The 3 Conversations Every Team Needs Right Now  🔗 **Source:** [The 3 Conversations Every Team Needs Right Now](https://share.snipd.com/episode/6e2a7e3c-9958-4656-874b-7b7c25b44ce4) ## Highlights - **Daughters Bridged Language Gap With Shared Culture** - Rachel Cooke recounts her daughters connecting with a Croatian teen via shared influencers and TikTok despite a language barrier. - The story illustrates how common cultural touchpoints can quickly bridge geographic and language divides in teams. Transcript: Rachel Cooke You know, a few years ago, my family traveled to Croatia and our tour guide had brought her teenage daughter along who did not speak a lick of English. I saw my daughters wanting to connect with her, but language barriers are a real thing. But then their iPhones came out because of course the Insta got opened and immediately the girls realized they were all following the same influencers, the same brands, even with an Ocean between them. And that distance kind of melted pretty quickly into TikTok dances. I bring this up because I'm having a parallel experience in the workplace these days. Like no matter what the company, what the industry, the challenges are feeling very much the same. There's a real universality in our experiences these days. We all think we're snowflakes and we are all special, but the challenges I'm hearing from companies across industries are just really consistent. I think there's something almost comforting in it. And the good news is we all have so many things to learn from each other, regardless of the spaces we're working in. ([Time 0:01:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1c9dc2b9-2903-4a28-b6b7-a78504685435)) - **Use Rose And Thorn To Fix Cross Team Friction** - Collaboration often fails because teams don't appreciate each other's essential contributions and constraints. - Rachel Cooke recommends each team define a single "rose" (must-have contribution) and a "thorn" (one constraint) to build empathy and smoother collaboration. Transcript: Rachel Cooke One is our collaboration is broken. We're all running at lightning speed and collaboration is key. No great product is built without tech, marketing, finance, and operations all being on the same page. And yet the number of us working across geographies and time zones has seriously amped up the challenge of our doing so. The clunk is real and it's coming my way pretty regularly. So where do I begin with this challenge? I like to start with the rose and the thorn. Meaning, understanding, like appreciation and empathy, is really crucial between collaborating teams. So we come together and each define our rose and our thorn. The rose represents each team's essence, the most critical thing that must be infused into the work that only this team can bring. I don't mean a list of everything that they can or will do, but I mean the singular thing this project will not succeed without that this team brings to the table. If we don't start with an honest appreciation for what each team is bringing, then we end up often as foes rather than partners. And the thorn. That's the one challenge that each team needs the others to truly understand and make space for. Like tech, they need collaborators to recognize some of the limits of the development environment they're working in. And they need you to know that changes are not as quick and simple as you think. And marketing, they need a little bit of grace on the outreach because sometimes privacy or security concerns need to be navigated. I've seen what happens when teams do this and listen well. It is extraordinary how much space and grace we are able to offer our colleagues when we understand the realities they're navigating that had never occurred to us. This foundational understanding lets us move into building charters, cadences for problem resolution, and shared systems of recognition, ultimately all of which really enhance Collaboration. ([Time 0:03:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aa2ecb05-cc6a-4981-8bd4-07ff5e5f32a4)) - **Design Work Around Four Pillars To Do More With Less** - Doing more with less requires designing work, not just adding effort, via four pillars: deliver, develop, connect, thrive. - Small tactical changes—smaller meetings, experiments, learning circles—boost output without extra hours. Transcript: Rachel Cooke The next challenge, of course, is we need to do more with less. I mean, anyone? Yes, we all know headcounts and budgets are shrinking while goals and expectations, not so much. And also burnout. It feels like the math is impossible. This is exactly what my program, Work Better by Design, is built around. So let me give you the core of it and show you how it comes in handy. It's, well, designed to help teams identify smarter, better, more engaging and productive ways of working so that with the same resources, we're actually able to achieve more, but Without just working harder. In this one, we begin with the four pillars of work design, deliver, develop, connect, and thrive. And we start with an honest, quick hit assessment of where our current practices are helping and supporting and where they're slowing and hindering us. And I promise there are spots that are being slowed and hindered. And then we start really small. In recent sessions, I've had teams tweak how they run meetings such that they are smaller, tighter, more agile, and impactful. I've had them infuse more moments of experimentation into building campaigns such that they learn and iterate more quickly. I've had them turn update meetings into learning circles, Zoom conversations into connection to better enhance collaboration. And from there, of course, we build out our near-term roadmap and our chain of commitments. So if the do more with less conundrum is the one weighing you down, start with a quick assessment of what's working and what's not, and make just one tweak, like tomorrow. ([Time 0:07:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/15d5fa93-7a1d-480f-8fc8-c22c7560b126)) - **Make One Small Meeting Tweak Tomorrow** - Make one focused tweak immediately, like shrinking or reframing a meeting, to test impact quickly. - Rachel Cooke cites teams who turned update meetings into learning circles and tightened meeting sizes to gain momentum. Transcript: Rachel Cooke In recent sessions, I've had teams tweak how they run meetings such that they are smaller, tighter, more agile, and impactful. I've had them infuse more moments of experimentation into building campaigns such that they learn and iterate more quickly. I've had them turn update meetings into learning circles, Zoom conversations into connection to better enhance collaboration. And from there, of course, we build out our near-term roadmap and our chain of commitments. ([Time 0:08:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/febd795f-3e69-43e4-92a7-3964645c292c)) - **Reframe Leadership As Clarity Not Certainty** - Leaders are often misplaced as providers of certainty when uncertainty is the norm; their role should be reframed. - Rachel Cooke says leaders should offer clarity and transparency, invite team input, and commit as advocates of change rather than promise certainty. Transcript: Rachel Cooke The third is we are drowning in uncertainty and change. Consuming news, trying to understand the heads and tails of AI, watching colleagues be let go, it's adding up to a lot. Change is the only real certainty right now, and that's not so likely to change anytime soon. In this session, the focus is on helping teams who are kind of like deer frozen in headlights get unstuck. This program is designed for the leaders who are managing the change. And in it, we begin by truly redefining their role. Much of what I'm seeing play out here is that leaders believe their role is to offer certainty, to confidently build the path and lead their teams down it. And yet they themselves feel so uncertain. They have no idea where the path even begins. And so from the start, they've kind of set themselves up for failure. This conversation always begins with a redefining of the role of a leader in the face of uncertainty and change today, clarifying what their job is and critically what it's not. Like how it is to offer clarity, transparency into what's known, but that it is not to offer certainty, because certainty is kind of a lie right now. How it is to build a path forward with their teams, but it's not for them to build it for their teams, because nobody has the full picture of where we're heading. So no leader can pave the path without the insights and ideas of their team members, the ones talking to customers, playing with AI, and how it's not their job to love every change, every Choice the company makes, but it is their job to commit, to be an agent and advocate of the changes that are coming. And from here, leaders can typically breathe a little more deeply. So then we begin to work through weaving a powerful narrative for our teams, inviting them into the work of paving the path forward, finding our near-term measures of success, and on. ([Time 0:08:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/508835ea-1334-4cc2-b0a4-84fb5ed73847)) - **Gather Leaders To Build A Shared Change Narrative** - Pull leaders together to clarify what their job is and isn't, craft a candid narrative, and invite teams to co-create the path forward. - Use near-term measures of success and weave a transparent narrative to reduce paralysis. Transcript: Rachel Cooke Much of what I'm seeing play out here is that leaders believe their role is to offer certainty, to confidently build the path and lead their teams down it. And yet they themselves feel so uncertain. They have no idea where the path even begins. And so from the start, they've kind of set themselves up for failure. This conversation always begins with a redefining of the role of a leader in the face of uncertainty and change today, clarifying what their job is and critically what it's not. Like how it is to offer clarity, transparency into what's known, but that it is not to offer certainty, because certainty is kind of a lie right now. How it is to build a path forward with their teams, but it's not for them to build it for their teams, because nobody has the full picture of where we're heading. So no leader can pave the path without the insights and ideas of their team members, the ones talking to customers, playing with AI, and how it's not their job to love every change, every Choice the company makes, but it is their job to commit, to be an agent and advocate of the changes that are coming. And from here, leaders can typically breathe a little more deeply. ([Time 0:09:13](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1fd5e98c-27ce-4db9-be0c-d1e8f3458dd6))