Team Building That Actually Works, No Ropes Course Required

Christine Courtney: Welcome everybody to Stepping Into Your Leadership. I'm your host, Christine Courtney, and I'm excited to have my pal, my friend, my colleague, Sergeant of Arms, ⁓ Shammy in the studio today. ⁓ Greg. Greg Shamie: Hi Christine, how are ya?

Christine Courtney: If you have not had the pleasure of listening to Greg, go back to any one of the numerous episodes we have over the past couple of years. ⁓ guys, we are getting very close ⁓ our ⁓ episode here. So that's pretty exciting. When we started, we didn't know if we could get ⁓ week done.

So that's very exciting. And I wanna give a big shout out because most of the credit goes to our two producers, Tatiana Dominguez and Richard Francisco, who have really helped ⁓ push us and guide us and keep us track. So anyway, it's a new year here at Stepping Into Leadership. We have a whole new exciting list, roster of people coming into the studio this year, Greg.

⁓ but I'm going to start today with Greg because Greg and I work together often and one of the topics that has recently come up is ⁓ this idea of how do you build a team super quickly? Supercharge it super quickly. ⁓ in terms of this idea, Greg, because Greg a master of teams, right? a little bit about his background, but when he came to us, not only was he from the world of theater, but also from the world of sports.

⁓ And if you look at those two worlds combined, you add business there and leading teams and businesses, ⁓ you come up with this supercharged team coach. as I like to call Coach Shammy here. so he has to go in oftentimes into where they say, here's a bunch of amazing, brilliant people, but they've never worked together. And you have one week or two weeks to pull them together as a team.

⁓ And should see the magic that starts to happen. So I thought it would be a good topic for our podcast ⁓ episode to talk about ⁓ how anyone do this? If you're a new manager, if you're a If you're a seasoned leader and you go in and you have to pull together a team, if you're a leader of a school, a principal, and you've got new teachers, whatever it is, if you're a teacher in a classroom and you've got new kids, how do you pull people together really quickly to build team? So Greg, let's just give some tips for folks on this, but your thoughts.

Greg Shamie: Okay, well first of all, so funny, right? Because when you hear team building, what comes to your mind? ⁓ can't really prioritize that right now. I can't prioritize that.

⁓ falls, all those things. But like, why, how, I run a business. Why would I be taking time to do that? Here's bottom line.

The bottom line is, and I've seen this across all the we've worked with. When you have a leader who prioritizes building, Christine Courtney: ⁓ God. Ropes courses. Trust falls.

Greg Shamie: team dynamics and building culture, then everything else comes out of that effectively, right? And so it seems so easy, these things, and I'll mention tips and things that we do to build team effectively. seems so easy, but the true question is ⁓ happens to us under pressure? What happens to us when the heat gets hot?

What happens to the team? How does it perform under pressure? And so the whole concept we take okay, we're gonna build the connectivity between the players, between all the different people on the team. We're gonna help create an environment in which they can connect, build trust, and then start to understand each other's strengths, superpowers, and kryptonite areas for growth.

Right? So that they can then, when they're in the heat of the moment of whatever they're tackling, they know how to maneuver. They know who to use, who to step forward, who to step to the side, who steps back. And they're able to overcome.

And the bottom line is ⁓ word synergy. Right? The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Thank you, Ari Stottle for that one.

⁓ Ari's a good buddy of mine. Christine Courtney: Harry, my friend Harry. Greg Shamie: The good Greek, I love the Greek, Ari, he's a great guy, Aristotle, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That to me is ⁓ of what we're trying to do here.

And you can get that whole working as one unit, then ⁓ it way beyond anything we can do individually. Right? And that's the definition of synergy is when that happens. And so, again, this sounds easy, but Here's number one, the leader, the leader needs to be able to communicate that this is a priority to the team.

That we are gonna take the time and invest. We are gonna take the time and invest in building this ensemble and challenging it in ways that are going to allow us to succeed no matter what comes into our path. Christine Courtney: Yeah, such a good point that you bring up because I do think that there is a of a bad assumption ⁓ a lot of leaders, but also a lot of team members ⁓ we all know how to do teamwork. We all know how to work as a team.

Let's just get right to the work. Let's just get right to the work. ⁓ when ⁓ see groups skip that, that to me when there is a big problem and there is such a desire and a fear that we're gonna, like, our brains are gonna fail us, that we forget to kind of open up our hearts first and that the rest will, and trust that the rest will follow. think that's a really good tip, Greg, because a lot of times you'll see leaders, if we're brought in, ⁓ see the leaders either pull back or not be a part of it, right?

They say, ⁓ I'll work on creating deck or I'll get back to my emails. ⁓ And no, no, no, ⁓ like is the most important time. ⁓ and so valuable for you to watch your team and watch all the dynamics as you have another facilitator in there doing that work so that you can step back and be a part of the team, which is so critical. I love that idea, so yeah.

Greg Shamie: And it's so right on what you're saying. I have a specific example too, where I just worked with a bunch of bankers ⁓ their CEO before the session began, got up. And the first thing he said to the whole team, again, I'm a guest that they brought in to do this workshop. And he gets up in front, everybody goes, take out a piece of paper.

Take out a piece of paper and a pen, I'm gonna give you a quiz. ⁓ Christine Courtney: Okay, great. Greg Shamie: So right away everyone's like, quiz, what, what? And like, but it's like this great energy, right?

And he's like, all right, we started our learning journey together earlier this year. Who was our first facilitator? What was the workshop? Who was our second facilitator?

What was the workshop? Who was our third facilitator? What was the workshop? And what is our facilitator's name today?

And what workshop is he doing? So it was fantastic, right? Like he got everybody basically in a fun way. Christine Courtney: Yeah, competing.

Greg Shamie: reflecting back on the learning journey and he's also prioritizing how important this time is ⁓ also that you know we're stepping out of the river of work to come and work on ourselves and that is you know that is very important to him as a leader to create that foundation and today we're to keep digging into that and uncovering as much as we can to continue building our strength as a team so To me, that's a perfect example of a leader who isn't afraid to get up.

And then he participated throughout the whole workshop. As one of the players, and he's taking notes, you were saying about everybody and what's coming up. Christine Courtney: Yeah, that's great. That's great.

so he could quiz them later. Greg Shamie: ⁓ it's that involvement, that engagement that then models to everybody, hey, this culture piece, this team dynamic piece, something we need to be working on all the time because the real world, we're going to be tested. And, you know, the data is going to ⁓ tell how we do. Christine Courtney: Yeah.

And he knows his team because they probably like that. There is a bit of a competition, right, in that of testing yourself, of testing against each other as well. So, cool. Great story.

So, let's talk about some tips today that people can do if you have a new team. And this is, we're not talking about building a team today over which is what we're usually talking about. ⁓ talking about if you've got a week, one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month max. What do you have to do to pull a team together in the workplace to accomplish something?

And these could be, maybe it's people that don't even know each other. Maybe it's people that maybe know each other, but you know, from afar or haven't really worked together or some have, some haven't. But what's one, besides, I love the first tip that if you're the leader, you are in there participating 100%. You are setting the tone, no phones, no laptops.

You know, we were recently working with a team and they said, looked at us and they said, do we need our laptops for this workshop? And we said, absolutely not. They said, everybody shut your laptops. sometimes it takes a strong leader voice to do that kind of thing.

⁓ Greg Shamie: Yeah, and that moment was so helpful actually when they all closed their computers and then suddenly we're all there. So that first tip is the communication about the importance of this. The second tip is then do you create this psychologically safe environment for people to step out of their comfort zone? And that is something I want to communicate all the time right away.

Okay, everybody we're... We're now going to be focusing on building this ensemble, building the connectivity between all these amazing players and all the skills you each bring into this space. And now we need to just commit and make it intentional about how we're going to step out of our comfort zone because that's when we start to build, when we step out of that comfort zone. So we break that fear zone, we enter the learning and the growth zone together, and then it starts to grow.

So that's the first thing, or the second thing. ⁓ Christine Courtney: Yeah. And if you ever see, just cause I want to dig in on how you do that, cause I think that term sometimes throws people off because so much of psychological safety built over time with how you behave, right? However, there are ways that you can build this quickly.

And I've seen, if you've seen Greg in action, you've seen him do it. ⁓ when he talks about outside of their comfort zone, it means you immediately do something silly, something that is if when when you mess up, because you will. you play Shammy Says, which is, if it sounds like Simon Says, it is, it is, don't tell Greg though. But Shammy says, or you play some sort of game that we played as kids, that everybody knows how to play, so quickly we go into our childlike state, and people are like, is this what we're doing at work?

But something about that brings us outside of our comfort zone. yet weirdly into our comfort zone because it's who we really are as children in play. He gets them up there, they play something, let's say it's Shammy Says, which is his version of Simon Says, right? So everybody's like a childlike state again.

When someone gets out, like remember Simon Says, know, touch your head and you don't say Shammy Says before you touch your head, you're out, right? So there's a little bit of shame that comes over people when they're the first one out or the second one out. And what he does to create that psychological safety really quickly is he starts giving huge love and applause to that person. Like, great, showing us exactly how it's done.

Awesome, everybody give him applause. And somehow it shifts that moment into going, okay, failure ⁓ safe here and And doesn't have to be a big deal and get out of your heads, people, because we're gonna keep playing. and they don't make a big deal about it, we move on and we laugh and we, everybody, then the next person that's out, not such a big deal. And you see them when they get out, stand on the sidelines, start watching other people and smiling and being a part of it, not sitting there like we did sometimes as kids going, I'm the worst ever, you know.

So I do think those are, when he says that, that's one thing he does is you have to do something silly, crazy, and go in with confidence. If you go in, going, guys, we're gonna play, I know it's silly that we're gonna play this game, but you gotta go in, like own it. You gotta own it big. Greg Shamie: and ⁓ know, we make the actual challenge, game challenging, exciting, and we ⁓ make it that it's competitive, right?

Because it's real, and you're wanting to challenge them. So it's not just basic, but it builds, it builds. So, and I love I love that piece where, ⁓ yes, we start create an environment where people can feel okay to experiment. to drop the ball to fail and still feel part of it and then their observations are just as important as their participation.

⁓ Christine Courtney: And you're watching. So what you're doing as a leader when you're watching this happen is you start to see parts of people's personalities, because I say this all the time, I believe the way people play is the way people work. it's not how they talk, but it's how they behave in those moments when they don't think they're being watched, ⁓ you really see, that's our team lead right there. Look how he handled when that person got out.

Or look how they chastised this person. Or look how... they pulled people in or look how they left or look how their brain works or look how they're super analytical or they're super competitive and you'll see parts of people to use in later teaming that you do that has to do with real so-called quote unquote real work. I think that it is not to be missed.

A lot of times people will just get caught up in the game and not sit back and watch how can I ⁓ about my folks ⁓ watching them play. and you will learn more than you'll ever see watching them work on a spreadsheet or on their computers. You will see nothing, because it's all internal. Greg Shamie: That's so good.

That's why we do challenges and we start easy and we get harder and harder and harder and harder. The goal is to, like if we were a basketball team, create an environment that is so difficult in practice that when you get into the game time it's easy. So just like a baseball player puts a donut on a bat before they come into the box, right, they're swinging the heavy bat, they take the donut off the heavy weight off the bat. and then suddenly they're up there and they can potentially hit a 98 mile an hour fastball now because the bat feels much lighter than it did when they were practicing.

So in our practice sessions we are slowly building in through safe. environments and scaffolding and building, we're building in challenges that are going to really the team go through things that are going to show them a lot of different elements about ⁓ they or react to things in the moment. Even before that though, getting participants, getting team members' voices in the space is a really important part of the... the safety piece and getting people involved.

So even like for back to my example with the CEO the other day when he was giving the quiz, he was still asking questions to them and then he would get them to respond. Somebody answer the first question. Okay, great. Thank you, Michael.

getting their voice in the space. So it's not just a talking head, right? We're not just a talking head up in the front. We're actually facilitating, making it easy for your team members.

to share their perspectives, their thoughts, again, because our thoughts as a whole are way stronger than my thoughts alone. Christine Courtney: Yeah, in that getting voices in the room, I think it is important first day for the leader to give a few minutes in the beginning to set people's mind at ease as why we're here, what are the norms, what are we doing, why is this important? So setting purpose expectations first then right away, as Greg said, getting their voices in the room.

So that can be going around and ⁓ them. their name, their role, because they're gonna be looking around going, what is my role, where do I fit in? So if they can easily, quickly, clearly define their roles, that helps their brains relax and go, okay, now I know where I fit in. Then you ask a question, and I love this question when we see it start to really transform folks, is you ask a question like, what's the best team you've ever been a part of?

And what made that team so great? and then you give them examples because they're gonna be worried. Like, ⁓ what if I don't say it's my boss now? Or what if it's not the person that's in this room?

You say, I'm talking back to a little league team you were on, team you coached, ⁓ a choir that you were a part of, a church group that went on a mission. Whatever team means to you, what's the best team you've ever been a part of? ⁓ And you cannot think of one, because sometimes I've had people have a really visceral reaction because they've had such a bad team experience that you then say, or what's the absolute worst team you've been a part of and why? Because the importance is not the team.

Although you'll see people get emotional a little bit, right? When they talk about how excited they were on a team. But really what's important is you're writing, the words you're writing down as they're talking are the things that describe the qualities of that team. because that's what you're going for with your team.

And you start to see that people have the same qualities, regardless of the team, it's qualities around, trusted each other, we listened to each other, believed in each other, we amped other up, ⁓ we well. Whatever those, we had together, whatever those conversations are, those are the qualities that you're now putting up. basically a list of values that everybody kind of agrees with, right? And so that can be a really powerful start and also helps you when you start to have trouble with your team later, key into what is important to them and how can I get them back in place of this, right?

So that's my next tip. Greg Shamie: Yeah, really good. then building on that, think, is just getting to know people's strengths and for growth. And that's another question ⁓ that we like unpack in different ways.

around, again, when I think about it, when I think of being on amazing teams, I think about all the different skill sets that have come together. And ⁓ I can rely on Christine because I know she's going to deliver on X, Y, and Z. ⁓ And I bring this and I feel confidence bringing this to the team, right? And if we all feel that we're each bringing something special, a superpower to this team, then suddenly we feel valued.

If we feel valued, we start to engage. If we're engaged, we're gonna perform well. Christine Courtney: Yeah, we do an exercise called Ways We Work Best and we pull, we'll put up around the room big posters, right, of different prompts ⁓ we'll put on some music and people will move around from poster to poster and we, one of those is like ⁓ do we, Ways We Work Best and then ⁓ we hate, pet peeves, things that drive us crazy that could be on different posters ⁓ you start to see people just write down things, no names attached or whatever.

But then they start to talk about it afterwards. And in the facilitation, you get a supercharged, fast way to learn what does and does not work for people so that we can avoid the pitfalls. Because all of us want don't want to piss off our team members, right? So if we can see like, ⁓ this is a pet peeve of Greg's baby to get things last minute, then I can know like, ⁓ I got to keep that in mind.

The other thing you can do on those activities is you start to see communication styles. And so we'll will most of the time, if we can, have them do a pre-assessment before they get together, like working, the six types of working genius, or disc, or social styles, or something, so that we can give the analytical minds in the room, the discerning minds in the room, a moment to like, tag in to like, this is how I can understand this person a little better. This is a way in. And so it gives a fast way.

to know each other quickly because you only have a week or two. You don't have the years that a lot of teams have to each other. Greg Shamie: Yeah, it's really interesting and I guess the bottom line here as we're bringing this ⁓ to a close, the bottom line here is again prioritizing the importance of this culture building, this team building, of this ensemble building because giving them an opportunity to actually do all the things we're talking about so that when they do get back into the river, that they're ready to attack it differently as this whole versus these individual parts.

And when you do that, it's fascinating because we've seen it with clients where we've trained them and we've worked them in their presentations and so on and they go in there and they pitch for the job and then suddenly bam, they get the job. And we're like, yes, you guys really worked on it so hard and shared so much of yourselves and sweat, blood and tears in ⁓ trainings we did. And then you went in there and delivered and you ended up booking it, which is fantastic. So that's such a highlight for us ⁓ we do our work to support building these ⁓ ensembles, the trust, helping to build the trust, and then ⁓ seeing the that can come.

Christine Courtney: Yeah, it's great. And if you do get a chance, last tip of the day, and we'll close out, because it's so great to have you, Greg, and we'll do this topic, I think, again, because we're just scratching the surface. But I do think if you can create a quick, fun, multiple hopefully, ⁓ that them into a kind ⁓ work situation where they have to do something together, ⁓ build something figure out something together. You know, then they get template for how they're going to work together on projects that are more complex and more difficult ⁓ they can draw from.

⁓ so I think creating those activities or having facilitators like Greg come in ⁓ create those activities so that people will have an experience working together where it's fun, where it's safe, where the, not a. terrible if you fail, like you can learn from it in a safe way, so that when you go into the workplace, you can draw on those as experiences and common vocabulary and to enjoy together. So Greg Shamie: I want to add two things to that. One is ⁓ what in those groups, which is the strategizing together.

When they strategize together, that very much replicates what happens in the workplace. And then ⁓ the or the processing of what happened, why didn't that work, what could we have done differently. Again, the key to continual improvement is this debriefing and this breaking down or deconstructing. ⁓ what happens so that we can construct better the next time.

Christine Courtney: love it. Alright guys, go out there, take the time, take some time to put into building the teamwork will pay off in multiple ways and it'll be fun. Thanks, Greg Shamie: Thanks so much, Christine. What a pleasure.

to you all hopefully again soon. Christine Courtney: Okay, bye.