Some years ago, I had a conversation with a manager who told me about a time when working for a large organisation they had to deal with a crisis. He said,
It was amazing, suddenly this group of teams who had previously only occasionally reached “high” performance, were suddenly all working at the top of their game.
Strong communication, clear delegation, agreed objectives – you name it everyone was doing it.
Here’s the sad fact – when the crisis was over it all went back to “normal”. Siloed working, conflict and inconsistent communication. Crisis drove collaboration. Take away the crisis and suddenly average was okay.
Collaboration in the Training Room
This spike of effective communication and performance is surprisingly easy to replicate in a training room doing jigsaws. Turn up the pressure, make it competitive and introduce barriers and people are released from self limiting beliefs and perform.
Teams can learn from working in “crisis” mode – when the problem becomes bigger than the people agenda and communication is free of hidden agendas.
Care to try the technique?
We often use this technique in our workshops, get in touch if you think your team could benefit from it!
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid