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High Performing Team Development

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Action Learning for Sponsors

I

100% Responsibility

A powerful productivity tool that facilitates taking healthy individual and collective ownership of results

 and promotes effective problem-solving, along with improved client/customer relationships and sales

Brief Summary of the Tool (see the Handbook for more details)

1.      100% Responsibility facilitates an attitude of joining together in a collaborative way to take healthy individual and collective ownership for results.

2.      When there are negative outcomes, most people look at the results with Parts Thinking. They ask, “Did I do my part?” Depending on the answer, they either blame themselves or others. This attitude stifles creativity and effective problem-solving, and instead leads to conflict, complaining, finger pointing, and other nonproductive attitudes and behaviors.

3.      With 100% Responsibility, blame and victim are put off limits and healthy problem-solving is facilitated through the use of two key questions. The first question encourages the taking of individual responsibility by asking, with a spirit of curiosity and openness, “What might this result have to do with me?” The second question encourages systemic thinking and separating symptoms form root causes by asking the collective responsibility question, “What might this result have to do with us?” where “us” includes the team and the organization as a whole. 

4.      When dealing with a team, we start with the challenging assumption that everyone on the team has some healthy ownership for any of that team’s results. When everyone is taking healthy ownership, no one has to be “watching their backs.”

5.      Asking these two questions, while putting aside negative attitudes like blame and victim, creates an environment of collaboration, creativity, and effective problem-solving because people are focused on the problem in front of them rather than worried about protecting themselves.

6.      We introduce the concept of balance. People recognize when they are balanced or out-of-balance by how that shows up in their thoughts, feelings, body, and interactions with others. We relate this back to 100% Responsibility, because those who adopt this position of healthy ownership experience sustainable internal and external balance.

7.      We further clarity the position of 100% Responsibility by defining the positions of <100% Responsibility (characterized by blame and victim) and >100% Responsibility (characterized by feeling burdened and either blaming ourselves or resenting others). This assists participants in recognizing the signs that they are in one of the off-balanced positions.

8.      We provide another perspective on recognizing when participants are taking healthy ownership by defining the three off-balanced positions as Victim, Rescuer, and Persecutor.

9.      Finally, we work with active current situations and provide a variety of refinements to establish the principles of 100% Responsibility.

We have learned that there are some simple, essential tools that, when implemented, radically transform the way groups work together and significantly improve the quality of what they are able to accomplish. 100% Responsibility, which we have developed and refined over the last nine years, has consistently had powerful impact on teams and organizations. It has become the foundation of all of our team and organizational work. It puts “blame” and “victim” off limits while assisting people in taking healthy individual and collective ownership for business results. It has the potential to significantly change the way people think, feel, approach difficulties, and work together. Introducing this tool greatly reduces power struggles and needless conflict while increasing the innovation and excitement that comes from successfully addressing the key issue in motivation and retention: being able to make a difference.

 In addition to being a productivity tool, 100% Responsibility addresses the issue of balance at a variety of levels. Adopting 100% Responsibility greatly facilitates a sense of internal balance, balanced work relationships, and assists individuals in effectively addressing the issue of work-life balance.

 Many organizations are moving towards a network-centric environment, with quicker and more effective problem-solving and decision-making through empowerment coupled with making critical information readily available. Metcalfe’s Law says that the usefulness or utility of a network equals the square of the number of users. However, that’s only true if the users are effectively joined with each other, trust each other, know how to communicate in a collaborative way, and understand what it means to take healthy collective ownership for results. 100% Responsibility addresses all of these factors critical for success.

·        This tool powerfully facilitates an atmosphere of joining together for greater productivity, a sense of being “in it together,” a vital element of a successful network-centric environment.

·        Understanding the concept of collective healthy ownership of results assists teams and organizations in making better use of the increased information flow.

·        Employees operating within this model develop a strong and real sense of empowerment and effective involvement. They develop a heightened sense of being able to make a difference.

·        In a network-centric environment, people need to learn how to be influential without having direct control. 100% Responsibility provides a way of working effectively with others in such situations. People who adopt the attitude and language of this tool more effectively collaborate with others, and are far more effective at dealing with the problems and challenges that inevitably arise.

·        A central part of this tool is learning to separate symptoms from root causes. As such, it significantly improves problem-solving and facilitates making better decisions.

·        It greatly facilitates the development of trust, something crucial in network-centric environments.

Other Benefits of 100% Responsibility

·        100% Responsibility has a profound impact on aligning more successfully and building more effective relationships with internal and external clients and customers, leading to increased client/customer satisfaction and sales.

·        This tool provides healthy alternatives to the blaming and victim roles that greatly escalate conflict and impede team effectiveness. 100% Responsibility involves joining with others in the ownership for results, rather than personalizing or blaming.

·        100% Responsibility provides a way of approaching potentially difficult situations in a way that’s clean and tension-reducing. People who incorporate this tool consistently report that the language that they learn to use, along with the new way of viewing the situation, leads them to respond in a way that’s simultaneously effective and disarming. Situations get resolved while rapport is increased. As such, it is highly effective in maintaining a clean line of perspective with customers and clients.

·        By revealing the off-balance roles taken by “blamers” and “persecutors”, 100% Responsibility is a highly effective tool for anger management, in that taking healthy ownership for results reduces incidence of anger in the workplace.

·        Taking healthy ownership, or 100% Responsibility, precludes gossiping as well as negative third party conversations. Teams and organizations that adopt this tool agree to address issues directly and respectfully rather than talking behind backs. Furthermore, this tool provides a framework for having such conversations be positive and productive.

Return to Organizational Consulting

View Our Resume and Bios

High Performing Team Development

Sample Proposal

Action Learning for Sponsors