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Is
Teamwork an Unnatural Act? By
Relly Nadler, Psy.D. Editors Note: Uncertainty can make teamwork even more challenging as the direction in which to proceed is unclear, and as individual members of the team may have different opinions. However, uncertainty and a challenging business climate provide an even more compelling need for increased teamwork effectiveness. Jeffrey E. Auerbach, Ph.D., President, College of Executive Coaching Teamwork
is very popular today in organizations, but it is an unnatural act that takes a
strategy, discipline and practice. Most organizations talk about teamwork and
put a group of workers together and say “you are a team now”. Duly formed
the team is marched out onto the field to succeed or fail.
In the current challenging environment teamwork is more important than
ever. But are work teams prepared
for what they’re up against? In
a performance group or on a sports team, over 90% of the participants time is
spent practicing- standardizing their routines or processes, identifying roles
and responsibilities, improving communication effectiveness, working on their
coordination, alignment or teamwork. The focus is learning from mistakes until
they are ready to perform for the audience or fans It
is a fact that, in the corporate world, less than 5% of an individual’s time
is devoted to off-line learning. In fact nearly all the learning in organization
happens after the fact and in front of customers, where mistakes are costly to
organizations reputation and bottom line and the individuals career development. In
today’s organizational environment, it is unnatural for teams and individuals
to take the same time which athletes, performers and teams do to practice their
skills and improve their weaknesses. If organizations are to survive and thrive
in the future they must use the creativity and potential of their people at all
levels. There
are ten key ingredients, which organizations must incorporate into their work to
master the use of teams. Each of these efforts must counteract what is outdated,
easy and natural. Actions for leaders to take to facilitate these team
ingredients are included. Team
ingredients 1.
Shared vision – What is natural
is to have a blurry vision of where the organization is going. The vision is not
communicated enough or shared throughout the organization. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to create an inspiring vision for the future that is clear and
informs all throughout the organization what the future holds and their role in
it. It is shared because it is understood and repeated in numerous ways. Leaders usually do share the
vision but usually not enough or in multiple methods. Actions:
Leaders have to be deliberate and have a plan on how to communicate the vision ·
Leaders need to share
the vision and tie it into the daily tasks every day in their conversations. Can
they commit to tie it in four times a day. (Kotter, 1996) ·
People need to be clear
what needs to be done and why. ·
Leaders have to include
what is in it for the employees, use the word “because”. ·
Leaders need to include
others for comments, clarifications or additions. This way they get others
“fingerprints” are on it. ·
Leaders need to remember
involvement = commitment. 2.
Trust among members- What
is natural is to rely on your self or your department and not expect much
from others. What
is unnatural yet necessary, is to develop an interdependency on others
characterized by high trust and risk taking. Actions: Leaders develop trust by trusting their people. ·
Leaders develop trust by being
vulnerable and admitting their mistakes. ·
Leaders make and keep small
promises. ·
Leaders set high expectations for
their team and encourage risk taking and direct feedback. 3.
Established expectations and guidelines
– What is natural is to assume that co-workers are on the same page and
that they understand the desired results. What is unnatural yet necessary is to be very deliberate in clarifying reciprocal expectations and establish guidelines fro how to work together effectively. Actions:
To be a team the individuals need to co-create expectations for themselves and
feel their input was heard and valued. ·
Leaders and the team
need to decide on how they are going make decisions, i.e. majority, minority a
“tell” or content expert, unanimous or consensus. ·
Expectations need to be
clarified, leader to the team, team to the leader and team of each other. ·
Meeting and team guidelines are
established that flow out of the expectations, such as “One
conversation at a time,” “Stay focused”, and “Defer judgment.” 4.
Communication
skill and conflict resolution – What
is natural is to avoid conflict, jump to rash conclusions and not
communicate what you are thinking. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to make your thinking visible, fill in the “white space” for
people, identify your assumptions and resolve conflicts. Actions: The team needs to have specific tools to communicate, otherwise the strongest and most senior voice wins out. ·
Part of the expectations should
involve communication guidelines ·
Most teams need some kind of
skill training for communication, like how to listen better, inquiry versus
advocacy, summarizing what was said, ladder of inference, left hand column. ·
Leaders can assign a devil’s
advocate role to enliven the conversations and protect against “group
think.” 5.
Systems
thinking-What is natural is to focus on our own team to the exclusion of
the big team across departmental boundaries. It is easy to think of your
team’s action have limited impact on others across the organization. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to see how departmental actions affect and impact each other.
Customers, co-workers, vendors and family are intertwined as stakeholders and
can unintended consequences upon each other. Actions: A leader can help the team look at the big picture·
Leaders can ensure all
sides of a situation are looked at, by assigning advocate roles in the
conversation for customers, employees, managers and vendors. ·
Leaders can ask the team
for the possible unintended consequences before rushing to decisions. ·
Leaders help counteract
organizational learning disabilities such as “I am my position” and “the
enemy is out there.” (Senge, 1990) 6.
Personal leadership- What
is natural is to stay in your comfort zone and only take risks that you
are assured of success. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to take risks that are consistent with your values and become a
change leader stretching and encouraging others in spite of your own doubts and
fears. Actions: The team is the playing field for the leader to try out their Emotional Intelligence skills and get feedback on their performance. ·
Leaders need to have a
developed point of view of their leadership style and know the destination of
where they want people to go. ·
Leaders need to be aware
of the different styles and preferences of their team and vary their style to
meet and challenge the individual. ·
Leaders can be role
models for development by sharing with their team, what are their current areas
of focus for development and ask for support and feedback from the team. ·
The leader wears many
hats on the team and has to know which hat to wear when. Key roles are as an
initiator, coach, model, facilitator and negotiator ·
Leaders are the glue in
the team, reading individuals and the groups emotional states and being able to
help regulate it by attention, humor or empathy 7.
Appreciation of differences-
What is natural is to value team members with similar backgrounds and
opinions. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to embrace differences and creative tensions to generate better
solutions and raise the “Team IQ.” Actions: The leader is powerful role model to the team for how to deal with differences. ·
Leaders need to embrace
differences as they lead to breakthrough ideas. In studies on creativity and
innovation holding opposite and contrary ideas long enough leads to breakthrough
ideas. IDEO one of the leading design firms encourages “wild ideas” and
“build on other ideas” as some of their guidelines. ·
Leaders can help by
encouraging the team to stay with the ambiguity, creative tension and dialogue
as long as possible versus rushing to a decision. ·
The team IQ is a great
metric for the group to evaluate themselves on. The IQ should be higher than the
IQ of nay one individual. ·
The differences need to
be understood and integrated into new innovations. 8.
Accountability
and consequences – What is natural
is to be disappointed with the efforts of others on your team, but never hold
anyone accountable for the missed “deliverables.” What is unnatural yet necessary is to discuss accountabilities and consequences upfront, before a project gets underway and review them throughout the project. Actions:
Leaders provide the road map for the team to deal with obstacles before they
arise. ·
Leaders help individual define
their roles and responsibilities and make sure everyone is clear about them.
· Defining and clarifying what success looks like will help with clarity and standards for the team. ·
Having a conversation about accountabilities and consequences as part of
the team’s formation will help eliminate problems later. 9.
Ongoing learning and recognition- What
is natural is to complete a task, take a sigh of relief, possibly
congratulate each other and move on to the next item on the “to do list.” What is unnatural yet
necessary is to take some reflection time to discover what worked to be used
again, learn what not to do next time, decide who needs to know this
information, disseminate it, and design formal and informal celebrations for the
win. Actions: Leaders are looking for every opportunity to learn and improve. ·
Holding lessons learned
sessions, will help leaders and their teams to crystallize learning and spread
the news to appropriate people. ·
Recognizing
individual’s efforts and contributions increases discretionary effort and
raise morale. ·
Giving timely and
specific feedback keeps performance focused. ·
Leaders take time to
develop their team and their team processes. 10.
Mentoring others –
What is natural is to get caught up with urgent crises of the day and do
little mentoring or training of key employees or colleagues. What is unnatural yet
necessary is to take time to train and mentor others to be better performers.
Career development, learning and succession planning, keeps skills and
motivation high on the team. Actions: Leaders help others enhance their strengths and develop plans to improve their weaknesses. ·
Leaders hold one on one
meetings with their direct reports to coach and mentor them. ·
Leaders help their team
share core competencies by cross training. ·
Leaders are sharing
their knowledge and developing their successors. These
key ingredients make up the strategy for developing high performing teams.
Leaders have specific actions to help their team develop. Each ingredient needs
to become a discipline that gets practiced, reinforced and refined. Only then
will the unnatural become a habit and the foundation for superior teamwork. References: Kotter,
J.P. (1996) Leading Change, Boston Massachusetts: Harvard Business School
Press. Nadler, R.S. (1998) Teamwork is an Unnatural Act, PIHRA Scope, June, Vol.XLXI, No.6 Senge,
P.M. (1990) Fifth Discipline, New York: Doubleday for the Peak Performance Leadership Workshop with Optional Coaching. College of Executive Coaching The Leader in Emotional Intelligence-Based, Peak Performance Leadership Training and Coaching Contact
Kaysie Herrera, MBA, Program Director, for additional information and registration
assistance: (805) 474-4124. |
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