Although each also reflects large organizational cultures and implicit architectures, all types of energy exchange from polarities to circularity take place during team meetings, both between the team members and with the team leader. Very naturally, depending on their training and personal style, team leaders will be pulled into team processes, either in a central position, valued for his or her bright speeches (star system), or contested, or drawn into arguments and conflict with one or several preferred partners. In more mature team and organizational cultures, a natural form of circularity is quickly and naturally installed and everyone including the team leader learns and grows together.
• It is often observed that team leaders very easily slip into first or second level polarities If this occurs too often, the process will unfortunately reinforce centralized communication processes within their teams.
One of the fundamental competencies of a systemic team coach, a manager or leader consists in modeling different types of communication modes, and stretching the team into other modes of interaction, ultimately towards a more fluid circularity process. In this case one’s objective is to get the system to practice circularity as often as possible so as to install a more open and dynamic team interface architecture.
To achieve this goal several strategies are at hand:
The systemic team coach or leader can avoid all central geographic positions, such as facing the group or standing up on a podium. A preferred place would be to direct the team’s interactive fluidity from within the group, holding a position similar to that of any other team member.
The systemic team coach or leader can also avoid presenting and arguing his or her own models and point of view in a lengthy and convincing way. This especially holds when facing a rebellious or contradictory team or team member.
In the event of a disagreement, the discussion is to be delegated into the team, eliciting other ideas, dialogues, new positions, different points of view. Total participation from everyone is the objective rather than a verbal joust between hard- headed tenors and “to the finish”. In those cases, nobody wins.
It will be useful for the systemic team coaches and leaders to limit personal interventions to just clarify or reformulate each team member’s input. Better leave discussion to the team itself, and speak no more than any other team member, if that much.
It will be likewise useful to delegate facilitation or writing on the paperboard and avoid holding the floor. The systemic team coach or leader will let the team moderate its own work with an occasional rotating “facilitator” chosen among the other team members.
The systemic team coach or leader will also use subtle gestures and body language to elicit silent team members’ comments, to open the discussion to new and different points of view whenever “old timers” and “barons” seem to take over the floor and hold it for too long.
These simple strategies will be used as modeling techniques throughout team meetings. They are in keeping with the strategy of delegating team process to team members themselves as the meeting is taking place. The objective is to bring the team to perceive the leader or coach as just another team member, who will bring in an occasional personal precise question or change in point of view, much like anyone else, in a strategic and opportune time. And of course, the leader will make decisions, whenever necessary.
This fluid position held by the leader within a circularity process will help the team gradually modify its systemic communication process and operational interfaces. By modifying the communication process, through interpersonal interaction, the objective is to increase the team energy fluidity and develop the responsibility of each team member and the system as a whole. This process aims to increase personal commitment of all team members and increase the maturity of the ensemble.
This systemic team coaching gradual learning process simultaneously develops team co-responsibility, creativity, delegation, empowerment, reactivity and motivation and rapidly influence team results for the better.
