Maximizing success in your department and at your company can be as easy as encouraging and rewarding teamwork. But is building a successful team really that easy?
When you think of successful teams, what first comes to mind are probably sports teams. Hey, how about those Boston Red Sox? After more than eighty-five years, they finally once again became World Series Champions in 2004. It took the right combination of players, attitude, talent, management and the support of loyal fans. Surprisingly, the Red Sox had not achieved success at this level since 1918, before one of the greatest hitters of all time, Babe Ruth, was sold to the Yankees. Surely, the "curse of the Bambino" can't be all about teamwork, can it?
Maybe. Teams need to be nurtured.
The "sports team" analogy has been translated to business since the 1960s and it quickly increased employee productivity and empowerment at organizations such as Procter & Gamble. People were jazzed about the opportunities and new life that teamwork breathed into old hierarchical structures. What about today? Are we nurturing teams in the workplace or are they becoming more obscure, lost in a sea of technology that allows us to "connect" without connecting?
Teamwork advantages
Working in strong and effective teams can give you a competitive advantage and improve productivity and morale. Remembering the four stages of team development can help you assess where your work group falls:
- Forming. Forming a team is the stage that transforms individual to member status. At this stage, leadership guidance is tested.
- Storming. This is typically the most challenging stage of team development. When team members come together they may disagree on actions and feel a lack of progress.
- Norming. At this stage, team members begin to accept one another as part of the team and roles and ground rules are defined. Conflict may be reduced as relationships that were competitive become more cooperative.
- Performing. A team that is performing has reconciled relationships and individual roles and expectations. Team members work together to diagnose, problem solve and implement change.
(Source: The HR Generalist's Guide to Teambuilding, by N. Nelson, November 2001)
So how do you get your team to operate in performance mode?
Teambuilding
Teambuilding exercises can help you identify poor team performance in your organization and also help you discover the root cause(s). The following is an outline that can help clarify teambuilding goals:
- Goal setting. The team's individuals must understand and accept the goals of the group and the organization.
- Role setting. Team members should know what others on the team expect from them. Role ambiguity adversely affects performance.
- Procedures. Team members need to know how to get work done. They must understand the team's work procedures, resources, decision-making, problem solving, time management and how to resolve conflicts.
- Relationships. Team members respect one another. When there's respect, teams work together more effectively.
(Source: www.accel-team.com)
Groups vs. teams
There are striking differences in work groups that embrace teamwork as opposed to those that don't. According to the Intellectual Capital Group, groups that do not employ teamwork have little communication, no support, lack of vision and have exclusive cliques. New members need to find their own way and conform to the group, and the leader manipulates the group to their own end.
Conversely, work groups that embrace teamwork look more like this:
- There is plenty of opportunity for discussion.
- There is significant support.
- There is a process of discovery supported by openness and honesty.
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Seeks to discover its identity.
- Welcomes news members by showing them existing norms and openness to change.
- Leader seeks team decisions.
If a team strikes a balance between satisfying its task and relationship needs, it's healthy and functional. Members behave in ways that get the job done while feeling valued, respected, included and energized. (Source: Being a Valuable Team Member, www.mgmt.utoronto.ca)
Putting teamwork into play
"I have found that only a small minority of companies truly understand and embrace teamwork, even though, according to their Web sites, more than one in three of the Fortune 500 companies publicly declare it to be a core value," says Patrick M. Lencioni, president of The Table Group, a management consulting and executive coaching firm in San Francisco. Lencioni says the problem is straightforward: "Most groups of executives fail to become cohesive teams because they drastically underestimate both the power of teamwork - and the painful steps required to make teamwork a reality."
Developing winning teams takes conscious effort. Putting teamwork into play in your organization can help you maximize your productivity and success.
