There are many approaches to working with teams. One is to focus on the team’s positive history, principles and future. This approach borrows a lot from Appreciative Inquiry. (See link below.) It is one that I have found to be extremely effective. Let’s explore how it works in practice.

Appreciative Inquiry

1) You can focus on the team’s positive history.

Imagine you are facilitating a team session. The leader has given you the following background:

“The team has been through a tough time over the past three years. Our company was obviously hit by the recession, but the team was already in trouble. We are supposed to create pioneering technology that helps customers to build a successful future, but we took our eyes off the ball.”

“The team has also had three different leaders over this time, with me being the third. Without going into great detail, the two previous leaders experienced difficulties. The first let the ‘old hands’ in the team do their own thing, rather than align their talents to achieving the company’s goals. The second was a micro-manager who failed to deliver the goods. I have been given a clear brief and mandate to revitalise the team. The team still has a core of around 20 good people who want to make it succeed.”

“During the past six months I have taken the following steps. First, clarified the goals with our bosses. Second, communicated these overall goals to our team. Third, recruited three committed people and moved on four who refused to change their attitude. The team members feel bruised, however, and need to regain their belief. So we would like the workshop to focus on how we can build on our strengths and shape a successful future.”

There are many routes you can take to making this happen. Let’s imagine, however, that you choose to help the team to find and follow its positive principles. Starting the workshop, the leader outlines the goals and your role. You begin by describing the approach you will take with the team. Based on the strengths philosophy, it will focus on how they can continue to do superb work and deliver success.

Positioning the first exercise, you invite each person to recall a time when the team performed brilliantly. If individuals are new to the team, they can describe a time when they were in a team that did great work. Each person is to write the specific example on a Flip Chart. (They can, of course, describe more than one example.) Invite people to form small groups and describe their stories. They are then to put their Flip Charts around the room.

2) You can focus on the principles the team followed to perform brilliantly during its positive history.

Looking around the room, there will be many examples of when the team has performed brilliantly. People will already have discussed some of the actions they or others took to do great work, but now it can be useful to study these in more depth. Consult with the leader regarding which examples it would be useful to explore. (It is good if the stories chosen – or the key principles that may emerge – are similar to the kinds of work the team must do to succeed in the future.)

Imagine that the leader settles on two examples. Invite the individual team members to choose which group they want to go in to explore the story in depth. You can then outline the following exercise.

“Looking at your particular example, we would like you to do several things.

a) To describe what people did right – the specific principles they followed – to deliver success.

“For example, they may have connected with their customers; clarified the customer’s challenge; worked alongside them to set a clear goal; identified the benefits; got back to the customer with a proposal; made clear working contracts; produced a quick success; continued to keep reassuring the customer; used the strengths in the team; got instant feedback whether something was or was not working; recovered from a setback with the customer; delivered something exceptional; added a touch of class; got further business from the customer or whatever.

b) To describe the specific things people did to translate these principles into practice.

“Try to be as specific as possible. If the team held meetings, for example, describe how they conducted these meetings. They may have held long meetings at the beginning, for instance, but then moved to having shorter meetings. If so, how did people behave in such meetings? They may have prepared beforehand, set a clear agenda, focused on the key strategies, pooled their ideas to overcome challenges or whatever. Looking at the various principles you have highlighted, how did people actually behave to translate these into practice?”

c) To return and present Flip Charts that describe the principles people followed and how they put these into practice to achieve success.

“Be as specific as possible. We will later focus on how you can follow similar principles – plus add other things – to do great work in the future. Over to you.”

Give people an hour to do this part of the exercise and then present their findings. The discussion around the principles and practice may take another half hour or so. Then move on to the next stage.

3) You can focus on how the team can follow these principles to shape a positive future.

Time to move forward. Bearing in mind what has worked for the team in the past, invite people to do three things: a) To clarify the key principles they would like to follow in the future; b) To clarify the specific things they can do to translate these into action; c) To how they can make these principles the compass for the shaping future. Over the years I have found that this approach works. Why?

* People are building on their strengths.

People are invited to build on their ‘As’ and manage the consequences of their ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’. But they need to follow the path taken by creative people who make a living doing what they love, rather than go bankrupt. Such people build on their strengths, find sponsors – people who will hire them for what they do best – and deliver success.

* People are building on their successful patterns and growing from within.

People are invited to build on what works. They are asked to ‘develop’, rather than ‘change’. The approach is organic, rather than oppressive. They have already followed the successful principles at some point in their careers. So they will be doing things they believe in, rather than being ‘changed’ by somebody else. People are therefore more likely to revert to these behaviours – and make these their ‘default - even when under pressure.

* People are building on strengths and successful patterns – but the ways they express these may be different to shape a successful future.

For example, ‘providing superb service’ is an eternal principle for doing great work. But people practice this differently in 2010 compared to in 2000. Great performers stay true to their strengths and successful patterns. But they have the ‘savvy’ to express these in ways that enable themselves and their customers to achieve ongoing success.

Bearing these ideas in mind, you may introduce the final part by giving the following instructions.

“Looking at what has worked in the past, decide on the key principles you want to follow the future. After settling on these principles, describe the specific things you can do to translate each one into practice. Finally, describe the specific things you can do to continue following these in the future. For example, you may want to appoint a co-ordinator who brings the team back to this common compass.”

If appropriate, you can facilitate this process and help the team to complete the following exercise.

There are many ways to build a great team. One approach is to learn from the team’s positive history. People can then find and follow the key principles to shape a positive future.

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