Archinect - News

Workplace team tip: Express gratitude

2019-12-11T09:42:00-05:00

At a previous firm I used to work for, I had a colleague who would periodically send the managing principal emails about certain team members, unbeknownst to them. Essentially, he would call attention to specific team members that he saw were working well with the rest of the team or going the extra mile, because he knew [the principals] might never have an opportunity to see it for themselves.

I had never encountered that before. One day, a junior designer turned to this guy and gave him a huge hug, because they had received an email from a principal expressing how grateful the firm was for their work, because of the email this person sent.

I don't think we all have to start sending secret emails to our firm leadership, but I think this culture of recognition amongst team members could be a fruitful practice. With the hustle and bustle of the end of the year approaching and with the closing of Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks ago, perhaps we might challenge ourselves to express...

When team-building isn't working, try this

2019-07-25T15:50:00-04:00

When we build better teams, we tend to have better work. But sometimes the traditional team-building approach can leave people feeling more separated from one another. University of Sydney Researchers, Julien Pollack and Petr Matous, say that this is because we tend "to gravitate towards those we know." It's great to strengthen already strong relationships, but, if we want to increase trust and familiarity, two things present in successful teams, we must create what Pollack and Matous call "psychological safety."

"Research suggests psychological safety is crucial in the work environment. There is much more to team success than simply focusing on the task at hand. Team members need to talk regularly, and be comfortable raising difficult issues," they write. To achieve this comfort the pair has adopted a spin on the 36 questions that lead to love.

Essentially, the idea is to pair up people across a given group and allow them to do this exercise that involves a conversation lasting ju...