Colleagues Voice Their Concerns About Teams

Teamwork - Creating Teams that Work with Douglas Castle

Dear Readers:

I posed an open question to the LinkedIn community regarding the notion of the Team being the most powerful operating subunit in the coming economy, and received 18 responses, out of a reader population of in excess of 100,000 Linked In members (without correction for double-counting of certain members of multiple groups). Of those responses, 17 were either positive or of the "well....it depends" variety. The two which follow are interesting in that they articulate specific concerns and questions about the Team Entity, which are worthy of note, and deserve to be addressed if I am to further my team-creation and management mission effectively. Please read the comments by Ena and Gig, each of whom I thank, and then read my response in addressing those comments and assuaging some of their concerns at the end of this article.

Again, Ena and Gig, thank you for your excellent insights, and for your kindness in voicing and sharing your valid concerns.

LinkedIn
Date: 11/22/2008
Subject RE: THE TEAM ENTITY
Group: International Network of Social Entrepreneurs

Ena Jesani wrote:

Douglas - The team is the most effective entity, for 5 years I have run one of my companies as a staff co-operative and now my new consulting company as a collaborative. Two comments from me, firstly, Gig makes a good point, where is the leader? In the model you describe, all the network connections would be peers, with no incentive to lead. Secondly, the benefit of cross-pollination will only work if business practice is of equal standard, equal value and benefit to each and practised with equally shared and agreed ethics. How can this be when the team is made up of so much unknown quantity? The risk is too high for individuals to compromise. Cross-contamination comes to mind.

~~~~~

On 11/13/08 8:47 PM, Douglas Castle asked: THE TEAM ENTITY

Dear Colleagues:

We spend a great deal of time networking and acquiring new contacts. Then, some of us aggressively and positively go to work converting those contacts from mere names into good, two-way relationships. Why must it end there? I believe that the most powerful business operating subunit is the Team. Further, I believe that team-building is going to become a skill of increasing importance as the traditional corporate and institutional paradigms are put to the test. Kindly review: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/using-teams-to-fuel-exponential.html and let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

Faithfully, Douglas Castle

THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE http://theinternationalistpage.blogspot.com/
HUMANITAS MAXIMUS http://humanitasmaximus.blogspot.com/

~~~~~

LinkedIn
Date: 11/21/2008
Subject RE: THE TEAM ENTITY
Group: International Network of Social Entrepreneurs

Gig Hitao wrote:

I would guess that it is no coincidence that you have not had more comments here, so far. The irony is that people who join LinkedIn and are part of this social entrepreneur group are generally independently minded, self employed type people, like me. We all know the value of teamwork, but who will join our team? Real work teams, like in corporations or even on construction crews are formed by a leader who then pays followers to follow. Everyone but one person in a team is a follower and if they are really productive, they get paid to follow. We'll see how many people refute my statement here.

~~~~~

On 11/13/08 8:47 PM, Douglas Castle asked: THE TEAM ENTITY

Dear Colleagues:

We spend a great deal of time networking and acquiring new contacts. Then, some of us aggressively and positively go to work converting those contacts from mere names into good, two-way relationships. Why must it end there? I believe that the most powerful business operating subunit is the Team. Further, I believe that team-building is going to become a skill of increasing importance as the traditional corporate and institutional paradigms are put to the test. Kindly review: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/using-teams-to-fuel-exponential.html and let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

Faithfully, Douglas Castle

THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE http://theinternationalistpage.blogspot.com/

HUMANITAS MAXIMUS http://humanitasmaximus.blogspot.com/
~~~~~

Firstly, some information is in order:

• Out of an audience of in excess of 100,000 recipients (without correction for double-counting through multiple group memberships) I have received 18 responses to date:


• Of these responses, 17 were positive, or conditionally positive, i.e., positive with certain caveats, as in the two excellent examples above;


• The caveats and concerns fell into several general categories - and bear in mind that these concerns came from active, practiced networkers:

1. The significance in choosing a good, responsible leader...an individual of intelligence, integrity and a propensity for firmness of focus tempered with some diplomacy;


2. The fear of being dominated by a leader who is selfish and overly controlling;


3. The fear of either an inequitable sharing of responsibilities, or an unequal sharing of rewards;


4. A need for a constitution, or for contractual definitions and protections;


5. A fear of "ganging up" of one group of members (ostensibly the majority) against another group (ostensibly the minority);


6. A need for accounting -- of efforts and monies invested, as well as results produced, divided and distributed;


7. A fear, on the part of the more entrepreneurial networkers, that their individual styles and creativity will be discouraged or squelched.

In reading the list of seven concerns above, you cannot help but notice that they are driven by fear and insecurity. There are sound psychological reasons for this:

• Negative experiences deeply implanted in the subconscious;


• A general hesitancy to trust in strangers and in a leader;


• A temporal deterioration in our faith in our own fellow Human Beings;


• A fear of making a "bad deal" that cannot be amended or fixed;


• When a survey is given, the greatest percentage of respondents tend to be the more skeptical, critical individuals -- this is a statistical flaw with many polls, surveys and discussion questions.

My suggested approaches to addressing these issues will be set forth in my next article on this subject.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle, TEAMWORK - CREATING TEAMS THAT WORK

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Colleagues Voice Their Concerns About Teams