As many of you know, Toward has been delivering Team Coaching for 15 years and in the last 9 months, we’ve been able to successfully move all our delivery and methodology to on-line environments with supporting digital collateral.

In recent months, we’ve placed a strong emphasis on creating Psychological Safety in teams and supporting them to build the scaffolding to richly navigate these times.

One of the seven elements of Psychological Safety is ‘Accepting Diversity’ and is simply defined in the following way ‘Team members are not rejected for being different.’

Every now and then, we stumble across a team where the mannerisms, language, tone and exchanges seem disconcertingly similar. There are certain codes and permissions established which, instead of building rapport and safety, suppress the individual. Mostly, these environments are fear driven and individuals exist in the team with a perpetual (albeit low grade) sense of impending threat. In this environment, the leader is typically insecure and diversity is unwelcome and comes at a cost. This is a team of clones.

Recently, however, we worked with a team where we facilitated a session that required each team member to take a risk and disclose more about themselves than was typical. There was a high degree of vulnerability. There were some amazing and unique stories shared amongst the team and it was fascinating to observe an environment where diversity was welcomed openly.

And this diversity isn’t just about race, background and religion; it’s also about behaviour and thinking. One team member in particular talked about his Asperger's and how this affects his behaviour and how he organises his thoughts differently. He stated that he typically thinks differently about things, which means he sometimes has a contrary view and an awkward question.

In a team that is psychologically safe, this is viewed as an asset, not a threat. And rather than making this a transient, fleeting experience, wouldn’t it be good if this became the expectation; that the team would intentionally and authentically welcome diversity?

Some questions for you to consider about diversity are:

• How curious and reflective is your team?
• When was the last time you discussed something in your team that made you think differently?
• How do you talk about diversity in your team?
• Who rocks the boat in your team?

If you want to know more about our remote Team Coaching approach and offering, please get in touch.

The TOWARD Team