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How NASA Builds Teams - Page 5

4. How to use 4-D to shift context for your teams Upgrade and enhance your team’s story lines
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The stories we tell about ourselves are highly influential in


To make the most of the 4-D system, you should be proactive in
shaping our attitudes and perceptions. What’s interesting about
trying to improve your own individual performance on the eight
that is story lines are invariably subjective. What we consider to
behaviors specified. Similarly, if you’re called to act as a team
be true will not necessarily be true for everyone else. Or put
leader, you can and should use these eight behaviors to improve
another way, most story lines are arguable – if they sound like the
your team’s social context. The more you enhance the social
truth, we feel free to use them.
context of your team, the better its performance will become.
Stories are powerful because they can work both ways:
n Good story lines can sustain and encourage ongoing high
To improve your team’s social context (and therefore its overall
performance.
performance), there are four specific initiatives you can
undertake: n Unhelpful story lines which are embedded in the team’s
beliefs can inhibit performance.
Improve your team’s social context To make the most of the 4-D System, you need to become
proactive in managing your team’s prevailing story lines. A
process for doing this is:
1 2 3 4 1. Pay attention – note all the story lines currently in use within
your team and even go so far as to name each so everyone
Develop and Upgrade and Categorize Teach teams gets on the same page.
use a 4-D enhance your team emotions how to master 2. Select – those story lines which are most helpful in terms of
context shifting team’s story and be more the eight 4-D what you want to achieve.
worksheet lines selective behaviors
3. Articulate and then repeat – get into the habit of telling those
helpful stories over and over so they become enshrined into
Taking each of these initiatives in turn: the group’s thinking.
4. Stay intensively results oriented – be thoughtful in managing
1 Develop and use a 4-D context shifting worksheet your team’s overall context in order to achieve the
performance you’re after.
The context shifting worksheet is an ideal tool for shifting
people’s attentions and mindsets. By forcing people to get Bringing story lines to the surface and becoming proactive in
specific and to commit their thoughts to paper, it often becomes managing and focusing them helpfully is definitely a group
obvious what needs to change in the social context in order for activity. Most of the time, nobody gives much thought to this at all
the right outcomes to be achieved. but stories can strongly affect actions. Everybody knows them
and everybody uses stories whether they recognize them for
As you discuss all of the various elements of the context shifting
what they are or not. By paying close attention to your team’s
worksheet, you will often find there are blanks which need to be
story lines and those of your customers, you can cultivate good
filled in or which nobody has ever paid much attention to. The
habits. Even more importantly, you can enhance the social
process of filling in these blanks is what will bring about changes
context for everything you are trying to achieve. To arrive at a
in the team’s overall attention and mindsets.
different place, change your stories.

4-D Context Shifting Worksheet

1 Set the stage 2 Apply the 4-D perspective 3 Specify the actions to be taken

• Describe the situation in detail C V • Develop a list of the specific action


• Outline your desired outcome and requests you are committed
• Note what your story-line is I D to take individually and which
• Name the story-line in play your team is committed to make
• Detail your feelings about situation collectively as well

Cultivating – Being grateful Visioning – Being creative


C V
• What can we appreciate here? • What moves us from optimism to hope?
• What do others want we also want? Cultivating Visioning • What outcomes are we committed to?

I D
Including – Being authentic Directing – Being response-able
• Who should we include in our work? Including Directing • Is there any drama we should avoid?
• What agreements are we keeping? • Are there issues we should address?

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