Emergency Capacity Building Project Leadership & Team Work

 Brainstorm some of your thoughts on leadership…

 Each team will get 15 minute to discuss what are the most important 10 factors to develop good team work  Prioritize identified factors in terms of importance and you will get only five minute  If you need any assistance there will be mentors to help you  Each team get only 3 minute for presentation and please be specific as much as you can.  Please use flip chart for the presentation

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I.“ They think "we" they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. PETER DRUCKER

Research carried out by McKinsey and Company in 2006 after asking 102 managers from seven different agencies for their views on the most important staffing factors for emergency-response teams on behalf of the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) creating a ‘culture of trust’ amongst national and international staff was the second most important factor in creating effective emergency-response teams.

Just as money facilitates the physical-task aspects of emergency-response team work, so, too, does trust facilitate the human relationships, Research carried out by McKinsey and Company in 2006 after asking 102 managers from seven different agencies for their views on the most important staffing factors for emergency-response teams on behalf of the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB)

Where mistrust prevails; low levels of trust affect productivity as people minimize their vulnerability by ‘playing safe’. Research carried out by McKinsey and Company in 2006 after asking 102 managers from seven different agencies for their views on the most important staffing factors for emergency-response teams on behalf of the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB)

Offers of advice are ignored, and valuable but sensitive information is withheld. Cultural differences in values, experience, and working practices become a source of stress, divisiveness, Research carried out by McKinsey and Company in 2006 after asking 102 managers from seven different agencies for their views on the most important staffing factors for emergency-response teams on behalf of the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB)

Poor communication rather than an opportunity for valuing diversity and more creative decision-making, these circumstances, in turn, lead to communication breakdowns, defensiveness, poor team learning, and higher levels of anxiety and stress. Team energies are diverted away from the external needs of the beneficiaries. Research carried out by McKinsey and Company in 2006 after asking 102 managers from seven different agencies for their views on the most important staffing factors for emergency-response teams on behalf of the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB)

What trust will give us…  more effective co-operation and collaboration  higher levels of organizational commitment and morale  improved flexibility and lowering of co-ordination costs  quicker and better knowledge transfer between team members  increased productivity including in virtual teamwork  greater participation in decision-making processes and improved communication  higher levels of innovation and creativity in solving problems  easier support for change initiatives

 Swift trust can be more readily achieved and is necessary from early stages of emergency response. I. Competence II. Openness with Information III. Integrity IV. Reciprocity

 Trust based on a perception that team members are competent, and so will not let me down.  Every day we have to trust people. When we fly on an aeroplane we trust that the pilot who flies it and the engineers who have serviced it know what they are doing and will do a good job.  We trust them because we believe they are competent at their jobs  In the same way, in the emergency-response team we need to trust that other people in the team are competent at their jobs and will perform to a good standard.

 Trust based on the observation that other team members share information important to the team proactively and clearly.  Information is power. Those who have access to information and do not share it with others are creating a power differential. On one hand, if we believe that other people have information that is important for us and they are not sharing it with us  we may become suspicious. We may begin to wonder what the information is, and why they are not sharing it. This suspicion breeds mistrust.

 Trust based on the observation that other team members maintain promises, are team-orientated, and behave towards me in accordance with a moral code.  If people keep their word and fulfill their commitments, over time, we come to trust them more. It is sometimes tempting to promise things that we are not sure we can deliver, just to please people. This is particularly true in certain cultural contexts where saying ‘no’ might be regarded as bad for relationships. In the long run, when we cannot deliver, this reduces other people’s trust in us. It takes time to build trust.

 Trust based on the observation that other group members are trusting and Cooperative towards me.  It is easier to trust someone else if we feel they are trusting towards us. Equally, if we feel someone is behaving towards us in a suspicious way, then we can easily project negative motivations onto them in order to explain their behavior, and this makes it more difficult for us to trust them. This reciprocal nature of trust means that we can quickly get into positive or negative ‘spirals’ of trust.

 Deeper trust takes more time and effort to establish. I. Compatibility II. Goodwill III. Predictability IV. Well-being V. Inclusion VI. Accessibility

 Trust based on background, values, approaches, interests, and objectives held in common.  Most of us feel more comfortable and more ready to trust in the company of people who are ‘like us’. In reality, we are all different from each other. We are different in terms of, for example, personalities, experience, gender, and culture. We have to understand and work through these differences before we cease to notice them and feel instead that we are all part of something bigger and more important than ourselves.

 Trust based on the belief that other team members are concerned about my overall welfare.  Working in an emergency-response team is a demanding and stressful experience. Nobody is immune from these pressures and everyone needs help and support from time to time. If I feel that other people in the team are concerned about me and how I am feeling, I can trust them more easily.

 Trust based on the observation that the behavior of team members is consistent over time and in different contexts.  I will find it easier to trust people who are disciplined in their approach to work and abide by the norms and standards of the group in their everyday lives, as these qualities make their behavior more predictable. Sometimes I may lose trust in those from other cultural backgrounds because they may behave in ways that seem unpredictable, as I don’t fully understand the values that lie behind their actions,

 Trust arising from the feeling that I have nothing to fear from other members of the group.  It is difficult to fear and trust people at the same time. Sometimes fear of an outside threat can lead us to trust the people in our own group more strongly, as often happens in times of war or heightened security threats. But we are not likely to find it easy to trust the people who make us afraid. In the working environment the Commonest cause of fear is a culture of ‘blame’. When something goes wrong, then first reactions are to look for the person whose ‘fault’ it was with a view to punishing them. Such a culture destroys trust and leads people to behave in a defensive way

 Trust based on the observation that other group members actively include me in their social and work activities.  All of us need to be included in important social and work activities. Excluding someone, leaving them out of activities that involve everyone else, sends a powerful message that destroys trust. In the context of an emergency-response team there is always a danger that factions or sub-groups will form. These may be based on whether some people are ‘internationals’ and some ‘nationals’.  Subgroups may also form based on ethnic differences or simply on the basis of functional or regional separation.

 Trust based on the observation that other team members share their true feelings and I can relate to them on a personal level.  People who are cool and distant in their personal manner may seem more difficult to trust. By keeping their thoughts and feelings to themselves they seem to be indicating that they do not trust others and are not prepared to take the risk of making themselves vulnerable