[[Notes]] - Topics: [[Teamwork]] - People: Freethink (Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin) - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzo98wwGWMM --- ## Summary - The heart of good teamwork is communication. - This is often hard because people have different ideas for what certain words mean, such as abstract concepts and behaviours. - Good teamwork isn't something that just happens. Leaders must encourage team working behaviours and practices. Leaders must demonstrate and embody those practices in a way where team members feel the positive impacts in a tangible manner. - Teams must get on the same page. To collectively understand what they're doing, how they're going to do it, and how they're going to work with each other. ## Notes (This video promotes a product called TeamWords.) ### Communication - The heart of good teamwork is communication. That's harder than it sounds because words often mean different things to different people. - The more abstract the words are, the more opportunities there are for us to fill in our biases, projections, and definitions. These words may include "professional", "creative", "accountable". - "Think of how many misunderstandings come from different definitions that we ascribe to words". - Maybe if we could communicate better at work, and we can understand each other better as people, we'll be on our way to build something even more beautiful. ### Teamwork - It's one of those things that companies say they care about but don't really spend the time to cultivate. - "The thought of talking about the team before talking about the work kinda goes wayside." - Good teamwork must be considered, demonstrated, and embodied by leadership. Members of the team must feel that tangible connection that runs deeper vs. superficial demands of "working better". - When things go well, it's easy to say that we're "honest" and "supportive". Then things go wrong, those words become weaponized. Words like "disrespectful" arise. ### Behaviours - By collectively agreeing on a specific set of behaviours, everyone on the team can agree on the common definition of these words. - You may want behaviours that you've never yet experienced by have always longed for (e.g. caring, creative, craftsmanship).