Crisis can create the conditions for a team to fully function with incredible success.

On Tuesday, June 10, I experienced being part of a crisis-driven, fully-functioning team as I joined my neighbors in an effort to protect our condominium complex from the waters of the Des Moines River. Arriving home from work on a humid Tuesday evening I saw my neighbors already hard at work sandbagging. Glancing at the river I realized that while I was at work that day, life as I knew it on Water Street (an appropriate name!) had changed. I ran into my first floor flat exchanging my suit and heels for a uniform I would wear for what became four very long days of waiting for the river to decide our fate - jeans, a t-shirt and the sturdiest, oldest athletic shoes I could find. Running outside, I caught a few smiles of hello and joined the team.

It was easy to see that there were five jobs - shoveling, holding the bag, tying, lifting and routing. Knowing from past experience that the shoveling and tying were not my strengths, I began lifting and routing the bags on rolling pallets down the alleyway to the garage entrance. Although it was clear there was a leader who had the whole plan in mind, the team members seemed to instinctively gravitate to the job befitting their highest contribution. Engrossed in their individual tasks, they remained aware and alert to the situation around them.

When my pallet faltered on the turn into the driveway, someone came to a quick assist. When a shoveler became too hot at his post, he sat out for a quick bottle of water and a bag tyer filled right in. There was not a lot of talk, but occasionally a teammate would realize we needed levity and break the seriousness with a comment that made everyone laugh. Even having local celebrities in our midst, newscasters shooting footage for the ten o'clock news, did not sway anyone off task. Everyone worked right around them and their cameras. Our homes were at stake! It was as if we had somehow silently agreed the real recognition for this effort was not in the momentary, but in the long term completion of the job and its results. Three hours later we had run out of sand and bags, but had created a fort around two of the areas of our homes that could become susceptible to flowing water. We stood back, and despite our fear of the impending flood, felt proud of our accomplishment and each other. Plans were made for completing our work when supplies rolled in the next day.

A crisis brings out a purpose and sense of direction in a team like nothing else. Motivation runs high and the characteristics of a fully-functioning team do not have to be discussed, they seem to naturally exist. Our work teams can have the same sense of direction and purpose, but often times they do not. What are some of the elements that make teams fully function? What are the elements we may need to build into our team when our task is not a crisis?

1. Being Proactive:
The team leader needs to assess before work begins what the challenges might be - and each team member must do this inventory as well. If we are unprepared or ignorant of potential problems, they have a chance of becoming major dilemmas. Our sandbag leader secured a plan, sand, bags, shovels, but also water, rolling pallets, rope. He thought about the experience before meeting with the team, so potential issues were covered. Each team member had to do this as well. I figured out I was better at routing than tying. I did not take a role that I knew I would perform marginally at and possibly hurt the team's results. In the workplace, this may be recognizing personality styles, cultural differences, technological challenges or time constraints prior to beginning work as a team. It can also be seen in figuring out the necessary roles and responsibilities and clarifying what good performance in those roles looks like, before getting started.

2. Building Trust:
Trust is imperative for people to feel free to contribute and feel inclined to give their all. The leaders of a team and the teammates have to create conditions to instill swift trust so the group can get off the ground positively, and continue creating conditions to maintain that trust. Optimism, encouraging words, sharing mental models of what things need to look like, and including everyone in, as appropriate, on information sharing are all signs of a trust-filled environment. When my pallet veered off the path to the alley, no one criticized or took the task from me. I received an assist and made up my mind how to avoid that happening next time around. Someone else quickly shared a technique with me that worked and another teammate made a fun comment making the event create more trust rather than less. In work teams trust is an essential yet all too often is an afterthought. Trust is vital to create and communicate, verbally and non verbally in our actions and in our words. With it a team will thrive, without it a team derails.

3. Driving For Precision:
If there are gaps in understanding or systems, or ambiguity in direction, results cannot be precise. The leader and the teammates share responsibility to dialogue for precision. Positive results are key to any success, and will only happen if precision is inherent. Figuring out how to speak precisely, state precise directions and ask precise questions will raise the level of success tenfold. Each of the tasks in the sandbagging effort had precise responsibilities, methodology, and materials. We worked faster when questions were precisely answered, and we did not lose any downtime due to ambiguity of plan or process. In our team environments at work, precision rules if we are looking for replicable success. Precision saves time, maneuvers us around costly mistakes and clears communication. What are the questions that need to be asked? What directions or systems need to be shared? What are the precise actions, attitudes, results required in order to reach success?

I am happy to say, my crisis team experience resulted in a safe surround for my home and my neighbors. We bonded by working together and surprised ourselves at how well urban independent neighbors could quickly form into a team to achieve a tough task. The river stayed thankfully within its banks, and we knew we were fortunate in our planning, our team experience and in our fate. We wished the rest of Des Moines and the Midwest had been spared levees breaking and rising waters, as we know they formed similar fully-functioning teams to work hard to stave off the water.

Crisis causes team engagement, but we hope your teams do not have to work in crisis mode. Being proactive, building swift trust and driving for precision you can create the benefits of teaming through crisis without having to endure a crisis. No matter what your task, you can perform successfully as a fully-functioning team.

Deborah Rinner is Director of International Protocol & Corporate Etiquette Programs for Tero International, Inc.