Transformational Teams - Lesson 1

Hello and welcome to session one of Transformational Teams. What I'd like to do is go back to your initial prerequisite and do a little bit of review so that we can actually set the stage for this first session. In the review that I'm getting ready to cover for you, we're going to move at a very quick pace and I think it's important that you can go back to the prerequisite courses and there's a lot more detail.

There's a lot more information and there's a lot more examples that will help you get up to speed so that this review isn't confusing to you, but it begins to turn on some of the light bulbs that were presented to you in the original prerequisite course. We're going to just try to hit the high points in this particular session, but what I don't want you to do is be discouraged because there is more information available to you and it's okay if you go back to it because once you've taken the course you can go back and take it again and again and again. As you remember in our earliest session, we talked about your purpose and we talk about the characteristics of what each individual is given to fulfill that purpose and in order to fulfill that purpose, we have to think relatively about yourself as well as other people.

So how are you going to accomplish your purpose? By becoming self-aware and in the past we've talked about the fact that the key to understanding how to use your strengths to improve the group that you work with is through that self-awareness. But self-awareness doesn't just mean that you think you understand yourself. Self-awareness is truly an understanding of how you are perceived by other people.

That is something that we have to think about very clearly because there are multiple aspects of self-awareness. First of all, there's the behaviors that we can see originate in Jeremiah 1.5. God knitted us together in the womb. He gave us a specific personality to fit the role that he has called us to.

We use a measurement tool called DISC to help us better understand your particular propensities as an extrovert, an introvert, or an ambivert, or a more objective task-oriented person, or a more people-oriented person. And how do we know this is important? Because if you are like most people, at some point you may have met something that you just didn't like the first time that you met them. This is the natural behavioral friction that can occur between individuals.

But it doesn't mean one person is right or another person is wrong. What it means is that those behavioral differences bring about diversity. And as you will learn, diversity helps us grow.

It stretches us. And it's one of the tools that the Lord uses to help us grow during the sanctification process. So as we begin to understand our behaviors and the mindsets or the priorities, you're going to be able to become more self-aware and more confident in who you are.

And God wants that for you. Because that confidence gives you the ability to communicate in a way of who you truly are to others. This will actually lead you to the second step, which is self-regulation.

Because if you don't understand yourself and you don't understand the other person, it's going to be hard getting through that gap and fulfilling the answers that you need to help a person understand. I want you to be able to take that knowledge and confidence and put it to work for you, not just now, but in the rest of your life. So let's think about the behavioral aspect or the cultural genetic aspects that God has poured into us when he knitted us together in the womb, according to Jeremiah 1.5. There are three types of behaviors that we can classify.

First of all, there's extroverts who are fast-paced, move quickly, and have a tendency to think out loud. Then there's introverts who are more introspective, and they analyze the things that are being said because they want to appear competent. And then you have ambiverts that may be either task-oriented or people-oriented.

So let's break those down individually and review them quickly. First of all, the task-oriented extrovert is very straightforward. They're driven, ambitious, they're forceful, and they tend to be visionaries.

But the people-oriented extrovert is an individual who's much more inspiring. They are much more enthusiastic, creative, and they have a tendency to have much softer edges around them than the task-oriented extrovert. On the other hand, the introverts also have people and task orientations.

The people-oriented introvert is someone who is much more relaxed, much more consistent, much more caring, deliberate, and nurturing. They make absolutely great listeners and friends once you get past that initial stage of acquaintance. Then there is the task-oriented introvert who's very analytical, systematic, accurate, meticulous, and reliable.

They thrive on data, and that data is something that they can literally analyze, work through, and begin to justify the decisions that they're going to make. So as we think about extroverts and introverts, we can't forget that there are also the ambiverts. Ambiverts that are task-oriented are much more focused on getting things done.

They want to make sure that they can tick off the boxes and either do it very quickly if they're extroverted or very accurately if they're introverted. The other ambivert that we see quite often is the people-oriented ambivert. And they have a propensity to want to focus their attention on the people and circumstances that they dwell in.

They have a much softer edge, and while they are interested in pleasing other people and making sure that things happen, they may not be as prone to get things done as quickly and as accurately as the ambiverts that are focused in the task orientation. So let's do a very quick review of each of the four behavioral styles and some things that are important to them. First of all, let's talk about the high-dominant person.

They tend to be control specialists and make up 18% of the population. But I want you to know a little secret about that 18%. They actually control almost 70% of the organizations that they involve with.

They have a propensity to be task-oriented, very direct in their communication, but can also be seen as impatient at times because they're looking for results and efficiency. Now here's the thing that you will probably think when you meet one. They have a temper.

Their emotion might even be considered anger because they wear it on their shoulders, but let me help you understand something. That anger that you may see is really passion that the individual carries within themselves, and it's that passion that drives them to make the decisions that they make to get things done. Our other extrovert is an influencer who has those soft edges that we talked about.

They make up 28% of the population, but yet they are still extroverted and have that fast pace. But they are much more people-oriented than they are task-oriented, and they are probably more indirect in the way that they interact with people and hold their conversations. Now as we think about it, if they get overextended, they may be the type of people that kind of walk around in circles and get disheveled at times because their tendency is to be a little bit disorganized.

If you look at their desk, you'll see piles of paper on them, but they're geared towards having fun. They're geared towards enthusiastic and good experiences. They want people to enjoy what's going on because they have a natural emotional expression of enthusiasm and optimism.

Now that can actually make them put more on their plate than they can actually get done, but that enthusiasm and optimism that they display can often be perceived as being unrealistic at times. It's not really being unrealistic. It's just being a dreamer at times.

The low-I on the other hand can actually be viewed not as pessimistic, but skeptical in the way that they approach life itself. So let's take a look then at the introverted side. First of all, we have our people orientation, and here's something very important for you to remember.

They make up 40% of the population. They are very people-oriented, but they're also very indirect. You won't see a lot of hand motion with the high-S person because they tend to try to pervade an image of stability and predictability.

They don't want to be seen as a person who lives on a roller coaster. Now that lack of expression can actually appear to some people as, I'm not engaged. I'm not listening.

I'm not being moved by what you're trying to say to me, when in fact their emotions are stirring inside, but they have literally trained themselves not to express them. Now if their S is very low, they may have a tendency to be moody. So as we think about the high-S, here's something that I want us to remember.

They tend to be the glue that keeps groups together. They are steady, they're performers, they're on time, but they may not speak up very much. And as a group leader, you're going to want to encourage that.

And as a high-S yourself, you're probably going to want to remember that God gave you something and therefore you need to share it. So let's look at our last introvert, and that is the high-C, the high-compliance person that makes up 14 percent of the population. 14 percent, that's the smallest group of people.

And yet they are the people that we call them a high-C because they want to be compliant. They want to do things right. And so if that's a little scary to you that only 14 percent of the population want to do things right, that's quite understandable.

They are much more task-oriented and tend to be a little bit more direct with their comments and their communication. When they get under stress, you may find that they actually come off as somewhat critical. But here's something I want you to understand.

They are not trying to be critical. They are literally trying to invest themselves in you to help you better understand where perhaps you might have gotten off track or where there is a potential issue that they're familiar with. Now, the emotion of a high-C is concern, but it's often perceived as fear motivation.

If you are a low-C though, you're going to be very permissive and even perhaps considered reckless at times. So as we bring all of these behaviors together, I think it's important that we think about the following information because we want to be able to communicate our strengths so you know how your teammates can process your information and you can process theirs. So how do these four different styles communicate? First of all, the dominant person is very to the point and they're decision-driven.

They want to tick off the box and move on. The influencing person wants to see the big picture. They want to see the concept behind this and it's best if you paint a picture for them so that they can get the full concept of it.

While the steady person just wants to be helpful. They are going to put the team first. The high-compliant person loves details.

They're very logical. They want to go point by point, be very precise and not have a lot of fluff and it's always best if you have an agenda for them in the meetings. So as we think about that, I want us to remember something about behaviors.

Behaviors are how people act. This is the visible part of a person's personality. You can hear some of it but the important thing to remember is the fact that this is the actions that we take.

This is what we can see because now we're going to transition to the mindsets that are going to help us better understand the priorities of an individual and how they impact the behaviors that are going to express what they believe is important. So this whole concept is based on Springer's theory because he noticed that people who share the same goals and priorities are normally more flexible with each other regardless of the differences of behaviors. So we can have that extrovert and an introvert working on the same team but if they share the same priorities they'll find a way to work with each other because the focus and the attention is directed in the same direction.

There's six actual mindsets. There's the theoretical and the utilitarian, the aesthetic and the social, and the individualistic and the traditional. But what I want to do is break them down into three separate groups because those three separate groups are going to give us a very concise description of how they want to operate within your group.

And if you don't understand how they want to operate within the group you're going to see that what we call the storming phase of group gathering might be more difficult. So let's talk about those three groups. The first group are the objective people.

They are the theoretical and the utilitarian. They're very logical. They want to classify things into categories.

They want to be able to identify what the boxes are that need to be checked. How to become more effective or how to become more efficient. And they have a tendency to focus more on the task or the work that's being involved.

Our next group though is the subjective mindsets. These are the aesthetic and the social people. They care very much about the surroundings, the people, and circumstances that are being brought into the process.

That's their priority. They are interested in the task but only from the perspective of the fact of how it impacts people and the environment that they're working in. These people can tend to be somewhat idealistic because they want to have things come a certain way but they also want it to have a positive impact on people and their causes.

Our third group is the beliefs that we espouse both individually about ourselves and the beliefs that we have about how God has ordered life and how it should be run. You could say it's our theology. The individualistic person is a person who genuinely feels that they've been called to some sort of leadership.

They feel that God is pushing them towards helping other people have direction and they're willing to work with other people in a strategic nature to achieve the goal that has been placed before them. The traditional person sees the big picture of God's order and they want to focus on the structure that God has given us through His Word, through His Holy Spirit, and by people and circumstances to help us achieve those goals. So as you look at the graphic that's on the screen right now you will see the graphic representations of each of those six skills.

The maroon and the gold are the objective aspects, the purple and the green are the subjective aspects, and the beliefs are the black and the gray. Now you'll notice that there is a term national mean and the arrows point to those lines. When an individual scores reach those lines they tend to be quite proficient in that area.

We can see from this area that this person loves learning, they're very theoretical, and they are very committed to people first. And their traditional view of the structure that God has given us are the three most important things. So what can we say about this individual? Their priority is other people and their causes.

Why? Because God says people are important. Things may pass away but it is the lives that are important and they know that because they have studied and they have learned with their theoretical mindset to process that information. That low utilitarian means they may not be as efficient as you may want them to be because they're somewhat idealistic as we see with the aesthetic and they would prefer to do things a specific way rather than just quickly to get it done.

The low individualistic shows that this individual is more concerned about other people than they are themselves. Now for those of you that are on a church staff or in ministry this is not an unusual appearance. The challenge is that when the social is this high and when the individualistic is this low people often have a propensity to defer to other people even though they may have more information and more knowledge about a specific set of circumstances.

Now the reason I'm focusing on this right now is because as we go through both the individual and the group processes it's going to be an important reminder because if we are constantly deferring others can't hear what God's given us in our mind and secondly you will exhaust yourself. You will wear yourself out because we have to remember when the Pharisees asked Jesus what's the greatest command obviously the first thing is to love the Lord our God with all our heart mind and soul but the second is like it and that is what love your neighbor how as yourself. You see we can love other people but if we don't love ourselves the way God loves us we tend to be two people pleasing and we rob others of the gifts that God has given us.

So I want you to think about that as we go through this process. Objective task orientation subjective people and circumstances and belief system how we order our lives and structure it according to God's plan. So let's take them very briefly and focus on each part.

I'm going to share a graphic with you in each area and we're going to cover them quickly so let's look at that theoretical mindset. They're more logical less emotional and they can actually appear uncaring at times. They help the team by providing objective insight recognizing patterns and helping solve workflow problems.

They get stressed when there's drama in the workplace and when there are decisions made that really are not explained so they don't function well when feedback is not encouraged and I think that's one of the things that you're going to learn as we go through this course that's going to help you most. So how do you communicate with them? You frame situations as mysteries or problems to be solved discuss that logical approach and use facts and figures whenever you can to help them understand that you're trying to communicate the best. Now let's look at the utilitarian mindset.

They're practical they have a passion for efficiency and they're motivated by the attainment or conservation of wealth. They help a team by seeing new opportunities they're always looking for a way to maximize the resources and they tend to be very highly productive workers. They get stressed out when things get slow in the environment and they can't move and make things happen so it's important that we emphasize how the team and each individual in the team can grow because they want something from each individual and we have to focus on the fact that less measurable outcomes can actually be more desirable especially when it comes to people's needs.

So let's switch over now to the subjective mindset because the subjective mindset helps us understand a whole different aspect of what's important to some people. We'll start with the aesthetic mindset where there is a desire for creativity and harmony. Now they help a team by that conceptual mindset of how things fit together how they work together.

You see they can take decisions and processes and help them fit together with other things that are important on the team and make it seem much more smooth. They're very creative and expressive however they don't like frequent changes and it's hard for them to compartmentalize things so they feel in most cases that there is an ideal way to do things and if we don't meet that ideal perspective they can get out of whack they can feel like there's confusion going on and they don't like being out of balance so it's important to use the descriptions of how to approach things and emphasize let's make this smooth let's make this comfortable for everybody so that we can work together. Feelings are extremely important to the high aesthetic and the high social so let's look at that high social because they have a passion for helping other people and they will literally become advocates for good causes.

They help our team very strongly by mentoring new hires and new colleagues that come into the program they want to pour into other people they are good at networking and bringing other people into the teams but they get stressed when there is conflict or when you take the people aspect out of the process and they can often get stretched too thin as I mentioned earlier by being stretched out so hard trying to do so much that they neglect their own health. So how do you communicate with them? Emphasize the benefit of the team discuss opportunities and help other people see the potential in someone that may be new to the team. But most of all show them that you're taking the steps to resolve conflict.

They are normally very good collaborative type people in their interactions with others. So these people are our feelers. They are the individuals that are going to want to make sure that things run smoothly with people in circumstances.

But we also have the beliefs that we all espouse and the high individualistic person is a person that believes very strongly that if I work hard and I push I am fulfilling a prophecy about myself and that's I'm being called to be a leader or someone of strategic thought. And we need these people. We need leaders.

Do they have a challenge? Yes absolutely with the ego but God usually will work on that in one way or another. They help our teams by literally finding a way to win during the process. A pathway to success.

They love forming strategic partnerships. They are excellent at identifying goals. But when you take away opportunities from them they get very frustrated because they are going to work towards something that will allow them to be recognized for what they do and appreciated for the contributions that they're going to make.

So they feel that their position and status in life can be threatened if something is actually taken away from them. So they are going to strive to do the very best job they possibly can whenever they approach things. So communicate with them by emphasizing the task that needs to be done.

The opportunity that they're going to have for leadership and how that can be turned into a place to position themselves so that they can help the group as a whole. Now last but definitely not least is our high traditional person. They are most comfortable in places like disciple groups where we have that same mentality of thinking.

That same movement towards the same goal and the same type of beliefs. They bring great meaning to the group. They try to lead by example but they also are respectful of the leadership that is there.

And this is a good thing because they have a tendency to be skeptical of change. If you introduce a new doctrine to you they're going to be the first one to question it. And while they can be open to people especially with a lower traditional they may be actually willing to come into conflict with people that don't follow the rules of their personal doctrine.

They can be very focused. So what they're trying to do is emphasize the picture of what God is doing in the world and how he's working with people and focus on tasks that can actually aid in the spiritual growth and the development of people. Now let's summarize.

Behaviors are the things that we can see. These are the things that as we build our self-awareness other people can see about us. Remember it's not what we think about ourselves but it's what is perceived by the other person.

What drives us to act the way we do is our mindsets. These are the priorities that our parents, our educators, our friends, and the people that we share our ministry with find as most important. Those priorities will cause us to act either as an extrovert, an introvert, or an ambivert.

But which priorities are most important? You see that in a movement and let me give you an example. This is why we have doctrinal differences between churches. There are some doctrines that some churches play on and other people don't.

You've heard the expression birds of a feather flock together and that's it. People with similar mindsets tend to be together but you're going to find leaders in the group. You're going to find people that are quiet.

You're going to find people with great amounts of knowledge and you're going to find people that are pushing to make sure the cause happens because it benefits other people. But they're going to act it out in different ways. So remember the differences.

Behaviors are our actions and the way we express the priorities that we have given to ourselves and those that are important to us for such a time as this. Now I know that you probably thought of some questions that you'd like to answer at this point and I'd be more than happy to share those with you. I am not clear of the difference between an ambivert and an introvert.

Okay. They sounded like the same kind of person to me. What's the difference? Sure an ambivert is a person who has both strong extroverted and introverted tendencies.

An introvert is that high SC that is very introspective. An ambivert, let's say a high IS, has that extroverted tendency of optimism and fast pace but they have that thought process that slows down and says I better listen to what's going on and moderate my optimism so that I can feel more secure, more safe, and more predictable. So how is an ambivert different from an extrovert? Good question.

An extrovert, the high dominant and influencing person, is all fast paced. They think out loud. They don't slow down to reason or listen often times.

They miss details and they may not be very predictable in the way that they perform. Where an ambivert, let's say a task oriented ambivert, a high D, high C person is going to move fast but they're going to moderate that with the analytical skill sets that keep them from rushing into something. They're going to be much more deliberate but they're going to exclude people often times in the process because of the skepticism.

So when you have a high extroverted D type personality and someone that's task oriented and someone that's a high S people oriented and they're on the same team, how do you encourage the high D person to take the time to listen to the high S or encourage the high S person to take the risk of speaking up and to appreciate the leadership that a high D person shows? It's important for us to remember that if God orders our steps, he's brought those two diverse personalities together for a reason. And the high dominant person has to remember that the high S is the person that's the glue that keeps the team stuck together. And therefore they need to slow down because the S's natural personality is to listen.

They want to take it in but they also need time to process. So the dominant person has to slow down. The high S person has to pick up the pace a little bit because the dominant person will get frustrated and we don't want their eyes to glaze over in the process.

But the best thing that can happen between the two people is the high dominant person can discuss the agenda ahead of time so that the high S person has the ability to reason through the process and begin to think through the areas that are going to be addressed so that they're not caught off guard. That high S doesn't like change. They don't like to be surprised.

So the high D by presenting that agenda and the focus of what's going to happen really helps prepare that high S for the team meeting.