In the YCISL framework, I position Sustainability as a universal issue meaning that it affects everyone, should be on everyone’s mind, and requires everyone’s active input and feedback. In modern times, environmental sustainability fits this “universal” theme but we could think of sustainable human health, agricultural sustainability and sustainable education as universal causes that should engage everyone. The “SL” in our acronym stands for sustainable leadership – based on the idea that everyone is in a leadership position and there is a general need to train and strengthen EQ to garner higher quality leadership.
I am writing this entry in thought to my reading of Stanford’s latest Vision Initiatives in Research. My worldview on this includes the Sustainable Urban Systems program that I helped put together in a proposal several years ago as well as the YCISL idea of sustainability as a universal issue. From this, I have few thoughts on how to put together teams and what to list as the principal tasks. For our YCISL project teams to be successful in product realization with sustainability as a feature, these team strategies may be useful.
- Form multidisciplinary teams with cross-functional competencies. I learned this at Handspring. The team should represent the various functions that move the product forward. Participation by representatives may vary at each development stage or even within a stage – which is where cross-functionality comes in. Representation from each function is also critical to ask questions from diverse perspectives (eg, from the testing part of our YCISL workshop) as well as to share insight and ideas (eg, from our PostIt brainstorming part of our YCISL workshop). And in most situations, an experienced project manager is needed to keep everything upright and progressing.
- Strive for team emotional intelligence (an extension of individual EQ). Our EQ framework comprises self and social components. In the YCISL, we start with the self by defining our Personal Story in order to build our identity, and understanding EQ life lessons that we can apply to continuously training ourselves. Teams should communicate a collective Personal Story and develop a singular image of their identity (eg, purpose, energy, direction, shape and function). We also work on the social by energetically activating ourselves to connect new experiences, skills and ideas using a growth mindset (teams need to maintain positivity and productivity).
- Using the Gamestorming format, teams should engage in the OPEN then move on to the EXPLORE with the known parameters of when and how to CLOSE. Iteration is key to the team process as is fail early, fail fast (the virtual reset button), and the divergent-convergent thinking loop.