13.5. GROUP CHANGE: TEAM BUILDING
One of the reforms frequently used in organizations is called team building. The team definition is simply "a group of people who must relate to each other in order to accomplish some task." Team building is the process of encouraging effective working relationships among members of the team, and also reducing barriers that exist in effective cooperation of members of the team. There is no doubt that many teams do not work very well. Some people are not well integrated, and team members do not plan together. They do not use their resources to achieve needed communication, and people misunderstand or do not trust each other. A team facilitator can help members talk to one another so they can discover how much they have in common. For example, superordinate goals (goals desired by both teams that neither team can reach without the help of the other) might become salient, and members of the organization may realize that some of the mutual distrust they feel is not justified.
Since a lot of team building involves interactions with colleagues, it is a very sensitive matter. It is true that if reform does not work out as planned, the relationship may become worse than before. Team building can only be effective if the total culture of the organization supports it. In fact, the emphasis on team building used today contrasts with the emphasis on sensitivity groups that was more prevalent about 40 years ago. This is a result of the realization that one has to work with the whole organization rather than with just a few groups if one is to be effective in changing the organization.
One of the problems management faces when it attempts change is that the change may affect only isolated individuals. In the past, individuals from different parts of the organization were selected by management and sent for training. When these trainees were returned to the organization, they found that the organization did not respond to the change that they had experienced. As a result, they went back to their old habits and the effect of the training was wiped out. In contrast to training specific individuals, team building involves training everybody who is part of the team; it also ensures that other groups, particularly other teams that are part of the organization, receive the training.
An effective approach is to allow members of the team to talk to one another or send messages to each other concerning behaviors that they find desirable, objectionable, or neutral. One such technique is called "From Me to You." Each team member writes a message on a sheet of paper aimed at another team member. The message specifies behaviors that should be kept up ("keep doing that"), stopped ("stop doing that"), or started ("it would be nice if you did that"). Some of these behaviors can be job-specific. Other behaviors might be social. For example, a subordinate may ask a boss for more frequent comment on the boss's perception of the subordinate's work performance or for an invitation to the boss's house once a year. These messages may be sent anonymously, or not, depending on the extent the team members are ready for the exchange of intimacies. A contract might be negotiated as a result of such exchanges. For example, "If you do more of this, I will do more of that" could be part of the agreement.
A related technique is role clarification. The trainer asks each member to identify the four or five people the member interacts with most frequently when on the job. The member then "visits" each of them and asks them to describe how they perceive the member's job. "What do you think I am supposed to do? With what frequency? When, where, how?" Such information defines the "emitted job role" as perceived by that person. By going on to all the relevant others (superiors, subordinates, and peers), the person can identify varieties of the "emitted role." Quite frequently there will be a discovery that the various important others define his or her role differently. Then it is possible to discuss the discrepancies with them as a group. The role can then be clarified. This can be very helpful in improving job relationships. The team member can negotiate a different role and align the subjective and emitted roles. The subjective role is thus more salient and clearer to everyone, and the enacted role can become a much closer version of the subjective role.
A usual approach to team building is to begin with a diagnostic phase, in which team members answer a questionnaire that indicates team problems and difficulties. Usually about 10 questions are asked about each of the following areas (Francis and Young, 1979):
Effective Leadership. For example, "Team members are uncertain about their individual roles in relation to the team."
Suitable Team Membership. For example, "We need an input of new knowledge and skills to make the team complete."
Team Commitment. For example, "No one is trying hard to make this a winning team."
Team Climate. For example, "There is much stress placed on conformity."
Team Achievement. For example, "In practice the team rarely achieves its objectives."
Relative Corporate Role. For example, "We do not work within clear strategic guidelines."
Effective Work Methods. For example, "Team members rarely plan or prepare for meetings."
Team Organization. For example, "We do not examine how the team spends its time and energy."
Critiquing. For example, "The team is not good at learning from its mistakes."
Individual Development. For example, "The team does not take steps to develop its members."
Creative Capacity. For example, "Good ideas seem to get lost."
If a team agrees with many negative statements in a particular area, it indicates that some team building work is needed. Special exercises are available corresponding to each of these 12 areas. For example, the "From Me to You" exercise described above can be used to improve team climate.
Team building also involves communication exercises, reviewing the progress that is made in each of the areas that has been targeted for change, and, finally, taking a second measure with the questionnaire mentioned above. The second time, if the team checks fewer negative items that correspond to the 12 dimensions of team building, one can assume that some positive change has occurred. However, a multimethod approach to team change evaluation is recommended and should include a wide range of measurements.
The different phases of team building can include cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes. Specifically, after the administration of an instrumentation, such as the one previously described, there is bound to be some cognitive change—for example, "our team has a problem learning from its mistakes." The various team-building exercises change both affect (how people feel about themselves and their team colleagues) and behavior (how people respond to each other). Decisions by the team to institute new standard operating procedures result in behavior change. Of course, some behaviors are easier to change than others. If the behaviors are automatic and determined by habits, there needs to be a substantial interference with the cue-behavior sequence to modify the behavior. Other behaviors are easy to change. For example, discovering that a task one finds unpleasant to do is undesirable from a wide variety of perspectives can easily lead to change.