The great contradiction about teams is that we want the people on them to get along, but we have teams so that we can get a variety of ways of looking at things. The key to team building is not to get everyone to agree all of the time but to figure out how people can disagree, use their differing points of view to create new approaches and ideas, and then implement those new approaches and ideas. As management thinker Tom Peters said, “If two people in business always agree, then one of them is unnecessary.”
An easy mistake to make is to think of the team as a single mind or personality. Even if a team is performing very well, conflicts will necessarily arise. Creatively and positively engaging in conflict becomes the true work of the team.
Questions About Your Team
Too often, differences in team meetings are simply smoothed over by the leader or other members. Of course, in these cases the conflict doesn’t dissipate, it just simmers until a later date. This form of conflict avoidance can lead to the gradual buildup of resentment among team members. Because engaging in conflict is a necessary part of high-performance team building, you need to consider the relationship between team building and conflict.
When teams are allowed to make their own decisions, there are three possibilities: voting, consensus, or direction.
Voting. Voting is an effective way to move decisions forward, but it is a win/lose solution and can promote division within the team.
Consensus. Reaching consensus is more difficult than voting, but it is the preferred approach to team-based decisions. It does, of course, take longer, and differences will occur in the process. However, in the end, everyone supports the final decision.
Direction. It is often necessary and appropriate for the leader of the team to make a decision and direct the team about the issue at hand.
No matter which of these approaches is used, the key is to be clear ahead of time about what options are available and allowed and what approach will be used.
Being a member of a team is not easy for many of us, especially if we’re accustomed to making decisions on our own. When you become a team player, you enter into an interdependent relationship. You may even feel that you are giving up your individuality, but in a very real sense you are making an individual contribution to a group effort that usually produces a greater end result than you could have achieved on your own.
Consider the following elements of team membership dynamics:
• Participation. As a team member, you are expected to participate in a balanced manner, that is, to not be dominant or withdrawn, while at the same time helping others to maintain their own balance.
• Selling. You probably feel your ideas are great. Sometimes they are. Your responsibility as a team member is to prepare ahead of time and to present your ideas in a way that shows the team the value acting on these ideas will add. You also need to be able to know when to compromise: letting go of ownership of an idea, accepting elements of other ideas to add to your own, or allowing your idea to be substituted for by another, better one.
• Relinquishing. This is the big one. What if you sell to the best of your ability, but the team won’t buy? Some team members temporarily withdraw. Some don’t want to play anymore . . . ever. This is the point where the rest of the team discovers what kind of team player you really are. Your responsibility at this point is to relinquish your position. Not only do you need to give it up, you must also be willing to support and even defend the team’s direction.
• Evaluating. Effective teams are constantly reviewing their performance: What worked? What could have been done better? How could it be done differently next time? Team members need to become good at giving and receiving feedback (see Chapter 5) in order to learn from mistakes and successes and to apply that learning to the team’s future work together.
• Relationship. As a team member, you are responsible for your relationship with other team members. If there is a personal conflict, it is up to you to help resolve it. Personal conflicts in team efforts fracture and sometimes prevent task accomplishment.
• Task Accomplishment. When acting as a team member, it is critical that you are clear on your task responsibility. This includes what you have to do, when it has to be completed, and any steps in between. In an interdependent relationship, one member’s failure can trigger the delay of other people’s efforts and affect the outcome of the entire team. Being a good team player isn’t easy. Bringing excess baggage, using hidden agendas, or protecting authorship of personal ideas all serve to prevent the overall direction. You can better serve yourself and the other members if you focus on what is best for the team rather than for yourself.
Another area where companies have failed to provide good orientation regarding team building is in leadership. Sometimes groups are simply told, “Go be a team, make consensus decisions, and, by the way, everybody’s equal.” Well, everyone may be equal, but newly formed teams need leaders, and even sophisticated teams need facilitators to keep things moving.
Leaders can be appointed or elected, but in the beginning, someone must be in control. Author and consultant Peter Block has said that we can all be partners and still have a “partner in charge.” Leadership has certain responsibilities that are different from those of membership. Consider the following list of leadership requirements:
• Engaging Conflict. If team members fail to resolve issues themselves, it is the leader’s responsibility to surface the issues so that they can be constructively engaged. Sometimes, this is best done privately, but sometimes it may be better to involve the team as a whole.
• Working with Uncooperative Members. If there is an individual on the team who is aggressive in team interaction, it may be up to the team leader to talk to the individual regarding his or her behavior. In severe situations, this may even include asking the member to leave the team. Anyone can be replaced, so it is unfair for the team to be held back because of one individual.
• Drawing Out Unassertive Members. Some team members may have difficulty speaking out in a group. In this case, the team leader has two issues to deal with: getting the member’s ideas outside the team setting and encouraging the individual to be more assertive in his or her interaction within the team setting.
• Conducting Productive Meetings. There are two types of meetings: productive and ridiculous. If you are having a meeting to talk about something everyone already knows about or agrees to, you are wasting your time. The following hints can help to produce more productive meetings:
Have an agenda in advance, with time limits for each item.
Start on time.
Stay on track.
End with everyone knowing his or her specific assignments and timetables.
End on time.
Send minutes to team members within two days following each meeting.
If nothing new is going to happen at or because of the meeting, don’t have it.
• Remaining Objective. Team leaders must be objective enough to manage both tasks and relationships. They need to be involved as a functioning member while also being able to extricate themselves so that they can observe both group dynamics and task progress.
Leading a team requires an individual who wants the position, is capable of directing task accomplishment, and has an understanding of the dynamics involved in a group effort.
Team building requires the efforts of everyone involved. Companies need to be willing to provide the necessary training to get their teams off to a good start. Without proper training, an organization will flounder in conflict, unresolved differences, and failed tasks. However, if the proper orientation is provided, a lot can be accomplished.
Think of a team you are on and ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is the purpose of the team clear?
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2. How well do people understand what is expected of them?
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3. Would better answers to the previous two questions help to eliminate unnecessary conflict?
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4. How can you use what you are learning about conflict to make your team more effective?
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