Team Building - Developing Performing Teams

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Team Conflicts, Argyris, Team Learning, Peter Senge, skill, Team Building, Teamwork, collective work-products, leadership, Michael Dell, John Medica

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Understanding Teams & Teamwork Contd...

Any group of people working together does not form a team. Thus, committees, councils, and taskforces are not always teams. There is a clear difference between teams and work groups. The performance of a work group is a function of its members' performance as individuals. The performance of a team is a function of both individual results and "collective work-products". Activities like interviews, surveys, and experiments generally need involvement of more than one person.

Such activities can be considered as "collective work-products." Working groups are common and more useful in large organizations where individual accountability is important. They are formed to share information, insights, and perspectives. The members of work groups come together to help each other perform better. The meeting of these groups also reinforces individual performance standards. The focus of work groups is on individual performance and accountability. There is no mutual responsibility for each other's performance as in teams. There is no question of incremental performance-contribution that results from two or more people working together in groups. The emphasis of work groups is always on individual goals and responsibilities. For better understanding of differences between working groups and teams refer to table 1.1.

Principles of Great Teams

Warren Bennis⁵ conducted a study to identify the principles that made great teams successful. He studied teams that worked on the Manhattan project⁶, and those who worked in the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)⁷ of Xerox, Apple Computers⁸, Lockheed Skunk Works⁹, and Walt Disney animation studios. According to Bennis though all these teams were extraordinary in their own way, there were some principles that were common to all and these principles apply to all the organizations where these teams worked. The principles¹⁰ are:

Shared Dream
All the great teams shared the dream of making the world a better place to live in. They sincerely believed that they would change the world for the better. These teams were obsessed with what they were doing and did not treat their work as simply a job but a fervent quest. The shared dreams and beliefs gave them the cohesiveness and energy needed to work.

Mission is Bigger than Ego
During the Manhattan project, one team member had a problem working with a colleague, and decided to leave. But the project leader reminded him that the mission was more important than individual egos and this made the team member rethink his decision, and ultimately stay back. This example shows how great teams placed mission way above individual egos.

Protection from Leaders
All the great teams had leaders who protected the team members from the corporate headquarters. These leaders managed to keep the headquarters satisfied and told their team members to remain focused on their work. In all these cases, the leaders tried to maintain physical distance from the headquarters and this seemed to have helped in achieving their missions.

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5] In Warren Bennis is a leading thinker on Leadership.
6] The team invented the atomic bomb.
7] Pathbreaking comp uter technologies like GUI, LAN, and Printer were invented at PARC. Even the commercial prototype of PC was invented here.
8] Macintosh & other technology breakthroughs are credited to Apple computers.
9] Teams here worked on fast and efficient development of top-secret aircraft.
10] The secrets of great groups, By: Warren Bennis, Leader to Leader, No. 3 Winter 1997