BEDFORD – Today the Bedford Young Professionals hosted their Bring Your Boss to Lunch event.
The event featured the announcement of the 4 under 40 awardees, refreshments, and an interactive lecture given by Rusty Shields of Develfy Consulting, on “Building High-Performance Teams”.
The team-building exercise challenged 15 participants to touch each green circle in order. There were 30 green circles, numbered from 1-30 placed on the floor in a large rectangle outlined with blue tape. The game was restricted by rules, including:
- Each person must touch at least one of the circles.
- No one person could touch 2 circles in a row.
- Only one person could occupy the workspace at a time.
- Altering the setup is not allowed.
Two minutes were given for the task, and a minute and 30 seconds were given for planning before each of the three rounds.
The team tried several ways to accomplish the goal, in the process realizing the need to slow down. The first round was completed with a minute and six seconds to spare but incurred nearly 60 rule breaks.
The second round left a minute and four seconds, with 40 or so infractions. As anticipated by Rusty, the infractions were small, but prodded the participants to pay attention to details, and ask clarifying questions such as:
- Does the “work area” include just the box or the 3-dimensional square of space above it?
- Is speed the goal so much as efficiency and rule following?
- Does accidentally moving a circle count as a rule break?
The exercise concluded with a more methodical, calm approach taken by the team, which finished with roughly 30 seconds to spare. Rusty explained that it takes time for adults to even begin to understand something you tell them. You have to tell them “Seven times before they begin to understand it,” Rusty noted.
Even then, clarity is one of the most neglected areas of communication. You can never ask too many questions. The teams would have saved time and prevented errors from happening had they asked sooner about the boundary limits, or what counts as rearranging the circles, and remembering that everyone needed to touch at least one.
Rusty went on to explain the basics of good communication within a team, and some ways to change your mindset. Such as restructuring the importance of communication and its aspects.
The words you use only measure up to 7% of your impact and aren’t as important as how you say them, which amounts to 38%. At a whopping 55%, body language ranks as the most important way you conduct yourself.
WBIW will feature the 4 Under 40 Awardees in a separate article.
