2. Team Building on a Complex Project – Best Tools
Introduction:
We are all alike and we are each unique.
Have you ever known an absent minded professor? Is there a Dilbert in you
life? What about a know-it-all, a ‘micro-manager’, or an egotist?
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3. Team Building on a Complex Project – Best Tools
• These are personalities that can mask brilliant minds.
• How to effectively manage them to work together in concern?
• How do we propagate a climate of successful team-building and team-work
with all these ‘brilliant minds’ to manage?
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Example:
Meeting where one team member said
“Norman came into the room and when he began to talk, I had to verbally
shoot him down right away”.
Why?
“Because he came to the meeting both smug and wrong.”
So if he had been smug and right? That would have been OK?
“Yes”
And if he had come in humble and wrong? That would have been OK?
“Sure”
This illustrates how personalities can interact and impact team behavior
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• High Performance horizontal team model
– Allows businesses to ride out the hard times
– Allows success once the hard times are over
• Team members may be drawn from departments across the organization
• How to align teams to drive up Performance
• Accountability (team and individual)
• Make each team member a leader
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• Hurricane Katrina – FEMA’s response
– No-bid contracts handed out to politically connected firms
– Families housed in expensive hotels while rows of trailers sat empty
– 1 billion lost on fraudulent assistance
– Many residents did not own cars and had no way to evacuate
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– Lack of coordination between government and FEMA
– Memorial Medical Center lack of Triage procedures
– Several years later, large portions of Gulf Coast still uninhabitable
– Example of a of teamwork failure
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• Chico’s
– Black Friday
– $622 million spent every minute
– Chico’s women’s clothing 500 stores
– Advertised by sign (40% off)
– 11 am head of marketing called store leadership team
• Response was ‘no’ we are not selling
• Team leader “it’s not working”
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– Quick huddle
• New strategy
• Bring in signs, put accessories on display (buy one, get 50% off)
– Nationwide marketing approach was changed before noon
– Black Friday profits resumed
– Example of teamwork success
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• Virtual Teaming
– Technology – Web meetings, computer, teleconference, video conference
• Eliminate time and space boundaries
– Face-to-Face meetings at beginning
– Early wins important – gain momentum
– Cross-cultural teams
– Leader must be comfortable with technology
– Create team cohesiveness across geographical locations
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• Team basics
– Small number (less than 20 - 25)
– Complimentary Skill mix
– Common goals, work approach and purpose
– Mutual accountability
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TEAMS OUT-PERFORM
INDIVIDUALS ACTING ALONE
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TOOL # 1 :
• DEVELOP LEADERS AND PLAYERS
– Moving the organizational mountain in a radically different, horizontal
direction is not easy
– Create the right mindset – tackle conflict head-on
• Candor takes a thick skin
– Create horizontal accountability
• Role model desired behavior
• Leader/Player and Player/Player
• Don’t just lead the team, be a part of it
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TOOL #1 (cont)
• Players should “think like a director”
– Make decisions
• Put Team First
• Embrace Accountability
– Avoid “it’s not my job” syndrome
– Hold peers accountable
• De-personalize feedback
– Hold leaders accountable
• Don’t be afraid to change
• Players should be Leaders and Leaders should be Players
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A REAL TEAM,
APPROPRIATELY FOCUSED AND DISCIPLINED,
WILL EXHIBIT WIDE-SPREAD TEAM
PERFORMANCE
NOT RANDOM TEAM SUCCESS
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• TOOL #2:
• AIM FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE
– Clear responsibilities
– Four Stages of Development
• Testing, Infighting, Getting Organized, High Performance
– Alignment of Team
• Business strategy, deliverables, roles and responsibilities, Protocols
– Accelerate through
• Team coaching, Individual coaching
– Sustain High Performance
• Ongoing assessments
• Recalibration
– Just Do It
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• TOOL # 3:
• MAKE GREAT TEAM DECISIONS
– Speak up, don’t defer to the leader
– Add only Value Added players to the team
– Point Person must be technical and a leader who can drive process to
completion, if not coaching may be needed
– Consensus: All team members do not have to agree with the decision
• Abide by the decision once it is made
– Track issues to completion
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COMPANIES WITH STRONG PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
SPAWN MORE ‘REAL TEAMS’
THAN COMPANIES THAT MAKE TEAMS
FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING TEAMS
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• TOOL # 4:
• COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY
– Avoid Pseudo-communication
• Conversation meant to bully, deceive, gain a leg up
– Must communicate
• Clear, accurate, timely, depersonalized
– Be aware of Explicit vs. Implicit (nonverbal) communication
– Skilled listeners repeat the intent to make sure they have it right
– Skilled communicators make it easy for the listener to understand
– Email
• Substitute active listening with active reading
• Know when to ‘cc’
• When in doubt do not send
• Pack a parachute
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• TOOL # 5:
• TEAMS AT THE TOP
– Great teams make a great organization
– Teams at the top are more difficult to form
– Must not say “my department” but “our company”
– Team members can act as a team or as an individual
– Easier to delegate to lower teams or individuals
– Goldman Sachs Example
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• Conclusion
– Teams are important
– Horizontal and virtual teams are important today
– Leaders and Players are necessary
– Teams at the top are more challenging to form
– Successful team building takes a lot of knowledge and skill
• Questions?
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References/ Additional Reading:
Alessandra, Tony & Hunsaker, Phil. The New Art of Managing People. New York,
Free Press, 2008
Guttman, Howard. Great Business Teams, Cracking the Code for Standout
Performance. New Jersey. Wiley & Sons. 2008
Hanes, Philip. How to Get Anyone To Do Anything. Berkley, CA. Ten- Speed
Press. 2006
Katzenbach, Jon & Smith, Douglas. The Wisdom of Teams. New York.
HarperCollins, 2006.
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