Cristina's Discovery Process
After the First Contact call, her Discovery Navigator asked Cristina to complete the FIRO-B survey, which indicated that she had a high need for Control and preferred to operate with a high degree of autonomy. The FIRO-B also highlighted Cristina's relatively low need for close interpersonal relationships at work.
The Discovery Navigator reviewed the results of the FIRO-B with Cristina and asked her to reflect on her behavioral preferences and her actions and then think about how others, who may have different needs, might experience her as their manager.
This "Thought Experiment" helped Cristina understand some of the behavior and actions she was observing in her team. It also helped Cristina realize that a major source of her frustration with her teams was being driven by her own actions.
Building on these insights, the Discovery Navigator asked Cristina to reflect on the goals she had set for the department and the changes she was asking her teams to execute from both an emotional and rational perspective.
The Discovery Navigator then introduced the SWITCH model of change, which was developed by Dan and Chip Heath at Stanford University. This helped Cristina develop a list of potential reasons her teams were not embracing the change and performing as she had hoped.
To gain a deeper understanding, Cristina ran an experiment to explore how her team might be thinking and feeling about the change by selecting one person and having an exploratory conversation, which is something she had never done before.
After a debrief with her Discovery Navigator, she reran the experiment with others and discovered her teams’ deep fears regarding their futures at the company and and their perceived inability to handle the new tasks they were being asked to execute.
The Discovery Navigator then exposed Cristina to the the Skill-Will Matrix, which helps leader assess the readiness of an individual to take on a specific task and offers a advice on the most effective leadership styles to use in each situation.
Together with her Discovery Navigator, Cristina developed a plan to deal with the fear and skill issues, which helped her delegate tasks more effectively and provide better and more targeted support to her teams.
Back at work, Cristina ran a series of experiments with different individuals to practice and gain confidence in her ability to assess the Skill and Will of her team members and more effectively support them as they engaged with their assigned tasks.
As time progressed, Cristina's confidence began to rise and her team began to perform better.