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Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics

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Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so

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Speaker 1: much out of their day.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba.

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Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium,

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Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is another mini episode where I share some

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Speaker 1: interesting research from the world of science and psychology and

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Speaker 1: hopefully turn that into something practical that you can use.

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Speaker 1: So today we're talking about team collaboration in the remote

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Speaker 1: working world. So look, building a great team I think

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Speaker 1: was hard enough when the office was a place where

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Speaker 1: we all gathered and worked from But now, in this

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Speaker 1: new reality of working from home the majority of the time,

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Speaker 1: helping your team collaborate effectively has become even more challenging,

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Speaker 1: but all the more important. So I want to share

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Speaker 1: with you three evidenced backed ways that you can turbocharge

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Speaker 1: collaboration within your team. So firstly, hold meaningful meetings.

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Speaker 2: Let me explain what I mean by that.

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Speaker 1: Now, most meetings I think alect Dementors member Dementors from

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Speaker 1: Harry Potter, They.

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Speaker 2: Sack the life out of us.

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Speaker 1: This happens because most meetings are poorly prepared and inefficient.

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Speaker 1: A survey of thirty eight thousand people by Microsoft revealed

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Speaker 1: that sixty nine percent of people feelm meetings aren't productive,

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Speaker 1: and research also suggests that ninety percent of us daydream

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Speaker 1: in meetings and seventy three percent of us use time

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Speaker 1: and meetings to do other work. Ha Now, however, meetings

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Speaker 1: play a critical role in team collaboration as a large

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Speaker 1: amount of teamwork happens within them, and in addition, more

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Speaker 1: than fifteen percent of a person's job satisfy action is

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Speaker 1: based on how happy they are with the meetings they attend. Now,

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Speaker 1: quite a while ago, maybe a year ago, I had

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Speaker 1: Brian Scootemore on the show, who is the founder and

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Speaker 1: CEO of one eight hundred Got Chunk in America, and

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Speaker 1: he refuses to attend meetings unless they have a PAYOT,

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Speaker 1: which stands for purpose, Agenda and outcomes.

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Speaker 2: So Brian explained to me on the podcast.

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Speaker 1: He said that for every meeting, someone has to specify

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Speaker 1: the purpose, the outcome, and a brief agenda, and it

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's a ten minute.

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Speaker 2: Meeting or a one hour meeting.

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Speaker 1: He basically says, if there's no PAYOA, the meeting doesn't happen.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: To further aid in creating better meetings, give people clear roles.

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Speaker 1: Every meeting needs a facilitator and a scribe, so nominate

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Speaker 1: these upfront. The facilitator's job is to ensure the discussion

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Speaker 1: is kept on track and the intended outcomes of the

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Speaker 1: meeting are achieved. And the scribe obviously takes notes on

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Speaker 1: the critical points and maybe key decisions, and they might

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Speaker 1: also be the person nominated with making sure that next.

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Speaker 2: Steps actually happen. Now.

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Speaker 1: Finally, on the topic of meetings, given we spend so

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Speaker 1: much time in them, so it is actually estimated that

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Speaker 1: the average exec spends twenty three hours per week in meetings,

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Speaker 1: make sure that you invest time in training people, your

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Speaker 1: fellow team members, perhaps how to conduct great meetings. Research

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Speaker 1: has shown that only twenty five percent of workers have

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Speaker 1: received formal training in how to conduct effective meetings.

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Speaker 2: No wonder they're so bad. Okay.

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Speaker 1: The second strategy is I'm calling fight then unite, so

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Speaker 1: great teams have great debates. University of California, Berkeley management

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Speaker 1: professor Morton Hanson, who actually termed the phrase fight than

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Speaker 1: new unite, found that teams that are able to fight

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Speaker 1: in that they have healthy and active debates and their

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Speaker 1: new knight agree on a decision, are far more effective

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Speaker 1: in achieving their outcomes. You might remember a few months

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Speaker 1: ago I had Paul Migliorini, who at the time was

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Speaker 1: head of Amazon Web Services for Australia and New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: He talked to me about one of Amazon's fourteen leadership principles,

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Speaker 1: which is disagree and commit. So at Amazon, people are

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Speaker 1: encouraged to have robust, data driven debates, but rather than

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Speaker 1: strive for consensus, it's about finding the best solution for

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Speaker 1: the customer, so Paul explained to me. He says that

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Speaker 1: we shouldn't be mild about making decisions and we shouldn't

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Speaker 1: be consensus based because if we land on the wrong answer,

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Speaker 1: it's going to mean a bad outcome for the customer.

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Speaker 1: So to have effective debate, Hanson Morton Hanson, who I

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Speaker 1: mentioned before, suggests showing up to every meeting prepared and

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Speaker 1: having a point of view that is delivered with data

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Speaker 1: and conviction. And I mean that might sound obvious, but

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Speaker 1: how often do you turn up to meetings unprepared? I

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Speaker 1: think this happens quite a lot, but it's also critical

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Speaker 1: in the meeting that you stay open to other views

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Speaker 1: and ultimately let the best argument win even if isn't

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Speaker 1: yours o caave. Third and final tip I have for

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Speaker 1: you is to practice disciplined collaboration. So in his book

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Speaker 1: Great at Work, Morton Hanson talks about this idea of

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Speaker 1: discipline collaboration and reminds us that the goal of collaboration

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Speaker 1: is not collaboration, it's to achieve the goals that have

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Speaker 1: been set for the team. More collaboration does not always

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Speaker 1: lead to better outcomes, so instead Morton recommends being disciplined

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Speaker 1: with collaboration. People obviously need to avoid working in silos

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Speaker 1: and under collaborating, but equally people need to avoid collaborating

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Speaker 1: with others unnecessarily. So to decide whether or not to

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Speaker 1: collaborate and start by working out whether there's a compelling

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Speaker 1: reason for the proposed collaboration. If there isn't, stop right there,

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Speaker 1: but if there is, make sure that there's a unifying

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Speaker 1: goal that is set that excites the team, and finally,

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Speaker 1: reward the results, not the activities that are driven by

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Speaker 1: the collaboration. So by following these three strategies, you'll have

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Speaker 1: turbo charged the way your team collaborates in the remote

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Speaker 1: working world, and if and when your team does eventually

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Speaker 1: head back to the office, effective collaboration will feel like

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Speaker 1: a walk in the park. That is it for today's show.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you feel there's

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Speaker 1: some useful stuff in there, maybe for the team that

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Speaker 1: you work with, or maybe for a friend of yours

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Speaker 1: that is struggling with maybe their team's behavior, why.

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Speaker 2: Not share this episode with them.

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Speaker 1: And finally, if you're enjoying how I work, I would

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Speaker 1: love it if you can leave a little review, maybe

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Speaker 1: a star rating, or maybe a few words in Apple

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Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you're listening to this from, because it

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Speaker 1: is awesome to get feedback from listeners. So thank you

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Speaker 1: very much if you have done that, or if you

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Speaker 1: plan to do that. So that's it for today Instrum,

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Speaker 1: and I will see you next time.