The Heart of the Team
Many a child has been heard to implore their parents, "C'mon, have a heart!" In essence, the wee one is asking for compassion, understanding, and permission with this plea. In today's "dog eat dog" business climate, a significant number of work teams are wishing that their employer would "have a heart". Absent any forthcoming altruism from the organisation, team mates might want to consider extending a little more "heart" towards one another.
Teams that practice "random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" towards one another regularly are healthier, happier, and feel safer than teams where the membership is busy sanding away at the fault lines of their team mates. Any team that is properly motivated will demonstrate more "heart" if given encouragement to do so. Here are some team customs that can be established to help the team reveal its heart.- Pay it Forward: Team members make a commitment to forward every act of kindness or beauty experienced at the hands of a team mate to someone else on the team. "Get a kindness, give a kindness" becomes the team's motto.
- Everything is Beautiful: Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The team will be surveyed to find out what each member views as "beautiful." Armed with this information, team mates will be on the lookout for opportunities to bring that special brand of beauty into the lives of their team mates.
- Kind, What Kind? Much like beauty, perceptions of what is "kind" may vary. During a team meeting each team member will complete two sentences, "I show kindness to others by..." and "I believe others are showing me kindness when they..." Providing this information will assure that team mates do not inadvertently pester one another with unwanted attention and unneeded assistance.
