Team Development – Don’t Half-Arse It

Team development is not something you can half-arse.

In this episode, I share my own lessons from both sides of the fence; leading teams and facilitating team-development sessions.

I reflect on why I no longer deliver one-off off-sites, and how those well-intended but poorly followed-up sessions often do more harm than good.

Through a full English breakfast analogy (you’ll see), I unpack why leaders need to be all in for team development to work.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why team development is a daily leadership habit, not an event
• The ‘chicken and pig’ test for commitment
• What to do before calling in a facilitator

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Team Development – Don’t Half Arse It 

Team-development. 

It’s something that organisations invest a huge amount of time and money into, with very mixed results. 

The intention is always positive, but the consistency is often patchy, and the commitment to follow through and lean into the difficult conversations that need to be had in order to make real, lasting change is often lacking. 

I’m comfortable saying this because I’ve been on both sides of the team development fence.  

I’ve led teams when I’ve been all in and fully committed to doing what’s needed to make us great. 

And, there have been other occasions when – to steal a phrase from the actor Matthew McConaughey – I’ve half-arsed it. 

I’ve also spent many years facilitating team-development sessions for clients, which isn’t something I do anymore, for reasons I’ll come to shortly. 

Hey, I’m Ben Morton 

I’m a   

I’m not a team development facilitator…so if you need help with that, don’t get in touch. 

So, let’s dive in and talk about Team Development.  

For many years I’ve said that team development isn’t something we do twice a year, offsite at a nice hotel. 

It’s something we must focus on, and work at, every single day, more often than not through the mundane, seemingly insignificant conversations. 

But what often happens – because I’ve seen it and been asked to help – is that something happens and a leader suddenly says – “Oh shit, we need to do some team development.”

What follows is a request for a one-day offsite. 

And having delivered a lot of these over the years, I came to realise that one-day interventions often end up making things worse. 

Why? 

Because we paint a picture of what the future could be like, we start to explore some challenges or tricky dynamics in the team – not dissimilar to picking at an itchy scab – but don’t have the time or follow-up planned to really improve things. 

A great analogy for team development is to think about the roles a chicken and a pig play in making a full English breakfast.

The chicken must lay the eggs, so it’s part of the process, but it’s not 100% committed. 

In order to have a few rashers of streaky bacon, though, the pig must fully commit. 

There’s no going back. 

The pig isn’t going to half-arse it. 

So, if you’re thinking about team development, there are two things to think about. 

Number 1 – team development is something that you must own as the leader and focus on all of the time. It’s not something that you do twice a year at a nice hotel.  

And number two, remember the full English. 

Before you start working with a facilitator and planning those off-sites, think carefully about whether you’re a pig, or a chicken. 

That’s it for this episode…and remember if you’re going down the pig route, I’m not the man you need to help with team development, but if you’re looking to develop the collective leadership capability of your team…then do get in touch.