INSIDE OUT EPISODE 2: CREATING A WINNING TEAM

This episode of Inside Out podcast discusses the importance of creating a winning team. It starts with the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and his battle with polio. FDR established the Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation to help others suffering from polio. He assembled a team of architects, doctors, physiotherapists, and researchers to achieve his goal of finding a cure for polio. FDR's team was inclusive, diverse, and fostered respect and trust. They communicated effectively and embraced healthy conflict. Their adaptability and personal excellence led to the successful development of the polio vaccine. The podcast also highlights 14 characteristics of winning teams, including inclusive thinking, diversity, respect and trust, personal excellence, communication, healthy conflict, and adaptability. Hello again and welcome to episode 2 of Inside Out, a podcast for leaders and managers in vocational rehabilitation. My name is Greg Schmieg and I'm happy to have you tuning in today. Today's episode is about creating a winning team. Just like most things we try to achieve in life, working toward a big goal by oneself is so much harder than working with a winning team. But before I jump into what makes a team a winning team, let me share another bit of my past and a story that underscores the importance of having others who support you in your efforts. One of my professional experiences was that I served for six years as the executive director of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, which is in Warm Springs, Georgia. In fact, I was the ninth director of the Institute, the first being Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR. In fact, FDR had purchased the property in 1927, way before my time. Here's the back story. As I'm sure most of you have heard about polio, well in the early 1900s polio was a devastating illness that was spreading worldwide. It was highly contagious and there was literally no treatment and no cure. It was often called infantile paralysis because most of those who came down with polio were young children. And as most of you may know, FDR was a very successful aristocrat living in Hyde Park, New York. He was very ambitious politically and in his early career he had served as assistant secretary of the Navy, but he certainly had much higher ambitions. In 1921, when Roosevelt was 39 years old, he contracted polio. Now some believe that he caught it during a visit to a Boy Scout camp on his way home. But imagine, if you will, this very ambitious, politically ambitious young man moving up the political ladder and suddenly he is stricken with a disease that leaves him for the most part, as they would have said back then, crippled. Quite truthfully, he was for all intents and purposes paralyzed from the waist down. Just imagine how he must have felt then. Clearly he must have been depressed thinking that his political career was now ended. Remember, in the 1920s, society looked down on those with a disability. In fact, Roosevelt thought that he would be viewed as unfit and weak, not the qualities sought for a higher political office. But back to the story. There's not much known about the three years after he contracted polio. There are some stories that even imply he may have tried to commit suicide because of how devastated he was, but I've never seen any evidence of that. But then in 1924, a good friend of his named George Peabody invited him to visit the spring-fed pools in Warm Springs, Georgia, which Roosevelt did. As the story goes, he actually took a milk train from Columbus, Georgia, to the very small town of Warm Springs, from which he was loaded into the back of an old pickup truck and driven to the pools. In 1924, the pools in Warm Springs were where people went to vacation, primarily because of the soothing 89-degree spring-fed water. The water there is very unique because of its high mineral content. It feels different and it's buoyant. Roosevelt gets to the pools and he gets in the water. He's now had polio for three years and when he gets in the water for the first time since polio, he is able to stand unassisted because of the buoyancy of the water. Now imagine how he must have felt. As the story goes, for the first time in three years, he feels he can be cured and so he decides to stay in Warm Springs. Serendipitously, a journalist from the Atlanta Constitution newspaper learns that a Roosevelt is in Warm Springs, so he goes there from Atlanta to interview FDR. That interview then becomes a syndicated news story entitled, quote, Roosevelt Swims His Way to Health, end quote, which is then picked up nationally by other newspapers across the entire United States. As the story spreads, other people suffering with polio who read the story began to think, well, if Roosevelt can swim his way to health in Warm Springs, then maybe they could too. So over the next several years, literally people from all over find their way to the pools at Warm Springs, Georgia, and Roosevelt welcomes them wholeheartedly as they are now kindred spirits. Roosevelt and the other polios, as they were called, were soon all doing physiotherapy exercises in the pools. So fast forward to 1927 and Roosevelt decides to purchase a thousand acres of land around the pools and create a place where, in his mind, polio will be cured. Now here's where the story becomes that of a winning team. For such a big dream as curing polio, Roosevelt knew he needed a team around him to achieve his goal. So over almost the next two decades, Roosevelt's team began to put the pieces together. And here are some of just the highlights of his team. He found an architect who designed and then built the buildings of the Institute itself, including a hospital. He found an architect to design and then help build the buildings of the Institute itself, including a hospital. He found doctors and surgeons to medically treat the polios. He created a staff of physiotherapists, as they were called back then. Now we call them PTs and OTs. He brought in folks to make walking aids and other devices to help those with limited movement. We now refer to that as orthotics. In fact, it was in Warm Springs where they created the famous, quote, Roosevelt brace, end quote, a metal and leather leg brace that could be locked in place to help a person with polio paralysis stand. The list of people Roosevelt had on his team goes on and on. In 1938, as an example, with the advice of his personal attorney, Mr. Basil O'Connor, Roosevelt creates the March of Dimes, which was a very innovative way of raising money. Prior to the March of Dimes, fundraising was you would find very wealthy people and ask them to give you a lot of money. With the March of Dimes, rather than asking the very rich to give a lot of money, the March of Dimes asked every single person to give just a dime. It was the March of Dimes that appointed Dr. Jonas Salk to lead research for a polio vaccine in 1949. Unfortunately, Roosevelt, who had died in 1945, did not leave to see Salk develop and test the first successful polio vaccine in 1955. From FDR's first visit to Warm Springs in 1924 until he died at the little White House in Warm Springs, he made 41 trips to Warm Springs, often spending more time there than he did in Hyde Park or Washington, D.C. when he was president. The other fascinating point of this story is that after contracting polio when he thought his political career was over, the spirit of Warm Springs, as it's called, convinced FDR to get back into politics. And as we know, he was elected president of the United States four times, the only person to serve as president more than two terms. FDR knew how to assemble a winning team, and even though he did not leave to see the final, did not live to see the final results, excuse me, after the polio vaccine was determined successful in 1955, there have been no more cases of polio in the United States. His goal was realized. So let's examine what it takes to create a winning team. Winning teams are the hallmark of industry-leading organizations. Think of a winning team as a cohesive, high-performing group of individuals that can set your organization apart within vocational rehabilitation and ensure the success of your agency in the long run. But what makes a group of individuals work well together? Research shows that there are actually some common characteristics that all winning teams share. The key is spotting those characteristics and isolating them in order to train your team members so as to achieve a better team and better performance. According to Forbes, there are 14 common characteristics that distinguish a winning team. Number one, inclusive thinking. When teams think inclusively, not only do people feel comfortable sharing unique perspectives, but teams benefit from the value of exploring more possibilities. It's collaborative, open, and exploratory. Number two, diversity. Diversity has always been a key to a cohesive, high-performing team. We reach levels of performance that we did not even know we had when we are challenged and surrounded by those who are different than us. Too much of the same is dangerous and prohibitive to high performance. Number three, respect and trust. To be a high-performing team, it's really critical for the team to have respect and trust, to be able to throw blind passes and hold each other accountable with hard, candid debates and conversations to get to the best answer for the business at hand. Number four, personal excellence. Many factors play a part in a sustainable, high-performing team, but personal excellence is a must. Holding ourselves accountable for showing up in excellence every day allows other high-performing team characteristics to thrive, such as deep trust, kind of iron sharpening iron, confidence, and a consistent culture of excellence amongst the entire team driven by personal accountability. Number five, communication. While there are many elements that make up a cohesive and successful team, communication is one of the most essential building blocks, especially now as so many teams are forced to work remotely. Employees and managers must make an extra effort to communicate regularly. Number six, healthy conflict. Healthy conflict is an essential element. Groupthink kills innovation and creativity. If the team does not have diversity of thought or individuals do not feel safe to dissent, productivity will be stunted. The status quo is maintained and real progress and higher performance are impossible. Number seven, adaptability. The pandemic has shown the highest performing teams are those most capable of adapting to change. Businesses are forced to reimagine how work gets done. For some, that change is painful. Those who can manage it well have a culture built on purpose, values, and collaboration rather than process. Number eight, engagement. Highly engaged teams give discretionary effort and routinely go above and beyond for the team win. To achieve this, you need a connected culture with two-way communication and sharing how each person's role contributes to the overall result. Number nine, psychological safety. Research supports the notion of the importance of a culture of psychological safety on a team. Team members must support and model a culture where all team members feel they can speak up freely and raise issues of importance to the team's work. Google found that having psychological safety on the team is a critical element of team success. Underperforming teams often lack psychological safety. Number 10, decision making flexibility. High performing teams have the freedom and flexibility to make decisions in real time rather than waiting for management approval. While some decisions may need to be rolled back upon review, team members who work in specific areas of the organization on a daily basis are the best equipped to make processes more efficient and allowing them to do so will help the team pivot faster and perform better. Number 11, openness to innovation. Openness to innovative future forward ideas is in the DNA of cohesive and high performing teams. Number 12, ability to surmount challenges. And here's a new one, 2020 style. The ability to surmount challenges thrown at us from outside the workplace now even more clearly defines a high performing team. There are the obvious devastating challenges like COVID-19, but challenge is constant. When we demonstrate empathy toward team members and even cover for them when the power is out, that's power in itself. Number 13, behavioral awareness. Behavioral awareness and understanding of team dynamics in terms of personal strengths and weaknesses is the key. Overall behavioral insights such as personality styles gives you a strategic advantage to position individuals within the team to best utilize those strengths to achieve high performing results. For example, don't place your least detail-oriented teammate to be responsible for project management execution. And finally, number 14, pride in the agency. The main characteristic that makes up a high performing team is the fact that the team is in it for the organization along with their own happiness. We as employees have to learn to take pride in the organization we work for. Once that pride is established, it will shine and we as people, employees, and family members will shine. This is the main characteristic that makes up a good winning team. Now for those of you who listened to episode 1 of this series, you'll remember that I asked you to visualize for a few minutes your management team. As I've gone through these 14 common characteristics, I'd like you to do the same thing on your own time. Think about your management team as it currently exists. Do they demonstrate those 14 common characteristics? How does your team stack up according to that? In your own mind, based on that assessment, do you feel that you have a winning team? Now hopefully your team scored great on all characteristics or maybe just some of them. Hopefully at least some of them. Well, if your team in your mind didn't score well on those 14 common characteristics of a winning team, don't lose hope. Remember the last episode when I talked about change the people? I do believe that people can learn. They can be trained to think differently and that people can change. Next time I'll give you some more detail about how to build and grow a winning team. So if your team didn't score quite as high as you would have liked, wait until the next time and we'll talk about how to build a winning team. Until then, be focused and be good. Thank you.