I recently observed a team as they brainstormed ways they could make another team member’s tasks easier. Finally someone stopped the group and pointed out the look on that team member’s face. He didn’t seem receptive to the help. Upon further discussion, it was determined he had indeed tried many of these suggestions and the team wasn’t really helping, but rather they were adding more tasks for him.
There are two lessons from this experience:
- Do you pay attention to your team member’s body language in meetings? What communication are you missing?
- Are you trying to solve problems that don’t exist? Or overcomplicating situations?
One of my favorite questions to ask when consulting or leading a meeting is “How can we simplify this?” or “What can we eliminate?” More often than not simplifying makes the team better.
