Day 12: What are Core Skills

Yesterday I talked about a team I was privileged to be part of. Today I would like to look at what made that situation work so well.

Here are eight Core Skills identified by Business in the Community (bitc.org.uk)

Listening, Speaking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Staying positive, Aiming high, Leadership & Teamwork

All of the people in the team exhibited these skills (and more) as a result trust was very high. We also had high levels of psychological safety, “The belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking” Amy Edmondson (1999) leading to continuous learning by everyone.

Despite our different working patterns, locations and organisational setups each person was appreciated and supported by the others and everyone did their best to help people to be part of the team for example by ensuring that remote members were able to hear and fully contribute to the conversation in meetings.

Everyone was empowered and supported to highlight their current work in review meetings and as a result these meetings were interesting, varied and well attended by stakeholders.

We took time to socialise together, visiting some of the local eateries in Manchester and also worked a day from each of the agencies offices in Leeds and Sheffield.

My role of Transformation Manager enabled some broader thinking about the system. We had an excellent Delivery Manager and Product Manager who were very helpful in creating the conditions for the level of safety and support. They helped the team to work together in effective ways, modelled a lot of the behaviours and made space for contributions from everyone.

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