In this article, I will explain how we use the Management 3.0 Personal Maps to bring the team closer together and bring people together to deal with conflicts impacting activities as a team.
Team Context
This team was made up of 8 people who, in addition to Biopark employees, were students of a project management course. They had the challenge of developing two solutions in systems related to logistics and investments. They worked together for almost 1 year to create these two solutions. They faced challenges related to engagement with each other, and understanding the business while balancing time learning the art of project management. Gradually we introduced content related to agility and Management 3.0 has always been a reference, mainly to improve the behavioral aspect among them as a team. As the development of the projects progressed, we implemented more project management, management 3.0, and behavioral practices, always aiming to improve the quality of the team’s work, both in terms of technique and behavior.
Explanation: Personal Maps
The Personal Map is a Management 3.0 tool based on personal information that aims to reduce the personal distance between team members. The tool is quite simple, but it has a powerful effect.
Why did I decide to use this practice?
I received reports from more than one team member that conflicts were occurring daily. These conflicts were not related to the work itself but to the different profiles of people.
I decided to use the practice to bring people together because, with the personal map, they could find many things in common, breaking barriers due to lack of communication.
How did I use this practice
I asked each team member to create a Personal Map using a sheet of paper or online. I suggested the following categories but instructed that they could create as many as they wanted.
- Education
- Values
- Home
- Family
- hobbies
- Goals
- Job
- Friends
Personal Map template that some people used
I explained the dynamics and main advantages of using it, either individually or as a team.
After everyone put together their map, they all presented, revealing many things in common, including intimate things they hadn’t shared with the rest of the team.
It was interesting that later discussions emerged on common themes: Some people liked the same books, the same movies, had the same hobbies, or had lived through similar situations in their lives.
At the end of the practice, I explained how they could use this when the team is old. I suggested that, if the people on the team didn’t know at least half of the items in the proposed categories, they should run the practice on these teams as well.
I ended the practice by reinforcing how it helps to bring remote teams closer, mainly by revealing cultural issues that are not easily perceived when we don’t work together.
My learnings as a facilitator
It was of immense value to lead the practice as I felt that the team felt open to sharing. We discovered many things in common and days later I received the information that the conflicts had decreased, after all, they now had more things in common.
I took advantage of the practice to review my own “Personal Map”, since one of the students made a huge map, with a lot of relevant information, going beyond what was expected. It was sensational!
Next Experiments with This Practice
I always try to tell participants the purpose of the practice and how they can use it. I believe that Personal Maps is a powerful tool for dealing with conflicts. We can understand and get to know people better and introduce small changes in the environment that will bring people closer by reducing conflicts.
In a future experiment with this practice, it would be interesting to customize the personal map sessions with aspects of the work itself, for example, “Management”, “Leadership”, “Training”, and “Meetings” and each one could reveal what they think or feel about these themes, creating a kind of personal map that would be very useful for understanding the environment (or how the person sees the environment they are in).
Nowadays it is difficult to separate the professional environment from the personal one, since we are the same person living in different environments, so understanding what people are, both in the personal and professional environment, and how these two worlds coexist is extremely important and supports the generation of an environment of transparency and trust.
References:
Artigo elaborado como parte do processo para a certificação Management 3.0 Practitioner
Article was written as part of the Management 3.0 Practitioner certification process