Virtual Pitstops: Teddy Bears & Other Surprises!
Flattening the Curve: What’s the impact on your team’s productivity?
‘In the last 2-days I’ve been offered 12 seminars and webinars on resilience’ said my colleague in a surprised tone. ‘I have even signed up for one of them’ he added. ‘But I have to admit to being a bit of a ‘resilience skeptic’.
‘Why so down on resilience?’ I asked. ”There are 3 reasons’ my colleague answered after a short pause. ‘The first is that it all sounds a bit too soft’ he added. ‘With my clients telling me that productivity is down by 20%, 30% or 40%, I believe that is where the primary focus should be’ he added.
He then went on to outline the next reason: ‘I don’t hear people talking about resilience in a collective sense – it seems to focus on the individual. I truly believe that the greater payback is always achieved by working at the level of the team rather than the individual on his/her own. In any respect, people derive so much of their strength from those around them’. That collective grit is what we call ‘pulling together to pull it off’ (pt2tpo) – it is what we measure and what we build within leadership teams’.
‘Keeping going in spite of challenges and set-backs is certainly a characteristic of the best leaders and teams – there is no doubt about that’ said the colleague as he started to explain the third of his reasons. ‘all the quantitative & qualitative data from our clients tells me that this is founded in a clear and compelling purpose at the level of the team that has meaning for the individual. It also includes alignment in respect of priorities and results’.
‘That was 3 reasons, but there is another one’ my colleague added while scribbling the number 4 on his writing pad. ‘The pitstop process is about teams identifying and tackling specific obstacles and barriers that are getting in their way – based on our global inventory of performance losses’ he added with a smile*. ‘So, it is a very active form of resilience – a taking back of control – it is resilience not as an adjective but rather as a verb.’
Reflecting on these answers, I certainly get the point – resilience might not be enough to get you through the Covid-19 crisis. Still, I remain curious to see if the ‘resilience webinar’ that my colleague plans to attend, will change their perspective in any way.
* Based on research within 1000’s of teams the Global Inventory of Performance Losses is a unique database of the ‘real world’ obstacles and barriers faced by individuals and teams. The more technical term for these is ‘Performance Losses’. They are the reason why individuals and teams fail to realize their potential and the role of Pitstop Analytics™ is to scan each business unit or team for them.
