The Journey

In my 2021 TEDx Talk, I discussed family climate as well as workplace climate. One of the activities we do with family is car travel. I stated the following; “Creating a climate in the car that improves the mood of the majority, helps the journey, and gets us happier to the destination.”

“Creating a climate in the car that improves the mood of the majority, helps the journey, and gets us happier to the destination.”

The Wigham family is currently on holiday in South Africa. We took a long drive yesterday as we traversed the Garden Route of the Western Cape from Cape Town to Sedgefield. There were five of us in a small car and it was 39 degrees outside! The journey could have been a pressure cooker, however, the car had excellent air conditioning which ultimately kept us cool.

This got me thinking about climate control, whether air conditioning or central heating, and how analogous it is to leadership, teamwork, and moodset.

Optimising a team performance climate requires attention to detail, social detail. These details include cues and clues about team dynamics, team welfare, and team unity. In the heat of battle, we need our emotions to be cool so that we can maintain composure and collaborate as one.

There is an optimal temperature for human performance in any context. That temperature range is critical and leaders need to use the metaphorical thermometer and thermostat to sustain the right conditions for excellence.

Wikipedia describes a thermostat as a regulating device component which senses the temperature of a physical system and performs actions so that the system’s temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint.

This is very similar to setting collective human emotion at the right point most of the time.

For leaders, this involves a lot of situational awareness and a lot of listening. It requires empathy as well as energy. It requires treating others as they would like to be treated.

Yesterday the temperature outside was very hot, but the journey was cool. Everyone in the car had a voice, everyone had equal influence on the air conditioning. Everyone was expected to contribute to climate control. The journey was (mostly) fun!