Cramer continues, "What are you doing in this new era where it seems that there are a lot of people going to cross-purposes to what I know [that] you as a person are doing?" Here, I’d like for us to pause, and ask ourselves: 'Am I known as someone who understands the need to have a great team?' Arguably, being known to understand the need for a great team— along with taking visible and strategic strides over time to get there— is more valuable than achieving for one spike pattern in time what anyone and everyone would agree to be “great.” After Cramer tees up the ball, Swift hits a flush shot: He states that the organization that he leads prides itself on being team-oriented and equitable; liking many voices around the table with multiple ideas; wanting empathetic people and leaders to relate to customers, and also pick up and coach teams. “I don’t care what you call it these days,” Swift concludes, “We know what works for our culture. We know what attracts people, what keeps people in the organization, and I think from a shareholders position, I think shareholders like what we’re doing, given what we’ve done the last 10 years.” In the millisecond of silence that follows, Swift drops the proverbial mic. You, too, can repurpose the energies of distractors working or talking at different goals or purposes with the intent to confuse or fail your efforts to understand the need for great teams. For those who endeavor to become known as someone with a working knowledge about the need for great teams, I offer the following:
Those of us living since the mid-20th century may have witnessed the value of “fairness” evolve in its interpretation over the decades (assuming, “….that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”). Fair treatment in the U.S. has been spelled out and enacted as Civil Rights (1960s), Equal Opportunity (1970s-1980s), Multiculturalism (1990s), Inclusion and Globalization (2000s), and Equity and Intersectionality (2010s), to name a few examples. Within our workspaces, fair treatment has been made clear and developed as organizational culture through Values, Mission, Vision and Ethics statements—all in place to steer the many of us true to one set of principles. If you would like accompaniment to find common language and corresponding behaviors to advance the power of shared purpose at your organization, click here to message me.
Another example is the Just City Index, a framework of 50 success indicators designed as a tool for use by communities to establish their own definitions of success. (Click here and then scroll to download the Index.) The Index is created by the Just City Lab, “a team of design justice thinkers and doers” concerned with urban justice in cities, neighborhoods and the public realm. When presenting at the NOMA Empower Design II Symposium this past week, I learned about this set of measures from fellow presenter and friend, Gregory Street, RA. It’s always a pleasure in my work to learn and cross-pollinate good ideas across industries. If you would like accompaniment to define your organization’s true and/or inspired measures of success, click here to message me.
Get curious with a question that helps assess how working with great teams meets the needs of your colleague, your managee or your manager; or, a specific work process, service or product; or, your work environment, whether virtual and/or in-person, etc. What makes the grrreat in team will become known in the process of analyzing its effects. Listen in the response that you receive from any given shared-purpose partner who you ask to discern trends in the value-add of teams who meet shared measures of success. If you haven’t intimately experienced significant risks and costs of not-so-great teams, get familiar. It is generally known, for instance, that research indicates when people with varied experience and perspectives are present on a team—where differences are also leveraged for good—the result is creativity, innovation, improved problem-solving abilities, and better work performance (compared with homogenous teams). Don’t take my own, or Google’s, word for it: Ask the network of people around you, and stay curious over time. Many seek to build something better than themselves. For some, that something is a value-driven organization of people that performs to the promise of human potential. Let’s get there together. If you would like accompaniment to host listening conversations within your organization to determine what works for your culture— and what does not— click here to message me. And, click here to view recommendations that I've earned through valued relationships with clients and colleagues. Sincerely, Malii Watts Witten Principal, EngageBetween Sources:
Rachel Murray. “A History of DEI and the Future of Work.” Inclusion Geeks, Oct. 4, 2024, https://www.inclusiongeeks.com/articles/a-history-of-dei-and-the-future-of-work/. Accessed Feb. 21, 2025. “America’s Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence.” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration. Accessed Feb. 21, 2025. “‘A Rose By Any Other Name’, Meaning & Context.” No Sweat Shakespeare, https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/rose-by-any-other-name/. Accessed Feb. 21, 2025.
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