Overview
In this episode we will look at:
o How feedback loops play a role in office culture
o Importance of warming up with a new team
o Forming a relationship with your team to balance task and process during deadlines
o How emotional intelligence plays a role in group dynamics
You will come away with thought provoking questions to prompt you to consider office dynamics and how you show up within design teams. At the end we will share simple yet effective exercises you can implement to support you as you work with teams.
SHOW SUMMARY
In the office flow:
It takes about a year to feel integrated into a new firm’s culture because throughout ones first year you are adjusting to the culture norms of the office.
Consider. How long you have been at your firm and how long it took for you to feel like you were in the flow?
Systems Thinking: Feedback Loops
To give you a little context a feedback loop is a cause and effect cycle. Where each separate (perceived part) effects the other parts of a system creating a closed loop interaction. Such as with office culture. Each firm has their own flavor or culture and that flavor is often originally set by the founders of the firm or leadership team. However, I believe the firms culture shifts as new employees are hired and the firm grows.
Hiring managers often hire for curtain characteristic to make sure the new designer fits into the dynamics of the office. This is where the feedback loop occurs. The new employee originally tries to confirm to the firms set culture. If they have a heightened emotional intelligence they might be looking for subtle clues from co-works about how the office behaves. All the while potentially influencing the office culture and infusing new office norms. This is where I believe the feedback loop happens. The other employees begin to ever so subtly adjust to meet the new employee. Thus creating a feedback loop where each team member observes, and adjusts to create a successful working relationship.
In contrast, Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline calls this “the 7 learning disabilities.” In essence he emphasizes we often find organizations or ones in organizations that are delusional to learning from experience.
Know that each office has a different culture that you will not only need to learn but also be subtly influencing is important to keep in the forefront of your mind.
Consider. What is your firm culture? How does that culture relate to the last firm you worked at?
Warm Up Time
· Provide time (or be sensitive) to get to know your office culture
· Notice what dynamics are already established
· Be cognitive and aware of what relationships are already formed before you join the group
Importance of Balancing Task with Process
It is important to balance the task and process of a firm to be fully integrated and functional. The task being the actual design work. The process is how you get there and how you act or perform along the way. What if each time a new team member joined a group the team slowed down to integrate the new team member? This is called going slow to go fast. Where the team slows down to nurture the process of how you will engage and interact.
Consider. How do does your firm balance task and process?
Key to Collaboration: Form a relationship
The root of integrating a team is forming a relationship and relationship that is built on trust and confidence that you know when to ebb and flow with your colleagues. This dynamic has to be built over time. It takes time to develop a trust in someone. It also takes time to learn how you can dance with them. When to step up and when to step back.
In the Paradox of group life Smith and Berg state, “The use of opposing forces to deepen understanding does however, require a relationship strong enough to tolerate the strain.”
Consider. When do you find that your groups process begins to be tested? How is the team operating? What is working? What could be done differently?
Importance of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is “capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success” according to the Oxford Dictionary.
To be a design professional requires us to rise up out of our self. To diplomatically work within a collaborative environment. To ethically advocate for the best project and make recommendations that sometimes do not want to be heard but you do it in a way that is receivable because you are emotionally aware of how your tone and body language can come off.
As Lebaron states in Bridging Cultural Conflicts, “Emotional intelligence’s is the capacity to know and manage our own feelings and also to read and effectively deal with others’ feeling.”
Consider. What is your relational style and what are your team members?
Pros to Knowing Behavioral Styles
1. Self-awareness
2. Self regulations
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills
Exercise 1: Creating Group Operational Rules
A key component by knowing your personality is to elevate your awareness for how you show up by using the knowledge as a tool to leverage your interactions with co-workers. This includes, bosses, peers, mentors, consultants, contractors and the list goes on. In an ideal scenario teams are built before they are asked to perform . One way to begin a new group engagement is to develop rules for engagement that outline how people like to operate and deliver on a project. Creating operational rules allows the team to develop the process before they dive into the tasks at hand.
Consider. What is one thing that worked and did not work in a past group setting?
Exercise 2: Going on the balcony
The second helpful exercise I like to do is when you are in a meeting with a team (it could be an internal office meeting or a client meeting or a consultant meeting). If you find you are talking a lot during the meeting challenge yourself to go on the balcony by consciously forcing yourself to listen more than speak. The beauty of this exercise is by listening you can gain a stronger sense of what wants to happen on the project and build on the teams’ ideas. Challenging yourself to observe by actively listening is a powerful tool that can allow you to gain a lot of insight into the bigger picture.
Consider. What might you hear if you listened more than spoke?
Exercise 3: Other side of the fence journal
Lastly my final exercise for this week that I find helpful is to challenge yourself to think about the other side of the fence. At first it might be easier to reflect on a colleague interaction after the fact (and maybe this is best done at home to let your mind wind down). Write out the situation from your perspective. Secondly write out how it made you feel. Then challenge yourself to write 3-5 potential perspectives your team members might have had about the same situation. This exercise allows you to see the other side of the fence and build more empathy and grace towards your colleagues. Could it be there was an additional reason why your colleague acted the way they did? Maybe they had additional history or knowledge with a client that you are unaware of? Maybe they are simply having a bad day or not feeling well or are rushed.
Consider. How could your co-works have perceived the situation? Could it be that their perception was different than yours?
Resources
1. Myers-Briggs https://www.mbtionline.com/TaketheMBTI
2. DISC by William Moulton Marston https://discpersonalitytesting.com/blog/what-are-the-four-disc-types/
3. Four tenancies by Grethchen Rubin where she explores the four behavioral tendencies that are upholder, questioner, obligor, rebel. https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/
Wrap up:
o Take a personality quiz
o Get to know how you show up in groups
o Go slow to go fast by balancing task and process especially during deadlines
o Form working relationships with your coworkers to understand how they like to operate and how your personality can complement them
o Go on the balcony and to listen more than speak
o Consider the other side of the fence because it takes two to tango
If have any thoughts, insights, what has worked and not worked in your office dynamics I would love to hear from you by emailing elizabeth@milelongtrace.com.
I hope you will subscribe and join me on this journey where I will share war stories, we will laugh, hmmmmm maybe cry, pull ourselves up and elevate your interior design practice.
Keep designing yall!
References
Bridging Cultural Conflicts: A new approach for a changing world by Michelle LeBaron, 2003.
Paradox of Group Life: Understanding Conflict, Paralysis and Movement in Group Dynamics by Kenwyn K Smith and David N Berg, 1987/1997
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge 2006.
Credit
Branding & Graphic Design work by Andrea Schwoebel https://www.andreaschwoebel.com/
Cover Art photo by https://unsplash.com/photos/0K7GgiA8lVE
“To be a design professional requires us to rise up out of our self. To diplomatically work within a collaborative environment. To ethically advocate for the best project and make recommendations that sometimes do not want to be heard but you do it in a way that is receivable because you are emotionally aware of how your tone and body language can come off.”
- Elizabeth