Teamwork is viewed as critical to organizational success, and collaborative activity has ballooned by 50 percent or more during the past two decades. However, collaborative work is often extremely lopsided and in most cases comes from only 3-5 percent of employees, according to the Harvard Business Review.
The bottom line is that while the team concept can be successful, teams are most likely to succeed when thoughtfully designed. Here are two keys to creating successful teams in your organization:
Thoughtful Team Design
To ensure team success, the first step is to define specific team objectives before the team can be designed. A successful team must include individuals who possess an appropriate mix of drives for effectively dealing with the team’s objectives. Think about it — a team being formed to develop a policies and procedures manual should not have the same members as a team selected to plan a holiday celebration or a team designed to implement a new methodology. Just because a team was previously successful does not mean you can assume it would succeed in addressing new and different objectives.
The driving forces of individuals is critically important. Individuals who are rewarded by their work — in this case participating on a team with a defined objective — will be eager to contribute to team success. They will be self-motivated.
Think about the objectives that were established for each team you are forming and then consider potential team members. Consider what drives and rewards them and whether or not they would be motivated by contributing to attaining a new team’s objectives. While the following terms may be new to you, reading the descriptors below will enable you to recognize the core characteristics of potential team members:
- Theoreticals offer objectivity in all areas. They focus on facts, data, research and experience. They are voices of reason or devil’s advocates, and they contribute to the development of creative solutions.
- Utilitarians focus on measurable ROI on all investments. They are goal-driven and will identify waste or inefficiency. They will become dissatisfied when the team wastes time.
- Aesthetics provide fresh insights. They seek harmony and understand the feelings of others and will minimize discomfort within the team. They visualize the ideal.
- Socials generously contribute time, talent and resources. They will invest their energy in helping the team achieve the best results. They will champion a worthy cause.
- Individualistics excel at leading others. They build strategic alliances. They excel in developing tactics to carry out a winning strategy to accomplish team goals.
- Traditionals contribute stability. They are systematic and will demonstrate how their system will improve team performance.
Teams Succeed When There is Conflict
You read that correctly — it is true that teamwork is essential for organizations to react quickly and effectively as circumstances change, and it is generally accepted that harmony among team members is critical. However, without healthy conflict, teams may produce less than ideal, less than truly creative solutions.
Unfortunately conflict is perceived as a no-no in most team situations and almost universally when thinking of on-the-job scenarios; but when conflict is consciously avoided, the result is that open, positive and passionate debate is also dodged. Ducking conflict may result in side-stepping provocative options or imaginative solutions by preventing the full disclosure of differing views and perceptions from the team.
We are addressing open, positive and passionate debate that is results-orientated. Such debate must be wholly focused on work-related issues and must not slip into personality-driven or malicious skirmishes. The key is trust. Team members must be working in an environment in which they can trust one another. If the team members have feelings of doubt or misgivings, there will be less willingness to contribute and to be open to the observations and responses of others. There will be a tendency to have misgivings about the input of others rather than to be willing to truthfully evaluate and consider it unemotionally.
There’s a fine line that team leaders must walk in order to ensure trust and healthy conflict. To shut down debate prematurely at the first sign of tension inhibits the team from developing the skills necessary for managing conflict. It is essential that critical topics remain on the table for discussion, not discarded or shelved for future review. So when the team leader recognizes that discord is building, they should:
- Remind the team what their objectives are;
- Probe controversial ideas for further explanation and discussion;
- Extract ideas from team members who have not yet participated; and
- Acknowledge some of the valued insights that have been brought forward.
Once these steps are taken the team can once again move forward in search of creative solutions. Truly, the really big secret to team success is the conflict. There must be open, positive and passionate conflict of ideas — not a conflict of personalities — for teams to be successful.
Ted Szaniawski is founder and Principal of HRGroup, a provider of Human Resource support services, including hiring practices, compensation programs, talent development and more. For additional info, or to suggest a topic for a future article, please email [email protected].
