IN THIS ISSUE:

Measuring the Strengths of a Team. The team assessment tool used by Sage Portfolio Group measures the strength of the team system, not just individuals.

Frog Pond: Reflections from a Values-Based Organization. Measuring Ourselves: Part One. Just because we do this professionally doesn't mean we don't have to do it ourselves. Learn what Sage Portfolio Group has planned for its own leadership development.

What’s Out There. Measure This! We introduce you to an interesting, online organizational assessment tool we came across on the web.

The Culinary Coach. In the Right Measure: Eating Local. How far does your dinner travel from harvest to table? Join in on the community shared agriculture movement!

If you would like a printable version of this newsletter, please visit www.sageportfoliogroup.com/archives.html

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Measuring the Strengths of a Team
By Jennifer Dawson

To thrive in a rapidly changing global environment, organizations must be creative, nimble, adaptable, open-minded and results-oriented. Teams are a key to success. Innovation, flexibility, speed, collective wisdom, collaboration, securing of resources and support—all the things necessary for an organization to thrive in the 21st century—are fostered within an effective team setting. When teams are performing at their best, the organization as a whole will experience greater productivity, employee satisfaction and growth. The team itself will be able to sustain its success—and thus its positive impact—over the long term.

Every organization has teams. They may be long-standing teams drawn into the org chart: an executive team, management team, sales team, marketing team, design team etc. Or they may be project teams with a distinct purpose and time-limited existence. How effective are the teams in your organization? How can you find out?

Sage Portfolio Group uses an online assessment tool, developed by Team Diagnostic International, to measure the state of any team, including alignment of team members, access to resources, and the decision-making process used by the team (‘productivity’ factors) and respect, valuing of diversity, constructive interaction, trust, camaraderie and communication (‘positivity’ factors). Research has shown that productivity and positivity are fundamental predictors of team success. The assessment tool measures the team’s perception of factors that influence productivity and positivity.

The 80 items in the inventory require the participant to assess the functioning of his/her team from the perspective of the whole team, rather than from a more narrow individual perspective. The inventory also includes three open-ended essay-style questions which can be customized for each team. The qualitative data collected through these questions provide important context and a deeper understanding of team functioning.

The assessment provides valuable data for benchmarking and establishing progress and positive change over time. It also provides direction for determining areas of need, intervention and goal-setting, and a tool for allocating scarce resources. In this way, the assessment is an important tool for structuring follow-up. Results are presented in easy-to-understand graphs and charts that enable team members to quickly and visually recognize areas of strength and opportunities for growth.

It is important to note that the assessment is not designed as a one-off. Sage Portfolio Group would never simply administer the assessment and leave the team to determine next steps. Instead, we use the assessment to present a snapshot of the team as it currently stands. Team members then engage with the material, the Team Systems worker from Sage Portfolio Group, and with each other, learning about their team’s system and what it needs to thrive. As Marita Fridjohn, Director of the Centre for Right Relationship near San Francisco and co-creator of the team assessment tool says, “One of the most frequently reported breakthroughs in Team Systems Work is when team members realize that someone on the team speaks not only from her or his own experience, but that he or she is also a voice of the team system.” Completing the team assessment is the first step towards developing the team voice.

For a previous newsletter article on Team Systems Coaching, see the article “Go Team! A look at the philosophy behind team coaching” in the March 2007 edition of The Leading Edge, available here.

 

Measuring Ourselves: Sage Portfolio Group's Adventures with a Leadership Assessment - Part One
By Melanie Parish

OUR QUESTIONS
As a company that develops leadership and team solutions for other companies, we realize we also need to do the same sort of development for our own leaders and teams. We know that what we do in other organizations works for them, but we wonder about best practices for our own Sage Portfolio Group teams. We have very skilled facilitators and Team Systems workers in-house: can we use them or do we need to bring someone into our organization from outside? There are a myriad of assessments out there: which do we use? Should we do different ones each year? Should we do the one our facilitator prefers? As we reflect on these questions, we realize that they are the same ones every organization considers.

OUR SOLUTIONS
We are in the process of deploying a leadership assessment tool for our team and will be working with an outside facilitator in June. When we decided to do the assessment, we went through the same questions our clients go through when they start working with a team. Who is on the team? Who should we include? We have noticed that some people want to be on the team who aren’t, and some people are less engaged in the process than others. One team member decided she wanted her role to change. All this in advance of the assessment administration!

We have also decided to combine our team development with some constructive, whole-organization work. For example, we will have a two hour session with our whole staff on creating a group contract to establish the ways we will work together, to be followed by a company potluck. The next day, the smaller leadership team will participate in the full day assessment. We will learn about leadership styles and will gain insights into how individuals and the team as a whole functions.

OUR HOPES
We hope the investment in our assessment will be useful. We hope it fosters open dialogue and learning for our staff. We hope we come closer together as a team. We have hopes and dreams for our day of learning, just as our clients do when they bring us into their organizations. We are naïve and vulnerable when it comes to our own organization. We believe we have chosen well and are taking steps forward. Here we go!

Tune in next month for our outcomes and personal reflections.

Frog Pond: Reflections from a values-based organization is a monthly column that explores the connection between business and social responsibility. The title for the column comes from the last, but perhaps most profound, of the five values upon which Sage Portfolio Group has been built. We call it "frog pond". Sitting beside the frog pond at Sage Portfolio Group's head office in Dundas, Ontario on a warm summer evening with a glass of wine and meal made from locally grown organic produce has taught us to value local roots and global consciousness, quiet contemplation and sharing with others, dreaming big and common sense. Articles written for this column take the abstract principles of Sage Portfolio Group's "frog pond" value and make them both real and useful. Dip your toe to test the water ... or dive right in!

Measure This!

We’re a naturally curious bunch, and as we were looking around to see who is measuring what, we came across this online tool that recommends performance improvement approaches for organizations. The site is designed to assist non-profit organizations, but we feel the tool has value for business as well. Check it out and see what you think:
http://www.performancehub.org.uk/page.asp?id=338

What's Out There is a monthly column highlighting the ingenious, wacky or merely weird in the business world today -- people, organizations or subjects that push boundaries, break down barriers or build bridges in novel or unexpected ways. Sage Portfolio Group does not necessarily endorse the ideas presented in What's Out There, but we do feel that bringing forward the innovative or unusual opens our minds to new possibilities, enhances creativity and helps identify our own values. Far out, man.

In the Right Measure: Eating Local

Buying local organic produce is the best recommendation I can make for the summer months as a culinary coach. Our family subscribes to a local farm and has fresh-picked produce delivered to our door every Tuesday. We became fans of community supported agriculture (sometimes referred to as ‘CSA’) years ago and we feel good about buying a “share” in each year’s crop. We take some risk along with the farmer, eliminate the middle man, and get to eat the best tasting fresh vegetables and fruit imaginable.  This is one of the ways that we “measure up” in our family meals for the summer.

Coach recommendation:  find a CSA farm in your area and start buying locally.

More about CSAs?  Here’s a definition from the USDA website:
“Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.”
To find a CSA near you, try google or visit these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community-supported_agriculture_farms_and_organizations
http://www.biodynamics.com/canada.html

YUM!

The Culinary Coach is Melanie Parish, founder and CEO of Sage Portfolio Group. Good food is about culture, community, family, physiology and fun. Each month we share one of Melanie's tried-and-true recipes in celebration of the power of food to strengthen, nurture and inspire. Cheers!

This month’s contributors:

Melanie Parish, CPCC, PCC, is an accomplished speaker; executive and team coach; entrepreneur; and is the founder of Sage Portfolio Group. She has a 20 year background in sales, marketing and business development. Melanie regularly works with business owners who want to create incredible, profitable businesses. She has been a coach since 1999. Melanie is certified through the International Coach Federation and The Coaches Training Institute.

Jennifer Dawson is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and coordinator of corporate services for Sage Portfolio Group.

The Leading Edge is published monthly by Sage Portfolio Group and written for a readership that includes coaching clients, human resource professionals, business leaders, fellow coaches and the occasional aspiring gourmand. Our goal is to offer a combination of wisdom and wit--sourced from our own in-house experts and other respected leaders in the field--in an easy-to-access e-zine format. A hard copy version is published bi-annually. We welcome editorial questions, comments and story ideas; please direct these to the editor, Jennifer Dawson, at jen (at) sageportfoliogroup.com. If you find value in the articles we invite you to pass them on to a friend with the recommendation to sign up directly for The Leading Edge at www.sageportfoliogroup.com. Articles from The Leading Edge can be reproduced in an in-house publication provided that Sage Portfolio Group is credited for the article.