Team History Pep Talk: A Not-Sappy Way to Help Resilience and Learning
To support a work team through tough workplace transitions, like the 2021 saga Return to the Office (or Not), effective leadership communication focuses on resilience and team interdependence.
A pioneering group of pediatricians I worked with recently are experts in resilience. During the pandemic, in their work with kids with challenges (serious health conditions, school-from-home, being in the foster care system), these doctors taught each other how to do two things well to build confidence and resilience:
1) Identify the strengths in the kids’ families, then
2) Discuss these strengths with the kids and their families.
From their powerful work, combined with workplace ideas from the literature of psychological safety and team-ing (to use Amy Edmundson’s noun-verbing), here is an idea for a quick intervention with your team when things get heavy and the going gets tough: The team history pep talk.
This is one time that the change management axiom “What got you here won’t get you there” is NOT true. Apologies to the great Marshall Goldsmith, but when we are building on past victories to tackle the next thing coming at us: What got us here WILL get us to our new “there.”
Think of the team history pep talk as a leadership intervention that you can do as needed, something to do when everybody’s stressed out and maxed out and tired.
You have done some version of this before, I bet, with a single person if not in front of a team. If you have raised a child, it seems a given you have done this. Think Coach Taylor with his high school football kids in the TV drama Friday Night Lights, minus the heart-strings writing and soaring soundtrack. And with actual facts of the team’s past efforts.
Here’s an outline, one idea for how to organize a team history pep talk, with a made-up Return to the Office scenario as the current challenge.
State the challenge or opportunity the team is facing. In September, we are all expected to be in the office at least three days a week. And we will start desk hoteling instead of having a full-time desk for each person.
Talk about the attributes of the team required to succeed (as opposed to the also-important specific activities or deliverables). This change will require patience, flexibility, and an adjustment period for everyone as we all figure this out at the same time. Our individual lives and circumstances are all different.
State your confidence that the team will succeed. We got this.
Remind the team of a time when they exhibited these attributes. Mention everybody by name if you can. We have done this before. Remember when we moved our whole office two years ago. Lilia handled the dramas over who got which space. Victor ran around and helped everyone pack on the last day. We went out to lunch on our first Friday in the new office to celebrate how smoothly it went. And then we shut it all down last year when the pandemic started.
Keep the team oriented and informed. Outline the process (meetings, planning team, deadlines) and next steps. I will check in with each of you to hear your thoughts on coming back. I know some of you are happy about it and others are not as happy. We will review your concerns and troubleshoot any challenges as we go, one-on-one with me, in our team, and with HR as needed.
I challenge you to try this out, the next time you feel overwhelm or paralysis creeping up in your team. Maybe practice in a 1:1 meeting if that’s easier, before you take it to the bigger group. Even if you chicken out after writing out your notes for a Team history pep talk, you will feel better yourself about your team’s strengths and resilience and getting through the next challenge.
Do you have a favorite pep talk from film or TV? Reply if you want to share. Mine is Yoda’s “do or not do” from whichever Star War that was. He was a space Muppet in a magical swamp! And I grew up near actual swamps. Also I probably had a crush (as a 6-year-old) on Luke.
Let me know how it goes, if you try your own Team history pep talk.