Why the Triple H exercise might be the most powerful team building exercise
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Want to Build a High-Performing Team, you must include this Team Exercise
Why the Triple H exercise might be the most powerful team building exercise
When I say the words Triple H, some people get an image of a hulking wrestler with blond hair and a chiselled goatee. And while pulling out the Stunner move, executing a perfect Tornado DDT or the aforementioned wrestler’s signature finisher the Triple H Pedigree might help in some team situations. There are not that many.
So, let us be clear; I am not talking about Triple H, the wrestler. I am talking about a team-building exercise that creates psychological safety and vulnerability. The exercise gives permission for people to interact as humans and not as professionals. People who have been through things and still show up daily to help the team succeed. These people are not just a title on a business card or in an email signature.
This exercise allows a glimpse of the human, and that allows for true connection. The journey each person has taken to arrive within your team.
I have done this exercise with different professional teams, and to better understand friends and families. Each time I have done the exercise, I have created stronger connections.
I need to note I did not come up with this exercise. It has been used heavily in the sporting world to build depth to semi-professional and professional sporting team relationships. However, its utility within work environments is irrefutable.
The first time I heard of this exercise was its inclusion in a pre-season training camp for the Australian Rules Football Team, the Richmond Tigers.
Conducted during a hard five-day camp, the team participated in the Triple H exercise before the 2017 season. The exercise allowed the players to show up fully during that camp and throughout the rest of the season. The Richmond Tigers won the Grand Final that year, their first in 37 years, and went on to when another two in the next four years. A dynasty was born, and many of the players pointed back to the nervous feeling they had as they conducted the Triple H exercise as foundational.
The Richmond Tigers, of course, got it from somewhere else. The UCLA Bruins used it extensively, the Atlanta Falcons also adopted it. The Clemson Tigers introduced it. Each team has had successful eras as well, but that isn’t the main point.
The exercise cannot guarantee success, but it can guarantee an increase in connection, trust, and psychological safety.
Let me describe the activity and then discuss the outcomes I have seen.
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Lead with vulnerability
The great Stephen M.R. Covey has conveyed that relationships move at the speed of vulnerability. Brene Brown has made a career exploring the power of vulnerability, and plenty of others have described its importance in building trust.
Plenty of people get confused about vulnerability, it isn’t about TMI shares. Of eating too much cheese and having a horror night on the toilet, or describing a poor dating experience in excruciating detail. That is not vulnerability, that is attention seeking. Vulnerability is about, at the right moment, sharing some things that you don’t share often. Leaning closer when with a colleague and telling them how hard work is for you at the moment. Letting them know you feel like you are failing at parenting, or managing stress at work.
I have learnt the power of leading with vulnerability. Being the first to admit when things are hard or when you’re not at your best. Leaning into the discomfort you feel, and making sure people get a chance to see you, the real you, not the mask you wear around the office.
Leaders can create psychological safety by offering permission to talk to these things. In several studies, including the famous Project Aristotle Google study to build the perfect team, the more psychological safety a team feels, the better they perform.
So, if psychological safety is important within teams, and vulnerability can help develop trust and feelings of safety, what can we do to increase it?
It turns out that with the right structure, you can create it with all of your team. This is where the Triple H exercise becomes really important to the growth of your team. Or the strength of your relationships.
— A quick excursion, while this article is focused on team growth, some of my most meaningful Triple H conversations have come with my closest personal relationships. Uncovering new depths and understanding with those we love and care for.
The Triple H is a deliberate exercise, constructed at the right time in a team, to develop a depth of understanding of the people in the team. I want to stress the word people, not professionals. Too often, we interact with the professionals in our team. If you need some help with the schedule, reach out to the scheduler. If you need some help with the HR process, reach out to the HR professional. Need help getting a basic script to run in Excel, reach out to a software developer.
The best teams understand that there is a person behind that professional. Someone who has overcome adversity, suffered through difficulties, and aspires for something more. If they interact with that person, the team does better. The team sees the other members as humans, who they can trust to help them. This is powerful.
Lets talk Triple H
So, no tutorials on executing a clean Top Rope Body Slam but instead an exercise you can lead your team through, and create truly intimate connective moments.
The Triple H exercise works best if the leader, leads. The leader must go first, and must set the scene in leading with true vulnerability. The exercise requires you to share a personal highlight, hardship, and hero — thus being called Triple H.
I must re-enforce you should share and communicate to the team it is ‘a’ personal, not ‘the’ personal highlight, hardship, or hero. It is not a competition between team members, and while some peoples stories are more dramatic, inspiring, or emotional than others, you must re-enforce that every share is important.
So what is it;
Hero
This is a personal story about a hero of yours. Common responses talk about inspirational figures from history, sporting or academic inspirations, or more commonly family members.
I often talk about my Brother when I answer this question. He was born with an arterial disease, causing blood to not flow around his body very well. He has had over 400 operations and procedures, but, you would never know. He is fun to be around, lives life to the fullest, and works as hard as anyone I’ve ever met. Whenever I think about how hard things are for me, I reflect on everything my Brother has achieved, and how he shows up in the world after being told he won’t live past sixteen.
This story talks to aspirations, idols, and significant influences in a persons life. This gives insight into who they are, or who they aspire to be, or who inspires them. It is a powerful connector.
Highlight
This is a story about a personal highlight of yours. Common responses talk about births and marriages, or significant achievements, and moments of pride.
This one is fun and always brings a smile. I regularly talk about smaller moments here to create safety for those that might not have a big story to share. This is a safe place to embrace quirky uniqueness in who you are.
A story I have shared before relates to this very article, a highlight of mine was making the decision to start writing about topics that interest me, and sharing them with others. It takes bravery to expose your thoughts to the world, and for me, to swim ‘outside’ of my swim lane a little. I am an engineer, but I love building high-performing teams. So, I write about leadership and personal development. The small moments when people take something powerful from my thoughts and use it themselves gives me energy. This is a real highlight.
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Hardship
This is a story about a personal hardship, and is often the most emotional. I regularly have tears show up during this exercise, in myself and others. It is hard to sit in that moment when people you work with are overcome with emotion, but it does it give insight into who they are. What they have gone through to be in that room with you on that day.
I have heard cracked voices full of emotion describe overcoming cancer battles, deaths of family members, personal illness and feats of resilience in facing adversities many couldn’t imagine.
This is an important one for leaders to embrace, you need to be vulnerable here. If you want to harness the power of this exercise, you need to enable the people in your team to expose a piece of themselves that others don’t see often. And even then, often only with close friends and families or counselors.
Here, I sometimes talk about some personal hardships; like being told that I might have bone cancer at seventeen, to getting injured when working overseas. But lately I have been sharing the trials of raising teenagers, and dealing with the hardship of a runaway child.
This part is always hard, and takes bravery, but if you invest in this your team will benefit.
Feedback from the exercise
I like to ask a simple question at the end of any exercise I facilitate, and most meetings. What was the most valuable or important part of today’s conversation for you?
I picked this question up from the great coaching book, The Coaching Habit, and it is focused on achieving two really important outcomes;
- It helps identify what the most important or valuable thing was — this seems like a redundant statement, but it is important, as it allows you to focus on bringing more value next time you meet.
- It gives a reminder that the time spent was valuable or important — this is a mental trick to re-enforce the value of the exercise or the time spent with you.
This question is the one I ask the most, and those that interact with me are now use to expecting it.
Common feedback on this exercise includes things like.
I never knew that about you, and I’ve worked with you for years.
Wow, the people in this team really have some stories to tell.
What an exercise, I now know the team on a different level.
That was really emotional, we don’t talk like this at work normally.
There was some powerful moments in that.
Can we do another team exercise like this again, soon?
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The Triple H exercise is one of the singular most important exercises I have completed in the work place. Conducting this exercise has proven a critical foundation for growing high-performing team, through the creation of psychological safety, trust, and understanding amongst the team.
I encourage you to try it out. If conducting at work is too daunting a stating point, try it with your loved ones. You will learn something new about them.
Writers note: I’ve written a follow-on article for this. That details the exercise I usually follow the Triple H with. Read it here…
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By Leon Purton on February 5, 2023.
Exported from Medium on December 22, 2023.
