A Conversation with Terrie Luperger on the Game of Teams Podcast Series

Introduction: Terrie is a bit revolutionary and evolutionary in her thinking and approach. Terrie coaches and advises leaders and teams worldwide. She uses innovative change processes to help individuals and teams improve the results they get without having to sacrifice well-being Terrie is a Master Certified Coach, she is a pioneer in the field of coaching and was one a number of professionals who codified the Core Coaching Competencies used today as the standard of Coaching Professionalism worldwide. Terrie is currently chief disruptor at her own company, Terrie Lupberger and associates, senior director at Altus Growth Partners, Program Facilitator for the Executive Circle for Women who Lead and Director of Training for the Coach Partnership (formerly Newfield Asia)

Podcast episode summary: This episode illuminated the many conversations that are missing on teams and spoke to the need for Leaders and members to be cognisant of the promises they hold for the sake of the team, the mood they live and the shape or quality of their team standards. Terrie spoke of some team myths, debunked the notion that teams simply exist to work but instead exist to fulfil a promise. She also communicated her desire for more teams to enjoy their time together, to be enlivened by the work, to be nourished and fulfilled by the work they do together. There is too much suffering & wasted energy going on in organisations. Conversations could change the shape of work life.

Show highlights:

• Terrie started life working in Washington DC as a manager in the treasury department
• A program designed to help people re-locate changed how she saw change management
• Teams exist to fulfil a shared promise
• Emotional intelligence and Somatic intelligence inform a lot of the work she does with teams
• She helps teams navigate, manage and expand their emotional literacy at work
• She discussed how the way we show up as leader determines whether people chose to follow us, be repelled by us or move away
• She pays attention to the shapes of conversations-context matters, setting & environment matters, linguistic ability matters etc..
• One myth we need to debunk is the notion that we can ask for certainty in a world that is VUCA, instead we need to equip leaders and teams to be resilient, to be flexible and agile not just intellectually but emotionally as well. We have to be able to pivot
• Understand Politics and Power do not be blindsided by both
• Terrie described her approach working with teams. She engages the leader first, then she has interviews/conversations with individual members and then with the team as a whole to work out their shared promise, their ways of working and the kinds of conversations that are missing between members.
• She is minded that the team need to understand what will satisfy their customers and stakeholders-do they know?
• Teams form but they do not necessarily have the conversations to shape their interactions or how they will be together, especially in times of breakdowns
• There is a sort of take it for granted approach to team norms
• She encourages teams to take a look at the missing conversations the members are not willing or are uncomfortable to have together
• She shared a word coined by Chalmers Brothers "Carefrontation" as a substitute for difficult conversations, asking how we care about our promise, our working agreements, our care for a supportive environment, our missing conversations
• She opined that there is too much suffering in our organisations that could be resolved by better quality conversations.
• Often individuals on teams need to question their own patterns, beliefs about teams, how they self-sabotage, what stores they live etc..this awareness can improve the quality of team life
• Terrie shared the work of Judith Glaser, called conversational intelligence and how science shares that our emotions precede us and impact how another reacts to us. We need to be mindful and aware. This is a great book to understand how to learn new and effective powerful conversational rituals that primes the brain for trust, partnership and mutual success.
• Terrie shared 3 nuggets for teams to consider-What is the shared promise for the team? Watch your mood and do a self-analysis on the conversations this team will not engage.

Resources: the following include the resources we alluded to over the course of our conversation

1. Chalmers Brothers; Language and the Pursuit of Happiness
2. The Institute for Generative Leadership Https://generativeleadership.com
3. Judith Glaser; Conversational Intelligence