Many moons ago a bunch of friends of mine would get together weekly to play volleyball down along the banks of the Charles. During the colder months we moved the action indoors and played the volleyball alternative – Wallyball.

Wallyball is played in a racquetball court and generally follows the same rules as volleyball. The ball is no longer in play if it bounces off the ceiling or back wall of the court. Conversely, the ball remains in play if it bounces off the side walls so long as it hits only once. Savvy players know that spiking the ball against the side wall tends to trip up their opponent’s successful return – a very effective competitive advantage. Once the teams are warmed up, and team members are setting up shots for each other, the game is fast, furious and fun! So, what on earth does Wallyball have to do with teams at work? Plenty.

Have you ever been on a team that really hummed along and got important stuff done? Everyone was focused on a single goal. Responsibilities shifted from one team member to another with ease. When one team member was out straight others pitched in. Communications were typically more frequent when the pressure was on. Asking for and receiving help was the norm. Goal achievement was genuinely recognized and celebrated as a team effort.

Now, compare that to experiences where it felt like your own team mates were playing on the opposing Wallyball team and spiking the ball right and left seemingly to prompt unsuccessful returns. And that behavior is not far from the truth in some organizations where employees have been in competition with each other for job security. The lousy economy over the past couple of years may have fostered bad behaviors that will be tough to change. If left unaddressed team performance will suffer and unwanted turnover inevitable. So, here’s the top ten check list for positioning your team for hum along success, mutual respect and trust and employee retention:

• Goals and expected outcomes are crystal clear and all team players are committed to them
• The team collectively created an overall game plan for achieving goals
• Team members made the time to clarify roles and responsibilities
• Work assignments are challenging yet achievable
• Team members created an environment where folks freely express their ideas, share their expertise, ask questions (including asking for help) and learn from each other
• Team is committed to improving its approaches to decision making, problem solving & conflict resolution
• Effectiveness of communications is routinely monitored and adjusted
• Meetings continually get more productive and efficient
• Team owns its collective shortcomings and gives credit when credit is due
• Team players recognize and appreciate the quality of the employment experience

Have you ever seen a tyke who declares he’s done eating by borrowing the “safe” gesture used by baseball umpires? And what’s up with cupping each hand then tapping them together? It means “more”.  Or how about a baby who quickly opens and closes her hand like she’s squeezing a cow udder? That’s her way of saying “milk please”. Teaching babies and toddlers to use sign language encourages kids to communicate long before they can speak. Studies show that signing children are happier and less whiney because they effectively express their needs, thoughts and emotions in a way that is understood. They rarely resort to throwing tantrums to get what they want. And what parent wouldn’t be delighted with that outcome? (Just starting your own baby boom? Conduct a “baby signing” internet search to locate a boat load of useful stuff.)

What’s the lesson for leaders? Most organizations have crafted an approach for regularly communicating information to employees – the top down approach. It usually takes the form of the executive team conducting all hands meetings to share big lofty goals, progress toward goal achievement, stories that highlight exemplary application of core values and important announcements. For widely dispersed employee populations information sharing expands to: road show, video or audio conferencing, newsletters and cascading the communication responsibility to lower levels of management. That kind of routine is a key component to keeping the workforce moving in the same direction.

But what about bottoms up and peer to peer communication where the lion share of communication occurs? After all it’s at this level where most of the real work gets done and interdependencies between functions, jobs and people become brutally apparent. When workloads peak, peer to peer communication is often fast and furious. Employees can get tunnel vision, so focused on generating their own deliverables at the expense of not hearing or ignoring the needs of others and curt responses. The result? Hard feelings, conflict, damaged relationships and sub-optimal productivity. So, what can you do? Create forums to:

1. Help employees become aware of the important interdependencies that exist between their work and the work of others.
2. Improve work processes given employee awareness of inefficient interdependencies and their desire to fix them. Go with it!
3. Encourage employees to further refine the work processes based on their first hand experience using them.
4. Provide employees with tools for understanding their own communication styles and how to adapt their styles when working with people who have different styles. (DiSC is my tool of choice.) Consider starting here so that conversations in tips 1-3 are more productive.

Fostering a work climate where employee needs, thoughts and emotions are expressed and understood is one of the most important things a leader can do. It means employees are heard, their thoughts valued through organizational action and their ability to productively communicate with others expected. And that will serve you, your employees and organization well especially during the most challenging of times.

One hot summer day after a bicycle ride to my favorite ice cream shop, Kimball Farm (their cappuccino heath bar crunch is especially tasty this year), I savored the afternoon relaxing on my back deck which overlooks the pool. I caught up on some reading and personal correspondence. Just as I was about to dose off, in the distance were the familiar sounds of a game played long ago. First was the count “1, 2, 3, ….10” accompanied by the sound of thrashing water.  Next was the bellow “Marco” followed quickly by the chant “Polo”. This sequence of bellows and chants ensued for sometime interrupted only by laughter, more thrashing water and squeals prompted by instances of getting tagged and becoming “it”. I chuckled and relished many memories of playing “Marco Polo” as a child.

A little background, Marco Polo was a Venetian Explorer who lived from 1254 to 1324 and one of the first to transport treasures, ideas and cultures of China, India and Asia back to Europe. Rumor has it that Polo didn’t set sail for a specific destination. Instead he wandered about Asia, exploring the environment, people and culture. Unencumbered by a rigid voyage charter, Polo soon realized the magnificence of his discoveries and their potential influence on his homeland and him as a wildly successful merchant.

If Marco Polo was alive, well and a CEO today, I suspect he’d be relatively comfortable with the constant state of uncertainty we live in. I could envision him regularly scanning the landscape looking in every direction, far and near, to uncover the opportunities, threats and their potential impact on his organization’s success. And for many organization’s that’s the single ingredient most commonly missing from strategic workforce planning – the environmental scan. Another commonly absent ingredient is thinking through how to deal with the different combinations of factors identified in the scan. The value of workforce supply / demand analysis, while especially important when assessing a firm’s ability to attract and retain top talent, has its limits when done without benefit of considering a broad range of external factors.   

So, the next time your executive team sets sail to do workforce planning, learn from the explorer Marco Polo. And keep a watchful eye on the horizon and outside influences. Because what you choose to do with those discoveries is likely to have the greatest impact on your competitive position and organizational success.