Transcript: Fantastic Teams: Why Flourishing Is a “We,” Not a “Me” // Jay Bransford, Best Christian Workplaces

Jay: One thing, I think, Rob, that distinguishes a fantastic team from an average team is not whether disagreements happen, but how disagreements are handled and responded to.

Narrator: This is the Called To Flourish Podcast, where leaders and cultures grow.

Robert: Welcome to the Called To Flourish Podcast, where leaders and cultures grow. Today we have back again on the podcast our very own CEO and President at Best Christian Workplaces, Jay Bransford, with us. Welcome to the podcast, Jay.

Jay: Thanks, Rob. Great to be back with you.

Robert: Absolutely. We’ve got a special program and topic today. We’ll be talking about Fantastic Teams, and just to set the stage, if you are not as familiar with Best Christian Workplaces, we have a proprietary research-backed model to measure the health and engagement of a workplace culture. We have been partnering with the Industrial and Organizational Psychology Department at Seattle Pacific University for many years. Back in the day, as we started this research and this journey, we asked the question: What makes an exceptional Christian workplace? By leaning into the experts in this field, developing this proprietary model, it landed eight clusters, or what we call drivers.

That is where the acronym, FLOURISH, comes from. Each letter in that acronym represents one of the drivers. We will be starting a series of conversations with Jay to go through each of those, because they are each so important and there is so much rich insight to empower and equip leaders as you are seeking to build a healthy, flourishing workplace culture. Today, Jay, we’re going to talk about F – Fantastic Teams, which is really the concept of “we,” not “me.” It’s about teamwork and collaboration and really the engine of driving a flourishing, healthy workplace culture. And so, as we kick this off, I’d love to just – we want to hear from you in kind of, maybe at a practical level. I’d love to start with the question, why? Why are teams so important? Not just individual leaders, but the foundation of how teams are the building block of a healthy, flourishing organization. Talk to us about the importance of Fantastic Teams.

Jay: Yeah. Love it, Rob. Thanks. And I agree. I think talking about why teams are important is a great place to start. Rob, as you know, flourishing was never designed by God to be a solo endeavor. Because if we look at it from a Biblical perspective, we know really clearly, we all know from God’s initial creation of man that He did not intend for humans to be alone or even to work alone. Right. God was really clear about that at the very beginning of creation when He said in Genesis 2:18, He said, “It is not good for a man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” We see that right from the very beginning. Really, by doing so, God not only really established a pattern for marriage in doing that, but He established a pattern for general companionship that we are not meant to be alone. We are meant to be with God and with others. I think, Rob, it’s helpful to also step back and remember the why behind God creating mankind at all. In Genesis 1:26, and I know we talked about this in our very first episode that came out recently, but I’ll paraphrase God here. From Genesis 1 God says: Let us make mankind in our own image so that they may take care of and rule over all of His creation.

I’d like to emphasize here that God’s original intent was for humans, and really for all of His creation, to flourish, to grow, to multiply, and to produce much good fruit, and of course, Rob, that’s why we named this podcast, Called To Flourish. It’s our focus on what we can do as leaders to help us accomplish God’s will and His purpose, both as individuals, but also as Christian-led organizations who all have a calling and a purpose to flourish.

So, getting back to your original question here, Rob, God has always intended for humans to be together and to work together. We see God in the Bible consistently working through people in community, through people who are aligned around a shared purpose. When I look at Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, it says, “Two are better than one, because if either one of them falls down, one can help the other up.” And then it goes on to say later, “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Right. I think of Nehemiah 4. It talks about how the Israelites rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls through incredible bravery, but also through incredible collaboration together, against all odds. They did an amazing thing, working together, right.

But really, Rob, I think probably my favorite piece of Scripture that talks about the incredible power of teamwork comes from the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, and we all know that story, of course. It’s about God’s people deciding to work together to build a tower that reached to heaven in order to make a name for themselves. But what I find fascinating about that story is actually the reason that God gave for stopping them from doing so. So, if you remember, God actually said, in that situation He said: If as one people, speaking the same language, if as one people, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Of course, God is basically saying that if they work together in perfect unity, then nothing will be impossible for them. Wow! That, to me, is just, that’s the ultimate power and potential of teamwork right there, from God’s own mouth, right. It’s also why it’s so incredibly important for leaders to measure and to strengthen the level of teamwork within their organizations because unified teams, God said, can potentially accomplish anything.

So, at Best Christian Workplaces when we talk about the engagement driver that we call Fantastic Teams, we’re really describing a Biblical concept, and it’s really basically the extent to which people work together in unity to accomplish great things. And it’s not just how well they work within their own departments, but it’s also how well they work across the entire organization and across departments toward a common vision.

I think fantastic teams require, like you said, Rob, a shift in the mindset from “me” to “we,” and that we can accomplish together, what we can accomplish together, is far greater than what we can accomplish individually.

Again, Rob, as you know, our research at Best Christian Workplaces shows that flourishing cultures don’t happen just because you have one strong, visionary leader or even because you have a few, a handful, of high performers. But instead, flourishing cultures happen when people are aligned and clear on the mission and the purpose and when they’re committed and unified to work together. So, teams that flourish, communicate openly, they openly disagree with each other, and they do so courageously and respectfully. They leverage one another’s strengths, and they truly understand that their success is shared.

And, of course, on the contrary, when teams are unhealthy, when people operate in silos or focus only on their individual tasks or success, then flourishing stalls. But again, Rob, when teams are healthy, momentum builds, people feel connected to the mission, they feel connected to each other, and they feel connected to the work that God has called them to do.

Robert: So much there, Jay. When you started out talking about God’s – really His nature – let us make man in Our image, immediately I’m thinking, our – well, who’s we? And I think most theologians would tie that statement, that Scripture to the pluralistic nature of God. In other words, God is one. We know that from Scripture, that God is one, but He also speaks of Himself in a pluralistic way, that there’s a triune nature to God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So, community has existed for eternity. A team, if you will, has, in that sense, existed for eternity, so I love that you tied that into – that God’s design is for teams to work together. It’s His design, and of course, when that happens to the max, where there’s unity, there is the team functioning well together, nothing is impossible. What an encouragement and what a powerful reminder of how important teams are and nourishing them, cultivating them, and how intrinsic it is to the impact that we’re going to have as an organization.

Well, so of course, the problem with teams, if we’re going to talk about a problem, is this idea of conflict as you bring in imperfect people, right. People have imperfections. We all do. I think that probably since the beginning of time of creation, when you bring two people together, at some point, there’s going to be a disagreement. At some point, there’s going to be a different perspective. At some point, there is going to be some type of tension or conflict. That’s kind of the other side of teams and what we know at Best Christian Workplaces is that trust is really, kind of, the currency of healthy teams. Every team’s going to have conflict. The question is: How do we navigate that tension? How do we work through that. So, I think if there are leaders listening, they’re either dealing with a team conflict or will deal with a team conflict, or have dealt with one.

I’d love for just your insights, not only from, you know, our data and all of that, but just any experience that you have, any guidance, encouragement you could give to leaders on how to handle conflict in a way that strengthens, rather than divides teams.

Jay: Absolutely, Rob. Often we’ll mention to teams that if they’re not experiencing conflict, there’s probably something wrong. Right. You ought to be experiencing conflict from time to time. That’s part of life. But you’re right, Rob, trust, as we all know, is absolutely essential for teams and for organization to work together effectively. You can’t have a fantastic team without trust. Like you said, Rob, trust, by the way, does not mean the absence of conflict. In fact, healthy teams, actually expect and even encourage conflict.

So, one thing I think, Rob, that distinguishes a fantastic team from an average team is not whether disagreements happen, but how disagreements are handled and responded to. So healthy teams, we see engage in open and honest dialogue with one another. They address issues directly with their team members, rather than avoiding them or letting them fester. I think fantastic teams trust that differences of perspective, when handled well, actually leads to better decisions. So, at Best Christian Workplaces, you know, Rob, our employee engagement survey asks the question of whether the people you work with exhibit good conflict resolution skills, and what we’ve seen over the years is that when organizations score high on that item, it tells us that leaders have created psychological safety or an environment where people feel free to speak up, to disagree respectfully, and to work through tension together. So, people on fantastic teams think of different voices and different opinions as expressions of diversity of thought and experience that should be valued and should be considered.

While unhealthy teams, on the other hand, they avoid the conflict altogether, or they personalize it, or they take offense at conflict, and they take offense at differences of opinion. We see this happening all too often in our world today, right, because that leads to frustration. It leads to disengagement. It leads to broken trust. It leads to division, right.

But when leaders model humility, when they model listening and seeking clarity, then conflict becomes more of a refining process than a destructive one.

Robert: Yeah. So good. It even reminds me of Jesus’ – one of his final prayers and petitions to the Father that we would be one, even as He and the Father are one, and I think that’s the goal is – there are differences of opinion, there is a difference in perspective, but there can be unity in the intent.

Jay: Right.

Robert: We’re after the same goal. We’re going after the same objective. Of course, the kingdom objective, there’s no higher calling than the kingdom purpose. And you mentioned there at the end when you were talking about leaders that model humility, listening and seeking clarity, and I want to kind of conclude our discussion here on Fantastic Teams on the leader’s role. Clearly, there are teams, but teams have leaders, typically a coach, a leader, a person who, you know, can drive and set the tone, if you will, to create a fantastic team environment and navigate through those tensions and conflicts and things of that nature. So let’s talk about that for a moment, the leader’s role in all of this on Fantastic Teams. How can leaders shape a culture, Jay, where teams can flourish, where trust is built, or maybe collaboration becomes the norm on a healthy team? I’d love your insights into that idea of the team’s role in this – the leader’s role, pardon me.

Jay: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. I love this question. How do leaders shape culture? And in this case, we’re talking about how do leaders shape a culture that builds trust and that builds collaboration and that builds effective teamwork. So, if it’s okay, Rob, I’m going to back up for a second because this podcast is all about how people and leaders at every level can influence culture, right, so I really appreciate this question, because really leaders at all levels, and I think we’ve said in other podcasts, all of us can think of ourselves as leaders because we all influence others to some degree. Leaders at all levels play a decisive role in defining and shaping culture because culture always follows behavior. Basically, that means what you do and how you do it rubs off on others. So teams generally take their cues on how to behave and how to work together based on what they see their leaders model.

So they look at: How do their leaders listen? How do their leaders respond to feedback? How do they handle disagreements? Right. I’d also say, Rob, that leaders who are able to form fantastic teams are intentional about creating clarity, so they help their teams, every single person on the team understand the mission and they help every team member understand their unique role in the mission and how the work of every team member supports and impacts one another, right. And these leaders also focus more on celebrating shared wins more than they do celebrating individual heroics. I’d say that leaders of fantastic teams also create a space for input, so they invite feedback about themselves. These kind of leaders, they acknowledge their own mistakes. They demonstrate a willingness to learn, right, and it’s that kind of humility and openness to feedback that builds trust within a team faster than any policy or initiative ever could.

So really, at the end of the day, Rob, flourishing teams don’t happen by accident. They’re cultivated by leaders who value people, who prioritize relationships, and leaders who recognize that the health of the team is really inseparable from the health and effectiveness of the organization.

Robert: I love it. And I would just say a word of encouragement to team leaders, to leaders in general, because you might be asking: Are you saying to implement tools and a process that would shine light on where I can improve as a leader? And I think that’s exactly what we’re saying, what Jay is saying, is yeah, it can be challenging, it can be difficult, but this is how you will improve as a leader, when you open the door for honest and genuine and feedback that’s done in good faith, that’s going to make you a better leader, and so, as leaders, I would encourage you, invite that in, as uncomfortable as it may feel maybe at first. It’s only going to make you better, and as you get better, the team’s going to get better, the organization’s going to get better, and kingdom impact is going to improve. Such good insight, Jay. As always, thank you for your word on Fantastic Teams. I know that I’ve got some things to chew on and to be reminded about and think about it in our conversation.

And as we close out, as we always do, I want to do a quick, rapid-fire question. Feel free, you don’t have to answer like with a short answer. You can elaborate as much as you’d like on these questions. But rapid-fire question for you, Jay, as we close this out, specifically tied to Fantastic Teams. We’ll call it the Fantastic Teams edition of rapid-fire questions.

So the quick rapid-fire question, Jay: What’s your favorite team-building activity?

Jay: Okay. So this could be a very revealing question for me, Rob. I think you know, Rob, that probably my favorite type of consulting that I like to do is to run team development workshops. I’ve done it for two – over two to three decades now. As part of those workshops that I love to do, you can imagine that I include various team-building activities in them, but this is kind of an embarrassing and ironic admission, Rob, because I much prefer to facilitate team-building activities over being a participant in them. It’s a personality thing, I think, but I find that oftentimes aspects of people’s personalities come out during these team-building activities, which is the point, right. But you start to see how competitive some people are, right, and for whatever reason, when you present competitive people with a game that’s also competitive, it suddenly becomes very, very important for those people to win, and as a result, people can get overly competitive. Sometimes they get sarcastic. Sometimes they even get mean, right. So when that happens in those activities, I tend to check out of those team-building activities because I don’t enjoy that kind of competition.

But for that reason, Rob, I tend to prefer team-building activities that are problem based, that encourage participation, that encourage collaboration of people, but that don’t necessarily pit teams against one another. So, you get to know me a little bit more there.

Robert: I appreciate it. I can remember a couple years ago at our staff retreat where we all built little boats out of cardboard and the team I was on, our boat sank to the bottom pretty quickly, but great team-building exercise, needless to say.

Jay: Yes.

Robert: One more. Okay. One more question, rapid-fire question.

Jay: Okay.

Robert: I’d love your recommendation of one book about teams that you’d recommend to our audience.

Jay: Okay. Yeah. So many good books out there about teamwork. So, I’m going to skip by people like Patrick Lencioni and John Maxwell and others. I think I’ll pick a book that I read as part of my master’s degree studies in Organizational Leadership, and it’s called Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration by Keith Sawyer. I think the reason I liked that book is because it reminded me of my dad, some of the teamwork strengths of my dad. He was a very talented musician, and he was also a brilliant researcher and collaborator who could bring out the best in anyone. This book called Group Genius, it uses examples of jazz bands and also of standup comedy groups. You think of jazz bands and comedy groups, oftentimes do a lot of improv, right.

Robert: Yeah.

Jay: So the book demonstrates really how – the synergies that can be gained when you allow people to interact together in a way that balances a level of planning and structure, but also brings in opportunities for creative and innovation and improvisation and how that combination can be an incredible way to spark creativity, innovation, teamwork, and results. So, that’s one book that comes to mind.

Robert: Thank you. Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration by Keith Sawyer. We’ll have to check that out. Well, awesome. Thank you so much, Jay. Just for our audience, we’re going to have Jay on as a regular guest on the podcast, and we’re going through this FLOURISH series with him, so watch out for other podcasts that are coming up. We’ve got other guests we’re inviting and Jay will be coming in intermittently, but he will be a regular voice, so you don’t want to miss a podcast. We’ve got some great guests coming up. I want to encourage you, if this has been meaningful to you in any way, subscribe to the podcast or share it with a colleague, a friend, a coworker, anybody that you think would benefit from these insights, but thank you. Until next time, we’ll see you soon back at the Called To Flourish podcast. God bless you.