In team building, P is for....? (plus competition)

Provocative perhaps? 

In this episode a couple of the themes beginning with P might seem a little negative in relation to building a strong team. 

As with so many aspects of team dynamics however it's about balance. Yin and yan if you like. So long as a potentially negative theme is recognised, action can be taken to redress it to create a positive outcome.

In this series, the A-Z of team building, we continue to recall lessons learned by so many of our clients' team members following their experience of Raising the Baa. And punctuate it with a few insights of our own too. 

Expect plenty of analogies from the world of sheep and dogs from Head Shepherd & Founder of Raising the Baa, Chris Farnsworth, in these short and lively conversations with Paul Warriner, our Lead Facilitator.

Enjoy - and thank ewe for listening :-)

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COMPETITION TIME!
In the November draw, the prize is a portable Bluetooth Speaker, perfect for podcasts and all other listening of course! 

To enter simply answer this question:

Which TWO themes mentioned, beginning with P, can counter-balance each other to help teams succeed?

Email your response to baa@raisingthebaa.com, with Sheep Dip in the subject box please.

The draw closes at 23.59 on the last day of each month (Oct - Dec 2022) and we'll email the winners the following working day.  One entry per episode. Open to UK residents only.

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FREE resource:
Sheep, Shepherd or Dog - which one are ewe? Take our personality quiz and find out.

Connect with the Speakers via LinkedIn:
Paul Warriner - The Recognition Coach and Lead Facilitator, Raising the Baa
Chris Farnsworth - Head Shepherd and Co-Founder, Raising the Baa

What are your main team challenges and desires? Maybe we can help?
Book in a 15-minute Exploratory Call now and let's see.

Transcript

Caroline (00:03):

Hello and welcome to Sheep Dip, the podcast from Raising the Baa. We're global leaders in team building with sheep at its core. I'm Caroline and together with my partner Chris, we co-founded this completely unique business. In this series of podcasts, we are bringing you the complete A to Z of team building. It picks up on all the themes that have been fed back to us by our clients in their reviewing sessions, following their Raising the Baa programmes. And a few more topics of our own too. Expect plenty of shepherding references from Chris and he is in lively conversations with Paul Warriner our lead facilitator. In this series, at the end of each episode, we are going to ask you a question. It'll be related to something discussed in the show. Keep your answers handy because each and every month we're giving away some Raising the Baa prizes. So whenever you're listening you can enter. How to enter will be in the show notes. Enjoy the show.

Chris (01:03):

Hi Paul. How's things?

Paul (01:05):

Hi, I'm good, you?

Chris (01:07):

Very well. P for perspective

Paul (01:12):

Team building A to Z perspective. Well, let's put that particular thing into perspective. How important is team building?

Chris (01:19):

I think it's really important, actually. The dog and the shepherd are such a team. When you get that confidence to walk out, knowing the dog's going do exactly the right thing. When people see you coming down the road with a bunch of sheep behind you and they're in a car, the perspective is invariably, I think, for the driver oh my gosh, I will stop because I don't know what to do. And invariably what they do is stop in the middle of the road, which makes it really hard to get the sheep around the car. But the dog nevertheless will tackle the task very well.

Paul (01:59):

So picking up on that perspective, every single element of the team has a different perspective. Every single person comes with their own views, thoughts, enthusiasm, their own perspective to the day, the team, the exercise, whatever it's going to be. And I think if we don't understand what those perspectives are, we don't take the time to understand that and have that brought to the table. It's so difficult to gel everything. So in your context, if you don't understand that the dog is going to act in a certain way because there's a car around, if we don't understand all those things, then you know there's risk that something is going to get left on the table and we're not going to achieve a result. So perspectives in my view are important, but only if we can articulate them and have them brought to the attention of others so that people can use that information.

Chris (02:54):

But you also, you've got to encourage the dog to look up because it's looking on the ground for the sheep, suddenly it's now got to look up and it's got to keep in contact with the shepherd. That is quite strange for the dog to actually be behind 200 sheep and actually still have an awareness of where you need to go. So it's got to listen, look up and read the environment as well.

Paul (03:18):

That's a a traditional interpretation of perspective isn't it? Where you stand and what you see in an open field, in an office. I think it's hugely valuable to a team to have everybody's perspective on the particular task wherever they're coming from. What are they bringing to the party, what is the vision?

Chris (03:38):

But that's all down to planning, isn't it? You've got to have a plan to move the sheep from A to B or to put them in the pen. You have to know that plan. What I always find is that actually you can change the plan as long as you tell your team members that's what you're doing. Because often we are trying to get the sheep in the pen, they're not fitting or I need to adapt the plan. You know, you've got to communicate that to the dog because otherwise it keeps trying to do the same thing.

Paul (04:07):

I think probably the most important P in the A to Z of team building is planning. It starts right out of the gate. Well here's the plan. Often those are the words that you all hear. Okay, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna approach this? And that's a generic question to a whole group. Then it all unfolds from there. Somebody does or doesn't step up, it just evolves from there. But the planning is really important. But planning isn't a one time activity is it?

Chris (04:37):

It has to be adaptive, especially when marketplaces move. The sheep move. Everything needs to be adaptive planning I think. When you have a static plan, you become like a dinosaur and become extinct. When you've got an adaptive plan it moves quickly and I mean you can see that in when the pandemic was around suddenly, you know, everybody had to adapt very quickly.

Paul (05:04):

Yeah, and we see it in the exercises we do. The weather changes, you know, the sheep find a new favourite spot to hang out. People react differently. Sometimes team members are disengaged so you have to change your plan because somebody's not coming along with you or the team dynamics change. Planning is always a constantly evolving process, but very few teams can adapt that quickly, consistently all the time. And it takes a great level of control and leadership and involvement from everybody to be able to do that. And I think that's very tiring and I think people think we have a plan and it's not working, so what's wrong with it? And they don't then necessarily adapt through the plan and change while the plan is in motion. They will stop, do a review potentially,. And they come up with something else rather than that adaptive approach as the plan is evolving. Very few people have the energy I think to do that.

Chris (06:09):

That's very true. It does take a lot of energy

Caroline (06:12):

In this series, at the end of each episode, we are going to ask you a question. It'd be related to something discussed in the show. Keep your answers handy because each and every month we're giving away some Raising the Baa prizes. So whenever you're listening you can enter. How to enter will be in the show notes.

Chris (06:31):

I think when we look at performance and planning, because often we review by looking at performance and actually the performance that the dog does, the reaction with the sheep and the dog, the performance often devalues what they've achieved. And I think sometimes you can go, Oh well he put a foot wrong there, I'm going to hang onto that negativity and go, oh, we shouldn't have done this. But actually overall performance is that he did get the sheep in the pen.

Paul (07:05):

Yeah. And it doesn't matter whether it's good or bad. Doesn't matter whether you achieve your outcome or you don't. The performance is the measure that you have to move forward. What do you need to change? How do you change a plan? How do you adapt? How do you nurture people? How do you get people more involved? Whether it's a good, bad or indifferent performance, it's giving you information that gives you the ability to sort of adapt and change things and move forward. So performance, good or bad is really important and it shouldn't be judged negatively.

Chris (07:41):

Yeah, I mean it's interesting cos even in your shepherding world, our performance is, you know, live weight gain of the lambs , or make an assessment how heavy they are when they're born and then every week they're weighed to see where the performance is. That can be the very focused measure, but actually I'm not a great lover of that. I find it a bit arduous, don't feel the returns are worth the effort. What I like to do is to go out in the field and see them growing, but that's because I'm possibly experienced enough to be able to go out to the field and say, these lambs are doing well, that's what they're weighing, just by looking at them. But that somehow doesn't seem to be right in industry and running a team or you know, they want those measures, don't they?

Paul (08:33):

Yeah, I think in those examples you've quoted there, which one's right, which one's wrong? I think it's difficult to say, but each one is assessing the performance or the current state at a point in time to be able to make a different recommendation. For example, with the lambs you can see them growing or you see that they're not as big as they should be. You're going to intervene, you're going to do something and you'll do it in a certain style. And the other way, they'll probably do an intervention or something that will lead to a growth or something else. I think they're just two different environments that you make in that calling. And that's the beauty about individuality because if all teams were the same, it would be a very boring world. I mean, if all approaches were the same, it would be a very different persistency that we see. That for me is a big word in the team building exercise is persistency. We've seen teams give up, haven't we?

Chris (09:35):

Yep. We have.

Paul (09:36):

Give up to the point where they've just possibly thrown the towel in, they've resurfaced and come back. But that despondency, but the persistence to keep going, that resilience, cos I'm sure that word's going to come in later, but being persistent in the pursuit of that particular objective I think is important and it takes a lot of energy to do that. But, have a clear vision, a good plan, all these things come together.

Chris (10:05):

A strong purpose.

Paul (10:07):

Is there no stopping you, it's amazing! You do need to have it. In these little podcasts I think we're picking out words that resonate with us and there'll be words that when people are involved in a team that they will think, oh that word is much more relevant to me and my team. And that's fine. And in certain teams as a member or as a team leader, you are going to need to exercise patience, you know, patience with other people, with yourself, with the level of success that you're having or not. I think patience, as they say, is a virtue. We see it in our exercises at Raising the Baa, people taking the time and it's a countryside pursuit and it's built around nature and therefore it has a level of patience built into it.

Chris (10:57):

I find that very interesting because if you do panic then that has a catastrophic effect on the environment around you. So if there's some panicky people around there, it's actually the patience that's really important. The calmness, the thought of planning and persistence at doing the right thing.

Paul (11:21):

Panicking, patience. I think there's a good coupling there. We've seen panic as well. Sheep have run riots and escaped from fields and people have gone haring around fields waving their arms inducing panic.

Chris (11:36):

And the sheep definitely pick up on that and are then right on the edge.

Paul (11:42):

So one of the key elements is how do you manage panic cos it is in there, but how do you manage it and how do you make it work for you by using patience and talking it through and involving people in that particular process. That's a negative word that could be used very positively, panic.

Chris (12:01):

Yeah. I mean it's just a need to be aware of it and know that it's actually from a shepherd's point of view, if somebody is panicking, you need to be able to calm them down. If the dog is panicking, then you know, that's not a useful state to be in, but you've got to be able to calm it down and actually go step away, take a break and give a bit of praise for what they have done well.

Paul (12:29):

Again, there are words that resonate with people in a team exercise. If you are getting close to the edge, the end of the project, for example, in a work environment and it's not going well, you're under pressure. That's another word. And you're not delivering, it's not working. There is a possibility that you will panic. Now if you're able to observe that and deal with it positively, I think it's really important. I think we've probably thrown enough Ps at that.

Chris (13:01):

Great to speak to you. Bye for now.

Paul (13:03):

Take care, Chris.

Caroline (13:04):

In this series, at the end of each episode, we are going to ask you a question. It'll be related to something discussed in the show. Keep your answers handy because each and every month we're giving away some raising the bar prizes. So whenever you're listening, you can enter. How to Enter will be in the show notes. Enjoy the show. If you're enjoying listening to this podcast, we'd really appreciate your following us and rating Sheep It wherever it is that you tune in. And if you've got a burning question, a rising from today's show, or you have a topic that you'd like to discuss in a bit more detail, then please email me caroline raising the bar.com. Well, I hope you've enjoyed the show. Thank you so much for listening. Did you get the answer to the question? Keep it handy because at the end of each calendar month, we will be doing a draw of all the correct entries. Full details of how to enter are in the show notes. Till next time, have a baa-rilliant week. Bye.