Transcript—Creating a Team Culture
Debra Zabloudil: Good afternoon, everyone. This is Debra Zabloudil with The Learning Studio. And today I am pleased to introduce Dr. Caroline Appleyard with Ponce Health Sciences University. And she is going to be talking with us about something that's very important when it comes to team dynamic and culture, and that is creating a culture. How do you create a culture? What is it all about and why is [00:00:30] it important?
So thank you, Dr. Appleyard for being with us today and welcome.
Caroline Appleyard: It's very nice to be here. I'm really happy to try and share some of my opinions on team culture. Things that I've gained from my own perspective and had to think a little bit about now, so it's kind of unusual.
Debra Zabloudil: Great. Well, thank you. Let's dive right in. How would you describe a team culture and why is culture important? Why do we even care?
Caroline Appleyard I [00:01:00] think that we do tend to take for granted our surroundings and what the situation is that we're in on a daily basis. However, for me, a team culture, having thought a little bit more about it, is really describing how the various members of the team interact, what their shared passion and values are. And how these develop over time in order for them to basically achieve a combined final outcome.
[00:01:30] And obviously, as I mentioned already, these do develop over time and they're going to change, depending on the outside factors. So I think you have to be very cognizant of that.
Debra Zabloudil: Right. Sometimes people think culture just happens and it really takes being really strategic about it and intentional, doesn't it?
Caroline Appleyard...: Yes, because I think that no matter what, even one person is going to have a culture by themselves, but no matter what happens, if there's no [00:02:00] overall direction giving, then the culture can go in a direction you really don't want it to take. So I think that maybe does have to be some kind of conscious effort on the part of the members of a team in order to make sure that you have shared values and beliefs, and that you're all working towards a common goal.
Debra Zabloudil: Absolutely. And what do you think are essential elements of a good team culture? How would you describe that?
Caroline Appleyard...: Okay. [00:02:30] As I mentioned already, I think that over time culture is going to change. However, for a good, positive team culture, what I see over the years is there's common themes. And I think one of the biggest ones for me personally is that the members trust each other, that there's communication between each other. In addition to that ownership, I think it's super important that each person [00:03:00] on the team feels like they have a vested interest in what they're trying to achieve. Because I really think that if you don't have that ownership or an understanding of why what you're doing is important, then really in the grand scheme of things it is going to seriously take away from the culture of the team and what it can achieve. So you need to have that buy-in and the work ethic.
The other common things I think [00:03:30] that are important are the outputs that are achieved and that they're recognized. So you have to celebrate people's achievements and what they've brought to the team. And overall the passion for people, because a lot of teams, for example, in the lab situation, in my own lab, we've had similar members that have been there for a long period of time. But then we have students who come in and out, et cetera. And for that to stay a very positive team [00:04:00] culture, you need to have those longer term members still really engaged and that they want to always be curious and trying to learn different things, et cetera.
Debra Zabloudil: You talked a minute ago about buy-in on the team culture. How do you foster that, how you assure that you have buy-in? What are the steps or what are some of the philosophies and strategies around what makes a good culture, [00:04:30] which we talked about. And then how do you get that inculcated into your team?
Caroline Appleyard...: I think that's going to depend a lot on the different situations. In terms of my own background is an academic environment, so you have teams that are going to be put together for teaching. You have teams that are going to be put together for specific committees, things like that, as well as within research lab itself.
And I think the big, important thing here is that the [00:05:00] different members of a team need to understand why we're trying to achieve that specific goal. Whether or not it is teaching some specific topic or whether or not we are trying to carry out a specific series of experiments. And really understand why they are involved in that team, so why the team members have been put together.
And I think right now I'm becoming very aware of that because [00:05:30] I oversee a couple of training programs, and unfortunately one of our coordinators has left so I'm in the process of trying to hire. And I think that's where you really start to think about, okay, who do you really want in a team that is going to be useful and help other the team members make it stronger, and contribute towards that overall team culture and the goals.
Debra Zabloudil: And when you hire, are you then really explicit about the team culture? Do [00:06:00] you have conversations with a potential new team member so that they can self-select in or out at that time?
Caroline Appleyard...: I would say it's not so much explicit as in what I alluded to earlier, but I've never really thought too much about team culture in terms of the words team culture.
However, whether it's hiring for what I'm looking for right now, where it's a coordinator or even a student joining the lab, I'm very careful that [00:06:30] the other people in the lab, for example, talk to that person. Get a general idea of how they react to situations, what are their values and beliefs. Because I think that's very important that you share the same sense of what's acceptable, non-acceptable, the same expectations. And I'm very careful when people come in to really put out there what my expectations are in terms of deadlines, accountability, [00:07:00] things like that. But actually, talking about it as, "This is our team culture," I'm assume that I've never done that.
Debra Zabloudil: But it comes in in other ways. It sort of creeps into the conversation through values and expectations, and things like timeliness and how you interact with each other. Yeah, that's interesting.
Now I want to shift to a departmental or say a lab culture, and how [00:07:30] that might exist within a larger organizational culture. Do you think they need to all always be very much the same, or can your lab or your department have its own culture that might be different than the larger culture of the organization?
Caroline Appleyard: I think that it's important that the subcultures, [00:08:00] as I would put them, for different labs, do all have some commonality with overall organizational culture. Because at least there has to be a certain number of norms I think and guidelines in that, that are followed and expectations organizational level.
However, what I have seen within different organizations and universities, institutions, are very different subcultures [00:08:30] within labs. And I think that comes down a lot to the style perhaps of the individual PIs, because there are different types of culture where it is maybe more of a collaborative across board, but I think at least at the research lab level you really have somebody who is the overall leader and in charge. And so although there is a lot of collaboration, you also have that filtering down of expectations [00:09:00] coming from one person, that continuity across time.
And I have been in toxic cultures before in a lab environment. And I guess my own lab environment then I've developed, trying to avoid what I saw as behaviors that I didn't want to have in my working space.
Debra Zabloudil: Talking about toxic cultures, have you ever seen a situation where a culture was so negative that people were leaving, [00:09:30] and really leaving that culture because they couldn't work effectively in it?
Caroline Appleyard: Yes, I have. And whether or not those people actually said it was because of that culture-
Debra Zabloudil: Right.
Caroline Appleyard: I'm not sure. I have been in a situation before where I knew that some people in the lab would run off to the bathroom in tears. And I was lucky enough to be able to distance myself, but I could see what was going on. And then it's [00:10:00] a little difficult then, because you have maybe a power situation where there's maybe one person that is biasing that dynamic, and unless everybody else can get together and get that feedback to the PI, then it becomes a little difficult sometimes.
Debra Zabloudil: It's amazing how one person can really damage a culture, isn't it?
Caroline Appleyard: Yes, yeah.
Debra Zabloudil: And I-
Caroline Appleyard: And I think that's why it's very important, [00:10:30] and I see this not only at the level of lab, but also at training program level, that you really get feedback all the time. And also, at training program level, we have a lot of valuation and feedback wherever.
But in the lab environment, I think you have to remember that there's usually hierarchies to certain extent. And at least in my own lab, I'm very, very dependent on my lab supervisor's been with me for years. And she's a very good personality [00:11:00] counterbalance to me, the way she runs things. But I'm always try and get feedback from all the lab members to try and work out if things start going wrong or whatever.
And we have had students who have rotated in the lab and by unanimous feedback, the person was very, very good maybe academically, but no, we knew that it would upset the dynamics of the lab culture too much.
Debra Zabloudil: Right. That is so important. [00:11:30] And sometimes it can go on and on without a leader even realizing.
Caroline Appleyard: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Debra Zabloudil: Great. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us today, Dr. Appleyard. It's been great talking to you about creating a team culture, and thanks for being part of this microlearning series. Appreciate your time.
Caroline Appleyard: Thank you.