Decoding Team Dynamics: Discover Your Working Genius

Have you ever found yourself stuck in endless executive team meetings, rehashing the same topics without making any real progress? Or perhaps your team struggles to generate innovative ideas, only coming up with variations on the same theme? Maybe you've noticed that teams under your leadership launch countless initiatives but never seem to see them through to completion?

If you recognize these team dynamics in your own environment, you're not alone. Many leaders grapple with these frustrating and unproductive patterns, hindering collaboration and stifling the joy of work. But few leaders can pinpoint exactly why these issues persist.

The Hidden Key: Understanding Your Team's Working Genius

The secret to overcoming these challenges lies in understanding the dynamics created by your and your team's "Working Genius." This isn't just about your executive team; in fact, these dynamics often trickle down unnoticed throughout your entire organization.

The Working Genius model, developed by Patrick Lencioni, provides a framework for understanding individual strengths and work approaches, revealing the dynamics they create within teams. Each person has two working geniuses, two working competencies, and two working frustrations – innate "gifts" that shape how we approach work.

The Six Working Geniuses

1. Wonder: Those with this genius are driven by curiosity and questions, always seeking to understand why things are the way they are and if there's a better way. They initiate change by identifying opportunities for improvement.
2.  Invention: This genius thrives on creating new ideas and solutions, responding to the "wonderer" by developing innovative approaches to problems.
3. Discernment: People with this genius excel at evaluating ideas and instinctively know what will work. They collaborate closely with inventors, providing feedback and refining concepts.
4. Galvanizing: This genius inspires and mobilizes others around an idea, rallying support and driving action.
5. Enablement: This genius finds joy in supporting and assisting others, often anticipating needs and providing help in a way that respects individual autonomy.
6. Tenacity: People with this genius derive satisfaction from completing tasks, ensuring high standards, and achieving goals.

The Three Stages of Work

Any work, regardless of industry, involves three stages, each characterized by two types of working genius:

• Ideation: This initial stage, driven by wonder and invention, focuses on asking questions and generating new ideas and solutions.

• Activation: This crucial middle stage, often overlooked, involves discernment and galvanizing. It's about evaluating ideas, making necessary adjustments, and inspiring action.

• Implementation: This final stage, characterized by enablement and tenacity, ensures that ideas are executed effectively and brought to completion.

Why This Matters

Understanding your own and your team's working genius and the stages of work can significantly boost team productivity and well-being of team members.

• Alignment of Tasks with Strengths: By recognizing your working geniuses, you can focus on tasks that energize you and minimize those that drain you, leading to increased efficiency and job satisfaction.

• Effective Teamwork: Understanding each team member's genius allows for better task allocation and collaboration, ensuring that each stage of work is handled by those best suited for it.

• Improved Workflow: Awareness of the three stages of work ensures that no step is skipped, leading to smoother and more effective project execution.

• Enhanced Productivity: Viewing the six geniuses as sequential steps in any work process creates a powerful productivity tool.

• Increased Energy and Passion: Focusing on tasks that align with your working genius sustains your energy and enthusiasm.

• Reduced Burnout: Minimizing time spent on working frustrations helps prevent burnout.

• Better Problem-Solving: Diverse geniuses contribute unique perspectives, leading to more innovative and well-rounded solutions.

Revolutionize Your Meetings

Working Genius can also transform your meetings, ensuring they are more focused and productive. Different meeting types serve different purposes and are dominated by specific working geniuses:

• Brainstorm/Offsite Meetings: These meetings focus on identifying problems and exploring potential solutions, primarily involving wonder and invention (ideation).

• Solutions-Oriented/Ad Hoc Tactical Meetings: Geared towards developing and refining solutions to specific problems, these meetings are dominated by invention and discernment.

• Tactical/Bi-Weekly Staff Meetings: These meetings center on tracking progress and inspiring action, with a focus on galvanizing, enablement, and tenacity.

• Task-Oriented/Daily Standup Meetings: These brief check-ins prioritize tasks, allocate resources, and are primarily driven by tenacity.

Unlocking Your Team's Potential

By understanding meeting types and their dominant working geniuses, you can ensure the right people are involved and discussions stay on track. This leads to better alignment with meeting goals, focused discussions, effective participation, optimized resource allocation, improved decision-making, and enhanced teamwork.

Enhancing OKRs with the Working Genius Model

Adopting the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework enables teams to focus on ambitious, outcome-driven goals. However, the success of OKRs depends greatly on team dynamics and the ability to navigate the full cycle from ideation to implementation. This is where the Working Genius model becomes invaluable.

Aligning Working Genius with OKR Stages

The Working Genius model identifies six types of work-related strengths that influence how individuals contribute to team efforts. These geniuses align naturally with the three key stages of OKR progression:

1. Ideation (Wonder and Invention) 
   Setting impactful objectives requires curiosity and creative thinking. Team members with the "Wonder" genius ask critical questions about what could be improved or transformed. "Invention" geniuses then take these questions and craft innovative solutions and bold objectives.
2. Activation (Discernment and Galvanizing) 
   Once objectives and potential key results are identified, "Discernment" helps evaluate and refine these ideas, ensuring they are realistic and strategically sound. "Galvanizing" geniuses play a pivotal role in inspiring the team, mobilizing efforts, and securing commitment to the OKRs.
3. Implementation (Enablement and Tenacity) 
   Effective execution is essential. "Enablement" geniuses support the team by providing the necessary resources and encouragement, while "Tenacity" ensures tasks are completed with diligence and the desired outcomes are achieved within set timelines.

How Working Genius Enhances OKRs

• Strategic Alignment: Understanding each team member's genius allows for better alignment of responsibilities with strengths. This optimizes contributions at each stage of the OKR process, ensuring ideas remain ambitious yet achievable.

• Effective Meetings: Aligning meeting types with dominant geniuses (e.g., ideation-focused offsites led by Wonder and Invention geniuses) ensures that discussions are productive and goal-oriented.

• Enhanced Collaboration: Recognizing and respecting each other's working genius fosters better collaboration, minimizes friction, and ensures comprehensive execution of OKRs.

• Improved Problem-Solving: Leveraging diverse perspectives across the six geniuses leads to more innovative solutions and robust strategies for achieving key results.

• Sustained Motivation: When individuals focus on tasks aligned with their geniuses, engagement and motivation increase, driving momentum towards OKR success.

Transforming OKR Culture

The integration of Working Genius with OKRs doesn't just optimize goal-setting—it transforms team dynamics. It ensures that every voice is heard at the right time, every idea evaluated rigorously, and every initiative is carried through to completion. This creates a culture of alignment, efficiency, and shared accountability, elevating both the process and the outcomes of OKRs.

By leveraging the insights from the Working Genius model, teams can turn the OKR framework into a powerful, energizing force that drives sustainable success and fosters a more collaborative, innovative, and resilient work culture.

Conclusion

Your and your team members' working genius shapes your (executive) team's dynamics, decision-making processes, work culture, and overall success. By recognizing and leveraging these innate strengths, you can unlock your team's full potential, fostering a more productive, collaborative, and joyful workplace. 

Remember, leadership and team dynamics play a pivotal role in your company's overall success and sustainability. By harnessing the power of Working Genius, you can create a thriving and high-performing organization.