Teams that successfully drive quality and safety outcomes depend on every team member to “choose” to follow and collaborate with others. This session focuses on understanding the intrapersonal factors that promote team members giving their best, and actions leaders can take to promote followership and engagement.
Well, I am delighted to be here this morning. Uh It's a great honor and privilege to be uh with so many of you. And today we're gonna focus on maximizing your contributions to your team's success, uh specifically putting the I in team. Uh I have no financial disclosures or conflicts of interest. So right out of the gates, we're gonna start with, you know, most of you have heard there is no I in team. So uh I'm already suspect either A I can't spell and uh you're seeing that now very clearly or b I have a alternative view of uh the concept of team and spelling. So, here's my deal with this group. Uh At the end of this, what I hope I have accomplished is both figuratively and literally, you will see the I in team. So that's my challenge. And I hope at the end of this, that I've convinced you that without a doubt, there is an iron team. So let's uh go ahead and jump in first defining. So what exactly is a team you might be going Russel? Come on, this is pretty straightforward, but I want your help. We're gonna go to our first poll question. So what does it mean to be a team specifically type in a quality or characteristic of uh what is typical within a team? An example, being a common goal or a coordinated communication. But what else is characteristic of a team Ryan taken over? All right. So go ahead and uh we're gonna take this 15 more seconds and then we're gonna look at your results. It looks like folks are adding him in. Terrific. Thank you. All right. five more seconds, type quick, type quick. All right, here we go. And our results. Hopefully you can see him. There. You guys have done a beautiful job of uh sharing uh many ideas of what it takes to be a team and I really appreciate your efforts to, to go ahead and jump in. So now let's, let's uh um let's go ahead and move forward, uh with regards to a few of the qualities and characteristics that you identified. So team members typically have a shared set of goals. Uh Teams often are two or more people. They have a designated leader, set of rules, you know, values expectations from one another. They oftentimes have uh um uh what we learned from uh Doctor Tutman earlier today, teams as they work to become high performing, they have results at a dashboard and so, and occasionally they compete against each other. So that's one aspect of teaming. Now, let's get into a little bit more of why the teams exist at the end of the day. It's typically because uh one person feels like a, they can't get accomplished quick enough or b they need the diversity of thought and skills to achieve a higher outcome or a bigger picture. And with that in mind, uh there's, there's uh two or more people are working towards a common goal. Now, for many folks on uh today's session, we know that you're part of a team, you're actually part of many teams. Some of those teams are pulled together to provide a service or uh uh a function. So for example, you're part of a clinical team, but you can also be pulled together for projects when we think about how do you get onto a team? Uh Sometimes you're literally hired onto a team, it's your job. Other times you're selected uh by a leader to serve in a capacity. Uh And then uh there are teams though that form around common passions and interests. And then lastly, most team structures, they have uh a leader and then team members, sometimes teams though are, are really just peer based and an informal leader may emerge or it may be shared responsibilities. But for today, let's ground on um we're talking about teams that you serve on that you're, you're selected onto and that they have a formal leader as well as other team members. So that's, that's what we're using as today's definition of team. So, all right, let's go with, where is the I in team? If you could take a moment again in our poll and type in a quality or characteristics that describe uh uh your best experience on a team. So, uh so what is it that happened on that team that made it a great experience? Uh It could be, for example, the leader sought your impressions or uh involvement. It may have been a recognition or just working with a group of people who were equally committed. So let's take a few moments to pull that in and please share your results. We are just surpassing the 30 mark and they are rolling in. Thank you. This is great. We've got about 15 seconds more. We surpassed 100 way to go. Great. We're just about to share those results. Let's see if we can get to 200 here in five seconds. 543, 21 oh, right there, right there. Way to go. Thank you. So let's look at what those results. Uh um uh what those results uh share the bottom line is. There's a number a myriad of ways uh that uh people have experienced both what leaders have done as well as team members and in that spirit, in that spirit, I want you to have a moment uh and go back in time. Uh And, and think about a team that you may have been invited. So for some of you, I'm sorry if this is a little bit traumatic, uh this image think of this as the uh elementary school uh uh pe class where you're picking teams in this case for soccer. And uh what really jumps out about becoming part of a team is that oftentimes you're chosen to be part of that team. So someone is intentionally asking you to come and join a team and, and so what really stands out about Steam is you're asked to be involved in it. And, and so that's where it starts, but there's still not an eye yet. And I wanna to ground the eye in a common observation. You see these three athletes here, they all have something in common whether for Kevin Durant, Cristiano Ronaldo and Becker Mayfield. So let's think about what they have in common. Is it a they play a sport at the most competitive level? Now, for those of you on the call, who may not be familiar with all of these? Yes, they are all at the top of their game. B they are ridiculously compensated. See all three of them, all three of them chose on a team that they were not only uh invited to but paid to be on, they chose not to play for those teams and asked to be traded. And so the reality is all, all three of these characteristics are typical, are, are common uh for these athletes and it's that last one even though they were on the team, they chose not to be on, they raised their hand and said, I wanna go somewhere else. I don't want to be here. This really defines the eye part of team and in particular, the eye is grounded. The first and fundamental part of this eye is you have a choice on every team that you serve. You get to choose not just once, not the first day you're on it, but literally every day and many times throughout the day that you're serving on that team, if you want to be part of that team. And so that's where we start with grounding ourselves in the I M team. It's really, I choose the extent to which I am uh, involved with, engaged with in advancing this team's work. Some of you may be familiar with Vince Lombardi. Uh, he was, uh, uh one of the great coaches in football and actually the, the Super Bowl, the trophy that teams win, uh, is named after him. I, I love this quote of his, that individual commitment to a group effort. That's what makes a teamwork, a company, work, society and civilization. I go back to that first two words, individual, commitment, choice, choice. That's where the eye comes forward in team. So once again in chat, we're gonna open up a, a third question for the group and that is what behaviors do you demonstrate, uh, that reflect your commitment or your choice? To be a member of that team. So for example, showing up for a meeting or sharing your opinion in, in uh in a meeting. So identify what's one behavior that reflects something you do that says I want to be part of this team. All right, let's go to the polls. We're already surpassing 50 awesome terrific 20%. We just hit 20% of participants. So thank you. Keep going. Keep going. We're gonna wind this down here in five seconds, 543, 2 1. And yet again, the team surpasses the 200 mark. Thank you very much. So, let's look at what those results say. It's evident that um there's so many behaviors that people can choose to share. It's really a myriad of ways that you demonstrate choice with regards to being part of a team. And so it's in that spirit that I want you to think of the Iron team figuratively. The Iron team is the choices that you make as evidenced by the behaviors that you demonstrate. And in many ways these behaviors are gifts, the gifts that you give to your leader. There are gifts that you give to your team members and they ultimately are gifts that result in the team advancing and delivering on whatever the service product goal is of the team. And it's that choice to give that is so impressive in what grounds us in the eye I and team. Now, today, I want to talk about three specific gifts that um I'm gonna have a challenge for you with each of these gifts. I'm gonna ask you to contemplate. Think about. Is this something that I can choose to give to at least a team in which I serve? These three behaviors are as follows, managing yourself. The second is following your leader and the third is creating a sense of belonging for others. These are three incredible gifts, not the only gifts you can give to a team, but three incredible gifts. And we're gonna take a deep dive on each of these. Let's start first with managing yourself, managing yourself. I'm sure many of you are familiar with uh the work of emotional intelligence started in the early 90s with Savoy Meyer and Daniel Goleman has certainly popularized it and it's something that's just part of the lexicon of the workplace. And so uh when we talk about emotional intelligence, there's really four parts to it. The first part being self awareness and self management, that's about me kind of uh being managing me. And then there's the outward facing part, social awareness and relationship management. For today, we're just gonna focus primarily on the bottom, but we'll touch on, we'll touch on uh relationship management as we look and see. So what does self awareness mean? Let's ground ourselves in that. Um uh it starts with your temperament. So, uh for those of you who don't know Joan Smith is what uh has uh a phenomenal leader. But she started actually as a N U nurse. And what we know is that temperament, we see it literally in the first hours and days of a baby. And these stay with you, these tendencies, novel uh response to stimuli, it stays with you well through uh uh your late ages, um mood states and how those mood states play out and impact your behaviors. Those are things to have self awareness around as well as your beliefs and values and how they shape your thoughts and actions and your relationship patterns and finally self awareness around. What are your hot buttons? Your triggers. Now, when it comes to self management, it's one thing to be aware. It's another thing. What do you do about it? And so self management is how you get along with others, but especially when someone's pushed your button or in conflict, how do you express your experiences in a constructive way? And ultimately, how do you stay connected, especially, especially if you've had a button pushed. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about some practices very practical uh of what you can do to both promote self-awareness, but especially uh especially around self management. Um So first triggers, this is so uh get out a pen. Uh This is an acronym that I want you to probably jot down. It's a good one uh to organize, organize your thinking about triggers. It's called scarf scarf just as you can see captures the uh first letter of uh this organizing schema that uh David Rock came up with. And, and it's one that I love. The first is um think of these as hot buttons or triggers. The first one is uh status. It's where maybe you're part of a group and someone has made a comment that reflects, they don't see you as important. So if you're a leader in the group and someone challenges your leadership or maybe you're relatively early in, in tenure with a group, and someone dismisses your comments like, well, you're just a right. And that's that status piece where they're saying that your voice uh uh isn't as important or doesn't matter as much certainty is one is a really common button. All humans just love predictability. And so when we're in situations that feel uh we're unclear what's going to happen next, oftentimes that calls for uh an emotional reaction, autonomy is a big one and a real common one. Uh The bottom line is we all like to do things the way we want to do them. And so when someone challenges either our decision, authority or the way we go about doing something, that's where that threat comes in. Relatedness is yet another bucket of hot uh uh uh hot uh problems and relatedness is when you are afraid that something may jeopardize a relationship or your role within a team. And then fairness, fairness is a common hot button where, you know, the right things are done or where uh um uh the, the intolerance of injustice. And so all of us have hot buttons. I want you to take a moment and just write down what you think is one of your hot buttons. Uh For all of us, we probably have at least a few of these categories. And uh but I just want you to take, uh you know, is it more certainty? That's the one that gets me worked up. But when I say worked up, think of this as Amygdala hijacking that point where you stop thinking and get into reaction mode. And self awareness is really understanding what are my hot buttons beyond uh understanding what your hot buttons. There's also how you react. There is a ton of ways that people express uh their, you know, when that hot button is pushed in their emotional reactivity. So, again, in, in the poll, uh what I'd like you to do. Uh um and Ryan, I think we have uh another poll here. I want you to capture which emotional expression is more characteristic of you. And uh um and we may not, we may not have that whole question. And so here we'll do this team. Uh just write down for yourself which emotional reaction is most characteristic for you. Are you one who gets frustrated and angry? Are you one who may get sullen? And, and uh um in kind of in down uh when one of those hot buttons, some people get uh anxious and worried uh and yet others get uh uh disconnected and apathetic. So there's not a right response. And what I know is we all have responses. If you're one of those special folks out there who says nothing, nothing ever impacts me. I don't flinch. Um I'd love to sit down and talk with you and learn the, the wonders uh that you have because the rest of us humans, well, we just tend to have responses. So, so far, we've talked about how you respond uh uh emotionally and what are your triggers? And now let's talk about how do we manage, breaking the cycle of emotional uh emotionally reactive behavior. So again, this gift managing yourself starts with understanding what are my buttons? How do I, how do I typically react? And how do I keep from doing things that are disruptive to the team and frankly disruptive to me. So we're gonna talk about some breakers, think of these as circuit breakers. And there are several that can uh that you can use to mitigate that emotional reactivity. The first one we're gonna talk about it relates to when something somebody pushes that button and, and uh it pulls for that response, you start to have those thoughts like why did they do that? They know? All right, I'm gonna challenge you. I challenge you to have a mantra, that mantra is something that you say to yourself that helps keep you calm. My personal one is get curious if someone says something that really kind of hits the edge for me, I have to respond to myself and as a way of getting curious because frankly, I might have a blind spot which they're gonna share with me. Or alternatively, alternatively, um I may learn something new or I may learn that uh their perspective is off the mark. But getting curious is a way of managing that be uh before I respond, before I climb the ladder of inference and kind of uh jump forward. It's calm down, get curious and listen. When it comes to feelings, many people manage their feelings in different ways. But one way that's super helpful is to have um an image uh of image of kind of how you want to be in that moment when someone's pushing your buttons and, and you practice it in this case. Uh uh You can see this uh youngster the bear kind of keeping the inner, inner bear in check. Uh Another one can be peaceful. I have a friend who has a visual image of their emotions floating down the stream. It's their way of acknowledging them that Yep, these are real, but I'm not going to let them consume me and they will fade. And then the 3rd 1 is around uh what actions you can take. So what actions you can take uh uh in order to um uh in order to uh bring to life again, bring to life, uh your uh um and keep and check your actions. So, in this case, uh one example of this is um is uh yoga or deep breathing. It's something that all of us do. Uh Another uh friend of mine has a, a practice in particular, they take their thumb and they rub it on the inside as they're talking with someone. And that's their way of staying grounded and staying calm for a few folks out there who know me if you see me running my hand through my hair and I'm doing that, that's actually one of my tell signs of being able to stay calm and, and stay uh stay in control. So uh um here's what, here's what my ask is going to be. Um uh We're gonna spare this, not in chat, we're not gonna do this in chat. But what I'd like you to do is take a moment to write down. Let's go ahead and do it in chat Russell. It's, it's working. Yeah, the polls are messed great. Thank you. So, uh um in the poll in the poll, what I'd like you to do is capture um what is one action you can take that is most effective for you and uh um whether that's something you can say to yourself, something that an image you can have or a behavior. All right. And I'm not seeing the pull up the, the poll, uh, unfortunately isn't working. So, what we're having people do is enter their answers in the chat window. So if you pull up your, if you pull up your chat panel, you should see a slew of them. Wonderful, wonderful. Ah, love this. I'm seeing doodling, pausing, counting the six breath, walk away. Love it. Thank you all a great job. Great job. It's these actions that help us regulate and it really truly is a gift uh um to be self managing because it means someone else doesn't have to manage you. Now, as we uh as we talk about, the first part starts with me uh in managing myself. The second part is how do I stay connected to someone else in these moments in these moments? And here's what I want to ground you on. I wanna to ground you in the concept of empathy and everyone on this call is familiar with it. But I really want you to think about the power of empathy that when someone's maybe irritated or annoyed me, it's empathy that can help me stay in the moment and stay connected with the person. Now we're gonna watch a, a video here. Uh And it's uh a video on empathy and so please uh um take a moment to just listen in and reflect on this. So what is empathy and why is it very different than sympathy? Empathy fuels connection, sympathy drives disconnection, empathy. It's very interesting. Teresa Wiseman is a nursing scholar who studied professions, very diverse professions where empathy is relevant and came up with four qualities of empathy perspective, taking the ability to take the perspective of another person or recognize their perspective as their truth, staying out of judgment, not easy when you enjoy it as much as most of us do, recognizing emotion in other people and then communicating that empathy is feeling with people. And to me, I always think of empathy as this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out from the bottom and they say I'm stuck, it's dark, I'm overwhelmed. And then we look and we say, hey, you climb down, I know what it's like down here and you're not alone. Sympathy is oh it's bad. Uh-huh. Uh No, you want a sandwich. Um Empathy is a choice and it's a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling rarely if ever does an empathic response begin with. At least I had a Yeah. And we do it all the time because you know what, someone just shared something with us that's incredibly painful. And we're trying to silver lining it. I don't think that's a verb but I'm using it as one. We're trying to put the silver lining around it. So I had a miscarriage. Oh At least, you know, you can get pregnant. I think my marriage is falling apart. At least you have a marriage. John's getting kicked out of school. At least Sarah is an, a student. But one of the things we do sometimes in the face of very difficult conversations is we try to make things better. If I share something with you, that's very difficult. I'd rather you say, I don't even know what to say right now. I'm just so glad you told me because the truth is rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection all right to you. So here is your first I challenge of the day. The I challenge is how might you find empathy for someone who, you know, maybe recently twinged on a nerve uh where you're finding that you're disconnected from them now could be at the workplace, could be at home, but it's your choice. My challenge to you is write down the name of that person and think about how you can show empathy towards them and uh and uh allow them to be them, accept them for them and uh and demonstrate that empathy in an effort to reconnect. So that is gift number one, self management. Now, let's move on to gift number two, it's followership or following your leader. Now, what do we mean by followership? It's again a choice. It's the choice that you will actually focus on achieving the team's goals. Not your goals, the team's goals under a leader's direction. You know, I I love this quote by Barbara Kellerman and specifically that followers are more important to leaders than leaders are to followers. The reality is you can't be a leader without people following. And, and so, and it doesn't matter whether you're a formal leader or informal leader, leaders create followership, but most importantly, individuals choose to follow. And so that's that second gift. Now, what exactly is followership? And is not because this is important to ground on when we think about what followership is. It's working to support an initiative or maybe following the instructions of a leader uh raising questions and speaking up, especially if you're, you have concerns. But in doing so, generating also uh uh working towards solutions, it can be practicing teamwork and supporting change and we're gonna, we're gonna drill into change here in just a moment. What followership is not is blind allegiance. Um What followership is not, is getting kind of challenging authority pulling, you know, intentionally just to kind of push an edge. Um And it's also not the opposite of that, which is abdicating your voice and just, you know, I'm just gonna go along to get along, that's not followership and failing to give your best. So as you can see from this visual, we are not followership is not Leming like behavior. OK? And instead, followership is a conscious choice to be actively engaged. Now, right now in health care, it's amazing what has been going on. I am in my third uh I guess, starting my fourth decade here soon uh in health care itself. And it's been an amazing ride in these last handful of years, have just been uh uh pretty, pretty overwhelming from a change saturation standpoint. I'm sure everyone on this call can connect to several of these types of changes underway and each of these changes um um not only create a challenge for the leader, but it's the challenge for the leader to create followership and move towards a future state. Now, when it comes to all of us going through a change experience, what's interesting is that scarf model comes right back in and I can, I want you to each think of a change that you're going through now and how your experience of that change may tie to one or more of our scarf uh hot button qualities. So for example, when it comes to status, will my role be needed? That's a common question in change from a certainty standpoint. Will I know actually how to do my job and will I be successful that uncertainty that comes along with new autonomy? Well, do I get to keep doing things the way I like to do things? Or am I gonna have to follow some standard right relatedness? Will the change impact who I work with and how I work with them and then lastly fairness in this new role, will I be fairly evaluated and fairly considered for opportunities? So all of us can appreciate when it comes to change, change is loaded with a number of hot buttons. And one of the hardest the demands of a team going through change is how do they go through and how do they go through it in an agile manner, thoughtful and agile manner in order to get to their future state. So with that in mind, it's really important to appreciate teams don't go through change. People do individually one at a time and we even know kind of the the science behind what that looks like. And in particular, there's individuals who start as first followers, they're the first ones who again don't blindly accept the change, but they're willing to go forward and they're willing to follow their leader forward into this unclear state with the hope and belief that not only will it be better on the other side, but actually, they'll have an opportunity to influence that. We also know early adopters. OK. Now we're getting into a little bit more of a critical mass of folks, but no change is successful without first followers and early adopters. Now we're starting to build momentum around the about half of a team. OK. That's the early majority at this point. And it really starts to pick up momentum in the transition from early adopters to early maturation. Uh early majority that's the critical point. If that gets enough momentum, there's a high probability that change will be successful. You do have your uh majority and with any change, you always have. Laggers. Laggards are those who just like things the way they are. And what we know is that winning over laggards is a losing cause. And instead, the focus really is on building first followers and early adopters to bring forward early majority. So uh um uh I am going to share what I hope you'll see is a clever way of capturing or depicting what it's like to lead a movement. OK. In, in, in particular, I want you to appreciate the role of the first followers and early adopters. So in that spirit, you're gonna see a video here. Uh That's a bit peculiar. Just sit back, enjoy it. And it'll make sense as we go forward. If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish in under three minutes and dissect some lessons. First, of course, a leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple. It's almost instructional this, you must be easy to follow. Now, here comes the first follower with a crucial role. He publicly shows everyone else how to follow. Notice how the leader embraces him as an equal. So it's not about the leader anymore. It's about them. Plural. Notice how he's calling to his friends to join in. So it takes guts to be a first follower. You stand out, you brave ridicule yourself. Being a first follower is an under appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that really makes the fire. Here's the second follower. This is a turning point. It's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news. A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers because new followers, emulate followers, not the leader. Now, here come two more people, then three more immediately. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point and now we have a movement as more people jump in. It's no longer risky if they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to join in. Now they won't stand out, they won't be ridiculed and they will be part of the in crowd. If they hurry and over the next minute, you'll see the rest who prefer to stay part of the crowd because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining. And ladies and gentlemen, that is how a movement is made. So let's recap what we've learned. If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals. Making everything clearly about the movement. Not you be public, be easy to follow. But the biggest lesson here. Did you catch it? Leadership is over glorified. Yes, it started with the shirtless guy and he'll get all the credit. But you saw what really happened. It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader. There's no movement without the first follower. See, we're told that we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective. The best way to make a movement if you really care is to courageously follow and show others how to follow when you find a lone nut doing something great. Have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in. All right. So you might be wondering like, wow, that was bizarre. And I'll tell you it's one of my favorite videos. It is just so clever. Uh um And, and in particular, it depicts exactly that what does first followership and early adopters look like? And it is essential to create a movement. So now here's again, that second gift. It's how, how the I is in team. Don't let your leader be the lone nut. OK? Make that choice, make a choice to be a first follower or at least an early adopter. So what does that look like? Again, be curious and ask questions, share your ideas and build on what's being built even if it seems a little bit odd, be candid about your concerns, but bring forward solutions and also an absolutely essential role is bring others into the change. So your second eye challenge, your second eye challenge is to think of a change underway that you're part of and you're following someone else and it may not be the most popular change. OK. And think about how can you be that first follower, how can you show you're also mimicking that dance step. It doesn't mean blindly jumping in and instead it's about remaining curious, being engaged and bringing others along. It's an incredible gift that not only do you bring to your team leader, but it's actually you bring to your team. And so with that in mind, that's your second I challenge. All right, we are on the third one, the third of our three, which is creating a sense of belonging for others. This one is uh is one that I hold dear to my heart. Uh because um uh managing yourself is important and following your leader is important. But in particular, being able to create a sense of belonging for others, especially for those who may be new or a bit disenfranchised is a true gift that you bring to others. We're gonna revisit that schoolhouse uh that schoolyard experience or pe class. And um we talked about how the, you know, in this case, the students are choosing people and what and what it's like to be chosen and that you then have a choice of whether you want to participate on the team. But I, I don't wanna be traumatic about this, but I also want you to dial into, what is it like to be unsure if you will be chosen or if people will want you. That experience is that basic of, do I belong? It plays out from childhood through adulthood. It is part of the human condition. And when you feel like you're part of something, oh my gosh, it is the best experience inside. And it's also when we're most likely. And the research is very clear to be at our best, to be at our highest level of engagement, to be the most uh creative in our solutions and really make a difference. But when we don't feel like we belong, that's when we actually are not able to, we're not positioned well to give our best and be our best. Uh governor earlier today talked about um vulnerable trust and this is, this is right in that space of it's really hard to be vulnerable and trust others if you don't feel like you belong. So, with that in mind, let's just re ground ourselves on belonging. So what exactly is it? It's that feeling of uh being wanted, being cared for and about and being accepted for your whole person. And again, it's such a special experience when you have it yourself as well as when you create it for others. And so let's again, use chat. Uh um and just in chat uh in the chat function just type what word describes your experience uh when you have a sense of belonging. And so go ahead and uh um capture what it's like. So joy, fulfilling, uh security, absolutely, warmth, happiness, confidence, peace. Oh I love it. These are terrific. Valued. Yeah, you, you guys got the gist of this. And again, I want you to, those are the words, but the emotional experience is so much deeper and richer. So let's talk about uh um as we think about belonging in particular, uh when we think about belonging, we have um we have at the a base and most of you are familiar with Maslow's hierarchy. It's like Psych 101. Um and at the foundation is, ah we need some food and shelter and water and safety. Those are important just to survive. But uh before we get to, you know, feeling great, wonderful and being our best and self actualizing, we the importance of feeling loved and feeling like you belong. That's the threshold from surviving, transitioning from surviving to thriving. What's interesting is that our brains are built to scan and every one of us looks for social cues and signals and those cues and signals, especially when you're a new team member. Or alternatively, if you've been in a situation where uh maybe the team is a little bit fragile or that your role in the, in the team is a bit fragile and we scan our environment. Well, what are we looking for those signals of, first of all, do people even see me? Do they even see that I'm here and maybe new to the team? Are there people around like me? And whether that's uh by um race, ethnicity, it could be by uh other variations uh uh diversity. Um sim uh from uh from the standpoint of um generational diversity, gender. There's so many ways are people around like me, are people, how do they treat me? Are they warm and welcoming or a bit standoffish all of these cues in essence, signal. Do people want me here? Do I belong? Do I belong? And again, without that sense of belonging, it's incredibly difficult to truly become a team member and give your best. So your third gift. And I would say arguably in some ways it's the most precious of them. And that is how do you send very clear and strong signals that promote inclusion and belonging? There's four ways we're gonna talk about this. The first one is literally eye contact and warmth for those of you who have been in health care for any hot minute. Um You know, one of the things we talk about is how do we create a warm and welcoming environment within our hospitals and clinics and services, uh things like eye contact stating good morning welcoming people, helping them find their way. Those are the cues that say when people are in a most threatening and vulnerable state, when their comp health is compromised and they're worried about it or a family member. It's a way of saying they're in a safe place where they're welcome. It's the intentionality of acknowledging people through both greeting as well as in seeking those commonalities, not telling about yourself but really asking the other person and finding um finding those connection points with them and further introducing them to other team members, serving as an ambassador or a buddy to make sure that other people also see them and connect with them. The third part of this, this is now where we're getting more rich in on, in on a uh kind of a day to day basis. It's the intentionality of including individuals in the dialogue, asking them about their opinion and engaging them in conversation and being curious. And then one very clear signal is when you're valuing and appreciating their contributions to the overall team's health. Um um And where each of us know this, when you can see my ideas or my thoughts in a decision in a team decision like I mattered, I mattered, my contributions mattered that truly drives that strong sense of belonging. All right. So as we wind down, I started this by saying there is an I N T and um and what I hope you see here is that figuratively figuratively, this idea that I choose to be a team member and I can do that through these three gifts of self management, followership and belonging that those figuratively reflect. There truly is an iron team. But I mentioned there's also literally an I N T and in that spirit, I want you to look really close, get in close to your screen and look really close because I think there is an eye. If you look really close, ah there's the eye, it's a, it's a small I right in the uh a of the team. So with that in mind, I hope that this uh you leave having been convinced that truly is an I in team. On that note, I thank you uh first and foremost for caring for our communities and also for caring for one another. And uh uh let's go ahead Joan and open it up to any questions. Anyone who has any questions, please put them in the Q and A. And also thank you Russell. Thank you for bringing us gifts today. And also thank you for giving us a pragmatic approach. Things that we can use every day similar to doctor Sexton strategies, bite size strategies that we can use, especially for those of us who have been experiencing emotional exhaustion. These are great, great tools to help get us through. Terrific. Anyone have any questions, go ahead and put them in the chat here. We go does trust factor into making the decision to be a first follower? Yes. Uh a wonderful question. Trust is certainly a part of it. So I'm gonna go back to uh Doctor Gutman's comments about being part of a team and building trust that actually allows you want to take some more risks and specifically, and specifically fall into that space of trusting that the leader and the organization are trying to improve. And uh um because what most of us want going back to that scarf model, most of us want certainty. Like I'll make this change as long as I'm certain it will all work out and all of my concerns will be addressed. Well, nothing will ever change under those circumstances. So trust is absolutely the bedrock of being able to step in, lean in. Uh I want you to imagine that guy dancing. Um The reality is uh if he thought he was going to be ridiculed and embarrassed uh um when he was a first follower early on, he probably wouldn't have taken that uh initial step forward. But what he did was he trusted that he would be welcomed and for team members and especially for leaders uh building that foundation of vulnerable trust is incredibly important in order to create for scholarship. Great. And then the next one is, how do you promote feelings of warmth, belonging, empathy from behind a mask. This is what health care. Yeah. Yeah, that is uh uh, the last handful of years have definitely amped up that challenge. Uh, um, so, uh, these things are built for, uh, um, actually, uh, a real important, uh, um, function and that is signaling, uh, uh, warmth. So, as you look, you know, this is a little bit odd, I'm gonna get closer to my camera. But if I'm looking at you like this, the frow brow that basically says, ah, I'm not friendly, stay away. OK. But when you actually welcome people, especially if you can't use uh the most uh useful faithful gesture, which is a smile, you can smile, that's saying smile with your eyes, you can also do it with your hands of being open. OK? And welcoming people. Those are all, those are some of the visual cues uh that indicate that you are warm and welcoming. Thanks. OK. I think we probably have time for one more. How would one work on feeling like their contribution will not be recognized and they want the recognition? Yeah, that's a common thing for different people. Uh um What motivates them uh uh can influence. So in this case where, where for example, that first follower early adopter, you may not get the credit, you know, the the formal credit uh for leading the leader might get it just like we saw in the video. Um what we know is uh that for individuals who choose, who make those choices and they have a track record of being good citizens and adopting followership or adopting empathy, they build a track record and that track record speaks exceptionally loud. I am certain there's many people on this call and you know, many people who they're um uh they're known for like their, their street credibility is high because people know they can be reliable, they're in many ways informal leaders. And so sometimes that recognition is public, oftentimes it's about a choice that you make and the choice that you know what you've done is in the best interests of the team. And that's a track record that you can fall back on uh very confidently and comfortably. Uh And, and uh and it is OK, it is OK to raise it, especially if you're a first follower to raise that to your leader and, and signal to them. I chose to follow you most times that leader is gonna signal back a very clear. Thank you and appreciation. Great. Thank you Russell. I think that's all that we have time for today. Thank you everyone for attending and we now will have time for to please complete the session, surveys, review um the abstracts and take a break for yourself and be back at 1125. Thank you. Thank you.
