When’s the last time you took a walk with a colleague?
Story
A team was struggling to break through silos and collaborate more. All the usual “remedies” had failed. They were just too comfortable with their own people and didn’t see any way to create REAL cross-functional collaborate.
At our team commitments workshop, one idea came up that jolted the room:
“Every week, spend 20 minutes talking to someone from another team and we’re NOT allowed to talk about work.”
They ended up unanimously agreeing to try it.
Our coach added one suggestion: “And get outside the office while doing it?”
Trust Building
While every culture (and even each person ) goes about building trust differently, high trust is absolutely the foundation of all collaboration.
And here’s the tricky part about it: you build trust indirectly.
As fun as those “trust games” are (I fall backwards and you catch me), deep and lasting trust cannot be developed by going at it head-on.
One of our coaches was talking to a married couple recently about communication problems and he asked the husband: “What might be underneath the communication problems?”
The husband quickly answered: “She doesn’t trust me.”
Excellent! But now what…? Surely the answer is not to sit down and have a long talk about trust.
Relationship Building
While it’s not the only way to deepen trust, one great way is to simply get to know the other person better.
“The trust we have in people and in organizations comes, in part, from believing that they do care.”
Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
As basic as it sounds, talking to a colleague NOT about work is one of the fastest ways to show you care about them as a person.
They probably know you care about their work. But do they feel you care about them? What makes them tick? What do they love and hate?
In a recent Team 360 with a middle management team it was discovered that 0/11 of the colleagues knew what “personal development goals” the others were working on. They simply never talked about anything besides the daily “firefighting” and business goals.
Over the many years and many clients our global team of coaches has worked with, this remains one of the top Team Commitments we see teams make. As simple as it may sound, talking person-to-person (rather than workmate-to-workmate) can make a huge difference.
Why Walking?
Talking to someone for 20 minutes about non-work topics can be a challenge, especially for certain temperament types.
Taking the conversation on the road (or sidewalk) can help level the playing field and make it more enjoyable.
Advantages of walking while talking:
- Full-body engagement (left/right brain, anyone?)
- No awkward eye-contact
- A bit of exercise (get your step counter going!)
- You’re away from the normal “work” place (easier to avoid talking about work)
- You might see something interesting (that you can talk about, perhaps?)
- Normalizes casual, friendly conversations around the office (others will see you walking)
- Just feels better… trust us!
There are researchers out there who could explain more about why it works, but just trust us: taking a walk is a great way to have these casual conversations.
And if you can get outdoors that’s double bonus points for all the reasons you can add!
What ever happened…
Remember that team who just wouldn’t work across silos? They made a complete turnaround. And it was such a cheap change to make.
But here’s a crucial element of why it worked: they had unanimous agreement they were going to do it. No one felt forced. No one resented it. No one blamed the leader for pushing this idea on them. They took ownership of the plan and they implemented it beautifully.
Many felt that 20 minutes was too short!
Next Steps?
Would the “talk about NOT work” be a great team commitment for your team? Do you want to strategize about how you can implement it or how we can help with that?
Book a free 20-minute call with one of our coaches to discuss how we can support you at making your next big breakthrough (even if it feels impossible right now).
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to talking to you soon!
