YOU'VE CHOSEN YOUR TEAM

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YOU'VE CHOSEN YOUR TEAM
HOW DO YOU MAKE IT WORK?
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A Look At Core Assets

• Capabilities and skills of people are core
  assets of the organization
• More effort is expended on people than on other
  core assets
• Finding the "right" people is costly
• Once people are on board, they begin to learn
  about the job and the environment
• People join teams, formal or informal
• Now you need to make it work

Company Everywhere

• Core Assets
• Capabilities
• Skills
• Facility
• Systems
• Capital

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A Rose Is Not A Rose
A Group Is Not A Team

• Committee -- a group of people who take minutes
  to waste hours.
• Team -- a group of people who are committed to
  the attainment of a common objective, who work
  well together and enjoy doing so, and who produce
  high quality results.

Teams do not just happen. They are developed
through a deliberate, planned process.
Source James P. Lewis
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Expectations For Team Outcomes
A Survey Of 51 Major Companies That Utilize Teams
Found These Benefits

• More effective use of resources
• Better problem solving
• Better quality products and services
• Creativity and innovation
• Higher quality decisions

To get these results it takes work.
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Building Blocks Of Team Building
Describe the Benefits and Rewards -- Let group
members know how they will benefit from their
participation in the team. Identify both
individual and group rewards.
Communicate the Team Purpose -- Let participants
know explicitly what the purpose of the team is
and its significance. Communicate expected
results and how these results will make a
difference.
Discuss the Process -- Collect ideas for the
group about how to create teamwork. Indentify
the initial strengths of the group and potential
barriers to effective teamwork.
Define Teamwork -- Develop a shared definition
of what a team really is. Discuss what types of
teamwork members want and expect.
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Keys To Leading A Team

• Continually refocus the team on its purpose.
  Teams can drift from their fundamental charge
  the leader must keep them on task.
• Encourage frequent team self-assessment. The
  more the team critiques its own process, the more
  finely-tuned that process becomes.
• Encourage questions and differences of
  perspective. The best decisions come from
  comparing and contrasting different views of a
  problem.
• Watch for opportunities to promote participation
  and involvement. Make everyone feel a part by
  giving everyone a role.
• Don't hog the limelight spread credit among
  team members.
• Reward and celebrate successes -- even the minor
  ones.
• Know the members of your team find out their
  needs, their strengths, and their weaknesses.

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Factors In Team Development
Goals What is the current purpose, mission,
goal, objective and action plan? The leader
keeps the team on track and monitors how relevant
the team activity is to the current goals.
Roles What work needs to be done and who is the
best choice to carry-out each function or the
team? The leader makes sure that roles are
identified and filled. The leader maintains a
process by which the team holds members
accountable for filling their roles.
Procedures How will the work of the team get
done? What processes and methods should be
chosen? The team leader remembers to assess how
will processes work and moves the team to refine
or replace them when necessary.
TEAM
Relationships How are team members expected to
interact and relate? The leader provides a
climate in which constructive working
relationships can evolve. The leader helps
"debug" problems and destructive conflicts before
they damage the team.
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Stages Of Team Development
Performing -- The team puts the full force of its
resources into getting results. Goals, roles,
procedures, and relationships support the team
process. All is not perfect, but success is
maintained by rapid identification of problems
and barriers as they occur. Regular and honest
team assessment is used to keep the team on
course and to avoid complacency.
Norming -- Members of the group begin to learn
from each other and establish guidelines for
working together. These "rules" may vary widely
from team to team, but in a well-formed team they
meet the needs and styles of the members.
Leadership is shared among participants more
evenly and mutual trust develops.
Storming -- As participants become more familiar
with each other, different viewpoints and
disagreements surface. Alliances and conflicts
occur the leader may be challenged. While some
groups suppress this stage, effective teams need
to work through it to learn how to deal with
differences and to achieve their highest quality
results.
Forming -- The participants lack a clear
understanding of their purpose, the group's
capabilities and of each other. Because they
often do not know each other, members tend to be
polite or to withhold thoughts or reactions.
They often look to the leader for direction and
structure.
TEAM
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Helping With Team Development

• Give The Organizational Message That Teamwork Is
  Good
• Publicly acknowledge effective teams and their
  applications
• Address teamworking skills on performance
  appraisals and in developmental feedback

• Reward Effective Team Players
• Give desirable assignments to those who have
  shown teamwork ability
• Consider team skills in determining promotions
• Reward all the members of particularly
  productive teams

• Demonstrate And Teach Team Behavior
• Be a model of good teamwork in the top executive
  suite
• Provide training in team skills for group
  participants
• Teach employees how to lead and facilitate teams

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Summary
Not all groups become teams. Some groups
function poorly throughout their lifespan, never
reaching the climate, camaraderie and
productivity of a team. Generating a team is a
planned process that take time, energy, knowledge
and insight. Leaders and team members who
understand the factors involved can increase the
chances of success by making sure that the
important factors are dealt with openly and
regularly. Groups who take the time to build
their working relationships and who actively
monitor their own group processes will become the
most productive and effective teams.
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Contact Information
Rob Berling Berling Associates 550 Pharr
Road Suite 212 Atlanta, GA 30305 Tel.
404.365.9836 Fax. [phone] rberling_at_berlingass
ociates.com www.berlingassociates.com