Il Team Giusto

Our work takes place most of the time as a team. Indeed, we are part of different types of teams: project, functional, matrix, etc. While we were taking the executive coaching course during which we met, we began to relate these team experiences, as members and as a leader, when appropriate, with what we were learning. From there we began to collect all our previous educational experiences and what we had read. We realized that a summary would be useful first of all to us, and maybe also to other teammates. The name came easily: right (giusto) is the adjective that collects the effectiveness, precision, appropriateness, climate and motivation behind the existence of a team.

We met during a beautiful executive coaching course (we then both got certified) with the European School of Ontological Coaching. Of course, in full covid. Over the course of nearly two years we have studied both coaching and team coaching and have extensively reinterpreted and reread our previous experiences. Stefano started with the idea of making a manual that would collect all these arguments and we started working on it in 2020. We are among those who changed jobs during the covid and who were so touched by it that they decided to reinvent themselves. The book was born a little from this. It is the threshold that allows us to enter another phase of our life. By the way, we did everything remotely. See you for the first time in person today !!! What a surprise ...

We are not scientists and we have not invented anything. But we each have thirty years of experience and we have seen/read/lived dozens of theories and a lot of practice go by. We have literally collected all the points of view on teamwork that could boast a scientific foundation (psychological, neuroscientific, managerial) and shunned the solutions borrowed from worlds that have little to do with the company. We have taken particular care of the references and the bibliography to allow the reader to reconstruct our path and to make one of his own. Our ideal reader is a team leader or a teammate who wants to know more, who seeks tools and motivation to play his part with more satisfaction. He will find ideas and references, but above all the elements to get a 360-degree view of team life, from the moment of composition to that of full awareness.

First of all, we tried to condense several points of view, the psychological one, the neuroscientific one, the organizational one, the managerial one, the motivational one, etc. and to organize the book by small paragraphs that can be read without a fixed order, only by opening the book or according to specific needs. The chapters collect the topics according to macro-categories that identify the different moments of team life: from the study of the composition to the rules of coexistence and vision. We have added end-of-chapter summaries with key points and questions that can serve as an exercise. Reading our simple pages can trigger thematic discussions in the team, which is why we have added conversation points and very detailed bibliographies at the end of the chapter. We did not invent anything, we sought synthesis, combination and enhancement: like when composing a bouquet of flowers!

After a general framework (scientific, psychological and neuroscientific, within the limits of our practice ...) we wanted to focus on elements that are usually neglected such as the design and formation of a team, the choice of the reference framework, what it means to be a team today (and not just after covid), what it means to be a member of a team and not just the role of leadership. At the end of the book, leveraging our corporate experience and coaching enthusiasts, we gathered some insights into the collective awareness of the team and the role of vision and trust. All passing through theoretical suggestions and many practical indications. We would like the reader, in its simplicity, to take our book as a small manual.

The team is ‘giusto’ when it's made up of the right people for the right task. We have emphasized a lot the influence that the task has on the team because we believe that the team is a complex ecosystem from which the characteristics of collaboration emerge due to the interactions and interdependencies between its components, the external environment (the organization in which it is and the stakeholders who are interested in its output, and, last but not least, in the task it has to carry out. The team evolves, matures its processes and grasps, adapting itself, the emerging opportunities but must do so consciously. The emergence of the appropriate behaviors must be favored, the moments for action must be seized promptly, the composition of the team must be thought in relation to the output that is to be obtained in terms of quality, costs and timing of the goal achieved. highlight many KPIs and many criteria and, above all, we underline the importance of observing and listening to the phases of evolution and the signs of transformation. The right team is the team where members feel “in the right place”. It may seem naive, but we think it is a goal that every group can aspire to with the right knowledge of the logic underlying the dynamics and with adequate actions and commitment.

The key elements of the famous ‘fail fast fail cheap’ are listening, the cultivation of critical thinking, the possibility of making mistakes, the ability to recognize them as such and learn. Listening (which is more than observing) with ears and eyes means staying open and being quick to recognize change because it communicates effectively. Critical thinking, which does not become dissent or conflict, allows us to describe and objectify situations and therefore to identify errors, without transforming them into failures. Each new problem can be solved in a new challenge. And if we start from error to design change and adaptation, learning is born. Natural ecosystems do survive this way!

A beautiful book by Paul Zak tells us how the oxytocin secreted by the brain enables us to feel pleasure in the relationship with the other, and it is in fact what is called the molecule of trust. Neurological studies show us how people who live in environments where trust is cultivated shape their brains in this direction and are more used to deriving pleasure from relationships, to try to create situations of trust because their organism is led towards this neurochemical condition. In this sense the we (our trust) is part of the sense of the we. Be careful not to give in to the temptation of it's all a matter of chemistry. We are always the ones who make the last choice, even if perhaps chemistry offers us a quick solution.

Diversity means a stimulus to accept others, to open relationships, to question social equilibrium, to change points of reference. This is especially true in the context of a team, which gathers a limited number of individuals around a purpose. Diversity also means danger of faultlines along the lines of the common elements of subgroups or transversal communities. Become an asset when the team climate allows psychological security. And this generates inclusion, which is the true value that triggers innovation and collaboration.

It is normal in a context, that of business, in which it is thought that it is the individual who makes the difference, it never happens to hire a team! This is why we have tried to transpose the leadership categories, which we have briefly described, to the level of the team collective. For example, by transposing, with the help of research and specific skills far superior to ours, the concept of awareness and emotional intelligence at the team level. These are very different approaches; a banal metaphor is that of the difference between a solo performer and an ensemble performance. The rhythm, the harmony, the balance of the voices come into play. When the performers can't do it alone, or there are too many, a choir or orchestra conductor is needed. The collective stands if there are common rules, if it is able to manage emotions, if it knows how to treasure everyone's skills and knowledge, etc. Our booklet serves to focus on these aspects! There is nothing improvised, you can study and design every aspect so that the team can adapt and evolve.

Remembering that a fundamental element of teamwork success is collaboration. In the book we indicate the collaboration between those elements of behavior that emerge from the team's action during the development of the task. Collaboration arises from interdependent and interpersonal relationships and is closely linked to verbal, para-verbal and bodily communication. I imagine that the question is directed to the topic of remote work, and therefore to the 'dematerialization' of the personal relationship. Here, the theme is precisely this: to ensure that communication takes place by remembering that some natural channels are lost and it is necessary to take them into account. We must strengthen our ability to communicate through virtual channels that are both video calls and telephone calls, but also pay particular attention to our style of writing, the liturgy with which we organize meetings, etc. In the book we try to highlight these aspects and we will do it even more in the webinars that we will talk about shortly.

(New book preview) Not everything we know will be included in our book. This is an important task that needs attention and more than a medium. This is why our second book will report what we failed to put into the first, including interventions, ideas, stories and experiences. If you are interested in improving and are motivated by the perspective of teamwork and the study related to it, this is the right space for you. We invite you to share your stories with us also thanks to the q & a tools or by contacting us. Each anecdote or experience will be an important starting point for one's own training and that of others and to advance in our research to really create The Right Team! Il Team Giusto!