January/February 2003
Teamwork in the Workplace
In recent years, a major trend in management strategy has been to reorganize the company into teams. Management experts and executives correctly tout teamwork for its benefits, including employee empowerment, corporate competitiveness, and increased productivity. The movement has mostly proved successful, especially when it comes to boosting productivity. A recent poll found that 93 percent of 150 top managers at large companies favored self-managed work teams to achieve greater productivity.
But there are contingencies and guidelines to consider. Just as you can’t expect a new duckling to take flight on his first attempt, you can’t expect a newly formed team to achieve its optimal performance after a single day’s kickoff event. Teams need patience, direction, support, communication, and a solid set of goals. And that list is just the beginning.
In this issue of Duck Tales™ yours truly would like to revisit the question of teams. Teamwork is a fixture in today’s business world, and like anything else, it needs constant attention and care in order to thrive. So here’s a look at what teams most need.
Add Steam to Your Teams
What makes a team a winning team? A skilled leader. The best team leaders, though, aren’t as much leaders as they are helpers, who support, nurture, and build the team. Here’s what it takes:
A sense of purpose. To be motivated, a team must know how its efforts contribute to the organization’s well-being. The leader is the bridge between the team and top management, and he or she needs to keep communication lines open. When management receives information about the team’s progress, leaders can provide feedback vital to team spirit. “Recognition, support, positive feedback, and just ordinary ‘thank-you’s and ‘keep-it-up’s go a long way to help teams gel,” says one expert.
A bridge to other areas. When support from other groups is needed, it’s up to the leader to make sure everyone involved understands the groups’ duties and the individual members’ tasks. Communication is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and mistakes.
Group dynamics. Teams are made up of individuals whose pace and ways of getting things done can differ dramatically. The leader needs to illustrate how these differences can complement, rather than hinder, each other. Doing so helps build trust among team members—and you know how strongly Trust E. Duck ® feels about that!
Focus and reflection. Many team leaders make the mistake of assuming that all members interpret a task the same way. To stay focused, the team needs a “time-out” every once in a while to assess its progress and to redefine the assignment.
Winning Them Over
Steven Spielberg, the Oscar-winning movie director, wasn’t always as successful and popular as he is now. A skinny, nonathletic 13-year-old, Spielberg was an easy target for bigger classmates, who took great pleasure in teasing and harassing him. One bully in particular tried to make young Spielberg’s life miserable, taking every chance he got to humiliate the boy in front of others.
One day Spielberg approached the bully, “Listen, I’m thinking of making an 8 mm movie and I want you to play this war hero.” First the bully laughed at the idea, but soon he showed interest, especially when Spielberg told him he looked like John Wayne and cast him as a heroic squad leader. From then on, the bully was Spielberg’s best friend.
Steven Spielberg’s story exemplifies an uncommon but effective approach to fostering teamwork. Instead of meeting opposition with opposition, Spielberg looked for a way to bring the bully to his side. He knew that the best technique to get people to work with you is to acknowledge and praise their individual strengths and cultivate their talents. Letting people know that they are valued will encourage a solid working relationship and feelings of camaraderie.
Creativity in Numbers
When we think of creativity, we often think of a lone inventor, such as Thomas Edison. But in the corporate world, creativity has many faces and often comes in the form of a team. Not all organizations, however, have learned how to foster group creativity. To encourage creativity, leaders should encourage workers to step into “white space,” an area that removes boundaries regarding what workers should do, and how and when they do it. Doing so allows people who may not normally work together to exchange ideas, conduct experiments, and encourage one another. White space provides an avenue for improvement, innovation, and long-term successes.
Here are a few ways leaders can boost creativity on the corporate level:
- Talk about it. Encourage workers to talk about their interests and ideas, not just the task at hand. Communication will improve the likelihood that peers can connect ideas and form creative ideas.
- Give it away. Holding on to your ideas limits how far creativity can be leveraged. On the other hand, sharing ideas increases creative potential.
- Listen actively. While it’s important to listen to each other’s ideas, it’s even more important to encourage peers to act on their ideas.
- Connect it. Make sure someone is available who can connect employees’ ideas to maximize creativity.
Teamwork – A Two-Way Street
When a team fails, management often gets stuck with the blame—it neglected to provide adequate planning, commitment, money, training, or coaching. While some of the criticism may be on target, it’s sometimes the teams themselves who are at fault, not management. Consider these team problems and what the top Ducks® can do about them:
- Unrealistic expectations. Being assigned to a team can be heady stuff for some individuals. They get excited about their new status and may take on tasks that aren’t part of the team goal. As a manager, don’t overplay the team concept or present unrealistic visions.
- Varied work styles. Teams are usually made up of tortoises and hares. To avoid conflict, maintain the same performance standards for everyone.
- Rushing to meet objectives. In their haste to achieve goals, many teams neglect important processes. They skip meetings, avoid training, and ignore safety codes. Managers need to budget time for regular meetings so team members don’t skip over important elements to meet a deadline.
- Insufficient dialogue. Most teams claim that poor communication is the single, most critical problem they face. They want more courtesy from team members, acknowledgment of one another’s contributions, fairness in dealing with problems, and nonjudgmental attitudes. Managers can help by discussing good behavior and rewarding it and using surveys to measure the team’s morale.
Teams Come in Three Types
Companies that report problems with teamwork may be making an erroneous assumption: that there is only one type of team. But there are actually three types, says Peter Drucker, all with different structures, purposes, requirements, and capabilities:
(1) The “baseball team.” Players on this team do not actually play as a team—they play on the team. As in baseball, members have fixed positions they never leave. They function individually, with very little group collaboration. The team works best when the game has been played many times and everyone understands the sequence of action.
(2) The “football team.” Players on the football team also have fixed positions but work as a team. Designers, engineers, and manufacturing people work “in parallel,” and not independently of each other. To work well, this team needs stringent requirements and a “score,” such as the play the coach signals to the huddle on the field.
(3) The “tennis doubles team.” Instead of fixed positions, players on this team hold primary positions. They must be flexible, adjusting to teammates’ strengths and weaknesses and the dynamics of the game. When this team functions well, it is the one most likely to produce genuine innovations.
Rewarding Teams that Perform
Acknowledging team success often presents a dilemma. How do you reward the team’s collective effort without undermining team members’ individual contributions? After all, each member brings unique skills, experience, and commitment to the team. Praising the team not only can be ineffective, it actually can damage the team’s performance by ignoring individuals’ contributions and reinforcing the behavior of those who add little. The best reward system, says one expert, may be for leaders to offer individual recognition during group sessions. Here are seven characteristics—represented by the acronym PERFORM—that leaders should praise to maximize the team’s potential:
Purpose. Members who have a sense of purpose understand the team’s mission. They set goals that help the team achieve its vision.
Empowerment. Team members who feel empowered know when to take on more responsibility for themselves and when to support others.
Relationships. People committed to team effort are willing to listen. They value different opinions and perspectives and offer constructive feedback.
Flexibility. To benefit the team’s collective goals, group members must be willing to adapt to changing conditions and readily take on unexpected tasks.
Optimal productivity. High-performing members set high standards for the team, as well as themselves.
Recognition. Members who value the team also value individual accomplishments and appreciate the contribution of others.
Morale. The most valuable team members consistently boost the team’s morale with their own spirit, enthusiasm, and optimism.
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