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People in
every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and
my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team
work or how to develop an effective team. Belonging to a team, in
the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger
than yourself. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the
mission or objectives of your organization.
In a
team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of
the organization. You work with fellow members of the organization
to produce these results. Even though you have a specific job
function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified
with other organization members to accomplish the overall
objectives. The bigger picture drives your actions; your function
exists to serve the bigger picture.
You need to
differentiate this overall sense of teamwork from the task of
developing an effective intact team that is formed to accomplish a
specific goal. People confuse the two team building objectives. This
is why so many team building seminars, meetings, retreats, and
activities are deemed failures by their participants. Leaders failed
to define the team they wanted to build. What you would do to
develop an overall sense of team work is different from building an
effective, focused work team.
In another
article, I’ll focus on that overall sense of team work. I have
several examples of exciting team building activities that readers
sent me to publish. Here, I’ll focus on building that effective,
focused work team.
Twelve Cs for
Team Building
Executives,
managers, and organization staff members universally explore ways to
improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based,
horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving
all employees in creating business success.
No matter
what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous
improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing, or work teams, you
are striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations,
however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement
efforts produce. If your team improvement efforts are not living up
to your expectations, this self-diagnosing checklist may tell you
why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work
teams, requires attention to each of the following.
-
Clear
Expectations:
Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for
the team’s performance and expected outcomes? Do team members
understand why the team was created? Is the organization
demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with
resources of people, time, and money? Does the work of the team
receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time,
discussion, attention, and interest directed its way by executive
leaders?
-
Context:
Do team members understand why they are participating on the team?
Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the
organization attain its communicated business goals? Can team
members define their team’s importance to the accomplishment of
corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in
the total context of the organization’s goals, principles, vision,
and values?
-
Commitment:
Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members
feel the team mission is important? Are members committed to
accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team
members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and
to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for
their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow
and develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged
by the team opportunity
-
Competence:
Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people
participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each
step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel
that its members have the knowledge, skill, and capability to
address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the
team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has
the resources, strategies, and support needed to accomplish its
mission?
-
Charter:
Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and
designed its own mission, vision, and strategies to accomplish the
mission. Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its
anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it
will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the
team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team
or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?
-
Control:
Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the
ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time,
do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may
members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary
and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before
the team experiences barriers and rework? Is the team’s reporting
relationship and accountability understood by all members of the
organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority?
To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined
review process so both the team and the organization are
consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members
hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments,
and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase
opportunities for self-management among organization members?
-
Collaboration:
Does the team understand team and group process? Do members
understand the stages of group development? Are team members
working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members
understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team
leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving,
process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team
members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team
established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as
conflict resolution, consensus decision making, and meeting
management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to
accomplish its action plan?
-
Communication:
Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is
there an established method for the teams to receive honest
performance feedback? Does the organization provide important
business information regularly? Do the teams understand the
complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate
clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring
diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and
addressed?
-
Creative
Innovation:
Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value
creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward
people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it
reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it
provide the training, education, access to books and films, and
field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?
-
Consequences:
Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team
achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are
successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the
organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend
their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the
organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and
individual performance? Is the organization planning to share
gains and increased profitability with team and individual
contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased
organization success?
-
Coordination:
Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists
the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities
and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams
understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process,
anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are
cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working
together effectively? Is the organization developing a
customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from
traditional departmental thinking?
-
Cultural
Change:
Does the organization recognize that the team-based,
collaborative, empowering, enabling organization of the future is
different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may
currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of
changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops,
plans with, motivates, and manages the people it employs? Does the
organization plan to use failures for learning and support
reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it
can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive
in pay back from the work of the teams?
Spend time
and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams
contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team
members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people
will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your
work life get any better than this? |
