We had a couple of guests at our senior management team (SMT) meeting yesterday. Just in case you’re wondering, our SMT gathers for lunch and then meets together once a week. I thought this was an interesting insight from Daryl after watching one of our meetings:

This isn’t a huge meeting, there are eight people on this team and each
come prepared and pour their heart into this time. The meeting had
intense moments and some really hilarious moments that I wish I could
share. What I learned from this meeting is that Perry is a confident
leader who believes in the vision that God has given him and he
believes in the people that God has put around him. Perry doesn’t run
this meeting but there is no doubt when it comes to vision, where it
comes from. This team is the real deal and I took lots of notes. One
other cool fact about this meeting is that they truly welcome
unfiltered debate. They actually want to duke it out over the important
things and come out unified, with the best idea.

The observation reminded me of a quote from Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Lencioni said, “Every effective team I’ve ever observed had a substantial level of debate. Even the most trusting teams mixed it up a lot.”

What’s important, though, is to walk out of those healthy debates unified. On that note, Jim Collins said it this way in Good to Great: “You need executives, on the one hand, who argue and debate–sometimes violently–in pursuit of the best answers, yet, on the other hand, who unify fully behind a decision, regardless of parochial interests.”

In other words, you can’t have healthy debate without trust. You can’t have unity without encouraging healthy debate. And, you can’t have trust where there isn’t unity behind the vision.

With that in mind, how’s the health of your team?