Use the Contra Code to Level Up Your Team

Strategic Empathy Drives Win Win Solutions

Use the Contra Code to Level Up Your Team

Remember Contra? That classic Nintendo game from the '80s had a famous cheat code: ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA, Select, Start

Enter this sequence at the title screen, and instead of the standard 3 lives, you and your teammate would get 30! Today, let's explore how this concept of "cheat codes" can help us understand systems thinking and boost personal or team performance.

Understanding Your Ecosystem

In today's knowledge economy, no role exists in isolation. Your success is interconnected with adjacent teams and roles – both up and down the organizational hierarchy. Like the Contra code itself, success requires understanding patterns and sequences that might not be immediately obvious.

Your Performance "Cheat Code"

To unlock your own career power-ups, map out your adjacent teams and investigate:

1. Their core goals and objectives

2. Their definition of success

3. Their challenges and pain points

4. How their work intersects with yours (inputs and outputs)

Think of this as localized "market research" where your "market" is your immediate professional ecosystem.

Start with Your Leader

Early in my management career, I had a leader who shared a powerful insight: our mutual success was intertwined. My strong performance would help him achieve his goals, making him look good to his superiors and peers. In return, he became my biggest advocate, highlighting how my work created impact and why I was crucial to our success.

This simple dynamic created the strongest leadership support I've experienced in my career. The key to our success: We actually talked about promoting each other and growing our careers.

Implementing the Code

To put this into practice:

1. Understand your leader's metrics and objectives

2. Learn what keeps them up at night

3. Align your work to support their goals

4. Help them overcome obstacles

Level Up Your Impact

Extend this approach to all your key partners. Yes, it requires more upfront effort, but the rewards are substantial:

• Fewer roadblocks

• Higher project success rates

• A network of advocates

• Stronger unity and easier decision-making

Think of this as "strategic empathy" – creating wins for everyone reduces obstacles and builds strong partnerships.

Advanced Play

For teams that have already established trust, respect, and strong connections, this systems-thinking approach becomes even more powerful. It's why we include these concepts in our advanced Team.Build() LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® sessions, helping teams level up their collaborative capabilities.

Remember: Just like in Contra, the right code can transform your capabilities. The key is knowing which buttons to press – and in what sequence.

Understanding the complexity of team communication is half the battle. Solving it is the other half. Let us help your team navigate these complexities with our LEGO-based sessions on communication, collaboration, and connection. Contact us today to learn more and see how we can transform your team's communication dynamics. Let's build a better team together!

We have facilitators in New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, San Diego, and more!