TEAMWORK - CREATING TEAMS THAT WORK: Getting (and Staying) on the Same Page

Teamwork - Creating Teams That Work with Douglas Castle

Dear Readers:

Teamwork requires many skills, a great deal of focus, and a clear, unconflicted vision of a common goal of great importance to all participants. If I am a basketball hot-shot who loves to have the ball all of the time, my team will suffer the effects of my personal agenda and my ego's actions. Further (and the analogies only get worse), if we are on the same side in a tug-of-war, or a rafting race, we had better all be pulling or paddling in the same direction...otherwise we will either go flying forward or spinning in circles.

Conflicting agendas and differing priorities are the bane of effective teamwork, and are the ultimate destroyer of any team effort. Some simple guidelines follow that will help you keep your team members "on the same page" all of the time:

1. The Team must have an assigned leader. The types of decisions made by consensus must be few, and they should be the exception rather than the rule. A leader who cannot maintain focus, order and the respective of his/her teammates will see his/her team disintegrate into a committee or an informal group.

2. Individual decisionmaking capacity ("judgment calls") by the teammates must be limited, by the leader, to certain types of tactical issues which will not affect the focus of the team's mission. If there is any doubt about the appropriateness of an individual tactical decision, then the leader should be consulted.

3. The leader should generally have the ability (and also must bear the responsibility and accountability) to override individual decisions after due consideration. It is the leader's responsibility to explain, in brief, what his/her reasons are to that individual, or to the team, if appropriate.

4. The team's mission must be unequivocally and simply restated by the leader in every meeting with team members, and in every business-related conversation with the individual team members. As Adam J. Kovitz, CEO, Founder and Publisher of THE NATIONAL NETWORKER has said, on many occasions: "We learn through repetition and reminders."

5. The team leader, or his/her appointee must make frequent evaluations and issue statements (with the use of as much supporting quantitative data as possible) to the team about the progress that they are making toward the accomplishment of the mission. If these reports indicate progress, the team will be inspired, more firmly bonded, and work with increased energy and enthusiasm.



Exceptions:

There are exceptions to the foregoing five rules (aside from "executive privilege," "national security," "I invested the most money!" and "I'm bigger/older/more experienced/much smarter than you."), but these are quite limited:

• Teams formed for the purpose of developing an initial plan or strategy;
• Teams formed for the purposes of "brainstorming" ideas;
• Collaborative efforts involving only two partners;
• Committee meetings, board meetings and stakeholder meetings where resolutions are put to a vote;
• Teams formed for the purpose of critiquing an idea, an action or a work -- a panel of judges is the classic example.

Generally speaking, if a leader fails to truly lead (rather like an orchestra conductor), the team will disintegrate (rather like the difference between performing a symphonic piece and an ethanol-powered and spontaneous chorus of "Waltzing Matilda" by a rugby team after a rough game).

If the directives above seem harsh, you must bear in mind that the team is not formed for the purpose of either stifling individuality or encouraging innovation, per se...it is formed for the sole purpose of accomplishing a mission for the benefit and common good of all of the teammates.

One analogy, which I particularly enjoy, if that a team is like a multicellular organism, and that each team player is a cell in a biological (life-giving or life-preserving) process. If any one cell should fail to cooperate, sabotage the efforts of other teammates, or misuse resources, it becomes cancerous. Overstated? Perhaps. But my mission in writing this article was to get a point across. An extreme analogy tends to be most memorable.

Get on the same page. Stay on the same page. Tight teams accomplish great things.

-DC http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com

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TEAMWORK - CREATING TEAMS THAT WORK: Getting (and Staying) on the Same Page