The Road to Uncommon Success

Here are some exercises for your team meetings:Internal feedback sessionLeader should mine for conflict. Ask the team, what's confusing? What needs clarity? Team members should throw out all ideas- don't hold back.This time of year is perfect for feedback. We want to hit the ground running in 2023 and planning is a great place to clear up confusion External feedback sessions Mine for feedback from your customers. Leaders and Team Members need to actively ask, What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? What do we need to keep, start, and stop doing?  Are the customers getting the “Graydaze feel” and the “Graydaze Experience”?

Podcast exercises:  Team members should talk about the 6 touch points and how they have been able to create a raving fan by delivering a touchpoint the Graydaze way Rank each touch point as a team- what can the team focus on? Teams should create a 30 days sprint to create raving fans Teams should have an open discussion on the market as a whole- How can creating raving fans get us to Vision 24?

Review the 3 strategic anchors and how your specific team uses them to keep alignment on decisions that help us stay successful. Team members should share specific examples of a decision in which all 3 anchors were checked.   Team members should talk about a time when 1-2 of the anchors have been checked, but not the 3rd. What was this situation? How did it play out?  **Gary extra credit** as the market fluctuates, does anyone have any ideas on other possible strategic anchors? If so, brainstorm and explain why they fit. Team leaders should pass this information on. 

Exercises for podcast in team meetings:1. Have a discussion with your team to deep dive into our core values. Each team member should spend time giving specific examples/stories of how they have seen our core values exhibited in the office or field. 2. Have a discussion with your team to talk about and define/establish team norms. Weigh in to buy in, and add your team norms to your team gameplan. 3. Have a discussion on team "rituals" and how these can create camaraderie and trust within your team or cross team. 

This is a reminder podcast about the Vision 2024 and the 5 Basic Strategies that will continue our momentum of growth and success, ultimately achieving another long-term Vision here at Graydaze. We all have a part, and this month we'd like for our team leaders to take time to dust off our team plans and talk about how we all can continue to pour in energy and contribute to the momentum.  Amber put together and distributed a poster to each team outlining their individual team contributions back in February – take the time to review and update your team's game plan, much like we did in the Pause for Profit earlier this month.  Take the time to discuss each point, make sure it's still relevant, still contributory and still going to help us all get to the Big Goal – Vision 2024, $155mm in revenue, a bigger team and $80/share.

Ideas for Organizational Health Conversations Have a discussion with your team centered around the 6 customer touch points, as a team rank them from worst to first and create a gameplan to focus on the bottom three and a method for tracking your improvements Have a discussion with the team about how being a mentor or mentee relates to HHS, discuss specific traits that should be emphasized for each and have the team share some personal stories. Team Leaders – share some stories with your team about how you personally grew as a mentor, talk about some of pitfalls, the challenges you overcame and even some of the “off color” stories that you experienced – think recruiting new mentors here. With your team share some stories about the challenges of being a mentor or mentee, emphasize time management, the rewards of seeing someone else succeed, promoting the team, mine for items we can do better as mentors or mentees *Leaders Only* - think about who on your team could be a mentor now or potentially become a mentor in the future, think about the qualities they possess that would make them a good mentor, can they manage the time, do they know the Graydaze experience inside out, are they patient enough.  Be prepared to discuss with the group at the July MCM meeting. 

Ideas for Organizational Health Conversations If you haven't already – assign someone on your team to organize and maintain a vacation calendar just for your team, make sure everyone knows when someone has time off scheduled that the time has to be respected.  Maybe even setup some categories for the calendar – things like “working remote – completely online and available” or “taking vacation – leave me alone.” If your team already has a calendar take some time to review it and make sure everyone is clear on who keeps the calendar and how it can be accessed.    Along with the calendar make sure the team's expectations are clear on when its ok to contact someone on vacation – sometimes emergencies happen and you simply have to reach someone – as a team create a “decision tree style” plan for that – the plan could potentially include three categories “make the decision yourself”, “consult the team and make the decision”, “contact the team-mate on vacation to make the decision”.  Your team may have different categories, but a having a clear protocol provides the clarity the team needs to handle any situation regarding a team-mate's time off. As a team create a “vacation hand-off form” – if you are on a PM team the form might include relevant job information (job#, field and office contacts, current scope, materials / equipment onsite, current milestones, etc), other teams might include contact information for clients you deal with daily / weekly, any current projects or issues you are handling or foresee as issues, deadlines you have while you are away.  All forms should include an emergency contact number or scheduled check in time when the vacationer can be reached – emphasize this is only for emergencies (see the decision tree exercise above).

Ideas for Organizational Health Conversations Team leaders have a round table conversation with your team to explain the relevant aspects of the Graydaze ESOP and what benefits it really offers for everyone.  Include topics from your team as well as items like long term growth strategies, sustainability of our company, how stock is allocated (FREE), and how it lives out our core purpose at Graydaze. Have your team members each share a personal story about their own uncommon success and what it means to them today and how they see it evolving over the next few years. Use their story and feedback to help coach and mentor them to achieve their uncommon success. You may even setup future 121 meetings to make sure they are on track or how we can work with them to help get them back on track.  Team leaders have a conversation with your team about how our core purpose has guided or personally helped you make decisions over the years - maybe use examples like helping a crew with some extra work even though you didn't have it in the budget but you knew you needed to take care of your crew so they would be there for you later or maybe how most 100MM companies probably have an on staff travel agent that books everything for PMs which means you couldn't control being home early on Wednesday to coach your kids little league game - there are literally countless examples - ask for some from your more seasoned team members and share with the group that this core purpose is really how our company operates not necessarily what we do - that's question #3 and a future podcast.  

Go through an exercise with your team and rank the 11 behaviors that we must embrace to deliver fearless client service from most difficult to easiest to use in your daily communications and actions as a Graydazer.  Discuss why the top 3 are so difficult and what you can do as a leader to help them work through these issues, also discuss the bottom three and why they are so much easier – you are looking for blocks you can build on to make the difficult actions easier and make sure they are getting maximum return on the easy ones.  As a team leader talk about a hard conversation that you had to have with a client and how you worked your way through it to not lose their business, what were some of the sacrifices you had to make, or hard issues you had to swallow to see the big picture and not only not lose the business but also further the relationship.  Use this example to teach your team how they too can effectively lead hard conversations. What tactics do you as a team leader use specifically to overcome the fear of losing the client's business, these could be things like over prep to make sure nothing gets by you, ask tons of questions so you know every scenario, or maybe you just jump right into the fray and work best on the fly – whatever your tactic is, share it with the team and ask them to share some ideas on what would work best for them. What behaviors from the podcast series specifically will your team employ to deliver fearless client service and contribute to our current main thing of Re-fueling Sustainable Margins and how will you as a team leader hold them accountable.

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings With emphasis on the Main Thing “Refuel Sustainable Margins”, discuss how individual members of your team (all teams – Mission Support, PM, Ops, Est) deliver fearless client service and set themselves up to ultimately get paid regardless of the situation, think about the stories from the podcast about CX impressing Reeves and Young, or Zach and his “large client” up north – both examples created trust with the client that helped set the team up for success. List and discuss specific “isms” for your team's clients, things that make your clients unique and help you as a team personalize the Graydaze Experience, help embed us in their team and ultimately create an avenue for profitable success for both the client and Graydaze Discuss with your team how each of you will embrace the behaviors from the podcast to overcome the fear of feeling inferior and create an environment with your client that doesn't feel transactional, or how team members have elevated the experience to become a preferred subcontractor or trusted advisor. 

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings Review from planning the top fear that each team member had and talk about how they are working through that fear to deliver fearless service Have each team member talk about a specific incident that was embarrassing and how they were able to overcome it – the leader goes first on this one and creates an environment of vulnerability e For Operational Teams – have an open discussion about overcoming embarrassment in job meetings, talk about what you brought to the table specifically (how did you get make the most of the $600 Graydaze spent to get you there), how did you standout and contribute, how did you make Graydaze look like a team player, why was it so important to be there in person. For Mission Support Teams – brainstorm in your team suggestions that would make the Operational teams more efficient and effective, then overcome the embarrassment of going to that team leader and making the suggestion your team came up with

D4 is all about reviewing and reinforcing the Graydaze Advantage so that we are all aligned, and is the responsibility of every Graydazer - all teams have some old dogs and fresh blood, challenge your team for feedback on specific processes and dig in to identify blindspots or for improvements (similar to a stop, start, keep exercise). Do a live recap of all 4 disciplines and how they help us make intentional decisions around the Graydaze Advantage and how it defines our culture and helps us stay focused on providing the Graydaze Experience to our clients and subs. Talk about your specific team's upcoming or recently completed planned interactions – was it time well spent, has it been a while since you had one, what are some suggestions for team or team/customer outings in ‘22. If you have NFGs ask them about their onboarding experience – was it what we promised, do they feel like part of a team, are they bought it, how can we improve it. GG challenge – open to all 2021 NFGs - present a discussion on all 4 disciplines at planning – if you were hired in 2021 you are eligible to participate, feel free to work independently or in a group.  The winning presentation will receive a “sweet prize”!

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings Lead your team in a discussion about which form of communication is most effective for certain situations – for example when to use email vs text vs a phone call. Lead your team in a discussion about how the team communicates internally – for example some teams may use a text, or a teams call depending on the urgency of the situation.  You could also discuss boundaries for communication – for example if you call after 8 PM it should be something more important than the client changed the color of room 100 do you think I should process a CO – that type of communication can be via email or a conversation during office hours.  Encourage your team to communicate openly, but be respectful of your teammates work life balance for non-emergency calls.  *The Gary Challenge* - lead your team in a discussion challenging the Team's Meeting Rhythms – are you communicating effectively, do you need to make changes in timing or content, is your team slipping into “meeting soup”, do all of your team members find your meetings engaging, informative and focused.  Be ready to openly accept criticism and potential improvements for your team.    

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings Discuss the 5 questions and how they create the framework for our clarity and aligning our whole team intellectually (remember D1 aligns us behaviorally), be sure to emphasize the Graydaze spin on the 5 questions so that the team is aligned and focused on our clarity Have the team share examples of how the clarity created and defined by The Graydaze Advantage differentiates us from other companies and specifically from our competitors. Take time with your team to create a “decision tree” based on the Graydaze Advantage, specifically Q2 – Q4 – for example if you are leading a PM team you would have decisions that PMs make, decisions that PMs make with GM input, and decisions that GMs make. Talk with your team about how a decision flows through the five questions of the Graydaze Advantage and how the clarity created by the Graydaze Advantage empowers all Graydazers to make consistent decisions that are aligned with the whole team. Have your team share uncommon success stories and discuss their personal vision of uncommon success and what support they need from the team or company to achieve it.

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings D1 presentation by the team leader – include drawing and explaining the behaviors on triangle, conflict continuum and hub and spoke for accountability. Do a deep dive on why politics are the enemy of D1 – remember the idea of “changing the conversation when someone else walks in the room” is a clear indicator of politics Have a discussion around collective results and the importance of recognizing and supporting Team 1 Have a discussion with your team about the team's specific rules of engagement for conflict and accountability – is everyone aligned and comfortable with the criteria for accountability and having difficult conversations. 

Ideas for Exercises for team meetingsRollout the defining objectives in detail of the new main thing and discuss how your team will contribute to the success of the main thing and establish a 30 day sprint Pick a few of the previous main things and discuss the accomplishments and why they are still are relevantDo a deep dive on why we do main things, how they apply to the whole company, how they keep us focused on what is most important right now, possibly use the example of our over zealous “to do” lists from planning years before we focused on org health and how we had many great ideas but with lack of focus only a few were completed, reread pages 119 – 131 of the Advantage for some ideas on training around the main thing (question 5)Have a discussion around how the concept of a main thing could be applicable to your personal live as well as your professional life – for example in 2019 my (David's) family's main thing was focused around moving from Roswell to N. Georgia. 

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings Talk with your team about motivating factors each of you can use to keep yourself balanced and keep from burning out during the busiest season we have ever experienced.  Share specifics, come up with ideas you can do as team or individually, like we discussed in the podcast it doesn't have to be extravagant just needs to be a healthy distraction. Talk about our culture of uncommon success and how it breeds success in others, Graydazers are always raising their game and making the team more successful – share some examples about what you do as a leader or team-mate to keep this culture alive and instill it in the next generation.  Have a team discussion about what it means to develop leaders, this is our culture at Graydaze.  Everyone leads something at Graydaze, a team, a process, a project and leaders inspire others to develop and grow, talk about growth opportunities within the team and how the team embraces them.  Share your personal growth story with the team what milestones stood out, what were the “A-ha” moments, what was the most difficult part to push through, what does the future look like, what would you have done differently. 

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings If you are a team leader - share some of the experiences both good and bad about your transition from a team-mate to a leader.  Possible ideas could be - what were some of the growing pains, trials you endured, processes you wish you had more help with, who opened the door for you, how did you personally embrace the challenge of growing into a leader, what would you do differently, how are you going to apply the lessons you learned along the way to help develop the next round of leaders within your team.  If you are team-mate – share some stories about how you had to “get after” the process of growing into a new role, how you were able to grow after being dumped in the deep end the first time, what lessons learned to took away from the training experience, how you will continue to grow into a future leader, what your ultimate goal is for your career at Graydaze (remember not everyone wants to be the next CEO) Leaders and Team-mates – share some ideas on how to build camaraderie within the team, what type of activities do you enjoy outside of work that might be applicable for the whole team, how well is your team embracing camaraderie, have an open vulnerable conversation about how cohesive your team is now and what you personally (as a leader or team-mate) could take on to improve camaraderie on the team. 

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings- Have your team share an experience where they were able to use one of the 12-steps to help train or direct a newer Graydazer.- Review the “smart v healthy” table with your team (draw out it out and briefly discuss the bullet points), talk about how the 12-step relates to the either the smart or healthy side, and why each is relevant and how it applies to our business or clients (keep in mind clients can be used in a traditional sense or could be internal clients depending on your team)- Talk with your team about taking the extra few minutes while they are on the jobsite with an NFG to tie in the 12 step- Talk with your team about how you will hold each other accountable for each step, and let them choose an accountability buddy to help. hold them in check

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings• Ask your team about ways they involve their family in Graydaze life, do they share stories at home, discuss milestone goals, talk about the crazy travel schedule or places they have been or would like to take their spouse to, do they get excited about company events (BHAG, MM Bash, Christmas party)• Ask them about some of the challenges they went through during the lock-down, was it easier or more difficult to “turn off” Graydaze time and tune into family time, was it a stress point or an opportunity?• Have your team share some war stories about times they had to dig deep to make it happen, what did they gain from the experience, how did they grow in their position, what tips would they offer their team mates if they had to deal with a similar situation?• Have your team chart out the top 2 or 3 things that are causing each of them to have an unhealthy work life / personal life balance, have a conversation with the group about it or if it seems too serious schedule a 1to1 to work it out in private, get the help of another leader if needed. • Ask your team about the last time they had fun at work, was it recently, has it been too long, what is keeping them from having fun, what could Graydaze do as a company or with your team right away to bring back some fun, what events do they look most forward to at Graydaze, what is the most fun part of their job.

Ideas for Exercises for team meetingsHave your team share an experience where they were able to use one of the 12-steps to provide uncommon customer service or change the outcome of a situation.Review the “smart v healthy” table with your team (draw out it out and briefly discuss the bullet points), talk about how the 12-step relates to the either the smart or healthy side, and why each is relevant and how it applies to our business or clients (keep in mind clients can be used in a traditional sense or could be internal clients depending on your team).Talk with your team about how you will hold each other accountable for each step, and let them choose an accountability buddy to help. hold them in check.

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings Part of being able to slow down and choose the right path is understanding the balance between slowing down too much and overthinking (analysis paralysis), and making a decision too quickly without regard to the overall goal (in a PM's case it could be earning the opportunity, honoring the 2-way street principle with the sub, handling a contentious change order situation, or others) – talk with your team about a time when you as a leader had to slow down, think about the overall clarity (goal) and make a call, or maybe a time when you should have slowed down but instead made a knee jerk call that might not have been fully aligned with the team. - We are a shop full of doers – tough to slow down.- Leaders must recognize the need to slow down / team should speak up when the leader doesn't.- Appoint someone who should speak up – it takes a team effort.- A conversation on effectiveness v. efficiency - talk with your team about the effectiveness and importance of FTF communication both daily and during offsites – emails are efficient, but get ignored, and text is also efficient but can be misinterpreted, important decisions or plans should always be communicated with a conversation or FTF.- Discuss with your team when to use various communication forms to maximize effectiveness and efficiency – remember the Graydaze 12 step “pressed send twice…”- Discuss why it is so important to commit the time to an in person offsite despite the fact that the team has 100 other things going on.- Talk about effective vs efficient from a client's perspective – what is the best way to communicate with the client? – their way.- Team practice – we talked about how team meetings are our practice times, and how our offsites are similar to halftime where we may course corrections to stay on point.- If you already had your offsite – have the team review the changes that came out of the meeting either tactical or as they relate to org health and how they think those changes will make the team better, or improvements they have already seen as a result of the changes.- If your offsite is upcoming – have the team consider blindspots or tweaks that will make the team operate more effectively and efficiently – incorporate these suggestions into your offsite, of if the topic is too broad record it for a separate strategy meeting.  

Ideas for Exercises for team meetings –The team leader should talk about their experience at Graydaze before and after we implemented org health (if they were hired post 2015 they can talk about how they experienced the GDC environment when they transferred from their last position)• Encourage the team to share similar stories of why org health makes a difference at GDC• If you have newer Graydazers on your team have them talk about their first day orientation and their initial exposure to org health - How did they relate to it - Did it affect the way they approached their career at GDC - Had they ever experienced anything like that before• The leader could poll the group for ways they can carry on org health daily and apply it to everyday decisions and situations• Talk about using the org health “healthy / smart chart” when they are considering recruits - will they measure up – we need good folks to continue feeding this machine• We referenced the book “The Advantage” by Pat Lencioni; this book covers in detail the “Smart / Healthy” Model, and the 4 disciplines around cohesive teams and clarity – definitely recommended reading.

Graydazers – this month's podcast is actually a two for one – we are going to use this podcast for November and December and we will release a new episode in January. This podcast is all about the Graydaze Experience and relates directly to the Power to Outperform. We are going to discuss the Graydaze Experience from the client's perspective and the field's perspective. I would recommend focusing one month on the client and one month on the field when discussing with your Team. Use the 6 customer touch points from the PTO (I will email to the Team leaders separately) – and ask for examples of how your team used these ideas to create the Experience with our clients, go around the room and share real life stories of how we have impacted our clients using the touch points. For the Field month, ask for examples of how your team used the two way street principle to engage a sub or maybe examples of how the FX team has reinforced the two way street idea and made a sub appreciate the Graydaze Experience – put your own spin on it and it should lead to productive conversations about the Graydaze Experience and how to preserve it for our clients and field. As always reach out if you need a hand or want to bounce some ideas. Thanks folks. - David Henry

1. Discuss and create your Team's meeting norms to avoid boring, ineffective meetings and lack of clarity.2. Review your Team's meeting rhythms and scheduling to keep everyone aligned.

Episode Notes:While your listening to this month's podcast think about what your teams starring roles are for the current main thing. Remind yourself that we all have a role in change and the purpose of a Graydaze Main Things is to get all teams engaged and contributing to what's most important right now. So, what is your teams contribution going to be? How will your team star in our current main thing - The Opportunity is Now? Be ready to discuss your ideas about your team's contribution and possible 30 day sprints in the October 2nd team meetings. In the 2nd team meeting discussion think about what still needs clarity about the current main thing. Look back at the defining objectives and ask yourself what should we start doing, stop doing and what am I still confused about? Share your thoughts in the October 16th team meeting to help us fine tune our main thing and create the best ideas and opportunities for Launching the FX Team, Opening up the West and Accelerating Opportunity in the East!

Change: We don't like it but it's necessary to progress. Also, all about the "muddy middle."