Five Protective Factors for Teams--Core Values

During the months of February and March we are exploring team life and team resiliency. Here are some more thoughts.


•1. Relational resiliency
We value both truth and peace in our relationships (Zech 8:19).
We persevere in honesty and unity with colleagues.

•2. Safe sharing
We value safe ways (people and processes) to share personal and work-related concerns.
We are as healthy as our secrets.

•3. Intrinsic and strategic worth
We value colleagues as human beings with intrinsic worth, not just as human resources with strategic worth.
We are human beings and not human doings.

•4. Work-life balance
We value balancing demands of professional work and desires for personal growth.
We want to run well and also rest well.

•5. Well-being of all
We value the well-being of sending groups and the well-being of their personnel.
We provide quality support (by sending groups) and we expect quality services (from staff).

Other protective factors and values?
How do teams know that they are practicing these values?

Team Resiliency--Mutual Growth

Teams can be a great place to grow in our character and competencies. Check out these paraphrased comments by Dr. Greg Livingstone in his book Planting Churches....A Team Approach Baker Books (1993); pp. 114-115:

• A successful church planting team: members feel secure even when they have different convictions...others do not have to conform to one's convictions. They can discuss all types of things together including doctrine, strategies etc in a "non-censorious environment."

• The team leader: understands the overall picture, can handle ambiguity and setbacks in order to help the team persevere, avoiding skism...and all this is keeping with the goal of producing a resilient church--whose resiliency refelcts the team's resiliency.

• Team fellowship: Members of teams sin, and the team can address this. This is normal and to be expected. Members will act badly at times. We all do!
• Emotinal baggage; We all have it. We have been damaged, there are areas in which we are blind and we don't see our own self-centeredness and selfishness at times. For some this will even invoved neurotic, addictive behavior. Teams must know how to do reconciliation well according to Scriptures such as Matthew 5:23-24 and Matthew 18:15-17

• Alas: Workes don't folow the Scriptural guideliines! Relational wedges form. And our many sins hinder love--love no longer covers a multitude of sins.

Reflection and Discussion

1. How relevant are these comments for your team?

2. Any additional comments to help teams be more resilient?

Thoughts on Team Resiliency

I was recently in South Asia, teaching and consulting on team resiliency, personal and systemic dysfunction, and core (inner) issues for mission/health care workers. There seems to be such a strong desire to further develop skills in theses areas (globally too), and to see healthy relationships permeate teams and departments. I learned so much about perseverance in relationships and inner joy from my South Asian colleagues. The food was terrific too, of course! :-) Here are the first five comments from my power point teaching on resilient teams.

Kelly

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1. Resilient teams have the inner strengths and external supports to:
*face difficulties
*grow through hardships
*and perform well.

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2. Resilient teams are like the cactus plant… They have adapted to deserts and they have adapted to fertile soil… They can thrive in both afflictions and affluence, and everything in-between.

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3. Proverbs 24: 3-4
•By wisdom a house is built
•By understanding it is established
•By knowledge its rooms are filled
with every good and precious thing.

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This is a really important verse to understand and discuss. How are teams like houses? It takes intentional planning and ongoing maintenance. What are the good and precious things that fill our teams?

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4. The only teeth we need to brush are the one's we want to keep. And the only teams that need to do team building, are the ones we want to keep.

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5. Here is a paraphrase from Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team:
•Teamwork ultimately requires practicing a small set of principles over a long period of time. Success is not a matter of mastering sophisticated theory. Rather success is from high levels of discipline and persistence. Teams succeed because they are human and they acknowledge the imperfections of their humanity.

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•They trust one another
•They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas
•They commit to decisions and plans of action
•They hold one another accountable for these plans
•They focus on achievement of collective results.

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For more information on Lencioni's approach to healthy teams, see his helpful web site:

http://www.tablegroup.com/