In team building, XYZ are for ...?

The final episode in our series, The A-Z of Team Building, covers topics beginning with X (ish), Y or Z - all rolled into one show as you might imagine.

We've had a blast with this series which was inspired by the many lessons learned by our clients following their experience of Raising the Baa.  And naturally the learnings have prompted analogies from the world of sheep and dogs, thanks to Head Shepherd & Founder of Raising the Baa, Chris Farnsworth, in these short and lively conversations with Paul Warriner, our Lead Facilitator.

We sincerely hope it's made you think about aspects of team building which might not have come to mind before.  The key of course is to take just one learning and put it into action - so which one will you take?

Enjoy - and thank ewe for listening 😊

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COMPETITION TIME - LAST CHANCE TO ENTER!

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 X, Y or Z topic is the most craved by team leaders?

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

The draw closes at 23.59 on 31 December 2024 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 Associate 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 (01:00):

Good morning Paul.

Paul (01:02):

Good morning Chris. How are you?

Chris (01:05):

I'm really well. Cold. I mean, it's cold out there now. You know, it's all a question of putting the right layers on, and you just put enough on, not too hot, not too cold. Just keep it right for the exercise you've got to do.

Paul (01:18):

Dress appropriately for the task at hand. How often don't we see that in the programmes that we run at Raising the Baa?

Chris (01:26):

There's a well known shoe, which is called Timberlands, and they have stiletto boots.

Paul (01:34):

Oh right.

Chris (01:35):

Well this customer turned up to Raising the Baa in these stiletto heels. I could not believe it. They said oh yeah, I've got a pair of Timberlands. And I looked at them, I just couldn't believe it. I think they were really a bit of a joke, but they were.

Paul (01:50):

How extraordinary.

Chris (01:52):

Oh?

Paul (01:53):

Funnily enough, I think we're doing the A to Z and X is our first one. I thought I'd throw in an extraordinary one there.

Chris (02:01):

Well, it certainly was and extraordinary behaviour, you know, about all things which we look out for.

Paul (02:09):

We've seen some extraordinary results. I'm going to harbour on the extraordinary one as a kind of an X. It never fails to amaze me the results that we get from an incohesive group of people that probably have never met. Some have, some haven't, but they come together over the course of the day, produce extraordinary results in the field. Something they've never done. Not many of the participants that we've had have been shepherds before, but they produce those extraordinary results. And I like to think that we play a role in that, but it's really encouraging to see the team building principles that we can apply on that day come to fruition and people achieve the task as a team. There's not one single exercise that I can recall where it's been done by one person. It's always been done by the team.

Chris (03:13):

It is definitely a team activity. I mean, even me as a shepherd can't get the sheep in the pen unless I have my mate with me.

Paul (03:22):

Exactly. And so from a team building perspective, a team development perspective, a leadership perspective, the results are definitely there. And that is truly extraordinary when you consider that what we are pulling together and what we're achieving in a day. And I don't think we perhaps make enough of that. And I don't think that there's a comparable exercise that a team could do where they can experience, you know, that kind of success. And it's almost guaranteed. We've achieved it all the time, but it's almost guaranteed.

Chris (03:59):

I agree with you. It's the experience of getting out into that adventure zone, doing something completely different, which is always exciting. And in fact, I want to go on to the Y, because I love Yes. I've come to the conclusion I am a yes person. I love saying yes, even though it's a challenge I might not have done before or had any experience in. I still say yes to the challenge and I love that. I like yeses.

Paul (04:31):

I think that's an important word for the activity to, you know, be useful. People have to say yes to it. They have to commit to it. You can't have too many passengers in our particular exercise. And much like the workplace: to achieve goals, people have to be on board with it. They have to say yes to the strategy, yes to the vision. If they don't, they're kind of dragging like an anchor would and holding things back and not playing full out. You do see it in the workplace. People sometimes just don't engage and they start to drag this performance down, slow the pace down with too many questions, not enough can do and things like that. So saying yes in the workplace to an activity, to a team project is really vital. So it's a big plus. Yes.

Caroline (05:21):

If you're enjoying listening to this podcast, we'd really appreciate your following us and rating Sheep Dip wherever 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.

Paul (05:42):

Now the other thing was, I think being a little bit cheeky is Y just on its own, makes a whole philosophy out of why?

Chris (05:51):

I take a group, and they are teenagers and it's interesting that actually they lose that questioning, that curiosity, asking why? It's lost as teenagers. And I believe why it's lost at teenager-hood is because of the way we teach our children. You stood at the front of the class, you tell them everything and then they're made to retain it. Whereas with the sheep club I run, I keep asking them, why? Why does that happen? Why does this happen? Why does that happen? And really, for me, you get a lot more engagement if you ask people why. You not only get their commitment, you also get them to think and they might think slightly differently to the way you do.

Paul (06:46):

Why is a question? Questions are always much better for more quality answers, better performance. Asking why, why? I mean, I'm just trying to recall now, but was it in the activities that we do, why are you here guys? They, maybe they've had the briefing, maybe they've read the notes, but a collective discussion of what are we doing here? Why are we here in the middle of a field about to embark on this particular exercise? And of course, you know, that's a good question to start the day because it sets the framework, sets the mindset for the whole day's activities. But also in the workplace, people just come in and they get on with their work, they pick a file out and they start working on something that they didn't finish yesterday. Very rarely is there a collective discussion around why are we here, what are we here for?

(07:40):

What are we trying to achieve? So that curiosity in just the shape of a why is vital. If you had to retain that engagement and keep the momentum going and keep people moving forward to a particular goal that you set out. In our exercise, it's quite clear, <laugh>, it's quite clear to us, and sometimes not so clear to our clients sometimes, but clear to get the sheep in the pen, many different routes to do that. Many different ways of doing it. But in business there's lots of variety in that context. So why are we here? What are we trying to achieve? Is it just to make money? Is it just to please the customers? Is it just to make profit? Is it turnover? Whatever the reasons that you have in that particular moment. It's a good central question maybe to start every, not every day maybe, but may every week, every month, every quarter or whatever the period might be. Why, what are we doing it for?

Chris (08:44):

Then the other Y has got to be you, because the you is actually surely in team building, it's all about your team. It's all about other people. It's all about getting them all on board. The you is actually really twice as important, isn't it?

Paul (09:05):

I mentioned earlier, I don't think we've seen it done by an individual. To do the task you need the help of others and not maybe even two people. It needs more than two people. One man and his dog might be able to do it. Highly skilled, highly trained professionals in that particular activity. But two people, that's a really tough task, isn't it? So it is definitely team focused. Therefore it's all about the you.

Chris (09:34):

It's quite interesting, yesterday I had to go and catch one pet sheep and it was always a bit shy. It's never really sort of bought into the idea that I give you food and I can catch you. And so it's always a little bit nervous and it took three of us to catch it and on a steep side of a hill, and oh my gosh, you know, on that icy weather you could just see all sorts of things going wrong.

Paul (10:01):

You mentioned earlier being in the zone, an adventure zone. It is an adventure zone and that's a Z because the learning is accelerated in my opinion, when you're out there actively doing something. So in that adventure zone, whatever it is that you might be taking away from the day, whatever it is that you're there to finesse, the fact that you are engaged and involved and actively pursuing it in the moment and then reflect on it for sure. But in that adventure zone, it takes learning to another level, in my view. It's very rare that you can do that with Excel spreadsheets.

Chris (10:47):

They're not that are they.

Paul (10:47):

Maybe you can, maybe there's somebody out there that's training in an activity in an adventure zone with Excel spreadsheets, moving rows and columns around like some 3D chess game. It would be fabulous. All the algorithms in the background dancing around and playing their part. But I think what we achieve is in that adventure zone and being in the zone, I think I've witnessed it on a number of occasions when a team has just, somehow everything has come together and in that one movement, one sweep, one drive, one getting them in the pen. It's just like an orchestra coming to, you know, that crescendo. But how did that happen? Witnessed it, and the timing was just, it was so smooth. It was effortless. And when people are in the zone in the workplace, things happen. And sometimes you see that in brainstorming sessions, sometimes you see that in, you know, the final crunch when the deadline's approaching on a project, for example. But being in the zone is, it's a beautiful thing to see. And we see it regularly in the activities that we do. When people come together and they just get it right.

Chris (12:06):

The dog is definitely in the zone when it's moving the sheep, it's hopefully focused. I see people taking their dogs for a walk with a little treat, and I thought for a bit of curiosity, I thought, I'll take a treat with me to see when we're working, whether she would eat it or not. And so we are working the sheep and I said, oh, Gilly, come here. Yeah, here's a treat. No. You know, like, why are you giving me that for, I'm going to do my work. I'm at work, I'm not even going to eat. Which is really quite interesting that, when they are so in the zone, they are totally absorbed by what they're doing. And I guess we want our teams to do the same thing, don't we?

Paul (12:50):

Exactly. And it's something that every manager, every leader, every team member wants is to feel that passage of time, which you can't recall when you were just so in the groove, that time evaporated and you were just moving forward and getting so wrapped up in what you were doing and delivering on something that was meaningful to you. So I think everybody craves it. It so rarely happens, infrequently happens in the workplace. We see it in the exercises that we do on a regular basis. But it's in the workplace, being in the zone, when things are just clicking and everybody's moving and all the cogs are moving smoothly together, like a usual phrase, well oiled machine or a movement of a Swiss watch. Bang. Things happen. Everybody wants it, you're quite right.

Chris (13:45):

There's two observations. One is that when they do the exercise, they can't believe how long it took them, and that's because they're in the zone. But equally what happens in my world is, that you go to do something and it takes you longer than you thought because you are in the zone doing it. So you suddenly look to your watch and go, oh my gosh, that's the time, I now have to do something else. You know? Or, I've missed lunch and it's now coming onto tea time.

Paul (14:12):

Well, there's a classic one. How many times do people work through lunch? Just because they've just got their head down and going? Of course there's a flip side to that, which is not healthy, which doesn't encourage wellness. For example, when you are driven by production rather than driven by engagement and results and involvement and the you and the team, that's a very different energy that you're consuming in that context when you're driven by somebody watching over you and you've got to work through your lunch because the pressure's on and it's not a healthy pressure, that's destructive. Whereas the other kind of energy, which probably looks the same from the outside working through your lunch, you're busy, you're buzzing, everything's going to the 10,000 foot view person looking down, there's somebody stuck in the same position with a head down. You don't quite know what's going on inside. But if you're motivated by different things and a different kind of energy that you're drawing on the performance and the results are so different.

Chris (15:21):

I mean, and that's, as you rightly say, the thing about the dog being so focused, it's the disregard of food, the disregard of other animals, you know, the disregard I'm totally focused on my work, you know, even if the boss says, here's a treat. No, I'm not interested. I want to get this job done. I was just curious when I did that, I was just really curious to see what she would do.

Paul (15:50):

To me that's being in the zone. And again, you can interpret that in many different ways. You know, if you're blindly following a course and it's heading you down the wrong road, then fine. You know, that's not a healthy thing, but it really sums up what focuses you really on it. You know, you're on point all the time.

Chris (16:10):

Anyway, I think we've wrapped up the last three letters. I think we've done incredibly well.

Paul (16:17):

That's extraordinary what you can achieve when you're in the zone,

Chris (16:21):

<laugh>, we'll catch you later. Cheers now.

Caroline (16:24):

Well thank you for listening. So did you get the answer? This is your final chance to enter as this is the last episode in our series of A to Z of team building. We're going to be taking a short break and next season we will be focusing on workplace wellness. We're going to have a variety of fantastic guests who are going to be sharing their expertise with you. So until then, thanks again for listening from all of us at Raising the Baa, helping you to build the best team in your field.