In my previous post, The Value of Social Capital, I introduced the concept and how it contributes to team success. Now, I want to delve deeper into this topic and share some actionable strategies to create and enhance social capital within your team. Building social capital is akin to creating a durable, unified structure out of individual bricks, where the strength comes not merely from the bricks themselves, but from the strong mortar that binds them together.
Embrace Diversity of Thought
Teams thrive in an environment where diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills are welcomed. While it’s comfortable to surround ourselves with those who agree with us, the magic often happens outside our comfort zone. A robust team is one where individuals bring fresh perspectives or alternative solutions to the table. This diversity acts as a catalyst for creativity and innovation, sparking meaningful conversations and ideas that push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Cultivate Active Listening
Active listening is a foundational element of effective communication. It’s not about being silent while others speak; it’s about fully focusing, understanding, and responding to the speaker in a way that promotes further dialogue. Oprah mastered this beautifully by always asking the follow-up question, without listening you’ll never get the opportunity to really dig into the solution. Encourage your team to practice active listening, as it lays the groundwork for empathy, understanding, and mutual respect.
Foster Psychological Safety and Vulnerability
Social capital flourishes when team members feel safe to express themselves without fear of judgement. Encourage your team to share their thoughts, ideas, and even failures openly. Vulnerability humanizes the workplace and builds trust among members, facilitating a collective learning environment. I enable this type of culture by sharing my long list of failures, we all have them, but we pretend we’re perfect. The impact is that the group realize we’re all a big hot mess held together with a veneer of “perfection”. Normalizing that we’re all awesome and a mess helps the group really talk about what’s going on.
Promote Collaborative Efforts
Every task, no matter how small, can be an opportunity for team members to collaborate. From brainstorming sessions to decision making, encourage an all-hands-on-deck approach. Collaboration not only facilitates skill transfer but also enhances mutual understanding and respect, further strengthening your team’s social capital. This is why I encourage pairing (2 people together) on most tasks and mobbing (all hands-on deck) on the crucial ones. It’s a great chance to break knowledge silos and practice your diverse team working together. It’s hard to share your ideas with someone else, but if you don’t invest in collaborative work, it takes much longer. You may think that you are losing productivity by always encouraging pairing, but knowledge silos are a massive risk to social capital. Every time a situation arises where only one person can do a certain task; your team is too brittle. Everyone on the team needs to be able to do most of the jobs, otherwise, the team is a lottery away from losing that key person. People will leave, invest in social capital so the team is resilient to the next change.
Demos, Demos, Demos
Demos offer many opportunities to help your team. Transparent and consistent communication not only keeps everyone on the same page but also builds trust and a sense of belonging. An open line of communication reinforces the feeling of unity within the team and helps provide visibility to knowledge silos. Next, they build a culture of learning and continuous improvement. Encourage regular showcasing of work, not just as a means of tracking progress, but as a platform for constructive feedback and learning. A ‘demo, learn, and iterate’ culture fosters resilience and adaptability, elements that are crucial to a team’s long-term success. Ask the difficult questions but in a caring way. Don’t be overly harsh but your team will not get better if you don’t ask hard questions of them. And the leaders around you should remain firm and rigorous, yet caring, even when the team stumbles. This is why it is important to build safety otherwise this feedback will not be as effective and achieve the outcome you want. Eventually you will build enough safety, trust and social capital that you can reach the concept of radical candor. Reaching this means you can get beyond passive or active aggressive feedback to a place of clear, kind, specific and sincere.
Recognize and Appreciate Efforts
Recognition and appreciation go a long way in boosting team morale. When team members feel their efforts are seen and appreciated, they are more likely to contribute their best work. Foster a culture where recognition and appreciation are part of your team’s DNA. Use demos, town halls or sending notes to people when they do great work. The recognition is not only to build social capital, but it also enables you to reinforce the culture you want. When people do great things, praise them, remind them of their hard efforts. It’s not only helping them but showing everyone else the expectations of the culture.
Building social capital is a long-term investment that requires patience and consistent efforts. By implementing these strategies, you can foster a strong and resilient team that is greater than the sum of its parts. Remember, your team’s true strength emerges from the robust bonds that interlink individual talents. Invest in your team’s social capital and witness the transformation into a collective powerhouse of success.