Module 5

Building and Leading Resilient Teams Module 5 dated 3-30-2023

Next update summer 2024.

Building and Leading Resilient Teams: Module 5

Module 5: Increase the team’s ability to solve problems and overcome challenges by facilitating team learning (part 2).

When people work together as a team, they create shared experiences that they can learn from. As a leader, you are expected to facilitate this experiential learning process. Learning is how teams solve problems and overcome challenges. You can lead the learning process by ensuring that your team is constantly reflecting on its past and present experiences to assess performance and find ways to improve. As your team develops new ideas for improvement and change, you will need to approve and prioritize those ideas. Most importantly, it’s your responsibility to make sure these ideas get put into action, tested, and validated. Some ideas will work; some will not. Either way, team learning has occurred.

Why build and lead resilient teams?

Collective resilience is the team’s ability to overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together because of that adversity. Resilient teams are the key to both individual and organizational resilience. Resilient teams are stronger together and they make learning and change possible.

This module consists of two “at home” assignments (6 hours) that must be completed prior to the facilitated discussion (1-3 hours). Completing the preparatory assignments is essential for engaged participation in the facilitated discussion.

Learning Objectives for Facilitate Team Learning (Modules 4 and 5)

Assignment 1. Learn the following key terms and ideas. Knowing these key terms and ideas is essential to understanding the concepts that support each leader task in this module. (0.5 hours)

Key Terms and Ideas

Constructive dialogue is psychologically safe discussion between people of varying opinions and perspectives that seeks to develop understanding about important and complicated issues.
Psychological safety is the feeling or belief that you can share thoughts, opinions, and ideas freely without fear of damaging your reputation or standing.
Adaptive thinking is the ability to recognize unexpected situations, quickly consider various possible responses, and make an appropriate decision.
Advocacy is promoting or defending an idea, plan, or way of doing something.
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be documented, stored, and easily shared with others.
Tacit knowledge is subjective knowledge gained from personal experience that is stored in a person’s memory.
Mental model is a conceptual framework used to relate knowledge, attribute meaning, and shape our understanding and expectations of the work environment.
Single-loop learning is problem-solving by changing strategies and techniques to avoid mistakes and improve efficiency in existing systems.
Double-loop learning is about surfacing, challenging, and ultimately building new mental models.

Assignment 2. Reflect on your unique leader/follower experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts below. Consider ALL the reflection questions, prepare notes, and be ready to discuss during the facilitated discussion. The reading is provided to help you gain a better understanding of the leader tasks and concepts. The reading will also prompt critical reflection on your leader/follower experience. (5.5 hours)

Note to Students and Instructors: The reading for each leader task is updated routinely. Articles added in the last 30 days are marked (new). Instructors may assign additional reading or relevant videos at their discretion.

Collective resilience is the team’s ability to overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together because of that adversity. As you work through this module, consider the following question. How does facilitating team learning build collective resilience?

Leader Tasks and Concepts

3. Encourage constructive dialogue.

Constructive dialogue is essential for understanding the team’s shared experience. Constructive dialogue is how teams progress through the experiential learning cycle together. Constructive dialogue is psychologically safe discussion between people of varying opinions and perspectives that seeks to develop understanding about important and complicated issues.

Is your team able to engage in constructive dialogue? If not, why not?

Psychological safety is the feeling or belief that you can share thoughts, opinions, and ideas freely without fear of damaging your reputation or standing. Trust and mutual respect are the foundations of psychological safety.

How would you rate the psychological safety of your team? Could it improve?
Do you personally feel psychologically safe at work? If not, why not?
How does creating a positive climate and developing cohesion promote psychological safety?

Psychological safety promotes adaptive thinking. Adaptive thinking is the ability to recognize unexpected situations, quickly consider various possible responses, and make an appropriate decision.

How would you rate yourself on adaptive thinking?
Is your team good at adaptive thinking together?

In constructive dialogue, active listening is complemented by advocacy. Advocacy is promoting or defending an idea, plan, or way of doing something. Team members must be willing to take a stand and advocate for their ideas.

How would you rate yourself at advocating for your ideas? Could you improve?
Are some members of your team better at advocating for ideas than others? If so, why?

Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be documented, stored, and easily shared with others. Tacit knowledge is subjective knowledge gained from personal experience that is stored in a person’s memory. Constructive dialogue allows tacit knowledge to surface and transfer from one person to another.

How important is tacit knowledge in your line of work?
How would you rate your ability to communicate tacit knowledge to others?
Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for encouraging constructive dialogue?

Reading:

Psychological Safety at Work

Redefining and Reinforcing Psychological Safety

How Psychological Safety Can Transform Your Organization

The Management Value of “Psychological Safety”

How to Lead When You’re Not the Boss

A Fly on the Wall in a Fearless Organization

Active Listening Skills

4. Build new mental models.

As teams work together over time, they develop shared mental models built on experience and training. A mental model is a conceptual framework used to relate knowledge, attribute meaning, and shape our understanding and expectations of the work environment. Shared mental models improve team performance by enabling team members to accurately describe, predict, and explain the team’s expected behaviors and actions.

How important are shared mental models in your line of work?
Does your team share mental models about how to do things together in the workplace?
Would you describe your team as being “on the same page” most of the time at work?
In your experience, how do shared mental models help teams solve problems and overcome challenges? Explain.

Shared mental models are not identical. Instead, they are compatible and complementary. Shared mental models enable better coordination, cooperation, and communication. Shared mental models enhance the team’s ability to solve problems, improve, and innovate. Teams that share mental models make better collective decisions.

Has your team’s ability to coordinate, cooperate, and communicate improved over time?
Is your team more effective and efficient in the workplace because of shared mental models?
In your experience, how important are shared mental models for during times of adversity? Explain.

Change sometimes requires people and teams to build new mental models. In a dynamic environment where change is constant, people must routinely adapt to new plans, policies, processes, and procedures. Change is inevitable. When mental models are entrenched (not a bad thing), it makes change much more difficult, and this is why change is usually resisted.

Have you ever heard… “That’s not how we do it here” or “That will never work here” in the workplace?
How would you rate yourself at embracing change in the workplace?
How would you rate your team at embracing change in the workplace?

Single-loop learning is problem-solving by changing strategies and techniques to avoid mistakes and improve efficiency in existing systems. In single-loop learning, mental models do not change, and decision-making rules remain the same.

What problem did your team recently solve that required single-loop learning?

Double-loop learning is about surfacing, challenging, and ultimately building new mental models. In double-loop learning, mental models do change and so the rules for making decisions must also change.

What problem did your team recently solve that required double-loop learning?
In your experience, is double-loop learning more difficult?

Change is not always about fixing something that is broken. Often, change is about taking something good and making it even better.

Have you ever heard… “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” in the workplace?
Based on your experience, why do you think change is so often resisted in the workplace?
Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for building new mental models?

Reading:

The Mental Model Matrix

Double Loop Learning

Keep Me in the Loop

Amplify Learning In Your Team With More Double-Loop Learning

Double Trouble

Facilitated discussion. Be prepared to discuss your experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts above. The facilitated discussion is the key to successful learning because it ensures you have a thorough understanding of applicable factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural (how) knowledge relevant to each leader task.

Note about certification exams. Front-line supervisors that sit for the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional (RBLP) certification exam are assessed on the leader tasks covered in Modules 1-3 only. Middle managers that sit for the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Coach (RBLP-C) certification exam are assessed on the leader tasks covered in Modules 1-5 only. Senior leaders that sit for the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) certification exam are assessed on the leader tasks covered in Modules 1-7.

Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc. owns the copyright to this curriculum and licenses the curriculum to Authorized Education Partners (AEP), Authorized Training Partners (ATP), and Authorized Learning and Development Partners (AL&DP) on a royalty-free, no-fee basis for their use in providing education and training programs to students and customers. The license permits the AEP or ATP to re-publish and distribute the curriculum materials to students, customers, faculty, and staff, so long as the copyright notices included in the materials are kept intact and not removed or altered. An AEP or ATP may modify and alter the materials within the spirit of the content of the materials as they see fit. According to this license, an AEP or ATP may not sell the materials. By using, publishing, and/or distributing the curriculum, you agree to this license.

Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc. also licenses the curriculum to current Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) certification holders on a royalty-free, no-fee basis for their use in providing one-on-one training only at no cost for up to five family, friends, or coworkers per calendar year. This license strictly prohibits the re-publishing, modification, or alteration of the curriculum materials. According to this license, the RBLP-T certification holder may not sell the materials. By using and/or distributing the curriculum, you agree to this license.

“RBLP”, “Resilience-Building Leadership Professional”, “Learn More. Lead Better.”, and the RBLP shield logo are registered trademarks of Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc.