Building Your Team
Your team is more important than you might realize. Cultivating a space where people can bring their best selves and feel they are contributing to something beyond their individual orientation is both powerful and attractive. A good team culture within your organization not only allows you to collectively “move the needle” of measured impact, but it also will attract top talent that aligns with your vision and values.
Check out what we had to say about the importance of team in our book SUSTAINABLE ENGAGEMENT: Strategic Planning for Positive Social Change:
You cannot do this work alone, successfully. You can initiate it, but to think you can take on this work, scale it, and create something sustainable and meaningful on your own is a fool’s errand. While the necessity of a team should go without saying, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that it’s not just about forming a team; it’s also about the cultural ethos you create. A spirit of collaboration is critical.
Things to keep in mind when building your team:
You definitely need a team you trust, and with whom you collaborate, cast your vision, hold one another accountable, and refine how you articulate the value proposition. Here are some things to consider:
Understand what you are after — Knowing your vision and mission is the centerpiece to building a solid team. If you do not know what your end-game is — your mission — you will not be able to engage and partner with committed team members. Your team members must buy-in to the vision and mission and be willing to carry that torch with you.
Culture and intercultural competency — Your team needs to reflect the people groups you are trying to engage and your communication and decision-making processes must reflect equity and agency for those groups. Not only is it important to understand culture from multiple perspectives — organizational culture, cultural self-awareness, racial and ethnic identities, among others — but also it is vital to the formation of your team. Intercultural competency should be foundational to the work we do and, therefore, must rest at the center of forming a solid team. Shifting from individualism to the collective and common good of all has to be inseparable from considerations around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Deconstructing a colonial mindset — Colonization is embedded within American culture. Therefore, if it is not considered and addressed in the formation of your team, conformity and assimilation will impede innovation. Moreover, it will limit your team’s ability to bring their full self to the work. If not addressed, dominance and exploitation become central. In contrast, a decolonized team represents, honesty, integrity, transparency in communication, and respect.
Gifts and experience — You and I are incapable of doing everything, which also means there are some areas in our skill sets that are either deficient or nonexistent. Surround yourself with qualified people who are gifted in ways you are not. Experience matters.
Refine your vision — Culture is always emerging — the world and our collective circumstances are shifting. As you navigate the ever-changing landscape, and while also refining your vision, make sure you stay focused on the vision. And make sure this translates to the areas of focus for each of your team members.
Celebrate the opportunities that difference brings — It is vital to become hyperaware that there are new ways of doing, thinking, and being in the world. A diverse team that is fully engaged brings about diverse opportunities and innovative strategy. This is especially important around influencing social policy.
A spirit of collaboration — While good team members are driven, egos must be checked at the door. A spirit of collaboration is paramount for an effective team. Strong teams fail together and succeed together. It’s not about you.
For a copy of the book, check out the following link: https://sustinerigroup.co/sustainable_engagement_book