Leading high-trust remote teams
S4 September 14, 2023
Defaults, conflict, and solving problems.
Jesse McGinnis
Ground rules
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Today
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What spaces have you made?
I’d love to hear your experiences! Get ready to share something:
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asked last sesh
Peer �problems.
#4
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The why
Our breakouts are always more than they seem: the deeper lessons to be gained.
A framework for better coaching.
We’re using a specific “operating technique” in how we have our conversations today that fits exceptionally well with peer groups, building off the last two sessions.
The base premise is never give feedback. Feedback is boring, biased, and often clouded by our assumptions. Instead we approach the conversation in two distinct phases:
Breakout
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The why
The how
Let’s go
The what
The what
The specific activity we’ll engage: always independently useful in-and-of-itself.
Help a peer solve a problem
We’re going to break into groups to practice good peer groups, centered on how we build deep trust (you did the “homework” right 😉).
We will leverage each other's distance from our own space to gain new insights, different ways to look at the problems, and expand our tool chests.
Breakout
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The what
The how
Let’s go
The why
The how
How we get the most out of our time: structured to drive the right practice.
We have 15 mins with groups of 4–5
Pitch. Everyone spends 30s to “pitch” their biggest challenge with trust building. No questions yet. Read this like a script:
Pick. The group votes and selects 1 person to dig deep with. Selected person restates the script above.
Prod. The final 10 minutes are broken into two distinct phases: Asking clarifying questions and Sharing lived experiences.
Breakout
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The how
The what
Let’s go
The why
*WHAT Help a peer solve a problem.
Ask clarifying questions. Drive understanding with questions.
Share lived experiences. Expand horizons with grounded, real-lived experiences.
A framework for better coaching�No advice! Ask clarifying questions and share lived experiences.
*HOW 15 mins with groups of 4–5.
Pitch, pick, and prod.
Everyone shares a 30s structured pitch:
Pick 1 person. 5 mins asking questions. 5 mins sharing experiences.
*NORMS How we have great conversations.
Practice our ground rules:
Likewise, do what makes sense for your group. Guidance is a default.
Breakout
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Let’s go
The what
The how
The why
Share a 1-sentence summary of next steps.
For those who got to go deep, let’s hear your committed next step.
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Default practices.
#1
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Making spaces
As we talked through last time, the spaces you make can help drive and shape how and where people show up. And this naturally transitions to…
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Default practises
Default practices are the norms or 'defaults' that guide everyday team interactions.
This includes and spans practises across so many spaces:
These defaults play a significant role in shaping team dynamics and culture. Let’s dive in.
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Working
Working norms refer to the default practices related to the execution of work.
These norms shape how the team collaboratively achieves their goals and can significantly impact productivity, learning, and trust.
Think about the impacts around default decisions here. Are you empowering your teams? Or are you restricting them? How much ownership are you instilling vs “toss over the wall”? What systems do you have to be nimble while still having confidence? Pairing, code review, deploy strategies and frequency, system design approaches, and various flavours of approval all impact this.
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Default practises
Planning
Planning norms guide how a team organises and plans their work
These practices can influence the team's flexibility, alignment, and ability to adapt to changes.
Think about the impacts around default decisions here. Do you have a rigid operating model or an adaptive one? Do teams have a say in their future? How? Is there good exposure to leadership? Which levels? How often? How you operate (Agile or otherwise) and rigidly, how you plan and engage with your teams and the organization, and the ways different levels of leaders are present (or not!) will be hugely influential.
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Default practises
Culture
Cultural norms represent the unwritten rules and expectations that shape team behaviours and interactions.
These norms can significantly influence the team's working culture, environment, and overall team dynamics.
Think about the impacts around default decisions here. Are you humanizing each other or distancing each other? How candid can people be? How aware are people to make smart decisions? Is your world dynamic or fixed? Who can influence or change things? Rules of engagement, openness across the organization (or even just the team!), flexibility and adaptability, communication venues and styles, and more will all drive answers here.
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Default practises
Default practises
There’s a lot in the space of defaults (far more than we could cover in our limited time). You likely don’t have control over most of this, but you should think about it.
What are the defaults, how are they helping you and how are they hindering you? Which ones can you diverge from with your local context to drive better outcomes? Which ones are you establishing and are you happy with and confident about its impact?
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Healthy �conflict.
#2
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Healthy Conflict
With a baseline of trust, facilitation, spaces, and defaults: we can now talk about good and healthy conflict. Healthy conflict is essential for innovation, improved decision-making, and stronger team bonds.
It involves open and respectful disagreements that lead to better solutions and deeper understanding.
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Healthy Conflict
More concretely, the benefits include:
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Innovation
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Healthy conflict
Decision Making
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Healthy conflict
Trust
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Healthy conflict
Problem pairing.
#3
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Evolve & elevate pairing ⇒
Problem pairing.
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Pair on concepts to model good conflict.
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Bring the right people, together, to solve the right problems.
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Bring the right people, together, to solve the right problems.
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Organization trust and
Humanization.
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01
02
03
04
Problem pairing
Wide (wide!) reaching trust-building.
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01 Humanize
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03
04
Problem pairing
Widely and rapidly
Break walls.
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01 Humanize
02
03
04
Problem pairing
Space to break boundaries.
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01 Humanize
02 Break walls
03
04
Problem pairing
Discover rapid and impactful
Tradeoffs.
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01 Humanize
02 Break walls
03
04
Problem pairing
Better answers in better ways benefitting more people.
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01 Humanize
02 Break walls
03 Find tradeoffs
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Problem pairing
Accelerate and drive culture as a
Role model.
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01 Humanize
02 Break walls
03 Find tradeoffs
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Problem pairing
How you show up sets the stage.
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01 Humanize
02 Break walls
03 Find tradeoffs
04 Role model
Problem pairing
Better tradeoffs, better conversations, better trust.
Faster.
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Problem pairing, in practice.
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How do you bring good conflict into your teams?
Problem pairing, in practice. But reflect on:
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Breakout & share
Let’s share our experiences with healthy conflict:
15 mins
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Reflection
Did you notice any trends between bad conflicts? Between good conflicts?
What kinds of good conflict have you experienced?
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Lookback.
#4
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firm belief in the
reliability of truth or
proven ability of
someone or
something .
what is T·R·U·S·T
real experiments
=> performance
consistently �authentic
leadership
layer 01 Have fun.
layer 02 Real conversations.
layer 03 Full stories.
Forge relationships that outlive your leadership.
facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate facilitate
always drive
your default
spaces
to create stronger
owners
pair on concepts.
have more good fights.
fin.
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