Okay, and then we've got one person signed, logged on already, so. Okay. And then my screen shows multiples, shows the meeting information, questions, foundation, and then the slides. When you flip that over to me, will that go to full slide? No, you'll just see the arrows, I believe. Yeah, you'll see the arrows, because I'm seeing those things as well. Okay. Okay. All right, well, I will go ahead and hand this over to you, and we've probably still got another minute or so, and I will be on mute. All right, great. Thank you. You're welcome. Good morning, everyone. This is Brian Garu, and welcome to the AED Foundation's webinar on Why Do We See Things So Differently? For your benefit, I hope that you've had an opportunity to hit the tab and print out the handout that was provided with this. There's some exercises and some fill-in-the-blanks that will help you retain some of the information. So to get started, teams are a part and a very important part of dealer business. You have functional teams from the same department. You have cross-functional teams providing products and services to your customers. You have leadership teams that are guiding some business decisions, and you have special projects or task force. Harvard Business Review, a few years ago, described that there are three types of teams in organizations. There are teams that recommend things, there are teams that make things, and there are teams that run things. Teams have the potential to be one of the most important drivers of success in a dealership today. But, as we'll see, research findings show that about 60% of the time, the team fails in its accomplishing its goals, and afterwards, there are relationship and lingering issues between team members. So my goal this morning in this presentation is to take a lesson from the author Samuel Johnson, and that is to remind you of some very important things in our busy lives running businesses that need to be considered and executed regarding teams, rather than instructing you on things that you already know. So to get started, I'd like to do a quick exercise and ask you, what do you see? I'm going to show you seven pictures. And very quickly, what I'd like you to do is write your first impression down from what do you see. So let's start. What do you see in this picture? What do you see in this picture? How about this one? And in this one, do you see someone looking at you or a profile? In this one, which word do you see first? What do you see in this picture? And then the famous viral issue from last year, what color do you see in the dresses? So if we stop for a minute and just look back at these pictures as we describe them and look at them in more detail, we may be able to see multiple things. But what was the first impression? So starting at the top left, that picture, did you first see a young lady with a feather in her hair and a profile? Or did you see an older lady with her nose, large nose? Second picture, did you see a duck? Or did you see a rabbit? The third, did you see a structure with columns? Or did you see individuals facing each other and talking? The fourth picture, did you see a profile? Or did you see someone looking directly at you and half of their face? The next, did you see the word me? Or did you see the word you? And then the next picture, did you see a gentleman with a beard? Or did you see two ladies in the forefront with an arch? And finally, last February, we went viral with this picture on the Internet. In fact, at its peak, it was getting over 4 million tweets per 24-hour period and lots of conversation about colors. Sixty percent of us saw blue and black, but others saw white and gold, and some saw blue and brown. And so from this simple exercise, I hope it reinforces the view that we can look at something or experience something and see things very differently. So the core questions today, and there's four that I'd like to address. The first is, is it possible for two people to see, hear, or experience the same thing and interpret it differently? And I hope from the first exercise that we did, you would say absolutely yes. Secondly, do you agree or disagree that to be right doesn't mean the other person is wrong? In our society and fast-paced world today, sometimes we deal with black and white, right or wrong, good or bad, and in many cases, it's simply a difference of opinion and a difference of perspective. Third, so when we run into those situations in the dealership where we need to figure out ultimately what fits and what doesn't, and we can't agree, where do we go? And then finally, what about some practical tools and tips that will help us resolve differences of opinion? And my goal today is to share five practical tips with you at the end. So to start with, one of the first basics is the teams, whether they be functional or cross-functional, do they believe that beliefs and opinions create the perspective that it's okay to have differences of opinion? And when is having differences of opinion good or bad? So I would contend with you that having differences of opinion is good if we increase clarity and understanding. If we gain consensus in the conversations and the dialogue about what to do and, as importantly, not only what to do but who's going to do it. If we ultimately resolve a problem or get better, and if we're able to build or maintain relationships and trust, those would all be good situations where having differences of opinion have created a positive. However, the flip side is if no decision is reached and we get into that continuous loop of just agreeing to disagree, or if we divert energy from higher priorities, and as we learned years and years ago from Dr. Deming and Duran, that we spend more time working on the trivial many versus the vital few, if we create some morale and relationship issues or ultimately create division between individuals, between departments, between shifts, between branches and the main store, then having differences of opinion is not good. And so fundamental question, what does your team believe? And based on their experiences, do they believe having differences of opinion on their current team is good or bad? A good question to ask them. We're going to talk about five principles today as it comes to group dynamics and having differences of opinion. The first is that we as human beings desire to know, understand, and most importantly to control the situation and hopefully the outcomes. Secondly, that opinions and viewpoints we consider to be the truth when in reality they are simply our opinions and our viewpoints. Third, that when we're looking for reinforcement of continuing to believe and act the way that we already do, we can find all sorts of evidence and facts and figures and examples to support the way of continuing to do just the way we are today. Next, changing one single limiting belief can increase our options. Think about that for a second. Beliefs are extremely powerful. We're going to talk about those in a couple of minutes. But the bottom line is that if we change our beliefs even a little, all of a sudden there are more options for us to consider. And then finally, when you look at great relationships in life and in work and great high-performing organizations, they have learned to take differences of opinion and viewpoints and handle them effectively. They don't avoid them. They handle them effectively. Hopefully this session will help you with a couple of tools and tips as well. So one of the core questions I asked today was, so ultimately if teams or individuals or groups run into a difference of opinion, how do we ultimately break the tie? How do we know what ultimately fits? And I would contend with you there are three things to look for. First and foremost, always start with your organizational values. Now, the challenge here is real simple. Many organizations have values. They may have them on the wall. They may have them in posters. They may have them in employee handbooks, things like teamwork and trust and customer service. But what does that really mean? And what are the specific behaviors in this organization that show that we're living that value? Many organizations have not taken their values to the next level to provide that clarity and therefore people get lots of different interpretations of words like customer service and quality and teamwork. The second way to decide what fits after values is does it align with your business plan and strategy? Because bottom line is that's what's important. We want to make sure that it aligns with the values that we have and then secondly, there has to be the business purpose. And then finally, double check it against your cultural processes. And ultimately there are three major buckets of cultural processes in an organization. The first set is those that inform. Tell people what's important, what's not important, how to do things. Those include things like your formal and informal communication, your policies and procedures, the standardized people-related processes that you have, and then what you measure and what you don't measure in the organization will all inform your organization as to what's really important. The second set of cultural processes teach us how to do things or how to do things better. So included in that would be the dealership's formal training and development or T&D, what you share and what you teach as you onboard individuals new into the organization and or individuals who are taking on greater responsibility in your dealership. Third is watching what leaders model, coach, and teach in the organization from first-line supervisors all the way up to dealer principals. And then finally, how we allocate the ability to make decisions and at what level can you make decisions. How many times do you have to make permission or get permission from someone in order to do your job is all part of the teaching. And then finally, reinforcement. We reinforce using four processes. One is how we select people to be on the team, to take greater responsibilities on the team, and or to remove someone from a position. We do it through performance management processes. We do it through non-financial recognition, and then we do it through financial rewards. So the bottom line is when you run into those situations in teams or organizations, when ultimately you have to make a tough decision and you have very different opinions on how to do it, I would contend with you that you start with your values, next go to the business plan and strategy, what makes sense, and then finally, what's being reinforced by your cultural processes. All right, so why do we see things so differently? I would contend there are many, many reasons, but we're going to talk about four today. The first one is every individual has different wants and needs, and I think this picture depicts it well. This young man would like something to eat, and he has an apple and he has cookies, and he will decide what is a want and what is a need, something nutritious or something fun. The second thing is beliefs, and beliefs come from life experiences, and so as people experience things on teams and in the day-to-day business, based on those beliefs, they will look at some things and think it's possible. In other situations, people will think it's impossible. Third is individual perspective, and this cartoon depicts it very well with a person on an island and finally seeing someone coming in a boat, and they're excited because they see a boat. And the flip side is the individual in the boat who's been floating around for a while sees an island, an individual there, and their perspective is excited because they see land. Both perspectives are correct. And then finally, personalities, and we could spend lots of time on this. We'll spend a little bit of time, but the bottom line is we have different personalities, so in the case of Type A personality, they see a mountain and they say, well, I need to climb it because it's there. Another type of personality would say, well, there's a mountain there, so I think I'll rest at the bottom and wait. So these four things, and we're gonna look at these in just a little bit more detail. So wants versus needs. Very interesting thing in our society today and in the business world. The bottom line is sometimes our brain plays tricks on us and it actually transforms a want into a need. For example, you might have a laptop, but you convince yourself, especially after watching lots of advertising, that a tablet is what you actually need because it's lighter and easier to carry around. So bottom line is we do have different perspectives, we do have different wants versus needs. Simple way to look at that is... we have a problem and we need a solution, so let's look at all the possibilities, versus we have a problem and we want that solution. Already made up our mind, already been influenced. So teams have lots of wants and needs. Partial list, everything from goals and clear expectations to time, money, and resources to do the job, communications, et cetera. And what I will contend with you is that as you look at this list, things like communication, things like problem-solving methodology, things like guidelines versus directives, things like how many meetings and what kind of meetings and format of meetings are all going to be slightly different depending on the individual. And so for those teams that are struggling, one of the fundamental questions are how do their beliefs, their perspectives, and their personalities influence this list? And ultimately, do the majority of the people on the team see it as a want or a need? Secondly, beliefs are very, very powerful. This is a model that was produced a few years ago by Hiram Smith, and moving from left to right, I will show you and share with you that Smith's research indicated that all human beings have four basic emotional needs. And based upon those needs, there's a series of things that happen with principles, rules, and actions that create a result. We look at it a different way. There are basic needs, and we will think, we will feel, and based on how we think and feel, we will act in a certain way, and ultimately we will get something. If the result that we get addresses one of those four basic human needs, then we will continue as an individual to continue to think, feel, and behave that way. If the result does not meet one of those basic needs, then we have to stop, and we have to decide if we're going to think, feel, and or behave differently. So let's look at this in a little bit more detail because, again, beliefs are extremely powerful. So the principles start with four basic human needs. Doesn't matter what position you are in the organization. Doesn't matter how old you are. These are four basic human needs. The first is affiliation, a sense of belonging. This time of year and where I'm located in the Midwest, affiliation is very strong since baseball season has started. And God love the Cubs fans because their affiliation, all the flags are flying, the colors are out, the caps are on, and this is going to be the year. And I hope that that happens for them sometime, but they've been hoping for a long, long time for that to happen. But affiliation is very powerful because even when there are tough situations and tough decisions to be made, and even when you don't win, you still want to belong to that organization and take pride in belonging. So affiliation is very powerful. The second one is affirmation. We want to be affirmed that we're okay, that we're doing something right before we're told that we need to work on something and do something better. The third is acceptance. Acceptance is very important to human beings because you feel like an insider, not an outsider. People ask you your opinion. People ask you to participate. People want you to be involved. Very, very powerful. And then finally, allowance to err. So we all make mistakes. What happens when we make a mistake? Are we punished? Or is it looked at as a learning opportunity? So those four basic human needs ultimately help create how we think, feel, and act, whether as an individual, on a team, or in life. Secondly, principles are learned from life experiences and change over time. And this is the best message for today because bottom line is, if an individual needs to change some of their thoughts and actions, it can be done. If they've come into the organization and have some different ways of looking and doing things than your dealership wants, they can change. And we'll talk about that a little bit. So principles do change through life experiences, just like when we're single and then get married or when we're married and don't have children and then we have children. The principles will slightly change over time. Third, the rules create if-then situations in our mind. And we don't even know this is going on. But if I see this, if I hear this, then I'm going to feel a certain way and act a certain way. Your actions are going to equal behavioral patterns. And what's really important is that we don't look at one-offs, but that we consider patterns of behavior. And finally, here's the kicker. If the result satisfies one of those four basic needs of affiliation, affirmation, acceptance, or allowance to err, then the person's going to continue to think, feel, and act the way they did. They're going to repeat exactly what they did before. Excuse me. So let's look at this with a couple of examples. What I will do is I will share with you, first, here's what we were thinking, feeling, or acting. An employee listens and follows the leader's instructions. And the result is that they receive praise for doing that. So a positive result happens. So my question is, which of the four needs is met? They listen. They follow the instructions. They receive praise. So which of the four needs that we talked about that start with A is met? I would suggest that affirmation. We'll affirm that that's the right behavior. And so the likelihood is that we will repeat that. Let's look at a second one. In this case, the employee does not share information well with their coworkers. And as a result of that, other coworkers don't share with them. In this particular case, the need isn't met. What need isn't met? I would suggest to you that acceptance is not met because I'm not going to be included as much. So as a result of this, now the individual has one of two choices. They can continue to not share information and get the same result and not feel acceptance, or they have a chance to change that belief that they should share information and ultimately have others do the same thing with them. We go through this process and subconsciously we don't even think about it. Now here's a third one. An employee explodes when they're told no or they get disappointing information. And ultimately, even though they exploded, they got what they wanted. So is the need met? Here's the interesting thing. In this particular case, yes, the employee's need is met because by allowing them to get what they wanted, even with the wrong behavior, we have affirmed that that behavior is acceptable. And herein lies one of the real challenges that we have with leadership is what we tolerate. Let's look at a couple more. So in this case, an employee volunteers to help. But in this particular case, something happened with the result and they didn't get the affirmation they were looking for. So what result might create that? Perhaps a team member or perhaps a leader not saying thank you and or not giving recognition for the person volunteering to help. That's just taken for granted. So the next time a volunteer opportunity happens, this employee might be a little bit more hesitant in participating. Next, an employee makes a mistake. But they accept accountability for that and they ultimately share it with their supervisor. They debrief. No blame is placed. They look at an improvement. So is a need met? Absolutely, positively, I would say yes. And that's the need for allowance to err. So in this particular case, the next time a mistake happens, the likelihood of the employee admitting it and taking accountability for it increases. Now this may seem really simple in concept, but it's hard to continually look for these things unless we're paying attention. Take, for example, something as simple as in a warehouse setting where an individual is putting material up on a rack and they inadvertently back into a beam or an upright behind them. Real thing happens, what do we do? Do we tell somebody because we created a potential safety issue or if nobody's looking, do we just move on? A lot of these situations happen every single day and a lot of it's happening because of the belief window and whether or not needs are being reinforced or not. Finally, an employee disagrees with their supervisor and they will not take no for an answer. In fact, they move it up the chain and continually are complaining about it. The relationship between the supervisor and the employee becomes extremely strained. The question is, is a need being met? And this ultimately becomes a question of whether if the employee is not corrected and it's okay not to take no for an answer and it's okay to continually run things up the chain of command, then the employee's need will be met and they will continue to do exactly that same behavior because their beliefs are being reinforced. So beliefs are really powerful, a great little tool to help look at some behaviors and reinforcements. Next is perspectives and viewpoints and we definitely have those. It's another reason why we have differences of opinion and let's look at a couple quick examples. So when the other person takes a long time, they're slow, but when I take a long time, I'm thorough. When the other person doesn't do it, they're lazy, but when I don't do it, I'm very busy. When the other person does something without being told, they're overstepping their bounds. So when I do that, that's initiative. When the other person pleases the boss, they're an apple polisher. I clean that one up quite a bit. But when I please the boss, that's just hard work. When the other person talks about people, they're gossiping, but when I talk about it, it's because I'm concerned. Perspectives are very powerful. They're simply an individual's viewpoint. They are not necessarily the truth. Let's look at a couple. An individual might think someone is very intelligent and highly qualified to be on their team or based on how they act, they could also conclude they're very condescending and elitist. An individual on the team could be viewed by other teammates as very decisive and candid or they could be viewed as very abrupt and very insensitive. Someone on the team could be viewed as very methodical and compliant with rules, yet others see them as very inflexible and too cautious. Or someone may be very composed and steady at the wheel and others may say, well, yeah, they're very robotic and very insensitive. So perspectives and viewpoints, same individuals, same behaviors, different conclusions. So one of the factors here to consider is to always focus on what is right, not who is right. And so the what, again, goes back to what aligns with your values, what aligns with your business strategy and plan, and what aligns with your cultural processes that inform, teach, and reinforce. So finally, another reason that we have differences of opinion is personality types. And research says that the personality tests that we're familiar with today emerged around 1919 and actually started with the Army. The Army was recruiting individuals and wanted to look for emotional stability because of the likelihood of shell shock and so they literally created over a hundred question assessment to help them determine different personality types. But there's many out there. There's Myers-Briggs, there's the five-factor model, there's DISC, there's the color palette, there's inkblots, there's Strength Finder, lots and lots. The one I want to share with you today is one that I have particularly enjoyed using with clients, and that is DUET, and it simply stands for Dolphin, Unicorn, Eagle, or Tiger. And since you haven't done the personality profiles, here's a little bit of background on them. Let's remember personality types are acquired skills and preferences, and no style or combination is better or worse. For this particular tool, broadly speaking, your dolphins are going to be community builders. Your unicorns are going to be very opportunistic and strategic, looking at long-term connecting dots. Your eagles are going to be very methodical, looking for processes and procedures. And your tigers are going to get her done. Bottom line is, all four of these personalities are important to have on teams, to have in a dealership, and even though we may have a dominant one of these, bottom line is, in an emergency situation, we can all be tigers and help get people out and safely. So, even though one may not be your strength in an emergency, it can be a strength on a short-term basis. So, let's look at some traits, behaviors, and preferences, and as I go through these, what I've done is summarize a very long list into a few simple ones, because again, what I'd like you to think about is go back to the first item that we talked about, which was distinguishing a team's wants versus needs. And let's look at how, depending on your personality, those wants and needs become different. So, the dolphin loves personal communication, preferably face-to-face. They're great at reading emotions. They need to enjoy feeling needed. Relationships are very critical to them. They look to create that positive work environment. If change is taking place, then they're going to be the ones saying, how is the change going, how do you feel? They would start a process by delegating, by saying who wants to do what. Time's not a constraint to them. In fact, they may be involved in lengthy conversations, and their meetings may be regular and open, but they may run over routinely, and they ultimately get the results through people and teams. Now, contrast that to a unicorn, who's very visionary with creative ideas, but their communications may be much more fragmented. So, people can get frustrated sometimes trying to grasp new concepts and ideas. They very much jump into the solution mode as soon as the opportunity or the problem's identified. They're very selective in delegation. They rarely stop. In fact, if you work for a unicorn, the worst day of the week for you is Monday, because Saturday and Sunday they've been thinking about all sorts of things, and Monday morning they come in and start sharing those. Impromptu meetings at best, not as much structure, and they get results by creativity and different approaches. Now, contrast that to an eagle. An eagle is very detailed and factual. They have great processing skills. They like to plan before they act. If logistics are established, they wanna follow those, very black and white. When they delegate, it's based upon the structure and the role that the individual's in. Time's not a constraint because attention to detail. Very standardized times, formal agendas in meetings, and they get the result by executing the processes correctly. And then finally, the tigers. The tigers, communication-wise, they don't like to repeat things. In fact, as soon as they get it, they hope everyone else gets it, so let's move on. They're the ones that typically will get frustrated in meetings. They don't like imposed controls. They make lists. They do minimal delegation because they're about getting the task done. They don't have enough time because there's so much to do. Meetings only when necessary. Otherwise, let's keep working. And they get results versus necessarily the method that they get the results from. So if you look at these personalities, I'm gonna stop just for a second and ask, which one do you think reflects your personality the most? And then, which one would you have perhaps the hardest time dealing with? You can see from just some of the colored, highlighted differences, if we go back to that list of team wants versus needs, time, communication, problem-solving, meetings, et cetera, are all different depending on the personalities. And so, sometimes team dynamics struggle because we haven't considered that and factored that. Let's look at one other thing. Let's say you have a group of 15 individuals on the team. And you do the personality profile. And in this case, you have 10 dolphins, one unicorn, two eagles, and two tigers. So the strength is you've got lots of relationships. You've got lots of interpersonal communications going on. But in this particular case, you may not have enough people looking to the future. You may not have enough people documenting things and measuring things, and in this case, you may not have enough doers with the tigers. Contrast that to another profile of the same 15 people, but in this case, you've got seven dolphins, one unicorn, six eagles, and one tiger. So in this particular case, you might have lots of conversation and documentation going on, but very short-term focus and not a lot of actions being taken. So again, balance is important compared to the third profile where you have lots of good balance between people who are gonna be good coaches and cheerleaders, people looking out into the future, doing the documentation, and then getting it done. So look at those personalities. They're very important, and bottom line is if you have too many of one thing, you may be missing some opportunities with group dynamics. So the last thing about personalities I'd like to share with you is that in order to sustain and produce those relationships that we all need for high-performance dealerships, it's important that we communicate in a way that makes the other person comfortable. It's important that we problem-solve by looking for patterns and behavior of the other person. It's important that we're aware of our own personality traits and preferences, and that we're also aware of how others like to do things, because here's the challenge. Bottom line is we tend to deal with people the way we like to be dealt with, not necessarily the way they like to be dealt with, and therein lies an opportunity for team and group dynamics to improve. So let's spend the rest of the time talking about some practical tips, and we're gonna talk about five of those. We're gonna talk about some red flags. We're gonna talk about trust, problem-solving, communications, and feedback. So let's start with red flags. On a team or an organization, we hear things, we see things, but the question is, do we do anything about it? So let's start with language used. Perhaps we hear things like, I don't know, you'll have to ask them. They don't share anything. Perhaps you hear things like, that's news to me, or who told you that? Or I couldn't tell you what they do. All those are red flags that there may be some group dynamics issues going on. On a team, there may be hoarding of information, and certain people seem to always have the information that others don't. Or perhaps there's some omissions of information. Another thing that may happen is you may see lots of activity happening on a team, but you don't see results coming out. And there's a big difference between activities and results. You might hear some criticism amongst team members. There might be a false sense of harmony, especially when you as a leader might be on the team, or visiting the team, or in a team meeting, because you sense disagreement, but certain individuals won't speak up. And then, how about offline input? So, after the meeting, then people want to talk to the leader. You see or hear or sense an imbalance of everybody wanting to teach everyone else, but not necessarily everyone wanting to learn from everyone else. And then, do you get frank feedback from team, or do you get filtered feedback? Does there seem to be competition for exposure to leaders, to customers, to decision makers? And do individuals have a hard time giving each other credit for things accomplished and things done, or are they looking to take that all themselves? Those are all important things and red flags that in the busyness of running a dealership every single day, we could miss. So, usually the problem isn't necessarily seeing it or hearing it, but ultimately, it's what we decide to do with it. And if we decide to ignore it or tolerate it, then we're allowing some waste and some ineffectiveness to come onto the team. Secondly, trust. The foundation of all good relationships is trust, and trust is critical for team performance. When we trust someone and when team members trust people, there's four things that happen. First, we trust their abilities, that they have the capability or they're competent to doing something. This is really important, especially as new members come onto the team because we need a period of time in order to see that in action. Secondly, we trust people when their behaviors align with organizational values, when it's not just what they do, it's how they do it that's important. We trust them when they're consistent and predictable. See, last time I did X and they did Y, that was good. And then, finally, risk versus reward. Can I take a personal risk to share that information, to ask them to do something, and if I do, what's the payoff and what's the risk? What did I experience last time? Trust is very, very important. It's not something like Casper the Friendly Ghost that you can't measure. It's really about behaviors, characteristics, and traits, and many of those are the same types of characteristics and traits that we trust people outside of the workplace, same things inside the workplace. So, remember, people don't trust words, they trust actions. We judge ourselves by our intentions, everybody else judges us by our actions, and team members are looking for consistency of action, not necessarily just words. As my three-year-old grandson and I say now, you make a promise, you keep a promise. Now, what about some signs of mistrust or relationships? Do we catch these when people ignore other members of the team, or avoid them, or are always second-guessing what they wanna do or what they say? When there's gossip or sarcasm or humor at the expense of someone else, or finding fault or criticizing, whenever certain individuals' thoughts and ideas are always discounted by the team. When there's over-demands, and whatever the individual does is not good enough, or they're perceived to be unreliable, there are potential trust issues in the team. When certain individuals are so needy that there's no time to talk about anything except what's happening in their life and on their job, that can be a sign of mistrust or relationship eroding. In the area of accountability, blaming others or holding others back, or the wonderful one where my opinion is right, therefore I'm gonna go find some other team members who align with me, I'll build up my allies, and therefore I will reinforce that my behavior and my actions and my thoughts are correct. This one's a great one, I see it a lot today. They lead the meeting after the formal meeting, so you lead a meeting and the team agrees and seems to have consensus on doing something, heads shake up and down, yes, and then after the meeting, there's a side meeting, and basically what's being told and the behaviors are, that'll never work. So, do you see these things happening at work? And if so, what's going on with the relationship, what's the trust level, and what's the ineffectiveness that's happening amongst that team? When two people disagree, it's usually because of four different things. It's either, first, objectives, we have different objectives, so leaders can certainly help clarify what the objectives are. Secondly, it's because of different methods. How should we do things? Again, you can put some very general boundaries and guidelines, or you can be very specific as a leader to a team. Third, if you agree on the objectives and the methods, then the third becomes the challenge of communication. And then finally, emotion, and let's not forget that personalities, beliefs, perspectives, and egos will all play a role, especially in the third and the fourth categories of miscommunications and emotions. So, we talked about problem solving, and there are many, many, many problem solving techniques out there. Teams need a common problem solving technique or two, and usually we have technical problem solving techniques that are introduced, things, for example, like Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma, but sometimes lots and lots of problems can be solved with simple problem solving techniques, but we don't introduce those, and then, therefore, we allow everyone to come up with their own, especially the unicorns. So, in this particular case, it's an acronym called SOTUS, and it stands for the following. The S is step one, the specific problem, and this, by far, is the most important because it takes time for people to ultimately identify the specific problem rather than generalizations. But if you can get the specific problem, and then you brainstorm what are the options to solve the problem, what are the disadvantages of each option, what are the advantages of each option, and what is, ultimately, the selected solution based upon that? Now, someone like an eagle would love this because it's a process. Someone like a unicorn will probably spend a lot of time talking about options. Someone like a dolphin is going to absolutely, positively want to have lots and lots and lots and lots of conversation and, in many cases, this technique can be used literally in two or three minutes. And if you're a tiger, they'll go through the process, but once the solution has been agreed to, they're ready to get it done. So, let's look at problem-solving technique for non-technical related things. Let's look at a specific example. So, in this case, you have a team member who's consistently late to work and creating issues for the team. Well, you ask them, you don't tell them, you ask them, so what are a couple of options so you are here on time? That's different than having an absentee issue. It's you're late. So, the person says, well, you know, I could set two alarms, I could go to bed early, or I could maybe look for an alternate route or transportation option, okay? If you have any other suggestions, you can offer them, but it's better if the individual comes up with them. So, what are the disadvantages of two alarms? Well, I'm a heavy sleeper, okay? How about going to bed early? Well, I'll miss some of my favorite TV shows. Remember, it doesn't have to be something you agree with. And then, how about alternate route or transportation? Could add time to my morning, okay? So then, go back to your options. So, what are your advantages of two alarms? Well, I sleep with my phone by the bed and I can hear it every time it dings, so that's good. I can tape or DVR my shows or I can miss some traffic congestion that I seem to always run into. So, which one makes the most sense? Well, I think I'll start with setting two alarms and if I'm successful, then I will try to go to bed a little bit earlier. Sounds super simple. I would contend with you in my 35 plus years of working in business, that probably 80 plus percent of people and team dynamic problem solving can be done using this simple model. All right, we talked about miscommunication being one. So, here's a few things that absolutely need to be taken into consideration as you're looking at communications and team effectiveness. And on your outline, you would be on number 15. So, first, we need to remember that communications involves three steps. Many organizations today are only dealing with one step. Step one is sharing information. People are doing that at record paces, trying to maximize technology. But, the next step is absolutely critical. It's to generate understanding of the information and that's where dialogue needs to take place. And then finally, reinforcing key messages. There are so many messages out there today in the dealership. Which ones are most important? Which ones do we hear over again? Which ones do we hear reinforced? So, remember, teams are more effective when communications is handled in three steps, not one. Secondly, let's remember that nonverbal communications, i.e. body language and tone, make up 90% of human communications effectiveness. So, think about that for a second. What all the communications teams do electronically. Where's the body language? Where's the tone? We're missing some opportunities. So, balancing high tech and high touch communications for teams is critical. Third, research would say that our brain formulates initial impressions in one tenth of one second. That's extremely quick. So, again, think how fast those beliefs kick in when we see something, when we hear something, when we experience something. And so, we have to get past that initial impression in order to create some new habits, some beliefs. The next thing to remember in communications with teams is that 49% of any negative or constructive feedback is automatically filtered out through our defensive mechanisms. So, why is change hard? Because half of what we share with people, if they consider it to be constructive or negative, they throw up their defensive mechanisms and don't listen and it doesn't stick. Next, studies have shown that 20 to 30% of everything we say is not interpreted as we would fully intend it to be. So, we shouldn't assume because someone nods their head yes that they understand. That's why communications and making sure we repeat key messages and generate understanding is so critical. Next, we have to remember in teams and in team formats that the human brain processes information four times faster than we can speak. So, we can hear it about 800 words per second our brain can process, but we can only speak it two. So, if you're in a meeting and you start seeing people dozing off or getting lost and or trying to multitask, it's because there's so much information they can process faster than we're talking. And so, we need to hold their attention. We're using PowerPoint slides. We need to click like I'm doing here this morning and not just put tons of data and charts and graphs up because they'll start processing stuff and will not pay attention. Next, humans only pay attention for about 17 seconds before interrupting or preparing a rebuttal. So, teaching teams to be active listeners is extremely, extremely important. And then finally, have to remind and teach teams that words like always and never are over exaggerations and they can quickly shut down communications not only with other teammates, but with customers, with other departments, and with the boss. So, we talked about processes. And so, the last thing I'd like to do is share with you a five-step process. Again, a simple process to remind team members on the importance of giving and receiving a feedback. The first is timing. Is it psychologically safe to approach the individual? If you're just coming out of a meeting or you can see that the individual is emotionally charged, it may not be the best time to give them some feedback, especially if it's going to be constructive feedback on something that could change. So, timing is extremely important. Secondly, limit the focus. Concentrate on behaviors and their effects and give a specific example or two. Generalizations are very, very hard to work on. Third, when you deliver, when it's safe and you're delivering the information, concentrate on the behaviors. Don't embellish. Don't unload stuff that you've been collecting for weeks and weeks. When you communicate, use the I word whenever possible, not the you. So, as an example, you want to, I felt you were being disruptive versus saying you were disruptive. And at this stage, especially for unicorns and tigers, be careful not to give advice too quickly here. Fourth step is when you're receiving the information, be active listeners. Try to break that 17 second listening process. And again, remember when we get feedback, there's a classic cycle that we go through called SARA. There's surprise, there's anger, there's rationalization, there's acceptance and help. So, if we can get through surprise and anger and stop grinding our gears and rationalizing why we did something or thought something or said something and move to acceptance and help, the team will move on much faster in giving and accepting the feedback. And then finally, after the feedback, thank the individual and look for opportunities to reinforce if they're in the same situations so that you can ultimately create a new habit. So, on your sheet, you have this visual and we're gonna close with this. And in a moment, I'm gonna give you four sets of instructions I would like you to follow. So, in the top left-hand corner where it says number one, I'd like you to pretend for a second that that's a cursive eye and I would like you to put a dot on the eye. The second, which is bottom left, I'd like you to think about driving down a country road and you went by a mama bull, a papa bull, and a baby bull. Which of those three doesn't belong? So, circle either mama bull, papa bull, or baby bull in the field. Third, in the top right, I'd like you to write the word Xerox, X-E-R-O-X, in the blanks. And last, bottom right, number four, I'd like you to circle the word that doesn't belong with the other three. Now, let's go back for a second. Number one, I asked you to put a dot on the eye. How many of you actually dotted the eye and put it on top like you would with a cursive eye? Number two, driving down a country road, you would not see a mama bull because mamas cannot be bulls, so the MB would be circled. Number three, how many of you wrote the word Xerox on the blanks instead of in the blanks as I asked you to? And fourth, many of you would pick hockey because you can eat or drink the other three items, but you could also very easily circle chocolate because there's ice tea, ice hockey, and ice cream. The bottom line is that the stuff that we've talked about today with group dynamics and why we see things differently, it takes a little attention to detail. It's about creating some new habits. It's about looking and listening a little bit differently, and it's remembering that we are creatures of habit, and so it's natural for us to keep doing the things that we are doing. If you want to take a behavior and create a new habit on your team, it has to be repeated and reinforce a minimum of 17 to 21 thoughts. Hard work. So finally, our ask of you today is to take something that we've shared and put it into action, and so we have three asks of you. First of all is agree to try one thing you learned or we reinforced today in the next week. Take one thing and share it with a coworker or a peer, and then think about the whole idea of differences of opinion and being more effective with individuals. Think about an individual that you tend to see things very differently, and then look at the four things that we talked about today that can cause that. Wants versus needs, beliefs, perspectives, and personalities. Which do you think's contributing the most? And consider both yours and theirs. Next is what could you specifically do the way they like to, especially in the communications or the problem-solving area? And if you don't address this on the team or with the individual, what are some of the bad consequences that will continue if it's not worked out? So in closing, I'd like to leave you with these thoughts. First of all, cohesiveness is really important on teams and dealerships, but different personalities can very much compliment each other if you work on them a little bit. Secondly, when we have differences of opinion, the best solution is not to get more headgear or padding. Third, sometimes we need to change our point of view in order to become more effective and efficient with group dynamics. And finally, great teams use differences of opinion as a fuel, not a fire. So we thank you so much for your time today. If you have any other questions, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. You'll see an email address there, and or you can check out the website. And we thank you so much for joining us today for this webinar, and we hope you have a great day. Bye.

team differences

beliefs

perspectives

opinion

clarity

consensus

problem resolution

effective communication

trust

feedback