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Resource for Team Leaders

Summary of Major Points


You may want to reference Andy’s main points
(or your team’s perspective on how this sport plays out at your workplace).
Here is a summary of what Andy shared with your team:

The collaboration model for a winning team needs at least three considerations:

01

Environmental Consideration

You discussed FormulaOne pit changes (repeatable and predictable with ample resources) and contrasted that with NASCAR (chaotic and inconsistent environment with fixed resources). You discussed the importance of considering team norms and skillsets based on those environmental factors. A FormulaOne crew is overly-process oriented for NASCAR, and a NASCAR crew is overly-adaptive for FormulaOne. Start your definition of ‘team’ based on considering your environment.

02

Organizational Consideration

You discussed building a culture that is suited for the environmental context you work within. With NASCAR pit crews’ environment of chaos and unpredictability, the best organizational culture was one that emphasized an ‘athletic’ mindset – of adjusting rapidly and exhibiting cognitive and mental support to the players next to you. With a recognition that ‘adaptability’ would be core to the culture, they could build teams and processes around that value.

03

Personal Consideration

The reason sports teams adopt mascots is that the mascot symbolizes a personality or characteristic required for success. Teams at work do not need to ‘unlearn’ this. Consider identifying an object or image that is a shared representation of what your team needs to be successful in your environment.

An Exercise For Your Next Staff Meeting

You may want to lead-off a future meeting with an ‘exercise’ or ‘game’ to extend the learnings from your experience. Here is an exercise we developed with Andy for your team:

Perp excercise

In our Teamraderie experience, our closing activity was a ‘pit stop change’. We selected a tool to use to perform the activity. We then reflected on whether we had selected a tool based on environmental and organizational considerations.

Let’s step away from NASCAR and look at one process in our work. 

Reconsider whether we have designed that process correctly by looking at three factors:

Environmental Consideration
What is the environment (e.g., fast-changing, resource-constrained) in which the process is run today?.

Organizational Consideration
What are the organizational capabilities we need (e.g., adaptability, rethinking) to make the process run best?

Personal Consideration
Are there symbols we should use to associate with success in the process?

An Email to Share with Your Team

You may want to send an email to your team to expand on the experience with Andy. Here’s a draft email that you can personalize to fit your style as a leader:

Perp excercise
Principles Behind the Experience

Teamraderie experiences are designed in collaboration with management professors at Stanford University and Harvard Business School. Here are the principles Andy incorporated into your experience:

Invite Team Members to Share Personal Stories

A Rotterdam School of Management (2021) study showed asking members of the team to express unique viewpoints and perspectives (showcasing diversity – but within an inclusive environment) led to higher creative expression on teams. This Teamraderie experience helps satisfy both “uniqueness” and “belonging” needs of teams.

Create Visual Cues of Working Together

A Stanford University (2014) study found employees primed to act collaboratively were willing to spend 60% more time on a task, reported higher engagement levels, showed lower fatigue levels, and had a higher success rate. What’s more, this impact persisted for several weeks. This Teamraderie experience seeks to help your team see themselves (and their colleagues) as collaborators around a shared goal.

Start Explicit Discussions About Collaboration Styles

A London School of Business (2008) study found organizations that create explicit imperatives to ‘rethink’ business processes show longitudinal improvement in flexibility and receptivity to new ideas. This Teamraderie experience introduces NASCAR as a metaphor to discuss collaboration styles; by depersonalizing ‘style’ discussions (through analogy), discussions become more frequent and easier to conduct.

Recommendations For Your Team to Do Next

  • Need to Prepare for RTO?

 

International-Ready

International-Ready

Doing RTO soon? RTO and in-person offsites can be awkward moments when team members struggle to build connection. Learn a pragmatic tool set to create immediate and meaningful connection with colleagues and acquaintances.

International-Ready

International-Ready

Meeting colleagues in-person for first time? Teams are often majority constituted of ‘new’ employees, hired since the pandemic. How to ensure they engage easily when together? Practice activities common to trusting relationships and thriving teams.

  • Need to Improve Connection?

 

Includes Kit

Includes Kit

Vegan Option

Vegan Option

International-Ready

International-Ready

Do you need to bond over a shared moment? All teams love this coffee, tea, and pastry experience. Receive a beautiful French press, craft coffees, and assorted teas. Your team will be led in a fun and revealing discussion by an acclaimed barista.
Do you want to bond while celebrating diverse-founded businesses? Teams receive beautiful kit with five acclaimed wines made by female- and diverse-founded wineries. Learn story of each wine and discuss the form of inspiration it provides.

  • Need to Inspire Your Team?

 

International-Ready

International-Ready

Does your team need ‘flow’? One of the world’s most dominant athletes, Paralympian Tatyana McFadden, leads your team in discussion on to set ‘goals’ that give you ‘flow’ at work – leveraging your full creativity and sense of fulfillment.

NASCAR Pit Stop

Includes Kit

Includes Kit

International-Ready

International-Ready

Need inspiration to work ‘differently’? Team receives a 29-piece NASCAR and is joined live by legendary pit crew boss. Do a timed trial pitstop, then learn ‘how’ to think differently about work, and repeat the timed trial. Watch your time improve!
Additional Expert Resources for the Experience

Interested in learning more about these topics?

Leading Innovation: 21 Things that Great Bosses Believe and Do

Author: Robert Sutton, a professor of management science at the Stanford University

Highlight: “Treat innovation as an import-export business. Keep trying to bring in ideas from outside your group or organization, keep trying to show and tell others about your ideas, and blend them all together.”

How to create a culture of accountability?

Author: Hayagreeva Rao, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor, Organizational Behavior

Highlight: “A great workplace is one where people do the right thing, even when no one is looking”. Plus, learn an effective and easy exercise that you can do with your team…

Thank you for being a Teamraderie customer.
We appreciate the opportunity to work with modern managers
who are embracing new forms of leadership.