A few years ago, I was working with an organisation in London on a Team Building day. We’d been asked to facilitate a large senior team around collaboration and building connections. We’d spent some time with the Team Leader beforehand discussing the background, aims, outputs and began the day by setting the scene and exploring what makes a high performing team. There were some interesting and robust discussions between the members about how effective they were. How do we make an effective team?
Before we went any further, we thought it would be relevant to establish when a team really is a team. According to Patrick Lencioni a team is a relatively small number of people (from three to twelve) who meet on a regular basis and are collectively responsible for results. The team members share common goals as well as the rewards and responsibilities for achieving them. Not every group is a team. For example, a group that appears to be a team might simply be a collection of people who report to the same manager, but who have relatively little interdependence and mutual accountability. All of these are critical ingredients in understanding how to make an effective team.
After some straight talking they agreed they were, in fact, not a team but a group. Now this wasn’t exactly what they were expecting, however it helped them understand where the frustrations of many team members had come from. Fundamentally, they agreed they were a group of Functional Heads with separate objectives, budgets and accountabilities who came together at various times during the month to allow the Team Leader to question each Head in turn on their progress towards individual outcomes. Whilst each Head was being questioned the rest either just listened or switched off completely. There was no collective team purpose or accountability, very little sharing of information, ideas, issues, and no feedback. They agreed this was not ideal and began work towards a more cohesive future.
I share this story with you not as a negative experience (although it was difficult) but as a positive example of a team, or group in this case, taking time out to examine who they are and why they exist. It prompted me to always explore with the team what the common purpose or “glue” that binds them together looks like and is it consistent with all team members.
Our experience at Fruitful is that many teams (at all levels) are so busy delivering the ‘task’ they don’t always take time to explore how they work and behave with each other. Often this leads to frustrations, conflict and under performance. The more effective teams regularly discuss key factors relating to team process and behaviours. They create a psychologically safe environment where problems are aired.
We believe the Team Leader has an important role to play in creating the right environment for the discussions, but it’s the responsibility of all team members to positively contribute.
Here are some tips in reference to team development (from our experience), and how to make an effective team, that we thought would be worth sharing:
Build in time during the year to discuss team performance. Not just outputs but the ‘how’ as well, look at process AND behaviours. Our Team Performance Scan tool can help with this.
Involve the whole team, including people who may have just joined the team. New team members can provide a clean lens on performance, untainted by politics and personalities.
Explore team members preferences, behaviours, and values. Technical competence is all very well but we’re all humans after all and understanding each other and what makes us tick is vital. We use the Everything DiSC range of behavioural profiling tools.
Whilst reviewing team performance encourage people to ask questions of others, challenge each other to be better.
Recognise where the team is doing well. How can you build on that strength?
It can take some time, but with successful teamwork, a team can achieve more than any one individual could ever imagine doing alone. This, after all, is the real power of teamwork.
Stuart Preston is Head of Learning and Development at the Fruitful Group – a Leadership and Team Performance business that helps individuals and teams be at their best. We also develop other Learning & Development professionals and give them the tools to do this including Everything DiSC and our new Team Coaching tool. For more information about us and our solutions visit our site here.
