It\u2019s interesting how some of our past experiences become long-term memories. For some reason, I vividly remember a lesson from a music teacher when I was in fourth grade. Mrs. Parks asked us to describe music. We came up with all of the typical answers \u2013 the notes, the tone, the rhythm.<\/p>\n

And we were certain to mention all of the ways you could make music (she didn\u2019t accept armpits as a method\u2026remember – we were in fourth grade). But when we had exhausted our responses, we were missing one important ingredient.<\/p>\n

The Mystery Ingredient<\/h2>\n

None of us figured it out, but it seemed so logical when she mentioned it. The mystery ingredient?<\/p>\n

Silence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Her point was that the times when instruments and vocals were not<\/em> making noise were as important to the music as the times when they were. I still find that concept profound, yet obvious. In other words, what you couldn\u2019t hear was just as important as what you could hear.<\/p>\n

The same concept can be applied to team effectiveness. For instance,<\/p>\n

\n
• What conversations<\/em> do not occur?<\/li>\n
• What behaviors<\/em> are not displayed?<\/li>\n
• What values<\/em> are not being demonstrated?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Answering the Tough Questions<\/h2>\n

  These questions can be difficult to answer\u2026certainly more difficult than questions about what you are able to actively observe. Noticing what is missing is far harder than critiquing what is present.<\/p>\n

  Sometimes what is missing comes in the form of a key function<\/strong> \u2013 maybe we should create the capacity to have an end-to-end view of material management. <\/em><\/p>\n

  Sometimes important behaviors are<\/strong> absent<\/strong> \u2013 what if our culture was one where we appreciated each other and our customers more?<\/em><\/p>\n

  Sometimes values are missing<\/strong> \u2013 what would it mean if we thought about the impact on our customers of EVERY difficult decision, not just the easy ones?<\/em><\/p>\n

  Try This Exercise With Your Team<\/h2>\n

  Here\u2019s an interesting exercise:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • Step 1<\/strong> – Ask your team to identify the one function, behavior, and value that would make a difference to performance if added. Discuss how you would implement the ideas.<\/li>\n
  • Step 2<\/strong> \u2013 Place these ideas on a 3×3 matrix to assess the effort and impact of each to gauge the ROI for making a change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0IMPACT<\/strong><\/td>\n	\u00a0High<\/strong><\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0Medium<\/strong><\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0Low<\/strong><\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	\u00a0Low<\/strong><\/td>\n	\u00a0Medium<\/strong><\/td>\n	\u00a0High<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n	<\/td>\n	\u00a0EFFORT<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Although not perfect, this exercise will give you a conceptual understanding of the ROI of the ideas. You might be surprised at the outcome. Plus, you and your team will be talking about the kind of stuff that teams should be talking about anyway.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Forget to Notice the Silence!<\/h2>\n So the next time you are listening to your favorite jazz musician or barbershop quartet or country group or rap artist, notice the silence<\/strong> that you may not have paid much attention to before.<\/p>\n And the next time you are trying to figure out how your team can be more effective, remember Mrs. Parks and the unlikely lesson she has now taught all of us about the importance of understanding what is missing.<\/p>\n  <\/p>\n *Image Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s interesting how some of our past experiences become long-term memories. For some reason, I vividly remember a lesson from a music teacher when I was in fourth grade. Mrs. Parks asked us to describe music. We came up with all of the typical answers \u2013 the notes, the tone, the rhythm. And we were …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,6],"tags":[159,189,126,41,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}