In team building, T is for... ?

Er... team?

Would be churlish for us to say otherwise!

In the shepherding world the team comprises the shepherd and their dog, or for those with larger flocks, their dogs.

This epitome of a trusty team is at the heart of all that we at Raising the Baa deliver, on and off the field.  And this podcast series is just one example.

Continuing our series, The A-Z of Team Building, themes beginning with T are discussed:
- how can one hot drink can lift energy and build team spirit?
- why iteration and analysis shouldn't be neglected
- if lacking, it's one of the top 5 behaviours of a dysfunctional team
 
This series was inspired by the many lessons learned by our clients following their experience of Raising the Baa. And we 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 final draw of the year, the prize is a hand-made sheep's wool hot water bottle cover - to keep ewe snuggly warm in an eco-friendly and ecological way :-)

To enter simply answer this question:

Which T theme is described with two T words, both with the same meaning?

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

The draw closes at 23.59 on 31 December 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:

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:

Hi Paul, how you doing?

Paul:

Very well thanks Chris, and you?

Chris:

Oh, I've just realised I'm being very repetitious by always asking how you're doing and I must find some new words. A new way of thinking ....T.

Paul:

My goodness me, how contrived can you get? and I'm going to toast that with a cup of tea. Cheers.

Chris:

Oh, tea is an important part. Having a cup of tea. In fact, when we're shearing, we shear for exactly two hours and then we stop for a cup of tea. And that cup of tea is sometimes the best tea in the world.

Paul:

Well, interestingly enough, it probably wasn't a word I was going to bring up in the word concept of team building from an alphabet point of view. But a lot of teamwork is done around a cup of tea. That is that water cooler moment when you might just catch somebody and do some casual sort of conversation, but it's all part of that team building exercise. If you totally ignored everybody as you walked through the office and you didn't interact with people, there would be no team. But if you do interact with people and you stop off at the coffee station, have a cup of tea and you shoot the breeze with somebody, that's all part of building that team, and that team mentality, ethic, work, work ethic, whatever it's going to be. And so a cup of tea is very important. So it's important in a shepherding world, I'd say metaphorically really important in team building, in the office environment or even in a remote way. You know, you've had these remote team meetings or team parties where people bring along a glass of wine or a cup of tea, have a social over the internet, and you think, how crazy is that? But there's something about raising a glass and having a chat and having a drink with somebody that connects.

Chris:

I feel with the cup of tea or sharing any food is a real connection. It builds trust because when you are eating, you are a little bit more vulnerable than when you are awake and alert. Would you resonate with that?

Paul:

My goodness me, I think that is so profound. I'm going to stop in my tracks. I think you've hit on something really powerful there. You know, you are particularly an animal where you've got the head down grazing. They're incredibly vulnerable, aren't they too, you know, hostile activities from predators.

There's always somebody looking out, you see all those nature programmes whether it's a meerkat or it's a penguin, or it's a gazelle. There's always somebody looking out to protect the herd, flock or whatever. But now you mention it, we are very relaxed and disarmed when we're having a meal, which does allow a certain element of people into people's lives. They relax a bit more, might talk a bit more about themselves, say a bit more, because they're feeling that relaxation, but they are very vulnerable.

And I think you've hit on something.

So that brings us back to a word trust. I think you have to trust somebody to be vulnerable. You've got to be able to believe that they're going to honour what you are saying to them. And it's the same in a team.

If you come up with a view, you have a point to make, an idea to put across. You have to trust that the group are going to treat that with the respect it deserves and comment on it respectfully, you know, not shoot it down. In a brainstorming session there's no such thing as a bad idea, you hear that all the time.

But that's what people say and what people are thinking under their hats could be very different. But I think trust and when you are sharing that food, that's not a T but it's a very profound thing. I'm going to think on that one for a while.

Chris:

I trust the dog to do what it does really well. And even though it doesn't get it right every time there is that buildup of trust, my dog isn't particularly aggressive. I like it that way. So it needs backup and sometimes I have to go and help it out, to push it forward. But it always knows that I will do that. But I think trust is really built when we're having a bit of a game together. You know, I trust it that it's not going to bite me hard. We just have a little bit of a romp and a play and actually that trust part of the relationship with the dog can be any time, any place. And it knows that we can just have a bit of fun and relaxation at that time. And I guess that's when we really get to know each other. When you know, the guards are down, we're not working, but that trust is built at that time when you are actually having fun and playing.

Paul:

We could dedicate hours to this particular topic, and there's some great work out there on trust.

Building trust within a team is vital. You've got to have it if you're going to be successful, you can't have multiple agendas, people with their own agendas in their eyesight rather than the teams. You see it in sport, you'll see it in the workplace where people just don't demonstrate trust. They act very selfishly.

And it's very difficult to achieve anything on your own in this day and age. Behind everybody there's somebody else supporting them in some way, shape or form, suppliers, parents, partners, you name it.

And therefore you have to trust people if you're going to progress, if you're going to deliver, you have to let go at some point and engage with other people and other companies, for example, other teams maybe. But trust is vital. I think good leaders build that trust with hard work and credibility and lots of other things. But it's vital in my world. So I think trust is huge.

Caroline:

If you're enjoying listening to this podcast, we'd really appreciate your following us and rating Sheep Dip whenever it is that you tune in. And if you've got a burning question arising 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@raisingthebaa.com.

Chris:

I want to come onto another T which is testing, trialling. In our world, I trial different products or different systems, and I want the data at the end to be going, has it really worked or is it just my preferred way of working? I guess that's really quite hard to do in a team, isn't it? I mean, because we're so dynamic.

Paul:

I think it's happening all the time. If you come up with a plan, you're testing it all the time. What doesn't happen is that review of the test and the data, but it doesn't happen sometimes quick enough to be able to tweak it and change. I think every single day you are testing a theory whether this is going to work or not going to work. I think sometimes what this is missing out is the fact that you're not feeding back that analysis in a clear enough way that says, yeah, we may be barking up the wrong tree here, or this isn't working as we thought it was going to, can we tweak it? So testing is always happening, but the analysis isn't, I suspect.

Chris:

In the shepherding world, we of course have dog trials ....doesn't always play out the way you want it to work out. You know, when you ask the dog to look back or to hold some sheep up while the other dog works, doesn't always work out. And I guess in that situation, the pressure, because you know you are going to be reviewed, is very different from our normal work where we just simply go out in the field and move the sheep from A to B. And I guess when you are under that analysis, is there more pressure to get things absolutely spot on right? And therefore mistakes might be made?

Paul:

I think that's probably generally very true. You know, if you're under the microscope, that pressure is always there. It depends what's happening with that analysis. At the end of the day, you know, if you are losing your job or you are scoring a few less points, or you're held accountable and you know, you're up in front of the board and answering questions, it depends what's happening, what the pressure looks like. But certainly the microscope is a powerful focusing tool, isn't it? And then you can certainly look at that. Yeah, you're testing all the time. There are trials all the time. New products are being launched, you're trialling that, you're trialling the marketplace. So I think there's a lot of similarity.

Chris:

I would like to say at that point, you see, as a shepherd, we try to protect the dog from any of that pressure. So it is still another day at work and it's not floored by the people watching. But what we use is a whistle, so we don't transfer any of that anxiety across to our team, ie. the dog. And so therefore we give it the best optimum command to do the right thing at the right time. And by using a whistle, we take all the emotion out of our voice. And I'm wondering, in the workplace, do leaders put the pressure on the team or do they take the pressure themselves and protect their team from the pressure?

Paul:

I think that's down to style, isn't it? I think sharing that pressure probably ultimately is a powerful strength. Can one person share all the burden of a product launch, for example? I don't know. Is it the best way forward? I don't know. It'd be an interesting one to gather some feedback on in terms of how do you disseminate that pressure of a launch of some description, let's use that as an example. Is it the leader, the CEO, the MD, or is it the whole company? Is it the whole team or one individual? It's a very good question, and I think there are many different routes to success. So there probably isn't one correct answer. There's probably an optimum answer in every environment, and I think that goes for a lot of things. It's finding that way forward that works best for the people that you have, the circumstances you find yourself in, and the goal itself. So one answer probably doesn't fit all. That would be my sitting on the fence answer to that question.

Chris:

A diplomat through and through.

Paul:

Yeah, no, maybe not.

Chris:

Oh, Paul, time is running out. Time is ticking on.

Paul:

Time ticking. We're still on the letter T. Great job.

Chris:

Definitely ticking on. But it's good to have some thoughts with you and I love this discussion, you know, where the two worlds collide and we can learn from each other of how we tackle these problems. But it's always fun, it's always interesting and I love the sharing and the teamwork that we create.

Paul:

Me too.

Chris:

See you next time. Bye.

Caroline:

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.