Expert Eye View - When is a team really a team?

The ability of employees to work as a team can have a dramatic effect upon the performance of an organisation and help a company achieve great results. Yet a team that is not focussed on how they impact on the business can cause unnecessary disruption, failed delivery and strategic breakdown. Here Oakridge Director Mark Burbridge looks at the issue of team performance and highlights its step change approach to building better teams.

Identify the issues

Why is it that some teams in organisations appear to outstrip the expectations placed on them where others seem to spend so much time in solving daily or routine problems? Experience of working with a wide range of organisations shows that the reasons can be many and varied. However what is clear is that an assessment of where the team’s efforts are directed can help identify where the elements of team working are breaking down, especially when applied at management team and senior team level.

We begin any team effectiveness development programme by challenging the team to think of their responsibilities around not just delivering projects and procedures, but also around budgets, people development and how they interact with key customers, stakeholders and sponsors. The team will then look at their focus of attention for their time together as a team and as individual managers using our Impact Pyramid (see below).

Based on the work of David Ulrich on the role of Business Partners in organisations, our Impact Pyramid encourages members to reconsider the percentage of time they spend in the defined roles. It highlights which of these roles are downward – focusing upon what the team is delivering, how it is being delivered and its success; and which are outward – focusing upon how the team influences stakeholders and reportees and how it drives strategy and improvements with these groups.

The driver for this is to encourage the team to take on responsibility as a collective group for identifying what they really want to be happening across their area and to then set themselves some clear, well-formed outcomes around this. The resulting ‘positive tension’ developed within the team gives a strong sense of direction that brings the team closer together but also instils a more tactical approach to improving the business.

Think as a team

In order to be a team we need to start thinking as a team. By tasking a group to think almost as if they are a ‘mini Board of Directors’, no matter what level of the organisation they operate within, we introduce a different perspective on their individual roles as members of the team. The ‘mini board’ needs to have a mission, aims and must-win targets to achieve and each member of the board would have the same responsibilities, drivers and processes within which they work.

The Impact Pyramid

The Impact Pyramid aims to challenge the `mini board’ on the extent of its effectiveness as a team and at an individual level. By considering and challenging how much time is spent at each level within the Pyramid, and whether they are downwards or outwards looking, it is possible to assess how the calculation could be reformulated to deliver a better outcome with more impact. In essence, this is asking the team to be honest about where they best add value and to consider how they align their roles and their time to deliver this.

Admin - In almost all cases the majority of time we spend is on administration; meetings, immediate problem-solving, e-mails, delivering on day-to-day activities. Admin has grown as a requirement of our work. We are all expected to understand Word and email has had the most significant impact upon the time we spend managing administration. It isn’t all bad however and the admin process is a necessary element of our everyday life. That said the speed at which delivery and response are expected has risen and is rising meaning that a disproportionate amount of our work time is spent in this area. Time which could have more benefit if shared more evenly in other areas.

Projects and processes – a disproportionate amount of our time is again spent in this area. Time spent checking delivery of work, questioning what has happened to work with other team members and looking at performance objectives. While there is a clear need for a manager or leader to work in this area the proportion of the time needs to be justified. There is a fundamental question to be asked around whether we are just carrying out someone else’s role for them whenever we get involved in too much detail as a manager. To make a real impact here there is a need to stop looking down and start looking out – is this process appropriate to what we are trying to achieve, do we have adequate systems in place to support this function, have we truly let go of projects and allowed others to fully take on the responsibility etc.

People and change – this is where we should be looking outwards - to the customer base. How do we get from A to B in our business targets, who are our sponsors who will helps us get there and how will they help. How can we improve our interface with customers and stakeholders, how can we change and improve our offering, how do we drive improvements? Are customers happy with our delivery? What can we do better? Once we can answer these questions, we can then address how we are sharing these messages with those in the ‘extended team’, such as reportees or support functions.

Strategy and tactics – How often does the team take time out of the day and look ahead – whether it is a week, a month, a year? This is about parking where the team is currently and looking at where it wants to be. What is the team’s strategy and vision to get it there? And if you are not doing this for your part of the organisation and your team then who is? What is discussed at team meetings if it isn’t this? What could be more important?