It’s been a privilege to observe

The Start-Up Weekend is an opportunity for individuals in the Tech Space to bring their ideas and dreams to fruition, and work as part of teams to bring the latest ‘hot idea’ to market.

But I don’t want to dwell on the details of the event, which can be found here. Instead, here are some take-homes for participants in the teams which (I hope!) prove to be helpful. Please don’t shoot the messenger!

4 Key Take-homes

1. Focus on the Business Concept first!

It was great to see so many talented individuals give so much passion to their projects on the Weekend. However… in many cases there seemed to be a huge disconnect between ‘great tech idea’ (and development) to something the customer actually wants, will use regularly, and will pay for.

Take-home: Start with the Business Concept first and make sure it’s juicy (we will follow up with a failsafe tool that helps you do exactly that – don’t miss out by subscribing here).

2. Network in the real world as well as in your teams

Yes yes I know… you’re working flat out on your project, often till 11pm at night. But if you do get a chance to break out – have a look at the other teams – what are they doing? – and try to network with the wealth of ability and experience around you…

3. Web programmers and developers – communicate!

What stood out to me as an outsider was the overwhelming pattern that every table seemed to adopt:

- The Marketing Idea guys and Business Concept owners, as well as the Finance Guys, did most of the talking

- The Design guys did some of the talking

- The Programmers and Developers sat there and waited to be told what to do!

Take-home: Programmers speak out! We need to know what you think! We need to know what you can do! Can you do more? Something else? Something similar… or different? Share your perspective! Communicate more!

4. Get your presentation straight!

Yeah yeah, you can always go on Presentation Talent! to improve the odds (big time!) But if you don’t have the means or the money to go on the programme, at least do the following:

- prepare your presentation using our free presentation planner here

- practise your presentation using white cards as cues

- and please… Tech Guys… please make sure your technology works!

Take-home: So many of the presentations were poorly delivered including demos the wrong way up, tech that failed, powerpoints that shuddered, and speeches that juddered that those that did get their presentations right effectively had a ‘free shot’ at Gold. Focus on benefits and not features, and do the above, and you’re half way there. Really.

Don’t miss out on our Start Up ‘One Pager’!

Tech guys – I know, I really know, how you struggle with ‘white space’ stuff like ‘customers’, ‘business models’ and ‘validation’.

So as well as our Marketing Model (available for free download here), I’ve come up with a ‘One Pager’ which I’ll be posting before the year’s out.

To be sure you get it, simply subscribe here and you’ll be notified when it’s made available!

Happy Start-Upping!

Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

]]> http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/ais-start-up-weekend/feed/ 0 http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/teambuilding-thai-thailand-%e0%b8%81%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a3%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%a3%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%87%e0%b8%97%e0%b8%b5%e0%b8%a1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=teambuilding-thai-thailand-%25e0%25b8%2581%25e0%25b8%25b2%25e0%25b8%25a3%25e0%25b8%25aa%25e0%25b8%25a3%25e0%25b9%2589%25e0%25b8%25b2%25e0%25b8%2587%25e0%25b8%2597%25e0%25b8%25b5%25e0%25b8%25a1 http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/teambuilding-thai-thailand-%e0%b8%81%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a3%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%a3%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%87%e0%b8%97%e0%b8%b5%e0%b8%a1/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:07:57 +0000 admin http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/?p=7636 Through our teambuilding sessions we run in Thailand and Asia, we have found that one factor above all determines whether a team will survive… or fail.

That factor is Trust.

This may not come as a huge surprise to those of you who lead business teams or workgroups. And gaining trust in Thailand can be notoriously difficult. Absence of Trust can lead to huge issues at work – from widespread cover-ups, lying, face-saving and non-co-operation – or even passive and active resistance. So getting this factor right is absolutely essential.

What to look out for

Even when we run our teambuilding sessions, it’s rare that one individual falls 100% in the ‘Trust completely’ or ‘Don’t Trust completely’ camp. Instead, Trust is a matter of degrees, and it’s specific to individuals. Stephen Covey, in his book Managing at the Speed of Trust, writes of a ‘Trust Bank’ where deposits and withdrawals between individuals are being made by the second.

So teams and companies are essentially a huge mesh of relationships, all with different levels of Trust.

How trusting are the members in your team? Here is a list of ‘low trust’ and ‘high trust’ behaviours to look out for:

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These are just 5 examples of ‘make or break’ behaviours in the ‘Trust Bank’, and we can see culturally how many biases there are (unfortunately) to the behaviours in the left hand column in Thailand and indeed other countries in Asia. Risk aversion is just one trait that, so often, leads to the truth being ‘covered up’, decisions being avoided, and gossip being used as a tool to manage uncomfortable situations.

So what can managers and companies do to build ‘High Trust’ teams?

Teambuilding is part of a manager’s JD

Teambuilding and team development are part of a manager’s JD (job description) – and not only in Thailand and Asia.

The great news is that these skills (building trust is just one of them) are applicable anywhere in the world. This is because the skills are anchored in human emotions which are universal. In short, effective teambuilding transcends cultural factors.

However the elements of effective teambuilding are so complex that they are beyond most managers, which is why it’s often helpful to have a total solution that does that for you.

Here at Talent Technologies, we believe we have such a ‘total solution’ which is the world’s #1 bestselling teambuilding programme. Developed with multi-year research into thousands of different business teams worldwide, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team saves managers months and possibly years of ‘trial and error’ teambuilding with a neat, 2 day teambuilding experience which we offer exclusively in Thailand as well as in the Asia Pacific region.

…Why not give it a go in your company?

If you’re interested in finding out more, why not have a look at the programme outline here in English and here in Thai, or contact us for full details following the link below?

…In the meantime, happy teambuilding!

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Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

]]> http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/teambuilding-thai-thailand-%e0%b8%81%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a3%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%a3%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%87%e0%b8%97%e0%b8%b5%e0%b8%a1/feed/ 0 http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/leaders-thailand-%e0%b8%a0%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a7%e0%b8%b0%e0%b8%9c%e0%b8%b9%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%b3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=leaders-thailand-%25e0%25b8%25a0%25e0%25b8%25b2%25e0%25b8%25a7%25e0%25b8%25b0%25e0%25b8%259c%25e0%25b8%25b9%25e0%25b9%2589%25e0%25b8%2599%25e0%25b8%25b3 http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/2011/12/leaders-thailand-%e0%b8%a0%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a7%e0%b8%b0%e0%b8%9c%e0%b8%b9%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%b3/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:36:59 +0000 admin http://www.talent-technologies.com/new/?p=7573 ‘What should we work on first – our leaders or our teams?’ is a question we have been asked a lot recently, especially in Thailand.

And the question is a very valid one, since companies are trying to upgrade the capabilities of their teams and leaders at the same time. But is there an order in which this should be done?

Often, clients will note that ‘leadership’ is the gap that needs most urgent attention in their companies, and thus prioritise training this specific skill set.

But so often, this ‘direct’ approach backfires in Asia. Let me explain why.

Leaders are only as good as their… teams

We’re probably all familiar with the movies where a charismatic leader is able to inspire his or her team to heroic efforts. And, given that most of these movies originate in America, it’s not hard to discern the very individualistic strain that runs through them.

The Anglo-Saxon concept of leadership tends to glorify this type of leader. Think of Maximus (played by Russell Crowe) in Gladiator, or Mel Gibson’s character in Braveheart. It’s easy to be seduced by such chest-thumping examples of leaders.

However research conducted by the world’s leading cross-cultural authority, Geert Hofstede, should serve as a caution to companies wishing to use Leadership as a starting point for their management training. This is because his very extensive research has discovered that most Asian countries don’t share this individualistic concept of leadership. In fact, they are as a whole more collective or ‘group oriented’ in character (those interested can see the difference between individualism and collectivism here, as well as the data for select countries).

What this tells us is that people from countries with high collectivist orientation prefer to move forward as a group, rather than as a number of individuals.

Why fight when you can flow?

Last week The Daily Reckoning proposed a new theory of government. It goes as follows – ‘I can’t lead. And I don’t want to follow.’

This struck a chord with us here at Talent Technologies, because it’s a mode of thought that is becoming increasingly prevalent here in Asia.

More and more professionals – especially those in the Gen Y category – don’t want to lead, and also don’t want to follow. Or rather, don’t want to follow in the traditional sense of following rules and regulations, and bosses etc.

Yet this group of professionals do seem to work more effectively as part of a team – when a team is formed. The problem is, as we saw in a previous post of ours here – teams are actually a rarity in Asia. ‘Groups’ predominate, but a group is not a team.

Given this, does it really make more sense to go from group to team, or group to leader, first?

Teams must come first…

From our experience teams must come first. This is not only because the step from group to team as opposed to group to leader, outlined above, is the more natural one. And this is not only because Gen Y tend to be serial responsibility-shirkers.

It’s also because the conceptual gap – i.e. the number of concepts and behaviours required to ‘change’ to ‘become a leader’ are so many that it’s no surprise that most leadership training programmes fail miserably to achieve their goals.

And most of all it’s because – and please note this carefully – that the medium of a strong team itself makes the work of leadership easy!

In other words, get the team right, and you won’t have to lead (so much!)

If you’re thinking of developing your team, then look no further than the world’s #1 team development programme here. And, once you’ve put your team through that, why not work on the stuff of leadership in this award-winning training programme – The Leadership Challenge?

Happy teamwork, and happy leading!

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Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

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Collaboration of course is critical – not only in Thailand but in any organisation that requires sustainable, long-term performance. And with the increase of complexity as the rate of change among industries accelerates, and the demands at work become ever larger, collaborating in teams is only going to become more important and more valuable for organisations going forward.

A Group is not a Team

The first, critical concept we would like to share with you – and one that trips up so many potential teams in Asia – is that a group is not a team.

Yet, being born and raised in a group or ‘collective’ culture, many Thais will find it harder to differentiate between what is a ‘group’ and what is a ‘team’. Accustomed to doing things together and collectively, many will assume that this is indeed ‘team’ behaviour.

And expats, many coming from more individualistic cultures (like America, Britain and many other countries in Europe), will also see this type of bonding as being very different to the individualistic behaviours they are accustomed to, and may also assume that this is evidence of team behaviour.

Within these two perceptions lie the seeds of team underperformance in Thailand (and, we would venture, in other collective cultures too.)

Define ‘Team’…

Most professionals would probably agree with Katzenberg and Smith’s definition that

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”

Here’s where the difficulty lies in collective cultures. While many find it easy doing things together they may fall into to the following traps (especially in Thailand):

1. There is no structured process of discovery of what ‘complementary skills’ each team member may have. In reality, survival in a collective culture means that complementary personalities are more important.

2. ‘Commitment to a common purpose’ – This is the crux of the dilemma in collective cultures. The ‘common purpose’ is the group. This perhaps explains why Japan has spent so long (two decades now) in recession. It could never sort out its root problems because doing so would have upset various ‘groups’. The pain of loss has, in other words, been preferable to the pain of challenging these groups.

3. ‘Performance goals’ – Now we’re really in deep! What performance goals matter more in groups than popularity and ‘fitting in’? Yet, among teams, we know that there are always goals that transcend these – if we care to search, and dare to dream!

4. ‘Mutually accountable’. Wait a minute – groups are by their nature accountable, aren’t they? But to what, exactly? To answer this question we need to understand…

How not to fall out with The Group

…Remember Mr Bean?

He’s the one we all found funny because of his wild and whacky behaviours. But why are these behaviours so funny? It’s because of how we, as humans, have evolved and  survived since the time of Cro-Magnon man.

So if you don’t want to be like Mr Bean and you do want to survive in ‘the group’, you simply need to learn how to do three things:

1. Don’t break the ‘rules’ of behaviour.
2. Don’t be or appear to be incompetent or clumsy.
3. Don’t be or appear to be unattractive.

In these three factors we have the real ‘purpose’ of groups. However, this ‘purpose’ isn’t going to get your company very far, or deliver your company’s purpose of profits, sales, or market share.

To do so in Asia your people need to learn that…

To become a Team we need to sacrifice the Group

Don’t stare up the steps, step up the stairs!

You see that list above, of the three things we need to do to survive in a group?

These are deep, unconscious drivers that are at the very root of our evolutionary survival of which most of us are unaware. These drivers are extremely powerful.

However, as the saying goes what got us here won’t necessarily get us there.

Becoming aware of these factors are the first step for the group to becoming a team.

What are the other steps?

Well, following his research, Patrick Lencioni in his bestselling booking Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team identified them as:

1. Being able to gain and maintain Trust (a massive factor)
2. Being able to manage Conflict (note that Groups tend to avoid conflict)
3. Being able to gain and maintain Commitment to a shared vision.
4. Being able to embrace Accountability (note that Groups, in order to maintain ‘harmony’ will tend to escape accountability to avoid conflict).
5. Being able to define and manage Results (note that Groups won’t do this, because it again threatens the ‘harmony’ central to their existence).

The above are the five simple steps individuals need to take and reinforce to go from a ‘Group’ to a ‘Team’. (You can see a graphic of the model here).

But why not just stay as a Group???

Confronted with anything that looks like ‘hard work’ or ‘change’, many people will ask a very logical question. Why not just stay as we are? Why not just stay as a Group?

And it seems so easy to do so.

That is the choice that needs to be made. But the ‘easy’ choice is, longer term, usually the more painful one. This is because:

Groups survive, but Teams strive and thrive.

So if surviving is your thing, stay as a group. Repeat all the mistakes that groups make. Live in the pain of conflict avoidance and below-the-surface tensions. And enjoy the politics.

But if striving and thriving is your thing, then begin on the path to forming and growing a team. Because on this path lies personal fulfilment, enjoyment, excitement and real, meaningful achievement.

How to build a Team in your organisation

If you are bored of all the team problems and would like to collaborate more effectively in your organisation, then why not run the world’s most recognised team development programme Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of Teams?

The programme can be run in Thai and English and gives your colleagues the tools to step up the stairs, rather than staring up the steps.

You can see the programme details here or why not request full details by simply filling out our ‘Contact Us’ form here.

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Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

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Using the world’s most popular team development workshop, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Talent Technologies’ MBTI programme makes it easy to further team performance following the five stages of development shown below:

Overcoming one major team derailer – Fear of Conflict

Managers in Thailand know all too well the paralysing effect fear of conflict has on team performance.

People familiar with MBTI will know that, according to Carl Jung, humans fall somewhere on the spectrum of being ‘Thinkers’ or ‘Feelers’, as per the graphic below.

Using MBTI and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team together, it’s easy to build understanding – and learn the techniques – of how to overcome this fear. Here’s one example below that helps participants connect more effectively with others depending on whether they are more naturally ‘Thinkers’ or ‘Feelers’ on the MBTI scale.

What you can do now

If you would like to find out more about how MBTI can help your team grow in Thailand, then why not read more about Personality Factor or simply contact us following the link to our form below:

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Ask us about Personality Factor here >>>

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Talent Technologies :: Producing Change

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Given that building a strong team is essential for management success, why do so many teams fail, or, more often, wallow in aimless mediocrity, never able quite being able to fulfil their potential?

This has long been a subject of interest for us here at Talent Technologies, and, with the benefit of the most modern scientific techniques (including MRI and PET scanning technology) as well as observations drawn from hundreds of work teams, we believe that we have identified some key factors that lead to high-performing teams.

Understanding constituent problem-solving styles is one, knowing colleagues’ strengths and playing to them is another. In this post, we will look more closely at the importance of roles.

What Roles are – and are not

Roles are confusing things that seem always to change. They form the theme for our minds as to how we work, like a template when we build a model from a kit.

It’s for this reason that understanding roles is really important for team members.

Before we begin, let’s (at least) be clear on what roles are not. Roles are not responsibilities, which are the individual set of tasks that we need to perform on a job or as part of a team. Those responsibilities, however, can easily become part of a different role.

Here’s the problem, then. Roles come in all different shapes and sizes, often develop into expectations (either ours or those of others) and, probably most difficult of all, are rarely talked about because there is a lack of vocabulary to do so.

Think about that last point – there is no vocabulary to do so. Imagine for one moment building a model toy from a kit where all the parts do not have a name – that is the same as asking group members to come together and form a team without having any vocabulary.

Now, are we surprised if most teams are subsequently dysfunctional?

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Ladies and gentlemen… the Vocabulary!

Communication between individuals happens on all sorts of different planes. However, sometimes it helps to be able to articulate not only what teams are aiming to achieve, but also how to achieve it.

Those of you familiar with Six Sigma may know of the GRPI framework. GRPI is an acronym for:

G – Goals

R – Roles

P – Process

I – Interpersonal

This is a start. On the ‘R’ letter, we will look at the often-confusing ‘Role’ element.

Team roles

Please look at the image attached (also downloadable here in pdf format).

Each team may have as many as 7 roles that lead to the execution of responsibilities. Usually, though, teams tend to reduce to fewer and fewer of these roles as individuals gravitate towards the convenience the comfort zone of working with familiar types brings as opposed to the dynamism of having different types on a team.

This is a mistake. As Stephen Covey has said, Strong teams are not about similarities, but differences.

How diverse is your team? If your team does not have at least three of the following, the chances are, it is not performing effectively over time?

And how clear are the roles? If these roles are unclear then disengagement could be setting in…

The Creator is always looking to innovate with new ideas, new products, new processes. He or she works typically ‘out of the box’. The Creator’s value is not always in contributing all the time, nor in being ‘right’ all the time, but in occasionally making highly valuable discoveries, or ‘strategic game changers’.

The Explorer or Experimenter works within a scope to improve products and processes. Like the Creator, the Explorer will be happy making mistakes, understanding these to be part of a development process.

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The Driver is not fazed by pushback or failure and excels at pushing through a project to completion. The Driver will often collaborate with all the team members in order to achieve the team’s goals.

The Facilitator finds himself or herself most valued in larger teams or organisations. The facilitator will often take a plan formulated by the Experimenter or Driver, and by working with all people in the team, achieve alignment on it.

The Organiser really comes to the fore in larger teams and organisations. The organiser collaborates with team members to ensure that schedules and processes align and that the ‘nitty gritty’ is executed on.

The Completer or Processor is a more functional role. Completers work well with fixed, repeatable tasks and like to make sure these are executed on consistently and without variability.

The Evaluator takes a ‘structured’ view of an existing business unit or team and checks to ensure that everything is as it ‘should’ be. The Evaluator will often be a Quality Controller or sometimes a consultant, grounding the team in fixed processes.

Which type are you?

Individuals sometimes have more than one of these ‘natural roles’.

If you would like to find out your role and how to put it to work most effectively as part of the team, then why not discover the difference Talent Factor can make to your team?

For full programme details, simply send us a message using the link below.

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Please send me more details on Talent Factor >>>

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Talent Technologies :: Producing Change

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This week’s Talent Talk

For those of you who haven’t heard of the group before, they shot to international fame with the imaginative Ford advertisement, and then more recently, the Hyundai ad here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF80RqLkl6E

The dance troupe regularly puts on stunning displays of choreographic skill, and we’re certain that it will only be a matter of time before this kind of human ‘puppetry’ dance will make an appearance in Thailand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1SXksic0xk

What does this all mean for teams and managers?

Enough of the eulogies. Is there anything here that teams and managers can put to use in their workplace? Here at Talent Technologies, we think there is.

A great team performance is always the result of a number of individual practices. in no particular order, here are some take-homes from Pilobolus, in our preferred ‘Head, Heart and Hand‘ context:

Take-home #1 (Head) - Now and Next

To collaborate effectively, the Pilobolus performers need to be constantly thinking about what their own movement is now, and what their own movement is going to be next. These two mindsets form the basis for the performance.

Performers then need to think what their colleagues’ performance is meant to be and then is, and then react accordingly (note the difference – mistakes do happen even after countless rehearsals!)

Q&A – Can your colleagues answer this question: ‘What challenges in your own words are we facing now? What challenges do you think we may be facing next?’

Take-home #2 (Heart) - Playing to Strengths

If you think all the performers in the videos have identical strengths, you’re likely to be mistaken.

The fact of the matter – even in dance – is that some performers are naturally ‘better’ at certain genres, in certain roles, and in certain acts.

The #1 practice of the director is to make sure each performer is playing to his or her strengths. For a manager, it is no different.

This factor is so critical in management yet is almost overlooked. Not playing your colleagues’ to their strengths undermines commitment and engagement. It is a performance-destroyer. Discover your colleagues’ strengths and you will not have to manage!

Q&A – Ask your colleagues this question: ‘Which of the tasks you have done in the last week/month did you enjoy most? Can you tell me why?’

Take-home #3 (Hand) - Practise… practise…

Identifying an individual’s strengths is one part of the performance equation. The other part is practice.

Performance = Strengths + Skills + Situation

 As Peter Drucker wrote in the Effective Executive:

“The effective executive builds on strengths – their own strengths, the strengths of superiors, colleagues, subordinates and the strengths of the situation.”

There are no shortcuts to fashioning a great performance through practise – except practise itself!

What you can do now

If you’re interested in discovering what your strengths really are – then why not have a look at Talent Factor, our one-day programme that is a must-have for anyone in management?

Or, if you would like to go straight into team development, then we recommend the world’s most popular team development programme, Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

We promise that both of these programmes will help you collaborate more effectively within your teams and… who knows… even get you dancing to work like Pilobolus!

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Please send me more details >>>

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Talent Technologies :: Producing Change

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The talk looked at the essential components of teamwork and steps team constituents could take to improve team effectiveness and productivity.

The slides in pdf format from the presentation of The 3 Essential Building Blocks of Highly-Effective Teams are here

The article in pdf format ‘Has Thailand Really Got Talent?’ can be downloaded here.

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Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

Delivered by Talent Technologies’ MD Nicholas Henley, The Three Essential Building Blocks of Highly-Effective Teams is a snappy, interactive briefing into what team leaders need to do in order to encourage productive teamwork in Thailand.

The briefing is run in conjunction with the Australian Chamber of Commerce. Participants will discover:

• The three most critical building blocks of effective teams
• What managers and team leaders can do to promote teamwork in the three areas
• The rules top teams break in their path to greater effectiveness
• An Action Plan for derailed teams

Date & Time: 29th March 2011 07:30

Location: Australian Chamber of Commerce office, Sathorn Road, Bangkok

Bookings can be made via this link

The talk incorporates video and multimedia with examples from real teams. We look forward to seeing you there!

Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

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This is not as easy as it seems, however, as our strengths have little to do with our academic background. Instead, we need to know and identify our talents, which, as Drucker observed over 40 years ago, most managers have little idea of.

The development of the Highlands Ability Battery has been a breakthrough in this area. Here’s one aspect of team development which we use in our one day Talent Factor management training programme.

Circles, Squares, Triangles

One of the key challenges strong teams overcome is being able to integrate individuals’ different problem-solving styles.

Again, this has nothing to do with academic background or experience, but talent. As the 90 years of research behind the Highlands Ability Battery has shown, an individual’s problem solving style is hardwired or ‘innate’. So, if we are to build strong teams, it’s essential to identify this style in all the team constituents and then integrate them.

Problem-solving styles can be broken broadly into three main groups: Circles, Squares, and Triangles.

Each of us has a bias to one of these styles, and sometimes to a lesser degree two. But it’s rare that we should have a style incorporating all three: hence the need for a team.

Circles explained

Circle types like gathering information holistically before arriving at a decision or plan of action. They tend to be naturally strategic in approach and will need to see the ‘big picture’. Circles tend to be visionaries.

Squares explained

Squares like things in boxes! They will naturally classify or organise the information before them and make a decision. They tend to do this  methodically (layer by layer, collecting detail).

The strength of Squares lies in their ability to formulate or work to a process, or in a structure. Circles have difficulty with this. However Squares are sometimes prone not being able to ‘think outside the box’, which is where Circles come in.

Triangles explained

Triangles like results! Triangles are execution-focussed, and prefer action to thought. They like ‘management by numbers’ and results. This style is essential to drive vision into reality. These people are doers.

Which style are you?

Each of us has a problem-solving style with a leaning towards either Circle, Square or Triangle.

Some of us have more than one style. For example, Warren Buffett might be considered a ‘Big Square, and Small Triangle’. Another person might be ‘a Small Circle, and Big Triangle’.

It’s not difficult to see that building strong teams is a process of combining all three types. However, as discussed in this post, since many companies have difficulty integrating different talent sets in their cultures, teams are often starved of different types, leading in many cases to disastrous decisions, as well as customer and employee engagement issues on a deeper level.

How you can build strong teams in your company

If you’re interested in team building in your company, then Talent Factor will help you identify objectively the problem-solving styles in your team, and follow a process leading to on-the-job team excellence.

Details of Talent Factor can be found following the link below:

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Find out more about Talent Factor here >>>

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Talent Technologies :: Taking your Talent to a Higher Level

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