Core Team Values
Visibility
People lose trust and
confidence when they feel they don’t know all that’s going on, or they fear
those who should be in the know don’t have a clue. Visibility means keeping
everything out in the open for all on the team to see: plans, status,
accomplishments, issues pending, problems, accountabilities, etc. This
translates into having a war room in place--virtual and/or co-located--with
up-to-date information for all to access.
People First
In its essence, People
First means eliminating barriers so that team members can get work done. It
also refers to clarity of roles by ensuring that each team member’s own role
is clear (no role ambiguity) and that there is no confusion between my role
and that of others (role conflict). Role conflict and role ambiguity are
major causes of team and project failure, along with unclear goals and
poorly defined processes for getting work done. People First also refers to
placing a relentless focus on the safety and well-being of others.
Collaboration
One model for managing
emergency response teams places the team leader in the role of order
giver. Although under emergency conditions there is little time for
consensus-driven management, it makes sense to get input and feedback from
others as to, “Okay, what do we do now?” The leader then makes the
decision. You might call this being a benevolent dictator.
Honest Communication
This Shared Value means
that all team members act with integrity. They are expected to speak the
truth--the good, the bad and the ugly--without fear of reprisal. It’s
disastrous to have a “kill the messenger” team culture under extreme
conditions.
Early Value
Strive for and celebrate
small wins. As we well know from personal experience, early wins go a long
way in boosting trust and confidence. One way to focus on Early Value is to
go after the low hanging fruit as it relates to the Project Imperatives
mentioned earlier. See Results Orientation above.
Fast Failures
Even when there is a
well-rehearsed plan and process in place before an emergency strikes, each
anticipated situation is different. The plan is just a guideline because you
are still dealing with a lot of unknowns and unknowables, and this will call
for taking calculated risks as well as deplaning and replanning
continually--even managing by trial and error at times. I’m not proposing
knee-jerk management, but rather making pre-meditated and thoughtful
decisions—however quick--to try something out. A good guideline is to ask
both your head and your gut; then let your gut decide.
Quality of Life
Under extreme conditions
it’s common for team members to go all out, to be relentless in getting the
job done. Although this is human nature, it’s the role of the team leader to
be mindful of burnout in him or herself as well as for team members. Those
who are spent and zombie-like put the endeavor at risk. Care needs to be
taken to ensure people get a modicum of downtime to refresh.
Courage
Courage, the tenth Shared
Value is at the bottom of it all. It’s the fuel for the other nine
values. Courage is not the absence of fear. It means having the fear and
doing it anyway, to make decisions and to take a leap into the dark.
Building trust and
confidence under extreme conditions is essential. When it comes to
achieving success as an individual or a team, as the saying goes, “If you
think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. In either case
you are right.”