique 4 C model of team culture—collaboration, communication, conflict, and change. We also provide valuable insights into the dynamics of teamwork and the crucial role of leadership in fostering a productive and positive team environment. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And so, with this webinar here, we want to address the topic of unleashing the power of a positive team culture and, as we begin today, we're really hoping to sharpen your leadership style to support not only your team and your team health, but also to be able to sharpen who you are as a leader in a way that helps you be more aware of what the individuals need who are on your specific teams.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Freeberg and you are listening to the Leadership Vision podcast, our show helping team leaders build positive team culture. Our consulting firm has spent 25 years investing in teams so that people are mentally engaged and emotionally healthy. Today in the podcast, we're going to talk about our 4C model of team health, and this is actually an excerpt from a webinar that Dr Linda and Brian Schubering originally presented to a group of CEOs, where they gave a high level overview on our extensive research into what makes teams thrive. They briefly unpack our 4Cs of team culture collaboration, communication, conflict and change. They discuss the psychological patterns that influence how teams function and communicate. Now, whether you're a leader or a team member, join us to discover the essential elements that drive healthy team culture. There's really something here for everyone and we think you're going to get a lot out of it. Enjoy.

Speaker 3: 1:29

Okay, part one, and we want to delve deeper into the 4Cs of team culture. From our research, what we started to look at when teams were working well, when they are not working well, when they were functional, when they were dysfunctional, when they were engaged, disengaged we were paying attention to all the different pieces and the thread through those teams, good or bad, was collaboration, communication, conflict and change. So we are going to talk a little bit about those four at a high level in order to get you to an action step of doing some analysis about, maybe, how your team is doing or how your organization is doing with these four.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So the first two that we're going to talk about is collaboration and communication. These are the first two elements that we consider when building a positive team culture. Then I might be wondering, as a leader, why is it that we're pairing together collaboration and communication? And here's the reason why Because, as human beings, each one of us yourself included, myself included we each have patterns and preferences psychological patterns and psychological preferences of how we choose to collaborate and how we choose to communicate, and this is important to understand, because the team culture also has patterns and preferences that re-evolve over time on how the team collaborates and how the team communicates. However, individuals each have their own psychological preference and pattern as to how they approach each of these topics, and so for us to be mindful that each individual brings their own unique approach to these two topics. That's an important place to start. So now we'd like to just begin to define what we mean by collaboration, what we mean by communication, Collaboration, as you can read here, is just a remember.

Speaker 3: 3:23

It's not just collegiality. So how do you share? How do you collaborate? How are things going well, how well do you work on projects and how would you evaluate how you collaborate?

Speaker 1: 3:37

And what's also important as leaders to remember is that the team culture, whatever that team culture is, that team culture that shapes what the collaborative expectations are. So, even though individuals have their own personal collaborative preferences, the team experience is going to shape that. And so, as leaders, we want to be mindful that each team member is going to collaborate differently, and some team members may resist what that team culture is. Some others may just easily like, graft themselves into it. But team culture typically trumps, or typically takes the precedent over individual preferences.

Speaker 3: 4:15

And now with communication, communication is just not verbal right. So we're picking up so many different things and what we have found in our work with leaders and teams is that some people think good communication is a really well crafted email and, as we know, there are some people that think, the more I talk, that's going to be helpful. What we want to emphasize is that there is a give and take and there's different preferences or even generational implications to how people communicate. So, as you're thinking about members of your team, it's important to consider what is their family of origin, their culture, history, environment that has shaped how they communicate. Sometimes leaders will say I just wish my people would talk more. So, once again, to understand the neurological patterns and preferences that team members have is really important.

Speaker 1: 5:08

And as a leader, it's important to also be mindful that, even if you're the leader, your communication preference may not be the preference of the team, like how they want to be communicated with 50. That's often an awareness that some leaders may take for granted and there may be some people in the group that you just may have to ask, like, what is your communication preference? Because they have it and they may not be having that specific need met in the way that your team communicates or in the way that you communicate with your team.

Speaker 3: 5:41

Okay, and this is a true story. One leader actually said out loud in front of his team so wait a minute, louder doesn't help. They all laughed. He wasn't laughing. And so sometimes there's an awareness as leaders that we need to grow, we need to mature, we need to adapt to the communication needs and preferences of others.

Speaker 1: 6:04

So the first two fundamentals are collaboration and communication. As leaders, the important thing to remember is each person has a psychological pattern and preference in how they collaborate and how they communicate and how they want to be communicated to. So now we are now choosing or now we're going to be speaking a little bit about the last two of the season, that is, how we navigate conflict and how it is that we deal with change. And when you think about these two elements, think to yourself how is it that you deal with conflict when conflict arises? Are you someone that wants to run away? Do you want to mediate? Do you want to remove conflict as fast as possible? And when change happens, how do you navigate change? And so one of the things you want to bring up right away, like why is it important to talk about these two and why do we separate it?

Speaker 1: 6:53

And here's the main reason why, and that is, each one of us have neurological, like well-worn patterns in the brain of how it is that we react and respond to change. Because when change and conflict happen, each one of these triggers something inside of us and we have an initial, almost unconscious, like response to the conflict or the change, and for most of us, we're unaware of that. It's happening. It could be a verbal response, it could be an emotional response, it could be a run and hide response. We just don't know. And so, as leaders, it's important for us to be aware that when there's conflict on the team, most people will be triggered by that and they'll have some kind of reaction. When there's change happening on a team, the same thing is going to happen.

Speaker 3: 7:40

Some people love it, some people thrive in those spaces, and it's realizing that some people, even by way of survival, they just do not want to be triggered, and so, when we talk about conflict, some people have asked us so your research said conflict, oh, so that's the dysfunctional teams, right? That's the disengaged teams. And what we have found, though, and in the research and the reading that we have done, is that healthy teams do have conflict, and they have constructive conflict, that teams that have an understanding that the conflict isn't just personal, personal, the teams that understand that conflict and differing views and a tension that invites a response is really just an invitation to further innovative breakthrough, and that is why this is an important topic to consider and to think about.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Now think about change. Think about how your teams navigate change and think to yourself how you navigate change, because one of the most important things that we have found is, when it comes to change, is that a person's attitude, their ability to adapt and how they take action those three elements are critical in helping a team understand what to do when change is happening. Because, like Linda was saying, when teams get this right, it's not that they're avoiding change, it's just that they know what to do when change is coming or when they're in the midst of some type of surprise to change.

Speaker 3: 9:09

So here's our invitation to take some action. If you are watching this on the webinar later on, maybe this is a point where you just press pause or you take a screenshot of this image and go back to it, because we want you to have some thoughtful reflection on how your teams collaborate, communicate, navigate conflict and change, because talking about these topics in the absence of conflict or when collaboration is tense, that's maybe not the best time to have these conversations. We would want to say have these conversations in advance, in the absence of a lot of maybe turmoil or people being triggered. And so the first, as you look at your team and maybe you want to start with your executive team or who is leading your company I would invite you, for each component, each of the four Cs one being low, five being high how is your team doing in some of these areas? Take some honest reflection, maybe ask them, take this question to them hey team, how well do you think we collaborate? And it could be very different, which also might point to some conflict, but anyway, that's how these are all woven together. Same thing with communication how well does your team communicate? Anytime you bring humans together, communication is always an issue. So be gentle with yourself and that, as well as conflict, and the constructive conflict, the innovative, breakthrough kind of conflict, as well as change and we know that we are always bracing for the next change, and there are just some people among us that are the highly adaptable and highly disruptive and everything in between.

Speaker 3: 10:53

How well is your team doing in each of these areas? And then, when you start to look at the four, which area is going really well? Which one circle that? Do some more reflection in that and then maybe consider, oh yeah, right now, because of this pressure, because of what's going on in the environment, which is going on in the world, this one, this is an area that we are really struggling with. So this is the focus of the team Now.

Speaker 3: 11:22

We also invite leaders to not just zoom in on their team, to zoom out and to look with a bird's eye view and start to wonder from your perspective, from your vantage point, which topic do you thrive in? We've met many really successful, powerful leaders that are just wonderful communicators and they know how to lead change, really adept, but they hate conflict and they let someone else do that. And so name one of these areas, one of these topics that you thrive in, that you think that is part of the magic that you bring to the table. And then, on the other side, which one? Do you have some growth to do? Because we all have it and once again, different situations, different contexts will shape how we're good in some of these areas.

Speaker 1: 12:11

That is a little synopsis of how it is that we approach creating a positive team culture. It is to consider this operative framework of how is our team collaborating, communicating, getting with complex navigating chain. Once that framework is in place, then we have a better idea of how it is that people can fit together to clearly be able to work it in a way that's creating a sense of health within the team.

Speaker 2: 12:38

Thank you for listening to the Leadership Vision podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. We actually have several other podcast episodes about each one of those Cs, so if you would like more information and go deeper on how do you use those four Cs the research that we have done to help your team become healthier you can sign up for our email newsletter at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. You can just go to our website, leadershipvisionconsultingcom. You can send us an email connect at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. Leadership Vision URL domain was taken. I know it's a lot of typing, but you can go there and we would love to talk to you about some of these things, about how can we possibly help you build a positive team culture. Maybe your team culture is doing pretty well but it needs just maybe that last couple of percentage to kind of really get things clicking, really get things humming along.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Next week or the next podcast in your feed we're going to be talking about what are some of these next steps? How can leaders start to build and retain talent and really kind of take that next level to this idea of positive team culture? It doesn't happen by accident. We all know that a leader's role is really in shaping the attitudes, the behaviors and the expectations of a team. So what are some of the ways that we can do that? We have a model, the kick model.

Speaker 2: 13:57

No, this answer is an acronym. This answer no, invest, connect and keep. It's kind of simple, but I think oftentimes leaders they need resources that are simple. They need resources that they can actually implement In addition to all the other things that they have to do, and we've just talked to so many leaders out there who they need things like that. They need tools and resources and how to lead their people, not just in the duties and the job, functions and the things that they're just doing, to actually work in their role and on their role.

Speaker 2: 14:29

But actually, how do I help these people to reach their potential, to then feed back into this team so that the team and, ultimately, the organization can reach their potential? So thank you for listening to the Leadership Vision podcast. My name is Nathan Freeberg and we would love it if you could subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your podcast, or just pass this on to someone that you think could benefit from going deeper into learning their strengths, into learning about what makes a positive team culture or really any of the other things that you've heard here today. On behalf of our entire team, thanks for listening.