FMLM Applied Team development

Reflect on a time when you were part of a remarkable team. How did this experience make you feel? What were you doing? Consider the dynamics within the team. What was your role?

Now, contrast that with a time when you were in a team that was struggling to work cohesively. How did this affect you and your colleagues? How did it impact the overall outcomes and relationships?

Love them or loathe them – we all work in teams!

We dedicate a significant portion of our time being and working in teams, either in our ‘home’ team, in virtual teams with unfamiliar faces, as part of a task-focused project team, and increasingly as collaborative partners addressing intricate challenges spanning systems and networks.

As medical leaders, the quality of our team working has a direct impact on the people we are working with, and in turn, this influences the quality, experience, and outcomes of patients.

We each have a unique blend of personality, experience, expertise, and preferences for the team and the task at hand.

In general practice, the significance of effective team collaboration is steadily growing. The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) in England means that GPs are working in teams with other professionals. More is yet to come as neighbourhood teams are introduced as part of wider primary care reform. The skills required for this were not taught during training, so it is vital that clinicians prioritise their development.

Acknowledging that team dynamics don't always align with our ideal expectations, FMLM Applied has curated a range of support aimed at elevating teams to a higher plane of trust, collaboration, and performance. Every team is different, so we tailor our approach to your needs. Our current portfolio includes:

• Team Coaching – working with members of the team individually and then collectively, using a strength-based coaching approach to develop deeper levels of understanding of each member's contribution and differences, which enables improved cohesion and performance, especially under pressure.
• Team Development - working on building and deepening relationships, agreeing on collective purpose (what we are here to do), agreed behaviours and accountability, and working through real issues.
• Team Building – working with new collaborative teams coming together to agree on the purpose, objectives, behaviours, measures of success, and practical application to accelerate teaming and effective team working.
• 360 Feedback and Action Logics - FMLM Applied are skilled in facilitating deeper understanding and insight into how we really are in teams and ‘what it is like to be on the receiving end of me’ to help team members individually and collectively move to a higher level of appreciation, application, and function.
• Action Learning – one of the most impactful ways to learn together around a project or complex issue, helping to share, learn, embed, and support, within organisations, or across systems and wider networks.

FMLM Applied has worked with a wide range of teams across all sectors of health and care, and we are happy to discuss how these approaches and experiences can be tailored to your team's needs.

Thanks to FMLM Applied Associates, Jane Cryer and Dr Andy Brooks, for their contributions with this article.

For further information visit www.fmlm.ac.uk/fmlm-applied or email applied [at] fmlm.ac.uk.