Q: What can we learn from ant colonies and emergency response teams?
A: How to recover from disruption.
This insightful “Harvard Business Review” article by Sayra Cristancho outlines how this works and ways to help your team:
“1. Get things done — regardless of who does it. Since everyone on a self-healing team is focused on the same goal, they don’t get stuck arguing about who should be doing what…
2. Capitalize on distributed leadership. Self-healing teams adopt a cross-training mindset to help each other learn how to fill in the gaps when a team member can’t.
3. Realize the limits of your own expertise and seek help when needed. Self-healing teams understand that when things go awry, there’s no place for people with big egos.”
One important ingredient in making all of this happen is TRUST and I argue it’s the difference maker.
I value agility. I appreciate colleagues and team members who are flexible and lean into change, as uncomfortable as it may be at times.
But I recognize that all of this is more likely to happen–and positive outcomes are more likely to occur–when there’s trust.
When are you most likely to take something off a colleague’s plate, willingly and not begrudgingly?
When are you most likely to ask for help?
