The Top 7 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Employees

As I work with clients to strengthen their teams and to make their businesses more profitable, I often encounter some serious misunderstandings of human nature. These misunderstandings usually lead business leaders in the wrong direction when they attempt to inspire their employees to perform at a higher level. Fortunately, you can avoid these pitfalls if you understand a few key points about the people you lead.

1) They are not motivated by money alone

In numerous studies conducted over the last fifty or sixty years, researchers have concluded money is not the prime motivator for most people. Yes, people work for money -- but it is not their biggest motivator.

One famous model of behavior – Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – yields a clue as to why this is true. In summary, Maslow’s hierarchy says that all of us have five basic needs (physiological, safety & security, social, esteem, and self-actualization). According to Maslow, “a need once met no longer serves to motivate.” If you have your physiological needs met (food, shelter, & clothing), more of the same will not inspire you to work harder.

Employers help people meet their physiological needs with money. More money will not necessarily get people to work harder.

It is true that some people work harder for more money, but many will not. If you want to inspire high-level performance, you’ve got to dig deeper. You must work to understand what motivates each person on your team.

2) They don’t want their worth determined by the number of hours they are at work

I once heard a business owner say, “An entrepreneur is someone who will work 80 hours a week for themselves so that they don’t have to work 40 hours a week for someone else.” I have found this statement to be very accurate.

Many people believe that what motivates them also motivates others. When it doesn’t, they often get frustrated and confused.

Remember that your business is your dream, not your employees’ dream. They probably want to do a good job, but they don't want you to evaluate them based on the number of hours they spend in your business. Reward them based on the quality and/or quantity of work they produce. Reward them for the service they provide to customers. Don’t use “face time” as a measure of their worth.

3) They want to feel like part of a team

Most people want to be part of something great. Create an environment where people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, and they will respond favorably. Reward individual performance, but build the team. Avoid competition within your team at all costs. You want your team competing together to win your business competition. You don’t want them fighting each other.

4) They want you to respect them

I’ve seen many entrepreneurs start a business to avoid an organization or a person who treats them with disrespect. Funny -- I often see these same people treat their employees with disrespect when they become the boss. What happened?

5) They want you to value their opinions

The studies that show money is not a prime motivator also find that people want their supervisor to show appreciation for their contribution at work. Show your appreciation and value their input. Your employees will truly be your greatest asset.

6) They want to make a difference

People like to do things that matter. People need to feel like their contribution helped the team. Show your people how their work made a difference to team results, and you’ll likely tap into their internal motivators.

7) They want your business to succeed

Most people realize that they are unemployed if your business fails. They don’t want that any more than you do. Listen to them. Learn from their insights. They may not have your monetary investment in the business, but they do have a big stake in your success.

There you have it. Seven things you need to know about employees. As I look back over the article, I see that it begs the question “What about people who don’t want to be part of a team?” or “What about the employee who doesn’t want to make a difference?” I know they’re out there, but I don’t believe they represent a majority of the population. If you have an employee who doesn’t care, why are they still your employee? Don’t waste your time on people who really don’t want to contribute. Find someone who does and apply these seven tips to working with them.

Team Building Part 2: Honesty is the Key!

The second in a series of 2 articles giving a slightly different viewpoint on effective team building, condensed from an original seminar presented by the author, John Roberts. John is a Freelance Training Consultant and director of JayrConsulting Ltd. Part 1 ( Another Brick in the Wall ) dealt with selecting and building the initial team. Part 2 deals with the culture that need to be in place to run the team really effectively. The ideas expressed are personal opinions built up from many years of experience in the Electronics/Aerospace industry, the Armed Forces, the Telecoms industry and the Training industry. There is no suggestion of this being a 100% solution applicable to or workable in all situations, but it is aimed at getting people to think outside of the norm and question the ‘normal’ way of doing things.

1. Honesty – The Key!

It really is that simple! The basic foundation of building and running REALLY successful teams is TOTAL honesty! Sounds simple, but it can be one of the hardest things to implement due to existing workplace cultures and peoples long-term conditioning to them. If you are not prepared to implement this culture change, you will only ever have functional ‘teams’ that are purely paying ‘lip service’ to the whole idea of team building.

Being honest starts here! You cant pretend to be honest, or only implement some parts of it, either as a team member or as a team leader. If you are not going to give it 100% - Give it up, because the rest depends on this to work properly!

There are two separate parts to honesty within the team scenario and both are equally important:

(a) Being honest with other people

You have to learn to be honest with everyone. If someone is not performing properly-Tell them as soon as possible, and help them to overcome the cause. If someone is performing well-Tell them as soon as possible, and help them to do even better.

If there is good news about the project/team/company-Tell people as soon as possible, without hiding things and deliver praise where appropriate. If there is BAD news about the project/team/company-Tell people as soon as possible, without hiding things and discuss what can be done about it at a team and personal level-ask for input and ideas to resolve things. Most people can handle most situations well, as long as they feel they are being kept informed and involved.

Make sure that you are doing your share of the teams work, to the best of your ability. If the team are having to cover for you, you are not being honest with them.

If you make a mistake- admit to it, as soon as possible and if necessary get help to resolve it. If you try and hide your mistakes you are not being honest and it just leads to more work for others in the long run. Don’t perpetuate rumours! It is one of the fastest ways to break down trust in a team culture. If you don’t know something is a fact-don’t repeat it!

(b) Being honest with yourself

For a lot of people this can actually be extremely difficult to achieve, due to long term conditioning in a competitive work place, but once started it tends to build on itself as long as everyone is really committed to long-term success of the team building process. You have to really look at yourself deeply and honestly and work at correcting your individual behaviour patterns and shortcomings.

If you can’t cope with something-tell someone and get some help with it. No one is perfect and we all need help sometimes. In a good team environment, nobody is going to think less of you for requesting help-just the opposite if it helps to get things done.

Be honest about your skills and abilities starting with your c.v. !). If not you will be found out eventually, but by that time, you may have let a lot of other people down!

Don’t steal credit/ideas from other people and put them forward as your own. Any gain for you is only short term and it is one of the quickest ways of destroying trust amongst your team.

Question your commitment and work ethos continually-Are you really giving 100% effort all the time? If not-why not –do you need to seek help or are you just being lazy?

Don’t lie! It’s infectious in a team environment. If you want a day off- take a leave day-don’t keep re-burying your grandmother!

Admit when you are wrong in a discussion-and apologise!

Don’t moan and grumble about work – if you don’t like being there –Leave!

2. Communication

Communication is one of the most important factors in successful teams. To be effective it must be continuous and completely OPEN – both between team members and between the team leader and their team. There should be no secrets. The team need to know how they are affected by corporate plans and decisions. Members need to know if they are doing things correctly. The team leader needs to know if their team members have any ideas or problems that should be acted upon. People respond better if they know the facts – even to bad news! (I had a team where they all volunteered to take a 10% pay cut to save a team member from redundancy, when the financial figures were explained to them openly!)

This DOESN’T mean that you need to have interminable ‘formal’ team meetings! People should be encouraged to talk to each other and to the team leader all of the time. A good team leader will set aside time every day, (YES, you can do it, if you are organised!), purely to get around and talk to their team. The better your communication is, the less meetings you will need to have!

3. Trust

Trust between team members and between the team and team leader MUST be absolute. If you don’t trust people to get on and do their job – why are they in your team? If you trust people to do a job, you have to relinquish power to them to make their own decisions – and they have to be responsible for those decisions! Team members must have trust in the team leader – that they have their best interests at heart and are working for team rather than individual success. In the ultimate team, people have to depend on each other for their lives – that can only be done with trust in your fellow team members.

4. Conflicts and Compromise

Teams are made of PEOPLE! You have to expect conflicts and confrontations. They should not be arbitrarily stamped upon – people have to be made aware that at some point they will have to compromise with other people in order to continuing functioning as an effective team. Members should be encouraged not to hide conflict, but to work it out and arrive at a compromise. The team leader should try and be aware of any conflicts and help to resolve them where necessary. Don’t expect your team to never argue – they are all different people, and just like in a family, there is nothing wrong with a healthy argument, as long as it is resolved

5. Chinese Councils

ALL team members should have an input to planning and decisions concerning the team. People in the team should be treated as equals. The team leader is not in that position because they are ‘better”, it’s just that they have different skills to the others. The team leader is not the only person that may have good ideas and should always be willing to accept input from others and where necessary amend plans and decisions concerning the team and its objectives. However, everyone should be aware that at the end, the team leader has the ultimate responsibility and therefore the final say in any decisions, having taken into account the input from other team members. This should be a regular ongoing procedure.

6. Assessment and reward

Forget ‘Annual Assessments’, Competency grids and pay rises based on individual performance! What matters is, “Is the TEAM successful?” The team leader should be constantly aware of how team members are performing and giving them feedback and assistance where necessary as the project progresses. It is no good leaving it until some later point to let people know if they are not achieving what is required or patting them on the back if things are going well. People need constant feedback –with honesty! Reward should be based on the success (or failure!) of the whole team, not individuals, so that people are encouraged to make sure that everyone in the team is pulling together to achieve the team goals –not trying to score ‘smarty points’ for their own individual advancement. (This would not work in a ‘sales’ environment, which is why sales people tend to work as individuals rather than as teams!)

7. Buddies

Team members must all be ‘Buddies’ with each other. This doesn’t mean that you have to be close friends or socialise with each other! What it means is that team members have to support one another at all times. Everyone has ‘off days’, and team members should notice when someone else is not performing 100% and offer help and support to get them through this period. Sometimes all it will take is a joke or remark to buck someone up or they may need help with a particular task that is getting on top of them. All members should get into the habit of ‘watching out’ for each other. There is no shame in seeking or accepting help – we all need it sometimes. We all have different skills and abilities and team members should be encouraged to make use of each other’s skills to achieve the team objective as efficiently as possible. I was never very good at producing diagrams for presentations, but I had someone in my team who was brilliant at it, and I would always ask her to critique my work so that I could produce a better finished product.

8. No Blame – No Shame

EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES! The secret is to have a culture where people are not ashamed to admit to having made a mistake! That way, mistakes can be rectified quickly, and more importantly, learned from! If someone makes a mistake (deletes a file or something), you don’t want them to feel that they will be penalised or marked down in some way. You need them to tell someone and if necessary seek help to rectify it as soon as possible. (Needs ‘honesty’, as above!)

Summary

You may have noticed something in reading the above? No jargon, no ‘hype’, no ‘games’, no ‘exercises’, no ‘concepts’! – NOT NECESSARY! Successful teams are all about PEOPLE, their natural skills, abilities and relationships. Running a successful team is very much like running a successful family and most of the values are the same – BUT, it will not work WITHOUT HONESTY as above! Remember that is probably the hardest thing to achieve due to human nature and the conditioning that people are subjected to in the normally competitive culture of most work places, but it is worth the effort if you really want to achieve effective team building.

Think about all of the above – how much of it currently applies to teams in your workplace? Could you implement this? Remember – unless you start with HONESTY, it will not work, and you will always just be going through the motions of team building!

As always I am completely open to any comments – the whole idea of this seminar is to get people thinking and discussing what they do in their teams and how it could be improved.

Acknowledgements

7 Key Dimensions of High Performance Teams

We can always look at the behaviors and skills of team leaders and team members in analyzing team performance and success, but it is also instructive to look at the overall team as well. The list of attributes that follows describes team units that are highly productive and successful. You can use this list as a set of criteria by which you can judge your own team.

Commitment - Team members see themselves belonging to the team. They are committed to group goals above and beyond their personal goals and agendas.

Trust - Team members have faith in each other to honor commitments, maintain confidences, support each other and generally behave predictably and consistently.

Purpose - The team understands how it fits into the overall business of the organization. Team members know their roles, feel a sense of ownership, and can see how they personally, and as a team, make a difference.

Communication – Effective teams communicate effectively and frequently with each other and also communicate clearly and consistently with people outside the team about team activities. Effective internal communication allows these teams to make balanced decisions, handle conflict constructively and provide each other valuable feedback.

Involvement - Everyone has a role on the team. Despite differences in roles, perspectives and experience, team members feel a sense of partnership with each other. Contributions are respected and expected. True consensus is reached when appropriate.

Process Orientation – High performing teams have a large number of process tools they can use when needed. Process tools would include: problem solving tools, planning techniques, regular meetings, agendas, and successful ways of dealing with problems, behavioral agreements, and ways to improve those processes within the team.

Continuous Improvement - The team understands the importance of continuous improvement, has the tools, knowledge and time at their disposal to make Continuous Improvement really happen. All improvement efforts are done in support of the organization’s goals and objectives.

If you feel a team is ready for such a discussion, pull out this list of attributes and have a team discussion on how well people feel their team is doing on each of these dimensions, the discussion can be enlightening and help the team move its performance to even higher levels.

Effective Team Building For Organizational Success

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." -Andrew Carnegie

Team building and team work is the key driver in organizational productivity. The days of the lone warrior corporate hero who could carry an organization to fortune 500 lists with his charisma and genius are finally over. Organizations are now looking to build teams with people of complementary skills to work towards achieving the corporate objectives and goals.

While teams are important in every area of human endeavor whether it be in sports or volunteer work, the scope of this article covers business enterprises.

Why teams?

Teams are formed when:

A combination of skills, knowledge and expertise are required to undertake a particular task. A single individual may not have such a combination.

On the face of challenges such as falling profits, improvements in quality standards, putting together a new project, tackle major change initiatives and cross functional co-ordination in large and complex organizations. Teams may be formed for many purposes. The list is only a broad indicator for the kinds of teams that may be formed.

Stages of team development

Tuckman and Jenson have described the sequence of the team evolution in their work which is the best model to understand and manage teams. Teams have to go through certain process before it can settle down and work effectively. Understanding the stages of development of the team is key to successful team management.

Stage #1 Forming

This is the stage when the team members assemble and get together. People are very polite, get acquainted with each other and try to assess their own roles in the team. Uppermost in the minds of the new team members at the formation stage is where and how they fit in with the team. This stage is marked by easy acceptance of each other, avoiding controversies and direction and support from team leader in settling down.

Stage #2 Storming

This stage introduces conflicts and competition as each individual begins to start work on the plan. Stress of the work with Individual differences on issues crop up. Sometimes the issues could be cultural, ethnic or simply an issue of asserting ones own strength in the overall team equation. Interpersonal and communication issues dominate this stage leading to a flare up of conflict and confrontation.

The leader needs utmost restraint and maturity at this stage of team development. He has to bring forth all his networking skills, emotional intelligence and people management abilities in creating the right atmosphere, create winning relationships between team members and bring their focus back on team vision and goals.

Stage #3 Norming

As conflicts begin to get resolved, the work flow picks up speed. People settle down to more harmonious working relationships. The focus now shifts to common team objectives and performance related issues. A cohesive team which knows its strengths and weaknesses now moves to peak performance leveraging the complementary skills of its members. This is also the stage where the team leader begins to delegate more effectively. Giving the team members a certain level of functional autonomy leads to unleashing the creativity of its members making for a high performing team.

Stage #4 Performing

This is the final stage where a perfect group identity is created. There is independence and interdependence, learning as well as sharing knowledge, speed and efficiency. All glitches have been smoothened out by the team leader. There are very high levels of autonomy giving rise to emergence of new leaders. The performance is it the peak due to high motivation.

A successful team leader understands the different stages of the group formation and development. He manages the team effectively by moderating his team managerial styles according to the stage of development in which the team is passing through.

As the Chinese proverb goes ‘A wise man knows everything; a shrewd one everybody.’

Company Picnic Ideas and Planning Tips

The company picnic is a beloved tradition at many firms.

It's an opportunity for employees to mingle and "let down their hair."

A well organized company picnic with planned activities can help integrate employees with each other. This is particularly important if the company has undergone recent reorganization. As such it functions as a "team bonding" mechanism.

A company picnic can be held for an entire firm of thousands or for a single department of 30.

In my role of party entertainer (and prior to that corporate employee), I have attended countless such events. Here are some observations, tips, and ideas I picked up along the way.

General Considerations
Like any other type of event, you need to decide what you want your picnic to be like and how much you want to spend.

As with any event, it is important to keep the needs and tastes of your attendees paramount.

Allow yourself sufficient time to book your venue if the picnic is offsite. Demand for some venues is at a premium during peak periods. It is not uncommon to make reservations several months or more in advance of a given date.

You'll need to plan food and beverages, and activities and entertainment and, in some cases, transportation to the picnic site.

Allow enough time so you can give your employees sufficient advance notice to include the picnic into their plans. This is especially important if you'll be inviting family members or if it is held on a weekend.

Company picnics and company picnic ideas can range from the very simple to a pull-out-all-stops extravaganza. My observation is that people have a good time at both.

Do you want to have a theme? A theme is fun! Plus it makes it easier to organize food and activities.

WHEN do you want to hold you company's picnic?
Here, in the Philadelphia area, companies hold their picnics beginning in June through early October.

Considerations such as your company's workflow, availability of a desired venue, etc., will help you determine the date. Employees are less apt to be away on vacation in June or September, but they will really enjoy the chance to kick back in July or August.

There are pros and cons to weekday picnics versus weekend picnics.

Company picnics held during a workday will ensure a greater attendance for employees when they would normally be in the office. And, they don't cut into precious personal time.

But spouses and children are generally more available for a weekend date.

WHOM do you want to invite?
Staff only? Members of the employee's immediate family? What about significant others, friends? Decide where to draw the line.

Family picnics are a great way for employees to meet co-workers’ families. It humanizes co-workers by allowing them to relax their at-work personas.

On the other hand, single or divorced employees can feel like the odd wheel at a very family oriented event. That can be overcome by planning activities suitable for people of all ages.

Activities that require participants to form groups can help integrate the attendees. And it keeps your guests occupied.

WHERE do you want to have your company picnic?
While many picnics take place under a tent in the company's parking lot, offsite venues can make people feel more relaxed. If you're on a strict budget, one option is a nearby state park. Many have large pavilions ideally suited for such events.

I've also been to company picnics given at the home of the firm's CEO or owner. This kind of setting adds a homey touch to the festivities. In some instances, facilities were set up so that the guests attend to their needs without entering the host's private home.

An excellent option to consider is a venue that is set up especially for hosting the company picnic. Generally these picnic parks come complete with in-house catering and lots of games and activities for kids both big and small. Some day camps rent out their facilities on weekends when they are otherwise not in use.

Amusement parks and river cruises are other options.

Tip: Have a Plan B in the case of rain.

Some Plan B options include: • A tent with walls or access to an on-site building
• Event insurance
• A rain date

Keep in mind that if you opt for a rain date, your vendors and entertainers may require additional payment to reserve the second date. That is because they have to turn down other clients during the busy summer season to keep that time open for you.

Food and Beverages
If you choose to have the food catered, you don't have to worry about preparation or cleanup. Many venues such as picnic parks have in-house catering. And many caterers specialize in handling company picnics.

The best part of picnic fare is that it is simple and satisfying. Hot dogs and hamburgers are extremely popular at picnics. But they are not compulsory and caterers will cater to your every whim.

Keep the menu flexible enough to accommodate those with special needs and preferences. These days you’ll find many meat eaters and vegans, not to mention devotees of Atkins, South Beach, and other diets. Muslims and Jews may not wish to eat pork.

So having at least one non-pork and non-meat option is an excellent idea. If your picnic has a theme, your menu can reflect that.

Decide whether you want to permit alcoholic beverages. If so, make sure there is a way to ensure that anyone who drinks a bit too much makes it home safely.

Have age appropriate activities and games
Some venues such as picnic parks make it a point to supply many activities. Nonetheless, you may want to supplement them. Entertainers such as DJs, caricature artists, Tarot card readers, magicians, face painters, clowns are some popular additions.

Door prizes are a cherished company picnic idea at many firms. Door prizes work both as employee appreciation and an incentive for the employees to linger.

Examples of some prizes I've seen include certificate good for a dinner for two at a local restaurant, gift certificate at a local department store, a day off with pay, even a free vacation complete with round trip airline tickets.

These are some company picnic ideas and planning tips to get you started.

But the most important tip is the one I save for last. After you've worked so hard to organize and plan your event, be sure to go and enjoy the festivities yourself!

Why People Don't Listen... and Some Fun Things You Can Do About It

It's frustrating when your co-workers, audience members, teenager or even your dog (!) won't listen. While you can't control how they receive what you say, you can control how you send it. Here are a few tips on why people don't listen and what you can do to change it.

1. Short Attention Spans

When asked to guess the average adult attention span, most people say around thirty minutes. According to statistics, however, the average adult attention span is actually only seven seconds. That's right! Every seven seconds you go away somewhere. You think about something else. In fact, you could actually be taking a mental break right now! It is a normal part of how the brain integrates external stimuli like when your computer starts defragging for a moment while you type. It helps to pause from time to time when you speak. This allows people to integrate your information or ask a clarifying question. Also, include examples to anchor your concepts. For example (see--I'm doing it now!), a concept without an example is like tree without roots, a house without a foundation, or Sonny without Cher. It just doesn't have as much staying power.

2. Too Many Distractions

I was in a meeting the other day and five people coughed, four people side talked, three cell phones rang, two people went to the restroom, and a partridge did email on his PDA. Distractions are a big part of modern life. Your best bet is to acknowledge the distractions in a playful way such as a manager who recently led a meeting I attended. When a cell phone rang, he grabbed for it and said, “Oh, that's for me….my mother likes to check in on me from time to time”. That prompted everyone to turn off their phones.

3. Lack of Training

Few of us were formally taught how to listen. While you probably took Reading 8, Writing 11, did you ever take Listening 10? It's little wonder listening is challenging. Quite accidentally, I learned how to listen by practicing meditation. After a five-day retreat, I felt very light-hearted and so went to visit my aging father who was hard of hearing. My habit was to sit vacantly for hours while he complained about his arthritis, the error on his bank statement, and how hard it is to find good slippers. After this retreat, I surprised myself by totally paying attention to him with patience and compassion. After about ten minutes of complaining he suddenly changed tracks and started telling me fascinating and funny stories about his childhood. Then he cranked up his hearing aid and asked about me! Learn how to be present with people, give them your full, undivided attention and be ready for some pleasant surprises.

4. Language Barriers

It is no secret that the world of business is fast becoming a multicultural world. Although English is the default language of commerce, many people in your audience may speak English as a second language. Last month I was addressing a large insurance company where most attendees turned out to be new immigrants from China. I used the expression “getting jiggy with it”, and I saw people rifling through their dictionaries. This prompted me to say “I'm sorry, that went way over your head”, and a number of people looked up at the ceiling! If your listeners are ESL or have a more basic educational background, you need to simplify your language. Use much more literal descriptions rather than cultural expressions. Use facial and body language to express humor, and fewer words.

5. Unchecked Assumptions

Back in the 70s, Gilda Radner a comedienne who regularly performed on Saturday Night Live was well known for her popular character Emily Litella, a social activist with a hearing problem. Her causes included such important issues as violins on television, soviet jewelry and endangered feces. Believe it or not, those Emily Litella types can be found in your audiences. For example, I once told a story about my mother who was a secretary for the British Civil Service in WWII. She spent most of her time daydreaming that her boss would burst into the room and ask her to spy against the Germans. She could leave the nasty paperwork behind, don a disguise and become the next Mata Hari. Needless to say, one day her boss did burst into the room but instead he fired her for daydreaming all the time. A woman approached me after this story and told me that she used to be a Hari Krishna, too. One way to clear up false assumptions is to state your point in many different ways.

6. No Reason to Listen

Finally, the main reason people don't listen is because you haven't answered their favorite question: “What's in it for me?” Before you start a long-winded monologue, tell your listener why you need their attention and make sure they understand how it will be benefit them. For example, “I'd like to tell you about this free software that will block all the spam before it gets to your Inbox …interested?” That will give you much better results than “When I was a youngster and I sat down in front of my first computer, I asked myself how can I make this machine work for me…” In general, put yourself in your listener's shoes before you talk and their ears tend to perk up.

And just remember the greatest of all wisdom--no one ever listened himself out of a new friendship.

Business Innovation - Effective Team Structures

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Effective Team Structures

The fact that the sum of ideas produced by individuals working alone is greater than the number of ideas produced by those individuals working in a group, is an indicator that team and groups structures are important considerations:

a) Large teams benefit from intellectual cross-pollination, but factors such as groupthink, core and peripheral information channels, status interactions, social loafing and individual shut downs reduce overall performance.

b) Pairs reduce intellectual cross pollination but some of the above inhibitors are also reduced. However, pairs are very successful – many comedy partnerships and creative teams in advertising working pairs.

c) Individuals are prone to path dependency, parochialism and competency traps. But many well known creations have been developed by individuals alone.

Nine Ways to Contribute to Project Team Success

The world of work has changed. It used to be that most of us worked as a part of a process, whether on an assembly line, managing interactions with Customers, or any one of a thousand other processes. Processes are ongoing, repeatable and never have an ending.

While there will always be some jobs and tasks which are process focused, most work now is a project or has a project component to it. Any task that has a distinct beginning and ending, or follows a specific life cycle is a project. Examples include: planning a company meeting, writing a new brochure, implementing the new software system, etc.

If the nature of our work has changed, it is important to think about some of the skills that will help us succeed in this different world. Here are nine ways you can contribute more effectively to make the projects you work on more successful, regardless of your specific role.

1. Understand the end goal. Since a project has a defined ending, it is important that each contributor to the effort knows the desired end result. Stephen Covey teaches to “begin with the end in mind.” This is clearly important to project team members. By understanding the desired result, you can make better individual decisions and reduce confusion and re-work.

2. Identify clear roles. Each person is an important piece in the overall project puzzle. Know your role and the roles of others. If you are a project leader, take the time to clarify these roles for everyone. If you aren’t a leader, ask until you really understand how you can best contribute.

3. Collaborate. Project work is often fluid and free flowing. Once you understand your role and the roles of others you are in a position to collaborate with them more successfully. This collaboration isn’t just a nice thing for you to do. It is imperative to the ultimate success of the project. Look for ways and be willing to collaborate.

4. Recognize interdependencies. The bigger the project, the more linked and interdependent are the people and the tasks. Certain steps need to be done before others can be completed. If you see only your small piece of the project, you may not realize how you finishing two days sooner might have a huge impact on several other things staying on track. Conversely if you fall two days behind on one of your tasks, the effects on the end results could be much longer delays. You aren’t an island. Your work products, decisions and efforts affect many others. Recognize and work with the interdependencies between you and the others involved in the project.

5. Ask questions. Projects can be complex. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to know more about any of the things mentioned above.

6. Communicate. Asking questions is communicating, but so is giving updates. Checking in with others. Coordinating schedules. If you are a project leader the importance of communication can’t be overstated. If you are any team member other than the leader, communication is just as important. You can’t leave it to the leader. Check in with others. Get their input. Find out when the pieces you will need will be completed. Update people on your progress. Communicate!

7. Break it down. Take the big project steps and break them down into definable tasks that you can get your hands around. By breaking the tasks down the work won’t feel so daunting, you will find the interdependencies and you will be able to stay on track much more successfully. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Break down the overall project, and your individual steps into bite sized pieces.

8. Look at the past. If a version of this project has been done in the past, look for the lessons learned to improve your results this time. Think too about other projects you have been involved in. Even if the project was smaller or larger and the goals were very different, there are likely lessons you learned that you can apply – things you did well that you would want to repeat… and things you could have done better that you can correct on this project.

9. Look to the future. Take a little time to document the best practices and ideas that work for you during the project. Whether this is a formal task for everyone on the project, or just your own notes to help you to continuously improve, investing a little time now will make your contributions to all future projects more valuable and efficient.

There are many more ways you can contribute to great project success. Take these nine ideas as a starting point – as a checklist of things you can do, regardless of the role you play. Taking action on these ideas will help you feel more confident and successful in your role on the project team, and will help the project’s goals be reached much more successfully.

Seven Keys to More Effectively Leading Teams

Maybe you find yourself in a new team environment and leading a team for the first time, or maybe you have been working with and leading teams forever. Either way, the keys in this article – whether as new information or a fresh reminder – can make a world of difference in morale, productivity and results from teams.

Help the team identify its purpose. People work more effectively when they understand the goals they are trying to achieve. As a leader it is your job to help the team see the desired outcome of their efforts and help them set specific goals and milestones along the way.

Set the scope and boundaries. Teams need to know what they should tackle and what is “too big” or not their responsibility. By helping teams manage the scope of their work you will keep them more focused and on target to reach the goals more quickly.

Show your belief. If you don’t believe in the team concept, you won’t effectively lead teams. If you do believe both in the concept and in a particular team’s potential, you need to let them know that. Show through both your words and actions that you believe in them. Once they have purpose and goals and your belief, they are on their way to success.

Define your role. Your role is to lead, not to do the work or make all of the decisions. Let the team know what you role is and isn’t. Help them see how you are relying on their experience, knowledge and intellect in the completion of the team’s work.

Be a supporter. Support the team with your actions. Don’t just delegate the work to the team and be gone. Teams will experience obstacles and road blocks and it is your job to remove those roadblocks, find additional resources, and generally provide support. It is like a hike. If you are in front of a group on a hike, you will do your best to remove impediments that might slow down or injure those that follow. Your role on a business team of any sort is just the same.

Be a facilitator. Help the team succeed. Provide guidance when needed. Keep your hands off as much as you can. Let the team succeed and develop themselves towards greater future achievement at the same time. To facilitate means “to make easier” and that is your role. Remember that you chose to use a team to accomplish the task, so let them do it.

Keep your mouth shut. Teams often look to leaders to make the final decisions or assume that the leader has veto power on any decision in the end. If you really buy the team approach - that you want and need everyone’s input – you have to keep quiet. If you are the first person to talk on a subject, the overall amount of discussion and idea flow will drop. Team members will subconsciously assume that your word is golden – whether they agree or not. Because of your position, you must abstain from the early part of a dialogue on any issue, and share your thoughts nearer the close of the conversation.

Each of these things alone will help you build and lead more effective teams. But when taken together, significant progress can be made.

Look at the list above while you think both about your skills and behaviors and the needs of your current teams. Then, put a check mark (mental or literal) next to the one item you will work on today.

By getting started NOW you can become a significantly more effective team leader right away!

Dealing with Difficult People: Ten Ways to Improve Your Communications Success

Have you noticed that some people seem to stop listening even before you start talking? Do you avoid approaching some people unless you absolutely have too? Improve your chance for conversational success by considering the following ten factors before starting your next conversation.

1. Consider the setting. Where will the conversation take place? Is it public or private? Are there other things going on that will be distracting? Is the setting approapriate for the topic?

2. Consider the personality, gender, culture, age, etc. of the other person. If the person is different from you in these respects, you will want to adapt your style of communication to respect these differences.

3. Consider the internal influences (emotions, bias, etc.) on how you approach the conversation. What is your motivation? What baggage are you bringing with you as you talk with this person? Recognize it so that it won't get in your way.

4. Consider the internal influences (emotions, bias, etc.) on how the other person will receive the message. How might your history of communication with this person impact the way they respond to your approach? Will they be distrustful, anxious, humiliated? Your past words and actions will impact whether they will be receptive to you and your message.

5. Consider the interest level/level of importance of the other person. How much information does this person need to know? Is the topic relevant to their work or do they just need a basic awareness of it? Would verbal bullet points work better than an in-depth report? Be careful not to overwhelm someone with how much you know. They may think you are just trying to impress them or boast about your knowledge.

6. Consider the language needs (familiarity with topic, jargon, educational level, etc.) of the other person. Are you using words the person is familiar with or talking over their head? Are you talking in a demeaning way by "dumbing down" your word choices?

7. Consider what you want to accomplish by initiating the conversation. Keep your goal and the message in the front of your mind. If you need to relay information make sure that the person understands the information. If you need to address a challenge, make sure you address the challenge without making it a personal battle.

8. Consider what the other person might need to receive from the conversation. Stick to the information the other person needs. Don't try to become friends or talk about personal stuff if the other person isn't responding positively to that direction of your conversation.

9. Consider the long-term impact of the words, tone, and gestures they use. You may be having a bad day, but the other person may take your comments or attitude personally. That will impact future conversations. If you've had a bad day and said something inappropriate go back to the person to apologize and briefly explain that you were having a bad day and wrongly took it out on that person.

10. Consider the external factors (noise, distractions, setting, etc.) that will impact how the message is relayed and received. Again we return to setting. Make sure that you initiate and participate in conversations that provide the best environment for a successful exchange of ideas and information.

Copyright 2005 Donna Doyon. All rights reserved. You are free to reprint this story as long as you include complete attribution, including a live web site link.

The attribution should read:

By Donna Doyon, author of GLOW: Renew Your Spirit and Release Your Inner Beauty. Please visit Donna's web site at http://www.donnadoyon.com/ for information on how you can say "goodbye" to self-defeating attitudes and behaviors and "hello" to a more successful, balanced, and joy-filled life!'

Why Is Teamwork Training Important?

“When teamwork kicks in, nobody can beat you.”

• Don Shula, Head Coach, Miami Dolphins
• Only NFL team to attain a perfect 17-0 season

Whether it’s two people, a department, or an organization, teams are the means by which great things get done. Unfortunately, not all work groups exhibit teamwork. So, how can our groups develop that sense of community and cohesiveness, or what was Don Shula’s secret? When and how does teamwork kick in? The key is effective teamwork training.

Our research and experience point to a need for managers to be both willing and able to build and maintain high performing teams. One key to regaining our competitiveness will be how successful managers are in creating the climate for teamwork to grow and develop.

We believe it doesn’t just happen by accident. Teams work at building spirit and commitment. They talk about how they are doing. They are willing to invest time and money to protect and enhance the basic team fabric and integrity. In a team, people care about each other and are concerned about how their actions and attitudes affect each other.

Managers report that they spend from fifty to ninety percent of their efforts on managing individuals. Yes, most managers have little or no knowledge of group dynamics. With CMOE’s teamwork training programs, you will discover the inner dimensions and facets of how groups become teams and how group dynamics can be managed. Observing groups at work adds clarity to the very subtle and often subliminal concept of teamwork. It is not magic and there is no secret; it can be explained and put into practice by any manager.

Many of our teamwork training activities are instruments that allow participants to observe and unmask the common enemies of teamwork. It helps if we can see more clearly obstacles that all too frequently are created within a team.

Team afflictions can be widespread, including: destructive and over-charged competitiveness, individualism, over-inflated egos, personal greed, and technology such as computers that drive us into ourselves and have the potential of isolating us so we can “do our own thing.” Seeing the impact of these afflictions on the quality of teamwork is the first step towards creating a more effective team.

The Stages Of Team Development

One of the greatest challenges a coaching manager has is in moving his or her team though the various team development stages. If a manager has no, or little experience of teams and team dynamics then taking over a team and then leading that team can be a very stressful experience. Every manager should know what the various growth stages are of a developing team and they should know how best to move the team through these stages with the minimum of fuss and stress. Unfortunately, many managers do not get the necessary training or coaching in this area of team development and as such teams go through a lot of stress and turmoil when perhaps this could be minimised quite considerably.

In the next couple of pages I will take you through a simple team development model, which I find the most useful of all the models I have studied. The names of each of the stages sum up perfectly what you can expect at each stage!

Psychologist, B.W Tuckman in the 1970s, developed this model and Tuckman suggests that there are four team development stages that teams have to go through in order to be productive. The four stages are:

Forming when the team meets and starts to work together for the first time. Storming, when the members within the team start to “jockey” for position and when control struggles take place.

Norming when rules are finalised and accepted and when team rules start being adhered to.

Performing when the team starts to produce through effective and efficient working practices.

Some teams will go through the four stages fairly rapidly and move from forming through to performing in a relatively short space of time. A lot depends on the composition of the team, the capabilities of the individuals, the tasks at hand, and of course the leadership from management. One thing is certain – no team passes over the storming phase.

All teams must be prepared to go through the difficult and stressful times as well as reaping the benefits of the productive phases. The task of the coaching manager is to identify where along the path of team development his or her team is and then move it on to the next phase with the minimum of fuss and resistance.

Let’s look at each of the stages in detail.

Forming:
This is a stressful phase when new teams come together. Everyone is a bit wary of each other, particularly if they do not know anyone and particularly if the manager is new. Even more stressful, if the rumours circulating about the manager are not favourable!

The first meeting is a nervous one and a good coaching manager will recognise this and make attempts to ensure the team is put at ease. As the forming stage is the stage where cliques can develop, the coaching manager should be aware of this and should be aware of the various alliances that will occur at this stage. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team’s future success but it pays for the coaching manager to watch and observe the behaviours of potential cliques. The challenge for the coaching manager is basically to give an inert group of people who hardly know each the best start possible as a new team. The coaching manager should attempt to do the following in order to give the team the best possible start. Outline specifically the task the team has to perform.

Be specific about each person’s role in the team’s task.

Outline how the team has come together and give reasons as to why the various team members have been brought together for inclusion within this team.

Be open about the way you operate as a manager – what are your strengths and weaknesses? Outline your expectations of both the team and the individuals within the team. In other words, start to contract with the team.

Encourage each team member to do likewise.

Ensure that the team has a set of rules and guidelines and that the team has an input into how these rules are formed and agreed.

Have a discussion about reward and recognition. How does the team want to celebrate its achievements?

How are the team going to make decisions?

How are the team going to give feedback on each other’s performance?

By having an open discussion right at the start of the team’s task then people get the chance to air views, concerns and queries. The coaching manager will enable this to happen with the result that people feel they have been listened to; they have been able to contribute; they know the rules and regulations by which the team will operate and they now have a greater appreciation of the people they are working with.

Storming:
Storming is a challenging phase and the coaching manager who has led the team through the forming stage well and is starting to feel quite good about progress may have quite a rude awakening. Storming always seems to come as a surprise, no matter how well the coaching manager has prepared and led the team up till now. This is where the leadership qualities of the coaching manager are tested to the full. I have had the privilege of working with some managers who have handled this stage well and also have witnessed (and suffered) at the hands of managers who have had no idea of what to do to move the team forward.

Storming usually arises as a result of goals, roles and rules all becoming confused and unclear. No matter how clear the team was in relation to the goals, roles and rules during the forming stage it is very often the case that the individual team member interpretations of these roles and rules is somewhat different in reality. This results in confusion when different behaviours are evident and conflicts can arise with the potential for factions being created within the team.

It is during this stage that the coaching skills of the coaching manager should come to the fore. Both individuals and the team as a whole should be coached to enable and support them to ensure agreement as regards what specifically the goals, roles and rules are with respect to the team and what that means to each and every individual. Many managers get frustrated at this stage because they believe that they have already done the work at outlining the goals, roles and rules at the early stage of the formation of the team. I have seen managers go from a state of immense pride about the way they have guided their team through the early stages to a state of anger where they look to blame the team and its individual members. What is it they say, “Comes before a fall”?

The coaching manager must go over again the agreements made by the team during the forming stage and ensure that the understanding is uniform across the team. The earlier in the storming stage this is revisited the better and this is where the aware coaching manager comes into his or her own. The unaware manager will tend to panic and blame and will be unable to control the behaviours of the team even though they may take a very authoritarian stance and start to order that people behave. All that achieves is compliance and team members will still have the same misunderstandings about what is going on. This is when a lot of talking goes on “behind the manager’s back” This is very unhealthy for a team.

Once the coaching manager has got his or her team through the storming phase they have to be aware of a challenge that can come out of the blue. And that is the challenge of a new member. No sooner has a coaching manager got their team through the “storm” then it is joined by a new member who then starts to question the ways of working and potentially starts to destabilise the team. All new members to the team must be made aware of the team goals, roles and rules before they join and they must be made aware of the process that is in place or the giving and receiving of feedback if they have any suggestions as to how they can improve the ways of working for the team. Again, this is an area where I have seen managers lose the progress that they have made with their team. Instead of taking time out to bring a new member up to speed with all the rules, roles and goals, the manager lets the new member join the team without much of a briefing. The result can be chaos. Beware.

You will find at times that there will be people who tend to hold back the storming process or perhaps prolong it. These people have a decision to make. Go with the majority or get out. Business has no place to let the odd individual hold things up. That may seem tough coming from a “coaching” manager but this is reality and in many cases management is a tough role. This is one of these instances.

Norming.
Do you remember what it is like when a real storm passes? The winds drop, the sky brightens, the birds sign again. Teamwork is like this also. There is a calm, a focus. Goals are clearly understood. Roles are clarified. The rules and regulations are being adhered to and people are working together positively. Relationships become stronger as people are more aware of each other. Strengths and weaknesses are realised and utilised accordingly. Norming is characterised by acceptance. Whereas in the storming stage, people were apt to rebel very quickly, this is now not the case and if someone has a grievance, complaint or suggestion then the proper processes are used and people tend to be listened to.

The role of the coaching manager in this stage is to ensure that this calm continues and that any behaviours that arise that may threaten the calm are channelled in the right direction. Also the coaching manager has an important role in conveying information particularly in relation to the successes that are starting to occur within the team. The coaching manager should be spending a lot of time with individual team members coaching them and supporting them to develop their capabilities that relate to the individual’s team role and the tasks that they have to perform in relation to the team goals.

Performing.
Not every team makes it to the performing stage. Many get stuck at Norming and although everything appears normal, there is a lack of momentum and motivation towards achieving the all important team goals. It is as though the team is comfortable in this stage and does not want to progress further for fear of returning to a storming stage, a stage that probably was very uncomfortable for most people.

It is at the performing stage where team members really concentrate on the team goals. They are determined to work towards them, as they know what rewards are available to them on completion. They are also aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and they appreciate these, and also works towards developing the weaknesses. This is a period of great personal growth among team members. There is a good deal of sharing of experiences, feelings and ideas together with the development of a fierce loyalty towards team members. There will be arguments, disagreements and disputes but these will be facilitated positively as the team will now live and die by its rules. The coaching manager at this stage will play very much a non-directive role, concentrating on strategy to plan the next way forward. The team will be in many ways, self-directing, perhaps even self-appraising with the manager taking very much a back-seat role. Again the manager’s role will be to facilitate communication and ensure that the successes are communicated and rewarded.

In summary:
Forming. The successful coaching manager will ensure that the team meets and understands the team goals, the roles they have to take on and the rules by which they have to play. The coaching manager will realise that although there may be a great deal of agreement and compliance about what is discussed many people will have different interpretations of what is agreed. One to ones help but inevitably there will start to be undercurrents of disagreement as to what has exactly been agreed. Storming. Once the disagreements and blame start, get the team quickly together to thrash out what the concerns and disagreements are. The coaching manager at this stage is strong, directive but also fair. The team needs direction at this stage and perhaps people need to hear things that perhaps they don’t want to hear. Get things out in the open. Let the team bleed a little and then begin the healing process by facilitating their coming together.

Norming. Lessen the direction and spend time with individuals starting to coach them in relation to their roles within the team and the tasks that they have to perform. At the same time the coaching manager will be challenging team members to take on extra capabilities in order to move the team on to the next stage.

Performing. Take a step back and allow the team to become self-directing. Be there for them and continue your coaching role with both team and individuals. Allow individuals to take on leadership roles and encourage rotation of roles. Communicate success and reward success accordingly.

Top 7 Ways to Motivate Your Team

1. Involve them. Many employees want to be involved in the ongoing development and progress of their company. Plus, they often have insightful ideas that can make a significant difference in the company.

2. Communicate. A frequent axiom in business is, “No news is good news.” However, employees want regular updates on the progress of the business and their personal performance. Use memos, email, telephone, and one-on-one and group meetings to keep your team apprised of changes, updates, new products, etc.

3. Celebrate individual and team performance. Catch people doing something right and focus on recognizing excellent performance. Provide positive reinforcement, issue awards, use a corporate newsletter to highlight specific achievements. Send thank-you cards and congratulatory notes, make phone calls, and send emails.

4. Set challenging goals. My experience has taught me that people strive to achieve what is expected of them. If you set challenging goals your team will work hard to accomplish them, providing of course, they are realistically attainable.

5. Give them the tools to succeed. No team will stay motivated if they do not have the necessary tools required to do their job. This includes; equipment, internal support, inventory, marketing materials, training, etc.

6. Manage poor performance. Your team expects you to manage individuals who do not perform to standard. However, many managers ignore these situations because they are afraid to deal with them, hoping instead that the situation will resolve itself. It never does and this “blind” approach affects profitability, causes higher turnover, and generates low morale.

7. Believe in your people. The majority of people want to do well – very few individuals approach a job with the intent of screwing up. Yet, many managers run their business thinking that employees must be treated with a “watchdog” mentality. They install hidden cameras, monitor email, and set up procedures that require employees to get multiple approval signatures for decisions.

Not Another Ice Breaker! Team Building with a Purpose

"We just don't work as a team!" Janet, a group manager for a large insurance company, was complaining to Larry, her human resources consultant. "Everyone just seems to do their own thing, they don't share information, don't try to help each other, and don't seem to care about anyone else's problems. What we need is a team building offsite!" Janet and Larry decided to put together a two-day offsite for the team at a resort about two hours away from work. Janet wanted immediate focus on the problem so Larry worked double-time to put together the event to be held later in the month. Larry put together an agenda full of trust-building exercises, ice-breakers, and brainstorming sessions on how the team could work better together.

On the first day of the offsite only about half of Janet's team had shown up; the other half were working on a hot project that needed to be completed later in the week. The remaining team members politely participated in the team building exercises, but didn't seem very interested in the activities as they felt too "squishy." Because Janet wanted to focus the offsite on team building, there was no clearly stated business purpose for the event. The brainstorming sessions were good, but no tangible actions were taken down for the team to follow up on. In short, the offsite was met with a resounding thud from the team and was a dismal failure.

To some, this may be a gross exaggeration; but to others, this closely resembles an offsite they attended or were responsible for planning. Offsites are a very effective means to getting the team focused on solving a business problem, defining a strategy, or creating a revolutionary way of doing things. A very key by-product of offsites, though, is the team-building that occurs while addressing business issue at hand. Done well, an offsite not only puts great minds together to address a business issue but it also builds better teams that work more effectively together and get more things done. Done poorly, an offsite will be viewed as a huge waste of time and will poorly reflect on you as a leader.

How can you ensure your offsites are successful at building teams and getting things done at the same time? Consider the following simple tips:

Have a clear purpose for the offsite - Define some clear business reason for having the offsite. Consider things such as developing strategic goals for the upcoming fiscal year, account planning for strategic customers, or generating solution alternatives for a key business problem. If you make the goal of the offsite "Team Building" then your team is likely to look at the offsite as a waste of time that will have no real business benefit. Do your team building under the guise of solving a problem or defining the future.

Balance work with play - All work and the offsite becomes too fatiguing. All play and it becomes a boondoggle. Balance your agenda with a combination of work sessions with some fun team-building events sprinkled in. Make sure the "play" events you define are something everyone can participate in and go beyond the overused catch-me-as-I-fall-backwards event. Better still, ask the team what types of things they'd like to do during playtime.

Provide plenty of time for networking - Give ample time during the day and evening for the team to have snacks, enjoy beverages, and just talk about whatever strikes them. Team building starts with building relationships, and building relationships starts with getting to know each other. Allow for networking time to be free and unscripted and let the team enjoy some casual conversation with each other.

Don't hold the offsite during a crunch period - When you do hold your offsite, you don't want your team members to be checking email every five minutes or constantly leaving to make important calls. Do your best to hold an offsite during a "slow" time in your business. As with most businesses, there will probably never be an optimal time to hold an offsite but do your best to avoid times when team members are already burning the midnight oil.

Make it an overnight event - Some of the best offsites I've held were those where the team ate dinner together, enjoyed a couple of drinks, and stayed up late discussing major business problems or brainstorming on a radically new strategy. These late night sessions were valuable in that team members put their heads together to address some problem or opportunity. More importantly, team members built relationships which provided an outstanding foundation for strong teams.

Don't make the team work overtime to "make up" the time spent at the offsite - If you're going to have an offsite, allow the team to move some of their other commitments out a few days so they don't feel the pressure of needing to get their work done while at the offsite. The last thing you want is your team thinking about working late because of wasted time at a dumb offsite. Relax some of the deliverables and let the team focus on the offsite, not on what work isn't getting done.

Put together a follow-up plan to continue the work from the offsite - One of the most frustrating things I've experienced with offsites was the lack of a follow-up plan to implement some of the great ideas which came out of the offsite. Put together an actionable follow-up plan with tasks, dates, and owners and you'll keep the excitement going out of the offsite and will get some of the great ideas implemented. Neglect putting together a follow-up plan and you'll have an offsite that the team sees as a waste of time.

Offsites can be a very effective means of getting things done and building outstanding teams at the same time. Just make sure to follow these simple steps and you'll better ensure your next offsite is a huge success.

Teamwork in the Workplace: A Definition

A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other. They are fiercely committed to their mission, and are highly motivated to combing their energy and expertise to achieve a common objective. From our observation and studies on teamwork in the workplace, we have found three primary conditions that have to be met in order to attain higher levels of team performance and member satisfaction.

1. Resources and Commitment
2. Ownership and Heart
3. Learning

These three conditions are the heart and soul of teamwork. These conditions are not a blueprint. Each group is unique, and the specifics and details of teamwork have to be worked out separately. Let’s look closer at number one - Resources and Commitment. RESOURCES AND COMMITMENT

A strong personal commitment and leap of faith are needed to start up and sustain tight knit teams. Genuine energy and resources are required during the early stages. For example, important non-task time is needed for teams to meet and establish identity, expectations, spirit, bonds, and patience is required for learning, coaching and behavior change that is consistent with team principles. Investment in teamwork is very intangible. You can’t measure it like most corporate assets that can be sold off for a profit if you have a couple of bad quarters. Teamwork in the workplace requires a lot of care, sensitivity, and patience for it to pay off in the long run. This is not exactly the formula that most organizations run on these days. Typically we see organizations pre occupied with putting out fires and handling crises. Most organizations have a very short-term focus and many leaders are not enlightened enough to invest in fire prevention and not get caught by the excitement of the task or by the activity trap that is so common today. It doesn’t take much to bring a group of individuals together to do a job especially if you are depending on just a compensation package to get them to produce. On the other hand, teamwork in the workplace does take a deep personal commitment and belief in team synergy and collaboration. Some managers harbor the belief that work only gets done when there is a singular powerful, expert, authoritative figure running the work group.

When you look closely at it, you are likely to find that a disturbingly large number of organizations are built around rugged individualism and that people want to build their own empires and work independently. So many of us have been taught in life to commit to win-lose competition for academic grades and sports scores. We learn to “go for the jugular” very early on in life, and we put our faith and commitment into this mode of thinking. Competition can be fun and rewarding if we can get this powerful drive aimed and the right target. The problem we see in a lot of situations is that teamwork in the workplace is being killed by “friendly fire.” In other words, we are directing our competitive energies at looking better than another person or looking better than another team in the organization.

All too often we compete for personal rewards at the expense of others. We act as though our department is in a race with other departments, and we take our eye off the real competition. The fact of the matter is that we have found few organizations that are committed enough to base some of the reward system on teamwork and make it a priority. It seems that in earlier generations it wasn’t a big problem and teamwork was naturally rewarding. People on the farms and ranches had to cooperate to survive. Successful crops and survival of the livestock depended on joining the efforts of many. Barns and homes were constructed as a result of teamwork, only we called it being neighborly.

Amazing things could be accomplished today if we could get members and leaders to trust and commit to the teamwork process of joint problem solving, consensus decision making and shared leadership and win/win conflict resolution.