At Summit Group we often emphasize how important it is that teams have a clear vision of who and how they would like to be as a high performing group. This type of vision is about team culture: how people will ideally work together, treat each other, relate, communicate, support one another etc., as a high performing, productive team. Such vision is critical. Whether on a remote mountain, a busy freeway or a country road, we need to know the destination before we can go there together.

But simply knowing the destination is not enough to get us there. Even when we are taking a drive through familiar territory we must constantly check for landmarks, watch for signs, even use GPS technology to assess where we are along the route. Then we can anticipate and plan our next move. Whether we are drivers or passengers, I think this need to know where we are is pretty close to innate. (If you have ever traveled in a car with toddlers you will be familiar with the persistent and urgent phrase, “Are we there yet”?) Team members also need to know and confront where they are with respect to their vision of high performance culture. You can give them that information through simple, regular team culture assessments.

There are many existing assessments of team ‘health’ or ‘performance’. They can help you gauge where you are on your collective journey, and if you are moving towards or away from your target. If you have described clearly your vision of a high performing team, and have identified key member behaviours in a “best practices” or “code of conduct”, you may be able to create your own meaningful assessment tool by attaching criteria and a scale to each item. The important thing is to assess the team’s progress in a meaningful way and at regular intervals. It opens dialogue, motivates and keeps the team developing in a positive and deliberate way.

Over the next few blog entries, I will describe some ideas about which behaviours are reported to be most crucial for high perfromance and productivity, and give some sources for assessments.

We don't always get a chance to meet clients face to face and take time to chat. Well, we have such a chance coming up on August 23 and 24 at the Incentive Works show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Front Street. Please drop in to booth 915 if you're in the area. We'd like to know what interesting things you're up to and share stories from the mountains or ideas to to help your organization perform better. We promise to appreciate your smiling face!

There is no doubt about it. Managing teams of scientists, engineers, researchers and technical people can be a special sort of challenge. They are generally highly intelligent, highly educated and value knowledge and 'hard' skills, so much so at times that the soft skills of conflict management, relationship building and communication are looked upon with suspicion. A further complication is that the managers of technical people are often themselves cut from that same skeptical cloth. How can we effectively approach leadership in such a situation?

Alice M. Sapienza has studied the leadership of scientists for decades and takes a scientific approach to the problem. In her book, Managing Scientists, she decribes the skill sets and strategies that work best. One of the most interesting insights is how effective the scientific approach can be for learning leadership. The approach consists of a simple, step by step approach to a leadership challenge:
•As a leader, start with a hypothesis. What is happening here and how should I approach it?
•Test your hypothesis. What are the assumptions I am making about the people? About the team or organization? About the variables? What's the confirming and disconfirming evidence?
•Reflect on the root causes of problems.
•Identify interventions and try them out.
•Monitor outcomes and get candid feedback.

If you keep a journal of your learning, you can become even more effective as a leader. A systematic and deliberate approach to leadership learning, like science, makes all the difference.

We don't always get a chance to meet clients face to face and take time to chat. Well, we have such a chance coming up on August 23 and 24 at the Incentive Works show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Front Street. Please drop in to booth 915 if you're in the area. We'd like to know what interesting things you're up to and share stories from the mountains or ideas to to help your organization perform better. We promise to appreciate your smiling face!

There is no doubt about it. Managing teams of scientists, engineers, researchers and technical people can be a special sort of challenge. They are generally highly intelligent, highly educated and value knowledge and 'hard' skills, so much so at times that the soft skills of conflict management, relationship building and communication are looked upon with suspicion. A further complication is that the managers of technical people are often themselves cut from that same skeptical cloth. How can we effectively approach leadership in such a situation?

Alice M. Sapienza has studied the leadership of scientists for decades and takes a scientific approach to the problem. In her book, Managing Scientists, she decribes the skill sets and strategies that work best. One of the most interesting insights is how effective the scientific approach can be for learning leadership. The approach consists of a simple, step by step approach to a leadership challenge:

• As a leader, start with a hypothesis. What is happening here and how should I approach it?
• Test your hypothesis. What are the assumptions I am making about the people? About the team or organization? About the variables? What's the confirming and disconfirming evidence?
• Reflect on the root causes of problems.
• Identify interventions and try them out.
• Monitor outcomes and get candid feedback.

 If you keep a journal of your learning, you can become even more effective as a leader. A systematic and deliberate approach to leadership learning, like science, makes all the difference.

The mountains are always a dramatically inspiring place for me to visit, and I always come back with renewed energy for all those important things in my life ... family, friends, and vocation. I always learn something. And, I feel priveledged to be a part of the success for the people that share in the adventures.

I was recently lucky enough to spend ten days in Africa with a great group of people climbing Africa's highest peak, Kilimanjaro. While I've climbed 'Kili' before, I never tire of sharing my passion for the mountains. It never becomes 'old hat'. If you've ever shared your passions with others ... your collegues, your children, your friends ... you'll recognize that this true. We just never get too much of the things we love.

I hope to share my team mates' insights and perceptions of our Kilimanjaro expeditionin the next few weeks. We're still enjoying our success and processing it!

In the mean time, I can share some highlights and some of my learning from other climbs that I have experienced on Cho Oyu and Everest through these videos:

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Corporate culture insights

August 1, 2011

We are now back in Moshi. The hike out of Kilimanjaro was great. Everyone recovered fast from summit night. The porters sang us wonderful songs on our last day together. Celebration dinner and summit certificates last night. Today tour of Moshi for shopping and lunch. Fly out late today. Great trip! Great team!

Summit Life! team.

August 1.

We are now back in Moshi. The hike out of Kilimanjaro was great. Everyone recovered fast from summit night. The porters sang us wonderful songs on our last day together. Celebration dinner and summit certificates last night. Today tour of Moshi for shopping and lunch. Fly out late today. Great trip! Great team!

Summit Life! team.