T.R.I.C.K.
By
Robert S Drake
The T.R.I.C.K. Theory of team building is based upon the supposition that in order to build and maintain a healthy team in any organization, group, or family, there are five functional prerequisites which must be built into the team culture and operations. The five are:
Trust
Respect
Intention
Communication
Knowledge
It is my belief that without these five elements, no group of people, whether co-workers, sales team, family or committee can be optimally functional and effective. Without any one of these elements the group and individual task results will be diminished and performance improvement will be reduced. In worst cases the group will be dysfunctional and unhealthy, a source of frustration instead of joy; a job instead of a source of satisfaction and personal growth; an ongoing trauma instead of a healthy partnership or cohort. Performance and profits will decline instead of expanding.
The process of developing, discovering and incorporating these five elements of an effective team requires a practiced, holistic perspective. The team can be seen as an organism with various functional organs and appendages. In a group of people there is no self-reflection and no processes for looking at “the system” and its effects on behavior, attitudes and performance of other team members, it will be nearly impossible to function smoothly and efficiently. Instead, team members find themselves working at odds to each other. They often feel as if they are “in it alone,” despite the presence of other competent people.
In a healthy team, where everyone feels empowered to do and be the best they can, a leader exists as facilitator and pilot, while all other team members can be leaders in their own right.
Trust
Trust of one’s co-workers, as partners and allies, battling the dragons of the market and work-place together: If you can’t assume that your partners and team members you’re your back and will hold up their end of the work, without subtle or not-so-subtle sabotage or back-stabbing, and perform at a level that supports everyone, you will never feel safe enough to take the risks necessary to reach your own top capacity.
To develop and perform well you will have to be able to take risks. Without trust, fear and defensiveness will dominate. This is not an environment that supports risk taking. In this kind of workplace, the group members settle for mediocrity because it seems safer. Habitual mediocrity in a changing environment leads to lowered morale, self-esteem and performance.
Respect
Respect for one another as human beings with unique strengths, purposes and feelings. Respect allows fluid trust and communication. Without respect there can be no openness, only defensiveness and guarded cooperation. Respect is earned. IT is generated by a history of accomplishment and understanding and team members’ proven ability to support one another in time of need and on a routine basis. Respect in another can grow regardless of personality compatibility and political views.
The members of a top sports team are usually different races and from different educational and socio-economic backgrounds, yet, through a continuing experience of team work and success, the members come to trust and respect each other despite the many differences.
Intention
An explicit intention to communicate, to grow together, and to work out differences within the context of the unique relationships, eg., team, partnership, etc., provides the drive and certainty that feeds commitment and trust and accomplishes group objectives. Intention is both the guidance system and drive train for the group machine.
Intention in TRICK means resolve to do what ever is necessary to communicate, work together and succeed in the group goals. Intention creates an ever-present point of focus that produces results.
Communication
The willingness and ability to communicate needs, assumptions, objectives, fears and accomplishments is the connective tissue between the individuals and their diverse strengths and functions. Effective communication is a complex process involving the clear and responsible enunciation of needs by all parties. It also involves:
Effective, open communication is characteristically invigorating and exciting. Poor communication is often draining, boring, deadening, and somehow damaging. When poor communication is exciting, it is due to agitation derived from worry and fear or apprehension.
Knowledge
The job skills, technical training, background, information, data, understanding, expertise, language, insight, objectives, also knowledge of one another’s and the organization’s needs, objectives and capabilities.
These are the forms of knowledge that together serve as the vehicle and individually as the tools of the team organism. Collectively, knowledge is the nuts and bolts of the group body – the every day credentials and experience that act as posts and pilings to support the team body of work.
What’s the trick to T.R.I.C.K.?
The trick to developing a healthy T.R.I.C.K. team is in having an awareness of what is possible, namely, clean, effective communication in an empowering, challenging and optimally supportive environment. For this it is necessary to have a work environment in which the individuals’ experience of being understood, appreciated, respected and supported can change and improve.
In most cases, for all members of the team, if there is no vision of what is possible, everyone’s sights will be set too low by virtue of habit and limited past experience. It is the first objective function of the T.R.I.C.K. facilitator/leader to “hold” and guide the group in a way that fosters a vision of open communication, risk taking, trust and respect.
Every
Every day team building involves the application of T.R.I.C.K. theory moment-to-moment and member-to-member. The introduction of T.R.I.C.K. elements to a group that has been operating without effective and healthy communication can be extremely unsettling. Any change that moves people outside of their habituated comfort level is difficult. The disciplined application of these principles with humor and understanding will eventually break through, however, and over time, a sea change occurs. With time, the new team is almost unrecognizable from the original dysfunctional group.
SUMMARY
The above outline of T.R.I.C.K. team building theory is only a summary of the principles behind the practice. Every group or team has unique needs, objectives and difficulties to incorporate, accomplish or overcome. During structured team building processes, individual group process activities must vary to meet the needs and objectives of that particular group system. For instance, a corporate group may have specific objectives to accomplish relative to the job between sessions. In any case, it is essential that session and process ground rules insure physical and emotional safety. The group and the environment must become an effective container for everything that transpires during training sessions and seminars.
Every day team building using T.R.I.C.K. applications is emotionally satisfying, morale-building and performance improving. The relationship to both revenue and non-tangible benefits are direct. Since effective selling is a transferring of enthusiasm from the sales person to the customer, one can easily see how high energy communication in an atmosphere of trust and efficiency can be directly translated into sales success.
As virtually every person in an organization is selling something to someone throughout the day, it stands to reason that if employees and team members are enthusiastic about their jobs and their products, and feel empowered to perform and communicate, this enthusiasm will be transferred to the customer through many channels. Enthusiasm will drive sales, which will drive revenue gains. Success will enhance the feeling of excitement and security and job satisfaction will improve within the team system. The organization will benefit from a more tenured, healthy, effective and prosperous group of professionals working harmoniously toward their individual and organizational goals.