Building an Effective Team
Thanksgiving week, my husband and I moved. While we moved many of the items ourselves – with the help of our son and some very generous friends, we hired movers for the big stuff. As I watched them work, I noted how well they worked together as a team. While I do not know how they got there, we can draw from this experience and from research about building effective teams to help create effective work groups for your organization.
Spend time together. Whether that time gets spent on work-related or personal topics, the number one thing you can do to create an effective team is to have them spend time together. Many of the other suggestions in items 2-5 stem from familiarity with each other and their work which comes from spending time together. We moved the day before Thanksgiving and as I heard our movers chatting about their holiday plans, they clearly knew each other well. That type of sharing leads to positive team dynamics.
Have a clear objective and purpose for the team and its work. When people all work toward a common goal, they tend to work more efficiently and effectively. Our movers had a clear objective: to move our stuff safely and efficiently from our old house to our new house. If your team does not have an obvious or clear objective or purpose, have a conversation with them to assure that they know their goal. It might surprise you to learn that they don’t and how much better your team works after that conversation.
Assure that team members understand their roles and responsibilities. In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, author Patrick Lencioni uses the example of an emergency department staff to demonstrate this concept. When someone comes in with an emergency, a lot of people gather around the patient to assess vitals and begin treatment. Each person knows his or her role and does it without question, making the entire team incredibly efficient and (hopefully!) effective. I saw this throughout our move as each person knew his role in getting items ready to move, carrying them to the truck, and securing them in the truck and then reversing the process. I never saw them even discuss who should do what or argue about it; they just knew, likely from working closely together over time.
Empower team members to fulfill their roles. Micromanagement kills effective teamwork. While the doctor clearly leads the emergency department team, he or she relies on the allied health professionals in the room to take and report vital signs, draw blood samples, and the myriad of other tasks involved in patient diagnosis and care. The doctor may ask for clarification when something does not sound right but does not jump in and take over. If your team lead continually does the work of team members, you undermine their sense of accomplishment and their role on the team. Soon, they will disengage because the work will get redone anyway.
Create a culture of trust. All the above contribute to a culture of trust as do things like open communication and productive conflict. Things like gossip, alliances and backstabbing erode cultures of trust so you should nip those in the bud immediately upon sensing them developing. I could tell our movers trusted each other to fulfill their role. As they carried our heavy elliptical down the basement steps, they gave quick short directions to each other (“step down,” “hold on,” “lift up”) which they followed without question. They clearly trusted each other.
What can you do to create more effective teams in your organization?
(For those of you in and near the Quad Cities, we used Wilson Moving and I highly recommend them!)
