The Secret To Creating THE Most Effective Teams

During my time on the training department at Chipotle headquarters, I traveled to Philadelphia to meet one of the most successful Area Leaders (leader who is over multiple restaurants in a specific area). This particular Area Leader had successfully mentored many future General Manager’s. My goal on the trip was to determine what made this Area Leader so successful and then help others emulate those practices.

At the end of the trip, I sat down with the Area Leader at one of his locations and he said, “I know I’ve shown you a lot of the things we do to help make our employees successful. But, there’s one thing that I feel is THE most effective thing I do with my teams.“ He went on to share that he spent time with his teams discussing various topics and asking them to share their thoughts.

From this practice, he was experiencing a number of benefits:

• It removed silos between the front of house and back of house – real connections were being made between team members.
• While the more introverted team members took a while to say anything, after a few gatherings, they began speaking up and finding their voices.
• Several team members had a shift in the way they saw themselves. They became more interested in stepping up and leading others, and this in turn helped to create a pipeline of leaders in the restaurant.

When I returned from my trip, I implemented this practice with the training team. We started out in a small conference room. After a few weeks, people from various departments (Marketing, Sustainability, Finance, IT, etc.) began coming. Soon, we had such a large group of people that we could no longer fit in the conference room, and moved to the patio. Almost immediately, we began experiencing benefits.

Improved Communication, Collaboration, and Productivity
Colleagues began to move beneath the surface to understand each other better and feel more connected. In many organizations, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. For example, Dave in IT may be working on a software project that requires training to be developed, but he’s not yet made the training team aware of the project. There could be a variety of reasons for this, such as not even considering the training team since he never has interactions with them.

When Dave attends the gathering, he meets Amy, who works in the training department. And, he doesn’t just meet Amy, he gets to know her beyond a surface-level. Now he has a place to start the conversation to develop training for his new software project. This improves interdepartmental connections by providing a safe space for colleagues in various departments to connect with each other more deeply (or even at all!). It allows for rich conversation that can transform the work environment.

Improved Attrition Rates and Increased Job Satisfaction
As colleagues began to get to know each other better, they felt more respected, a sense of comradery, and increased trust. All these things help reduce workplace conflict, improve attrition rates, and increase job satisfaction.

Assimilate New Hires Better and Faster
Imagine it’s your first day at an organization. Somehow, you need to meet people from many departments. But, how? These gatherings were a great way for new hires to instantly gain connection with people inside and outside of their own department. When a new hire attended, they cultivated meaningful connections and also learned about other departments.

After seeing the impact this made, I decided to formalize the process and create The Way Back so other organizations could benefit from it, as well. The Way Back is a shared practice that cultivates meaningful connection in your organization.

Ready to launch The Way Back in your organization or team? Click here to get started!