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Dream Team This week's trek is inspired by Suzanne Johnson Vickberg and Kim Christfort's work on building good team chemistry. Are there days when you feel like the last thing your team would ever do is hug it out? Every team has ups and downs but when chronic conflict plagues a team even the most basic tasks can be hard to accomplish. Vickberg and Christfort would argue that critical to building a high functioning team is the ability to tap into every working style, not just the most dominant. Introducing Your Dream Team Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to help you better understand the dynamics that might be making it hard to work well as a team. Why We Love It  We all have those moments when we wish we could make it easier to work as a team. This exercise helps you identify the most common working styles that are needed to realize your dream team. How It Works 1. Identify a group you are working with at the moment where you feel the dynamic could improve. This could be a group you are a part of for a project, a team that you are leading to accomplish a specific goal, or your direct reports.   2. Take a few minutes to review the characteristics of the four different working styles outlined below courtesy of HBR's New Science of Teamwork. Select the role(s) you tend to play most often with the group you identified in #1. Pioneers are risk-lovers who “value possibilities” and “spark energy and imagination on their teams.” They are comfortable with gut-based decisions, have a “big-picture focus,” and are “drawn to bold new ideas and creative approaches." Guardians are order-seekers who “value stability” and “hesitate to embrace risk.” They bring rigor and pragmatism to a team as “data and facts are baseline requirements for them, and details matter” as does “learn[ing] from the past.” Drivers are fierce competitors who “value challenge and generate momentum.” They are results oriented and place a premium on winning. They often “view issues as black-and-white and tackle problems head on, armed with logic and data.” Integrators are camaraderie builders who “value connection” and “believe that most things are relative.”  Since “relationships and responsibility to the group” are important to them, they tend to be “diplomatic and focused on gaining consensus.” 3. Now, consider the role each of the members of your group tend to play. Take a few minutes and think through the biggest areas where your team tends to get stuck or where tension arises. How might the different working styles at play account for some of these hiccups? Are there any working styles missing and how might that contribute to pain points along the way? 4. Finally, consider what you might be able to do to ease the dynamic. How can you help the group better understand the value of each working style? Given your own specific working style, how might you learn to be more open to the range of working styles in others? Source: HBR. Want to dig deeper into this topic? For an in-depth read on these four working styles and how to optimize for a healthy team dynamic, check this out from HBR. For 10 tips on how to build and manage a great team, read this from Inc. For an entrepreneurial take on how to build a strong team, check this out. Have a favorite trek?  Hit us up at treks@lifetrekkers.me and tell us which one you liked and what you learned! Here's what your fellow trekkers have to say about past treks: "The Tutu trek was one of my favorites. Bob Carey's story was really inspiring and the exercise motivated me to reflect on a number of things that I feel vulnerable about in life and the work place." - Alex Farivar, Product Manager @ Google Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

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Daily Lineup This week's trek is inspired by Robert C. Pozen's research on productivity and finding purpose at work. Feeling a bit bored with your workday? Pozen would argue that some of this might be due to a gap in what you ultimately want to achieve and your day-to-day activities. As a result, he recommends trying this quick exercise to find alignment between the two. Introducing Your Daily Lineup Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to see how your day-to-day activities can better support your big picture goals. Why We Love It  Work can feel like a drain when the things you are doing don't seem to align with the big picture. This exercise provides an opportunity to examine how you are spending your time so you can seek better alignment between your long-term goals and short-term tasks.  How It Works 1. Make a list of your top 5 career priorities for the next 6-12 months. These are big picture goals that matter to you and motivate you to get up in the morning. Consider things like getting a promotion, learning a new skill, or developing cross-functional relationships. 2. At the end of your workday, set aside 10 minutes to review your schedule from the day. Make two simple columns and write "activities" on the top left and "purpose" on the top right. Then, list out all of the activities from your day in the left column and describe the bigger purpose it aligns with in the right column. 3. Once you have listed out your activities from the day and their corresponding purpose, take 5 minutes to compare the right column against the top 5 career priorities you identified in #1. Note any areas where the right column does not support what you'd like to achieve in #1. 4. Finally, spend a few minutes thinking through areas where there is no alignment. If over 20% of your day is spent on things that don't line up with #1, select 1-2 items that you can delegate or make more efficient so you can free up more time for your top career priorities. Source: Fast Company. Want to dig deeper into this topic? For more tips and exercises from Pozen, check out his book. For a deeper dive on how to find more purpose in your work, read this from HBR. To learn about other factors that contribute to a lack of motivation at work aside from boredom, read this from Forbes. Have a favorite trek?  Hit us up at treks@lifetrekkers.me and tell us which one you liked and what you learned! Here's what your fellow trekkers have to say about past treks: "The creative recovery trek was one of my favorites. This exercise helped me push past my creative blocks. I love using it to clear my mind and reflect by rereading it at the end of the week." - Dama Dipayana, Founder Be Frank Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

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Setback Bounce Back This week's trek is inspired Kellogg Professor Neal J. Roese's research on the best ways to recover from setbacks.   You know that moment you realize something has gone totally wrong? Maybe your team shipped the wrong product, you missed an important deadline, or a product launch went off the rails. Setbacks happen a lot in business and, while it's tempting to head straight to the bar to decompress, there are more productive ways to deal with the stress.  Introducing Your Setback Bounce Back Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to help you recover from a setback in a productive way so you can identify key learnings for next time. Why We Love It  Setbacks force you to go into problem solving mode and fix whatever the issue at hand might be. Once the fires are put out another chain of events ensues - pointing fingers, ruminating over what went wrong, or beating yourself up. This exercise helps you channel your post-emergency energy into finding ways to avoid future mishaps. How It Works 1. After a setback occurs and the fires have been put out, set aside 20 minutes with your team to debrief. 2. When you come together as a group work through each of the following questions and capture your responses: -  Counterfactual Round 1: What path could I have taken in order to arrive at a better outcome? The key thing here is to focus on your individual actions (no finger pointing) and give each of your team members time to do the same. Then, take a few minutes and share out as a group. -  Counterfactual Round 2: What is another path I could have taken to arrive at a better outcome? Yes, we know this is repeating the same question from above, but there's an important reason. Roese argues that hindsight bias creates a tendency to "fixate on the first alternative scenario," which can lead to an oversimplification of why you failed. By forcing yourself to search for another set of solutions to a better outcome, you'll often arrive at something you otherwise wouldn't have considered. -  Semifactual Scenario: How could this different path we've identified resulted in the same outcome? In this stage it's often helpful to ask "Even if we had taken this different approach, would we really have arrived at a better outcome?"  -  Randomness Scenario: How could a better or worse outcome have resulted from the exact same process we followed? This step helps your team understand the randomness in outcomes. As much as we like to think we have control over things, it's always important to recognize that outside forces are often at play. -  Worse Outcome Scenario: What alternative path could we have taken that might have led to a worse outcome? This step helps you put things in perspective and understand that, even though you hit a setback, you did make some good choices along the way.  3. As a team, reflect on your responses to the above questions and consider how you might work differently next time to account for the learnings you've just identified. Have each person (yourself included!) take 2 minutes to identify one thing they will do differently next time to support a better outcome.  Source: HBR. Want to dig deeper into this topic? For the full article on Roese's approach to dealing with setbacks, read this from HBR. For a breakdown of the different types of obstacles we face, read this from FastCo. For a spirited TED talk about why organizations often fear failure, watch this video. Shout. It. Out. To Leslie Mulder for her exercise crafting skills!  Shout. It. Back. To treks@lifetrekkers.me and tell us which treks you've liked, what we can improve on, and what topics you'd like us to cover next. We're taking requests! Here's what your fellow trekkers have to say about past treks: "I didn't realize how much envy was sapping positive energy in my life. The Envy Advantage Trek offered a moment for powerful reflection that would have otherwise been unattended to." - Ian Manheimer, VP Strategy @ TCN Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.