Building and maintaining relationships across team boundaries
The quality of external relationships significantly affects the team's ability to accomplish its goals. Start by mapping the team's key external relationships. Which other teams…
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Relationship-Building Skills
Nurturing relationships with emotional intelligence grounded in trust, respect, mutual understanding, and a spirit of collaboration.
Tools for this skill (15)
Building Psychological Safety
Sustainability work requires speaking uncomfortable truths, acknowledging uncertainty, and challenging unsustainable practices. None of this is possible without psychological sa…
Dedicated time for relationship-building
Relationships develop through interaction, and interaction requires time. For internal relationships: Informal gatherings provide low-pressure opportunities to know each other b…
Generative Relationships STAR
Working groups assess their own interaction pattern on the STAR compass — Separateness (diversity of perspective), Tuning (listening and reflecting), Action (joint activity), an…
Impromptu Networking
Three rapid rounds of paired conversation (4–5 minutes each) on two questions: "what big challenge do you bring?" and "what do you hope to give and get?" Participants mill and r…
Network Relationship Patterns
Quartets use a shared vocabulary of ten recurring work-relationship patterns to name how they actually interact — where energy flows, where it drains — and pick one pattern to s…
Psychological Safety Micro-Behaviours
An individual practice run inside real teamwork: deliberately doing the small things research links to team psychological safety — asking genuine questions, speaking up about yo…
Social Network Webbing
The group maps its informal web: who is already involved in the purpose, who is connected to whom, and who is missing — using color-coded sticky notes that grow into a living ne…
Team Check-in
An NVC-grounded ritual for teams: unhurried rounds in which each person expresses honestly how they are and what they need, received with empathic listening and no fixing — reco…
Team Psychological Safety Scan
Measuring a team's psychological safety with Amy Edmondson's validated survey items (e.g., "If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you"), then debriefing t…
The Connection Investment
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): In brief interactions, pause to make genuine contact rather than just exchanging informa…
The Remembering Practice
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): When a colleague mentions something significant, make a mental note. In your next intera…
The Repair Initiation
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): When you notice a relational rupture, even small, take initiative to address it. This mi…
The Shield
Each participant draws a large shield divided into four fields and fills them with PICTURES (no words) on personal themes — "this describes me…", "a difficulty I got over…", "I…
Triggering Team Trust
A team examines its own trust explicitly: assessing the fundamental elements — per Zenger & Folkman (2019): positive relationships, expertise and good judgment, consistency — ag…
Also develops it (15)
Building and maintaining psychological safety
To create an environment where team members feel safe to express themselves, take risks, and be vulnerable. Psychological safety is built through consistent behavior over time:…
Building capability for co-creation with external actors
Co-creating with external actors involves challenges beyond internal collaboration. Before significant external co-creation, clarify the nature of the collaboration. Is this gen…
Communication across organizational and cultural boundaries
Effective cross-boundary communication requires attention to different contexts, norms, and needs. Develop awareness of how communication norms differ across boundaries. Differe…
Container Building
The facilitator's meta-practice from Theory U: deliberately creating the holding space before the work — preparing one's own inner condition, co-creating ground rules, and invit…
Coordination across team boundaries
Most significant work requires coordination across team boundaries. Effective coordination multiplies the team's impact. Identify where cross-boundary coordination is needed: wh…
Cross-boundary exposure
To bring in perspectives and ideas from outside the team's usual context. Create regular opportunities to learn from outside the team's usual boundaries: • Invite someone from a…
Deliberate learning from others
To cultivate the habit of seeking and valuing input from outside the team. Create regular opportunities to learn from people outside the team: • Invite colleagues from other tea…
Focus on contribution over credit
To shift team culture toward valuing contribution to shared goals rather than individual recognition. Cultivate norms and practices that emphasize contribution over credit: • Wh…
Norms for effective information sharing
Teams need information to function, but information flow is often inadequate. Establish explicit agreements about information sharing: what information should be shared, with wh…
Noticing and responding to struggles
To ensure that when team members are struggling, the team notices and responds supportively. Create practices that help the team stay attuned to member wellbeing: • Check-ins th…
Onboarding in Transdisciplinary Collaboration
A team-forming opening for transdisciplinary projects: students, teachers, and external partners build meaningful connection before building work plans — sharing backgrounds, mo…
Positive Gossip
Pairs "gossip" about colleagues — strictly positively: telling stories of what someone did well, as if the person weren't listening. Rounds rotate so everyone gossips and is gos…
Regular appreciation rounds
To create recurring opportunities for team members to express appreciation for each other. Include a brief appreciation round in regular team meetings: each person has the oppor…
Stakeholder engagement practices
Effective engagement with stakeholders builds support, surfaces important perspectives, and creates allies. Develop systematic approaches to stakeholder engagement: Identify key…
Working through collective resentments and divisions
To address patterns of division that limit the team's capacity. Periodically create space to examine whether the team is carrying resentments or grievances: Are there other team…