To do great work on a team every member of that team must be committed to being truly present. When you are physically together, the more that that physical togetherness can equate to emotional and spiritual togetherness the more meaningful the experience, the more profound the creation.
When I refer to emotional and spiritual togetherness, I don’t mean something squishy and hippy, nor religious or new agey. I’m saying that the most powerful teams are connected on a very holistic and honest level. They acknowledged that humans are full and big beings and that our most creative selves live in a space that is beyond a purely intellectual realm. To have a great creative team requires something beyond simply an intellectual and functional connection with your teammates.
If you’re on a creative team and you want to harness the fullest power of creativity of the members, you have to be able to bring your full self in a *big* way. Your team needs to communicate, connect, and create on as many channels as possible.
Being Checked In
To really engage as a group you need to be able to explicitly create a space that tells everyone they’re safe to express their full selves and the expectation of that level of expression needs to be high. Your team’s core message needs to say “In this place, we come as our full and authentic selves and we expect nothing less of you. You are safe to bring everything you have, you are welcome, and you are worthy.”
Checking Out
When you have a high demand for being checked in there must be incredible freedom to check out. You need to foster an environment that allows people to leave and return without punishment. That says “If you can’t be as mentally present as you are physically present; Take your physical presence away and return when both can be equal.”
By allowing (in fact demanding) people to leave and look after themselves when they can’t be fully present, you create a potent working environment. When people are there, you know that they’re ‘truly’ there.
Sometimes When You Want to Check Out, You Need to Check In
If you want to up the connection on your team you have to lead it. You need to:
1. Create a structure that is explicitly safe for sharing emotional and intellectual information.
2. Recognize that the most important thing that you and your team can do, if you want to do profound work, is to check-in/bring a true and full presence.
3. Share of yourself as deeply as you can and invite others to do the same. This takes a great leap of faith but is easier when a structure is in place first.
Sometimes the steps to the deepest level come when you most feel you need to leave. When you most want to hide your feelings and run from a conflict, a tension, an expression of true deep and profound feeling. Sometimes in these moments what you need to do is check-in instead of checking-out.