This is the 2nd article in a series of 16, over which, I will share with you facts about the world-famous RAF Red Arrows Display Team, regarded as one of the world’s premier aerobatic display teams, applied to the highly-effective and acclaimed Team DyNAmics© programme that I run with leadership, operational and project teams.
Hopefully, you will learn some fascinating facts about the Red Arrows and be provided with hints and tips from my Team DyNAmics© programme, to help you and your team transform and achieve even greater team success.
#2 OF 16: PURPOSE
Red Arrow Fact: The RAF Red Arrows are the public face of the RAF. They assist in recruiting to the Armed Forces, act as ambassadors for the United Kingdom and in doing so, promote the best of British.
Team DyNAmics©
If a new member of your team came up to you and asked “What was the purpose of your team?”, would you know? In addition, if that new member went and spoke to another member of your team or the team leader, would they get the same answer?
Based on my knowledge and experience of working with teams throughout the globe, the answer is likely to be, probably not.
Try it out for yourself, at your next team meeting, ask your colleagues to write down your team’s purpose and then share the answers. I am sure that in the majority of cases, you and your colleagues will give different answers. Just think how confusing that is for a new member of your team and also the problems it causes for your team, with everyone having a different understanding of your purpose.
Be aware that Purpose is different to a Vision statement. The former is what you are expected to do and deliver, whilst the latter is a compelling vision of the future that you aspire to achieve.
There are 3 important elements that form a Purpose Statement:
3 Key Elements Of A Purpose Statement
1. Why your team exists?
2. What does this enable?
3. What are the benefits that this delivers?
It would be totally inappropriate for me to share the outcomes, based on helping my clients to put together their purpose statements, so I have chosen to share that of my organisation Ngagementworks.
Ngagementworks exists to partner with clients, delivering value-adding, experiential learning and development programmes, that meet their objectives. All programmes are developed and facilitated in a way that enables individuals to be engaged and teams to be motivated, helping them to transform and achieve even greater success.
It should be clear from the above that it includes all of the 3 elements I have mentioned, why your team exists, what does this enable and what are the benefits. If you go back to the beginning of this article, you will notice how the Red Arrows Purpose Statement follows the same format.
So, What Are Your Experiences?
Do you know your team’s purpose? Does everyone in your team share the same understanding? Please do get in touch with me and let me know.
If you haven’t got a clearly defined team purpose statement and have used the above to develop one, please do share it with me, as I’d really enjoy reading what you have developed.
The first article in the series can be found using this link: Team DyNAmics: Lessons From The Diamond Nine: #1 of 16: Transformation
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Yours behaviourally, Nick
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