When I am asked to facilitate team building or team training, here are the first two questions I ask and why I ask them:
1. “What do you want to accomplish? What will be different as a result?”
I ask to make sure that what they are requesting will get them where they want to go – to avoid agreeing to deliver the wrong solution.
2. “What is the purpose of your team?”
Often leaders call their direct reports their “team,” although the only thing that really connects them is that they report to the same person and in reality, they are not a real team.
A team is a group of people who need each other in order to accomplish their work.
Just because everyone reports to the same boss doesn’t automatically make them a team. Teams are organized around real work, not the person they report to.
If you want to know if the people who report to you are really a team, ask them these questions:
Shared Purpose: Is there a common purpose that ties us together?
Interdependence: To what extent and how do we need each other in order to accomplish our work?
Access: Do we have the access to each other that we need to share information and communicate?
These questions usually start an interesting conversation. Sometimes people assume they have distinct responsibilities but during the course of the conversation discover a larger and important purpose they had missed – like a shared responsibility to ensure the success of the entire department or to use each other as resources — something that creates a big picture view and takes them out of a silo mentality. Becoming aware of they larger purpose they all serve changes their ideas of what they need to be communicating with each other.
Sometimes they might already agree they have a shared purpose, but during the course of the conversation develop a deeper understanding of what it really means. They get energized and naturally begin to identify better ways of working together.
But that’s not always the case. In today’s complex organizations, you may find that you have several distinct teams reporting you. Or it might be that the real team is a cross-functional team where direct reporting relationships are with both you and another leader.
Not every collection of individuals should be a team.
What’s important is to recognize the real teams so you know where to focus your attention and resources for team development.
3. “Do you really want a team?”
Developing and supporting teams requires effort and attention. You need to provide structure and direction early on, and then at some point, you need to start stepping back and letting go of control, or they will never become a high performing team.
For some leaders, letting go of control feels like a huge risk. I have worked with leaders who intellectually understand letting go of control is the best thing they can to do for their team, but it runs counter to all of their patterns and instincts. I have the deepest respect when these leaders choose to develop a real team, for they are the bravest leaders I have met.
Thanks for this. I think this is a very important topic for leaders who can no longer operate as the authoritarians the shareholders think they need to be. Instead, they can lead people by having a plan and delegating it.
There is power in groups identifying and operating consciously as a team, i.e., with purpose, interdependence and access. By developing their team skills alongside leveraging their practice/task skills, plus knowing where they fit in with other teams or stakeholders, the complexity of organizations can be tamed (a bit).
Well said, Alan. The power of teams is unleashed when they operate consciously as a team. If everything is called a team, it’s hard for the real teams to be differentiated. And yet building high performing teams are so important for today’s organizations because, as you put so well, it it how “the complexities of organizations can be tamed.”
Jesse, it is something I took for granted that there is a difference between a group of people and a team of people. Most of my life, I have experienced the best case effect of a team, and so the fact that you could have a group of people with no common goal, but “stuck with each other” to accomplish the work, was foreign to me until about three years ago. In that situation, the individuals in the group (myself included), were brilliant on their own, but together it was like putting potassium with water, which did not make for the constructive fireworks you want from a team.
I soon learnt that we did not share a vision, have values that were aligned and it was clear for me that I did not want to be a part of that team! The lesson for me was great in that to me, the common goal and caring about the same things (as in what is important to me is important to you and vice versa)sit high up on the list in terms of determining how to build and keep the team together, and which team I choose to be a part of. Thanks for sharing, great post!
Hi Thabo, Thanks for sharing an example of your own experience. You demonstrate how a lack of clarity on purpose and agreement on values not only derails a team, but exacerbates personality conflicts, and makes you not want to be there at all. As you know, people with very different personalities, who would never be friends outside of work, can work together quite effectively when they are part of a team that has important work to do and where they are clear about their vision, values, roles, and operating processes (communication, decision-making, etc)
Jesse-
I really like the question, “do you really want a team”. I’ve seen plenty of instances where a team was formed out of excitement and expectation for a task that would have been much more effectively accomplished by just one or two people. I’m definitely a fan of teams and believe in their effectiveness, but I think it can get overused a bit. Good work. Thanks for writing.
Micah Yost
@GroupThrive
I appreciate your pointing out that the term “team” can get overused. The problem with calling every group a team is that leaders then don’t put their energies into developing real teams where they are really needed. Thanks for extending the conversation, Micah.
Jesse,
I think this is a very important process for people to go through in their departments. It reminds me of the common suggestion that entrepreneurs should be (I’m paraphrasing) working ON their business and not just IN their business.
These days, a mantra at many companies is to “do more with less.” There are often fewer employees doing as much as or more than the department was doing before. Therefore, people are so busy just keeping up with their day-to-day work that they are often not stepping back and focusing on very important “big picture” issues like this. But this process can help the team operate more efficiently, so I think managers should strongly consider focusing on these issues.
The discussion at the end of the post of how some leaders have difficulty letting go and empowering their employees was also interesting. It seems like leaders typically have gotten promoted, because they were really good at lower level jobs where they might have been in total control of the work and didn’t have to rely on anybody else to get it done.
However, in a management position, tasks need to be delegated which can be challenging for some. I think it obviously helps a lot to hire high quality employees. It should be a lot easier to delegate to people like this, because they are likely to do a really good job.
Hi Greg, You raise an important issue – the pressure in today’s organizations to do more with less. Ironically, it pushes us into a state of frenzied activity without time for reflection to consider priorities that might make it possible to lessen the load. It might seem hard to take time out for a conversation like the one I’m suggesting. But it wouldn’t need to be a long conversation. Just a short one to clarify whether they really are a team and whether they should be one. If it turns out that there are distinct teams, it might be more efficient and productive for those teams to meet going forward rather than the large group.
The other interesting point you raise is the issue on delegation. Ideally we would all like to hire peak performers. But it can be worth the effort to develop your people as well. And sometimes managers who have had a stake in developing their people have greater trust in them and are more willing to let go of control. I would offer one caveat – just because an individual is a peak performer does not mean they know how to be a great team player.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and raising some very interesting points, Greg.
Great post and I am particularly fascinated by the life of a team and reinforce to clients that teams do well to learn to evolve and change like an amoeba, adapting to their environment, internal and external pressures and demands, internal moods and energy levels. The best teams anticipate change where possible and respond proactively. One of the hardest things seems to be to help teams become growth-minded, I think partly because everyone on the team needs to share the philosophy of growth-mindedness, as well, it needs to be culturally supported. High performing teams become so because there’s a common value in both quickly learning from mistakes and in identifying successes to be repeated or enhanced AND they understand when to ask the question similar to yours Jesse – “Do we still really need this exact team?” So if I could wave my magic team wand….I would scatter ‘growth-mind’ fairy dust over every team:)
Hi Helen, If I had a magic team wand, I would join you in sprinkling that much needed “growth-mindedness” fairy dust. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on how to help build high performing teams.
Hi Jesse,
Love your point about not all groups being teams. It certainly helps in any group to have some of the people-skills behaviors expected of a team — listening, collaboration, open discussion. However a team is more than that.
Your question “Do you really want a team?” — is thought-provoking. I can envision many leaders/managers stopping to think it through. When words mean something special — the concept is more readily achieved!
Great post.
Kate
Hi Kate, well said. It’s so much easier to communicate when we have a common language and as you said “when words mean something special – the concept is more readily achieved.” Thanks for adding to the conversation.
Most of my staff (as well as team leaders) are young – and very dynamic. In fact highly motivated and eager to operate as a unit. Call it an ‘over eagerness’ to work as a team has actually resulted in them doing all of the work? What has become obvious is a sense of frustration from the rest of the team because they are in reality not really empowered and allowed to take over and complete the task at hand. How does one overcome the situation?! Thank you for an awesome post, regards Sean
Hi Sean,
Two things come to mind. I wonder if your team has clarified goals, roles and how you will work together. If not, creating aTeam Charter will be helpful. Check out “Set Up Your Team For Success”
Also, it might be helpful to read about what issues tend to emerge during Stage 2 of team development (which is where you team currently is on their journey to becoming a high performing team). See “What team members can do to help their team.” This post was written for team members. You might want to share this with your team and have a team discussion to figure out together how to proceed.
Hope these ideas are helpful. Glad you liked my post.