Better Team Building is Easy when You Notice and Amplify All Wins

Learn why the concept of Wins is absolutely critical to effective team building, how you can generate more wins for yourself and the members of your team. Get the habit of honoring and celebrating those wins to optimize your team's synergy.

When you greet teammates you haven't seen for awhile how do you "check in?" Do you have a check-in practice that promotes team building? If not, consider using mine. It's a practice I learned years ago from a coach and I use it for both formal meeting launches and informal greetings.

The practice is called Wins, and it's amazingly easy to do: within the first minutes of greeting others, simply report your wins to each other and celebrate them together. That is it. This practice has deep implications for your life, for the lives of others, for your interactions, and for the synergies you create.

What makes it so powerful? The simple fact that humans are intentional beings.

We can be conscious of our motivations and desires. We like to have our intentions met and are most fulfilled when they are. No argument there, right? Well, the practice of reporting wins to each other and celebrating them together (1) grants us permission to win, (2) reveals our intentions to ourselves and others, and (3) supports our acknowledgement of each other's power to generate wins. Now that's a powerful check-in!

Here's how to do it:

1. Adopt this definition of a WIN:when something you intended to happen does happen, or when something that you intended not to happen doesn't happen.

2. Launch your next team building meeting by presenting this definition, discuss it, and then take turns reporting individual wins.

Listen intently and without interruption while each participant reports their wins. Respond to each win with "Congratulations!" or a similar acknowledgement and celebration.

Bear in mind that our work cultures often teach us to defer the recognition of "winning" both to ourselves and others. We've all known over-achievers who are unable to accept acknowledgement unless they've conquered some HUGE territory. So, be aware that your response is critical! When someone reports a win (no matter how small) see it as an opportunity for team building.

You can ignore another's win, minimize it, or amplify it. When you choose the latter, others get the experience of you seeing them as powerful, intentional beings. Your congratulatory response actually helps others become more aware of their power and their choices.

And remember: whatever we filter for is what we get. Want more wins? Install a Wins Filter!

Practice

For practice, make a list right now of your recent wins. Go ahead and do it.

If you can't think of any, note that fact; it suggests how high you set the bar for something in your life to be called a win. If that's the case, here are some prompts:

• Did you intend to get out of bed this morning, and did you do it?
• Did you intend to pay your rent/mortgage last month, and did you do it?
• Did you intend to keep your job last week, and did you keep it?
• Did you intend to hug your kids/spouse/friend yesterday, and did you do it?

These prompts should give you permission to create your list, so do it now.

Then, CONGRATULATE yourself for each one—no matter how few or how small you might think they are!

Consider that, to achieve each one, you had to generate a desire, formulate a strategy, do something, correct, improve, take a risk, overcome obstacles or fears, and take action! Then you had to evaluate the result against your intentions.

Go ahead and smile. Thank yourself. Acknowledge yourself. Say, "Congratulations!"

A Final Note

It is good practice to notice your requirements for acknowledging something as a win. Did you consider—but discard—many intentions you'd met because they seemed so small? Did you permit yourself to see only one or two wins because you thought you didn't deserve more? If so, I invite you to deserve more.

To a world of productive relationships at work,

Christopher Avery, PhD