Action Tip

Create moments that unite your team

1. Create moments of elevation to engage and motivate 

“Moments of elevation are experiences that rise above the routine. They make us feel engaged, joyful, amazed, motivated.” But in a work environment transformed by the health crisis and the constraint of remote work, where routine is king, such moments tend to be rare. Here’s how to break through the lonely, daily monotony that dulls everyone’s enthusiasm: 

• Raise the stakes. Add an element of productive pressure. Use competitions, games, deadlines, and public commitments to give your team members a jolt and raise their game. 
• Break the script. Defy team expectations for stereotypical experiences. In a team videoconference, for example, deliver a jolt so that your team opens up more to their external environment, even remotely. 
• Beware of “reasonableness.” You can’t create moments that rise above the routine by remaining practical and reasonable. You have to go beyond practicality to grasp the value of creating and sharing extraordinary moments with your team – even remotely. 

2. Create moments of insight to deliver transformative realizations 

Flashes of creative discovery and insight are always partly serendipitous but aren’t completely beyond your control. Encourage moments of insight by using two strategies: 

• Push your team to “trip over the truth.” Identify a problem or truth, then design a situation that will encourage your team to discover it for themselves  

• Stretch for insight. “Action leads to insight, more often than insight leads to action.” Support your team in taking actions that stretch their limits in terms of capability and understanding. Ask them to shoulder ever greater responsibilities. You may risk failure by trusting your team members with important responsibilities. Yet, as a result of taking that risk, you gain insight – and so do they.  

Don’t forget, however, that a risk is a risk: “The promise of stretching is not success, it’s learning.” The leadership formula for pushing your team to stretch for insight is: high standards + assurance + direction + support = enhanced self-insight. 

3. Create moments of individual distinction 

Pride is often seen as individual – either people take pride in their work or they don’t. In fact, however, two individuals can work equally hard and derive vastly different amounts of pride from their efforts. Design the work experiences of your team to be rich in pride: 

• Provide recognition. Recognizing your team members is the simplest way to create moments of pride. “A small investment of effort yields a huge reward for the recipient.” Recognize each team member on a weekly or even daily basis.  

• Set milestones. You may tend to set numerical goals with supporting plans. This model is designed to hold a team accountable for moving in the desired direction, but it’s not designed to improve their experience during the process. Correct for this oversight by structuring ambitious long-term goals with multiple milestones along the way. Ask yourself: How can I give my team more “easy victories” along the way to the final goal? 

4. Create moments of connection to strengthen bonds 

Connection in a group depends on shared meaning, so create more moments that highlight what binds your team together. 

• Bring your team together physically. For important messages that you want your team to take to heart, bring everyone together physically as a group, or virtually if that’s not possible. Without presence, “the synchronization effect,” whereby people synchronize their reactions and feelings as a group, can’t take place. 

• Invite team members to take part in a purposeful struggle. Three steps that will bond coworkers together like cement: 

1) Invite your team to take on a demanding task. 

2) Explain why the task is important, and give everyone a choice to participate or not. 

3) Provide autonomy in how your team carries it out together. 

• Create moments that connect team members to their purpose. Daily obligations, especially during remote work, often blind team members to the larger meaning of their work together. Find ways to remind your team of your shared purpose. Keep asking your team about the usefulness of what they do, until you get the response. Don’t stop asking until you reach the human impact of the work: “Who is the beneficiary of your work, and what is your personal contribution?” 

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