I believe the most effective type of team is a “Human Team.”
These teams accept their members for their individual strengths and struggles. They want the entire human to show up, not just the tip of the iceberg. These teams are about helping each other, and the collective "us," find our potential. If you are on one of these teams, you feel it. It’s different, and you show up and do the best work of your life because you don’t want to let your teammates down.
Recently, I read a passage in the book 12 Second Culture. Mike Metcalf and Shaun Peet are NASCAR pit crew coaches. In their book, they do a much better job of describing a human team than I can. Here it is:
"As a leader, you can cultivate either an integrated or a compartmentalized culture. An integrated culture incorporates every aspect of those you are leading—their unique personalities, their personal lives, and their needs. It integrates their spirit and soul, their heart and mind, their loved ones, and their deep passions. It is essentially seeing someone for the fullness of who they are. This fullness always extends far beyond the workplace.
A compartmentalized culture, on the other hand, treats those you are leading as robots—bodies for labor and ends to a means in the binary tunnel of achieving or underachieving. Compartmentalization creates a certain unawareness about people's situations and deeper needs. It satisfies the fundamental needs of shelter, food, and clothing through compensation but falls short of addressing the higher needs of authenticity, belonging, development, and fulfillment. It forces employees to create boundaries between themselves, leadership, and daily objectives: to suppress who they are and to view the workplace as nothing more than a place to subsidize a life they wish they could spend more time in.
Could it be possible that empathy—elevating the humanity of every person and, therefore, their personal sufferings—taps into who we each innately are, cultivates togetherness, multiplies a deep sense of meaning on your team, integrates the personal with the professional, and ultimately inspires a more positive and efficient culture?" (Mike Metcalf & Shaun Peet, 12 Second Culture)
I’ve been lucky over my life to be a member of a few teams that I would call Human. None of them perfect, and that makes sense. But all of them have cared enough about me to help me make progress on finding my potential.
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Hope you’re good.
Take care, bye.
-Kelly
The Power of Human Teams