I had a fun time at Twickenham watching the Red Roses beat New Zealand by 12 points!
Such an electric atmosphere!
And whilst we're used to hearing that there's no "I" in team, we need to remember the importance of individuality within a cohesive team.
This was on full display amongst our triumphant English rugby team.🌹
From Average to Awesome!
Whilst I believe that you can have a functioning team when people behave collegiately, Taylor Swift nails the argument for individuality with the lyric;
"You can't spell AWESOME without ME!"
Teams become so much more dynamic and inventive when they're able to bring their quirks and unique perspectives to the table.
Encouraging individuality doesn't cost more and yet because people feel seen and more fulfilled they're likely to deliver so much more!
I think we all get the theory, but just talking about how you value diverse perspectives can be dry and ineffective.
It's all in the delivery - words are not enough!
A leadership team recently asked me to help them create the conditions to encourage people to bring their individuality to the foreground.
And for this to work I believe it's essential to get really hands-on!
Show don't Tell
If people are taking a day out of the office, it's not good enough to have a sanitised, unimaginative slide deck and rely on a few token break-out groups to talk about the importance of diversity of thought.
For a start, this is not leading by example, nor is it encouraging the involvement or mining the wisdom of the humans in the room about what needs to change!
Did you know that there was a 1 in 400 Trillion chance of you being born?!
So it's my fundamental belief that everyone has their own incredible gifts to share and through several creative exercises, I'm able to get people to see their uniqueness with their own eyes!
Using pencils and watercolours, every colour, line, shape, decision is your own inner world trying to get out and express itself!
A favourite activity is called "Blind Portraits" which allows colleagues to share the qualities they see in each other.
These provide tangible evidence that there's more to us than meets the eye and serve as a simple jumping off point to profound realisations.
A Symphony of Success
Inertia is a powerful force that is hard to get teams to break out of.
And for good reason - humans have evolved, in general to take the path of least resistance where they can exert the least energy.
Doing things differently is hard and challenging and requires consistent interventions that are able to grab attention and reinforce that action needs to be taken!
That's why I've spent two years building a bank of thought-provoking cultural examples including stories from singer-songwriters, artists, authors and performers that I deploy to great effect!
These stimulating, memorable tools are able to penetrate far beyond the dry, forgettable, business-speak-laden case studies that I always felt disappointed by as an employee.
They highlight how some of the most iconic and valuable songs, plays, inventions and works of art started off misshapen, haphazard and the path to them becoming fully formed.
They were never created by a single person in a vacuum, much like an orchestra, they showcase how winning teams require a variety of skilled individuals to create a symphony of success.
As a leader, they can help you signal "We're open to new, different" and "We're ready to celebrate the diverse strengths of each "ME" as the building blocks of a stronger, more resilient collective "WE."
If you fancy a virtual coffee to learn more, just give me a shout on louise@artafterdark.co.
I painted an abstracted rose in honour of the Red Roses!
As always, have a lovely day and stay curious!
Best wishes,
Louise