More diverse teams perform better, and so I think we have to get very curios about what that actually means in the context of our working together and our organizations. Not just in our teams, but our subteams. Do we have the right kind of diversity? Are all part of the process in a way that helps inform we who are, but also who are we becoming as a team and an organization. And if we know that kind of research appears out that again, we will perform better when there is more diversity among us. How do we align our values, and our actions, and our practices. Maybe even our processes, to really tap into the best of who we are at the individual level. How do we create space to draw that out? How do we get very curious about what it means to be different? How to leverage all of that. And then more importantly, how do we create those safe spaces in teams, for us to surface the things that we find challenging, and that we wrestle with, with respect to bias and inclusion. And find a mechanism to hopefully surface those undiscussables, in a way that is non-judgemental, allows us to realize that it's just a part of the human condition. But it's really good data for us to drawn from and leverage to be better together. The environment that the team creates is going to be critical to the team's success. I think you find in the context of working with a team, there are various thoughts, perspectives, experiences that inform how people show up. And I think if we aren't careful to create space for people to show up as their best selves, as their most authentic selves, we can really miss out on I think key data points that really help us leverage everyone's experience toward the outcome and the goal. So I like to think about composition and encourage teams to think, so who's on the team? Why? Who's not on the team, and why? And what are the voices that are represented or not represented. And to what extent might that have an impact on our overall performance? What are we trying to achieve and how does that align with what the organization says it values? And if we are to surface our own values, how do we ensure that what we actually say we value, the team reflects that? Another point to build on is how do we create an environment that is safe for each of us to be open and honest, and transparent? So sometimes I use the language of, how do we create an environment that helps us surface the undiscussables? So if I'm having an experience that is quite personal to me in the context of this working group, will there be enough safety in the team for me to talk about that? Will my colleagues or my counterparts help me kind of draw out what is happening for me real time? Will I feel comfortable and confident enough to do that for others? And so, how do we create space to have difficult conversations in the context of our working together? Where those things could actually be really great data points toward the path of change, or performance, or whatever the case maybe? As a facilitator of teams and team development, we'd always start with something called ground rules, just basic. And we would shape the ground rules that really do together, help us create the boundaries that are safe, and explorable, and hold ourselves accountable. And essentially I try to contract with the team to say, if I see us stepping outside of those boundaries, do I have the permission and the authority to highlight what I'm observing? So that's one thing. The second, I would say, is ensuring that we have a language to use around, again those discussables. Give an example, a recent delivery with a team. We talked about, to what extent we value candor and frankness, and how we want to work with that. And so I was able to push the group a bit to say okay, I've heard you say multiple times that we value candor and being frank. How do we create those opportunities to do that? And how do you draw that out of your colleagues? How do you ensure that they feel safe enough to do that? So we can engage in healthy discussion without fear of judgement or retribution. So we can actually, again, live the thing that we say we actually value, in the context of our work together.
