CHAPTER 38
Team Building and Interpersonal Skills for Dynamic Times
Lessons from nature abound regarding collective efforts for getting things done: bees and ants perform amazing tasks as they work in chaotic unison to achieve community goals; lions and other predators often hunt jointly to increase the poor odds against their speedy and nimble prey; and whales parade around in circles to corral schools of fish, which in turn try to elude their marine predators by flashing back and forth in darting schools. In the case of these creatures, working together is about survival. They have learned to do it through the ages, and these practices have become embedded in their DNA.1
For humankind, teamwork means cooperating to meet common goals; that includes all types of people doing work that calls for joint effort and exchange of information, ideas, and opinions. In teamwork, productivity is increased through synergy: the magic that appears when team members generate new ways for getting things done and that special spirit for making them happen. Teamwork is not embedded in the human DNA; therefore, in each situation that calls for it, the team needs to be built. This is where the term team building comes in.
The emergence of the team idea in modern times can be traced back to the late 1920s with the classic Hawthorne studies, which involved research designed to understand what happened to group workers under various conditions. The research showed that a sense of group belonging was the most significant factor that affected group performance, resulting from a sense of cohesion that came with increased worker interaction.2
In times past, teamwork was generally developed in settings where workers shared a common workplace and time frame. People worked at the same place, during the same hours. While that situation still exists, increasingly teams are at least partially virtual, meaning that some members may never see other important colleagues of the team. Such is the case in outsourced development of information technology (IT) projects, and in the design and construction of aircraft and ships; in both cases, the work may be scattered about the globe. This requires ways of dealing with team communications in nontraditional ways.
THE CASE OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
The nature of organizations is dynamic, changing faster than new editions of this book can be prepared. Some organizations are predominantly virtual settings where traditional face-to-face meetings scarcely ever take place. Virtual meetings increasingly use video, audio, and text, often with collaborative features, while meeting contents are digitally tagged so the information can be accessed promptly. Even face-to-face meetings can be recorded digitally for future reference or to share with remote members. Virtual teams face some special issues that require special attention: the project team needs to be competent in relevant communications technology; trust and rapport are a must among many stakeholders, who are spread geographically; and the project technology chosen must meet the overall project needs and be sufficiently user friendly to be appealing to team members.
The Virtual Teams Survey Report 2012 written by RW3 CultureWizard showed the profile and challenges facing professionals in the virtual environment. Here are some significant findings drawn from the survey:
• Sixty-one percent of respondents reported virtual work with individuals based both domestically and internationally.
• Respondents reported that virtual teams were most different from face-to-face teams in managing conflict (70 percent), expressing opinions (55 percent), and making decisions (55 percent).
• Time zones (78 percent) presented the greatest general hurdle to virtual teams, followed by the time required to make decisions (74 percent), different accents (69 percent), cultural differences (59 percent), and language (51 percent).
• The greatest personal challenges respondents faced were the inability to read nonverbal cues (88 percent), difficulty establishing rapport and trust (75 percent), absence of collegiality (70 percent), difficulty seeing the whole picture (65 percent), reliance on email and telephone (57 percent), and a sense of isolation (47 percent).
• The top five challenges faced during virtual team meetings were insufficient time to build relationships (79 percent), speed of decision making (73 percent), colleagues who do not participate (71 percent), different leadership styles (69 percent), and the method of decision making (55 percent).
• Only 16 percent of respondents reported that they had received training to prepare them for working on a virtual team.3
The challenges virtual teams face, while substantial, are not insurmountable. Here are commonsense ground rules that can help overcome the lack of in-the-room presence:
• Be aware of differing levels of language fluency.
• Speak slowly and clearly; avoid use of slang.
• Establish and communicate the agenda beforehand.
• Use visual aids during video conferencing.
• Make meetings short and objective.
• Discourage multitasking during virtual meetings.
• Develop an online directory with profiles of virtual team members.
While some of these approaches may develop intuitively or through daily practice, the effectiveness of virtual communications can be enhanced through training and coaching programs promoted by human resources departments or other facilitating parties. Selection and training of the right communication tools, along with executive support, create a promising setting for developing high-achieving virtual teams.
BENEFITS AND PITFALLS OF TEAMING—IN ALL SITUATIONS
Teamwork offers a number of concrete benefits:
• Teamwork enhances success. Teamwork helps your group excel at what it is doing and boosts its chances of “winning.”
• Teamwork promotes creativity. The team approach stimulates innovation and encourages people to try new approaches to problems.
• Teamwork builds synergy. The mathematical absurdity “2 + 2 = 5” becomes possible.
• Teamwork promotes trade-offs and solves problems. Teamwork creates a problem-solving atmosphere that facilitates decisions about schedule, cost, and performance.
• Teamwork is fun. Working together for a common cause creates group spirit, lightens the atmosphere, and reduces tensions and conflicts.
• Teamwork helps large organizations as well as small groups. The team concept can be used to involve an entire company culture as well as to stimulate a small department.
• Teamwork responds to the challenge of change. Teams thrive on opportunities to improve performance and show how they can adapt and adjust in order to win.
There are also pitfalls to watch out for:
• There can be negative synergy. When the team doesn’t get its act together, then synergy becomes negative and the equation becomes “2 + 2 = 3.”
• There can be excessive independence. Poorly guided or poorly built teams wander off course and start doing their own thing as opposed to meeting overall goals.
• Time is needed to build and maintain the team. If company culture is not team oriented, a lot of time and effort is needed to create the team spirit.
• Decision making may be slow. Getting a group to make a decision on a consensus basis is a time-consuming task.
Why is teamwork increasingly important? One reason is that change—economic, societal, cultural, environmental, technological, political, and international—continues to take place at an accelerating rate. And change has a dramatic impact not only on individuals but also on organizations. Task forces, departmental teams, cross-functional teams, and project teams are replacing the cumbersome hierarchical organizational structure of the past in many organizations. Teamwork enables organizations to be nimbler, more flexible, and better able to respond swiftly and creatively to the challenge of today’s competitive business environment.
Several factors have speeded this trend toward team approaches to business planning and operations:
• The success of the Japanese management style, which stresses employee involvement in all phases of the work
• The rejection by newer generations of autocratic leadership
• Rapid changes in technology that create a need for quick group responses
• Emphasis on corporate quality, which requires team effort on an organizational scale
Team building encompasses the actions necessary to create the spirit of teamwork. Oft-cited research by Tuckman and Jensen4 indicates that the team-building process is a sequence that can be divided into five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
FIVE CLASSIC TEAM-BUILDING STAGES: STILL STANDING?
Although this view of the team-building process is not new, it appears to be standing the test of time even as social and organizational norms have evolved.
Stage 1: Forming
In this stage, the manager and the group focus more on tasks than on teamwork. They organize the team’s structure, set goals, clarify values, and develop an overall vision of the team’s purpose. The manager’s role is to direct these efforts and to encourage group members to reach consensus and achieve a feeling of commitment.
Stage 2: Storming
This stage is less structured than the first stage. The manager broadens the focus to include both accomplishing tasks and building relationships. As the social need for belonging becomes important to group members, the emphasis is on interpersonal interactions: active listening, assertiveness, conflict management, flexibility, creativity, and kaleidoscopic thinking. The group completes tasks with a sense of understanding, clarification, and belonging, but also deals with any underlying conflicts as they begin to surface. The manager relies not only on actual authority but also on leadership skills, such as encouragement and recognition.
Stage 3: Norming
In this stage, the team-building process is more relationship-based than task-oriented. Since recognition and esteem are important for group members, the manager relies on communication, feedback, affirmation, playfulness, humor, entrepreneurship, and networking to motivate the team. Group members achieve a feeling of involvement and support.
Stage 4: Performing
At this point, the team is operating very much on its own. Management style is neither task- nor relationship-oriented, since the team members are motivated by achievement and self-actualization. The manager’s role in this phase is to serve as mentor/coach and to take a long-range view of future needs. Team members focus on decision making and problem solving, relying on information and expertise to achieve their goals.
Stage 5: Adjourning
Management concern in this wrap-up stage is low-task and high-relationship. The manager focuses on evaluation, reviewing, and closure. Team members continue to be motivated by a feeling of achievement and self-actualization.
TEN RULES FOR TEAM BUILDING
The five team-building stages show how teams evolve over time. That process can be accelerated by applying the following ten principles of team building. Each principle helps create the spirit that gets people to work together cooperatively to meet goals:
1. Identify what drives your team. What is the driving force that makes team-work necessary? Is it an external force, such as the market? Is it internal, such as organizational demands? Is it the needs of the group itself? Is the leader the only driver? Or is it perhaps a combination of these factors?
2. Get your own act together. Are you a bright and shining example of team-work? Could you shine even brighter? Polish your interpersonal skills and show your teamwork talents on a daily basis.
3. Understand the game. All teams play games. Do you know the game and how much you can bend the rules? Each game of business is different and rules need to be rethought.
4. Evaluate the competition. First, know who the real market competition is. Then size it up so that your team can become competitive with a larger outside opponent.
5. Pick your players and adjust your team. Choose qualified players who know the basics, and teach them the skills that they don’t have. Also, make sure the right team players are in the right spots.
6. Identify and develop inner group leaders. Team builders learn to identify inner group leadership early on. If you want to develop the full capacity of your team, then delegating, mentoring, and coaching must become part of your daily habit.
7. Get the team in shape. It takes practice and training to get athletic teams in shape. The same is true for other teams. Start with training in the fundamentals of teamwork—things like active listening, communicating, and negotiating—and see that they are practiced on a daily basis.
8. Motivate the players. The only way to get people to do things effectively is to give them what they want. The secret is to discover what individuals really want and, as you deal with them, to relate to those desires—whether they be recognition, challenge, a chance to belong, the possibility to lead, the opportunity to learn, or other motivators.
FIGURE 38-1. TEAMBUILDING RULES THROUGH THE PHASES
9. Develop plans. In teamwork, the process of planning is more important than the plan. Team members must become so involved in the planning process that they can say with conviction, “This is our plan.”
10. Control, evaluate, and improve. Knowing the status of things at any given time is important for teams to be successful. Sometimes that’s a tough task. To make sure you maintain the right spirit, involve your team members in creating your control instrument.
These ten rules apply throughout the five team-building phases. Greater emphasis, however, is appropriate during certain periods. Figure 38-1 shows the phases in which the rules tend to be most applicable.
PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTING TEAMWORK
Get People Involved
The key to successful team planning is involvement: get people involved at the outset of your team-building effort to win their personal commitment to your plan. One simple technique for involvement entails a questionnaire in which team members are asked to assess the need for team building. A sample questionnaire is shown in Table 38-1. In the test, team members rate the degree to which certain team-related problems appear. If the team is newly formed, the questionnaire should be answered from the perspective of anticipated problems. Then test results are tabulated and group discussion follows in search of a consensus on how to obtain team development. This consensus approach generates synergy when the team carries out the planned activities. In addition, potential differences are dealt with in the planning stage before resources are fully committed.
Group planning approaches are used in programs such as quality circles, total quality management, and participative management, as well as in project management. The management skills required to make these group planning efforts effective include interpersonal communications, meeting management, listening, negotiation, situational management, and managerial psychology.
TABLE 38-1. TEAM MEMBERS’ QUESTIONNAIRE
The right planning process produces a quality plan to which the parties involved are committed. Here are some methods that enhance the planning process:
• Creativity sessions. Techniques for boosting creativity include brainstorming, brain-writing (a technique that has been termed “brainstorming on steroids”)5, random working, checklists, and word associations.
• Consensus planning. A plan reached through group discussion tends to yield a program that is well thought through, with a high probability of being implemented.
• Decision-making models. Formal models for making decisions can be used as a basis for planning. Some common techniques are decision trees, problem analysis, decision analysis, implementation studies, and risk analysis.
An effective team is built like putting together a puzzle. Individuals (like the separate puzzle pieces) match up in one-on-one contacts (like pairing up matching pieces) or find commonality to form small groups (like the subsets of the puzzle). These unite to form large groups (like the overall picture that the whole puzzle represents) and the team itself.
This means that team building, just like putting together a puzzle, requires viewing the whole range of team factors, from the characteristics and talents of individual members to the overall picture: What are the team’s immediate goals and long-term objectives and how does the team fit into the larger organizational scene? Some of the concrete steps that transform groups into teams are discussed below.
Set a Good Example
Here the focus is the individual. As team leaders concern themselves with developing their own skills and knowledge bases, then the other pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. All team leaders communicate their management philosophies to some extent by setting both overt and subliminal examples.
The manager who trusts subordinates and delegates authority to key project members can expect others to emulate that style. Likewise, an open give-and-take approach fosters similar behavior in the team and in others associated with the project under way. Through the team leader’s own actions, team members’ best behavior is called to the forefront.
Coach Team Members
Coaching requires some schooling in the “different-strokes-for-different-folks” philosophy, which assumes that people with different temperaments react differently to a standardized “shotgun” approach. Thus, each individual needs to be singled out for a special shot of custom-tailored attention in order for coaching to be effective.
A coaching session can be as simple as a chat with a subordinate who made a mistake about why something happened and what can be done to keep it from recurring. It can be a formal interview by the manager, who goes into the session with a tailor-made approach. Or it can be a formal appraisal session using classic management tools, such as job descriptions and performance standards.
Train Team Members
Training may involve small groups or the overall group or may incorporate all the stakeholders involved in the team’s efforts. Informal training sessions can be conducted in various forms, such as lectures, roundtable discussions, and seminars.
Lectures, though one-dimensional, can present large amounts of information in a short period of time. Lectures given by experts can bring top-quality information to the team members. When the speaker is well known, the lecture stimulates special interest.
Roundtable discussions are open-forum debates on pertinent subjects. They give participants a chance to air their views and present their opinions and ideas frankly. The goal may be to establish a consensus or to provide a basis for planning in-depth training programs.
Seminars or workshops combine the informational content of the lecture with opportunities for participation offered by the roundtable. In seminars or workshops, information is dispensed in smaller doses, interspersed with group discussions and debates. Seminars are established around a longer time frame than lectures or roundtable discussions. Two- to three-day seminars are the most popular, but one-day events are acceptable, and five-day seminars are right for more in-depth coverage.
Set Up a Formal Team-Building Program
Of the approaches aimed at heightening team synergy, a formal team-building program is apt to bring the best results because the longer program duration provides greater opportunity for retention of concepts as they are reworked throughout the program, while on-the-job application of the concepts provides timely feedback. In-depth treatment can be given to subjects of interest, and enough time is available to build a consensus among participants and develop interpersonal relations.
THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Teamwork depends heavily on the interpersonal skills of the members. In a team setting, this personal interaction takes on a special importance because the number of relationships among members is sharply increased. Sometimes this creates a traffic problem. Just as vehicle traffic flows more smoothly when drivers have developed their abilities, observe protocol, and behave courteously, the same is true in team situations where members have learned how to work together skillfully and cooperatively.
What are some of the skills that each team “driver” needs to operate effectively in a team situation? They include listening, applying techniques to deal with interpersonal conflict, negotiating, and influencing.
Listening
Communication, no matter how clear and concise, is wasted unless someone is listening actively to the communicator’s message. When team members know how to listen actively, overall effectiveness is boosted. Here is the attitude that represents good listening:
I am interested in what you are saying and I want to understand, although I may not agree with everything you say. You are important as a person, and I respect you and what you have to say. I’m sure your message is worth listening to, so I am giving you my full attention.
Here are other listening pointers:
• Maintain eye contact.
• Don’t interrupt.
• Keep a relaxed posture.
Good listening also requires the listener to focus on both the communicator’s content and feelings and then to extract the essential message being conveyed.
Dealing with Interpersonal Conflict the Classic Way
Interpersonal conflict can occur whenever two or more people get together. It’s an inevitable part of team dynamics. There are five classic techniques for dealing with interpersonal conflict:
1. Withdrawing (pulling out, retreating, or giving up)
2. Smoothing (appeasing just to keep the peace)
3. Bargaining (negotiating to reach agreement over conflicting interests)
4. Collaborating (objective problem solving based on trust)
5. Forcing (using power to resolve the conflict)
Application of these techniques depends on the situation. Effective team members recognize that conflict is inevitable and rationally apply appropriate conflict resolution modes in each given situation. Here are some of the applications:
• Use withdrawing when you cannot win, when the stakes are low, to gain time, to preserve neutrality or reputation, or when you win by delay.
• Use smoothing to reach an overarching goal, to create an obligation for a trade-off at a later date, to maintain harmony, to create good will, or when any solution will do.
• Use bargaining (also called conflict negotiation) when both parties need to be winners, when others are as strong as you, to maintain your relationship with your opponent, when you are not sure you are right, or when you get nothing if you do not make a deal.
• Use collaborating when you both get at least what you want and maybe more, to create a common power base, when knowledge or skills are complementary, when there is enough time, or where there is trust.
• Use forcing only when a “do or die” situation exists, when important principles are at stake, when you are stronger (never start a battle you can’t win), to gain status or demonstrate power—and when the relationship is unimportant.
Beyond Conflict Resolution
A different twist for dealing with team issues is Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which helps to shorten the “storming” period by encouraging teams to focus on possibilities instead of problems. The AI 4D process—discover, dream, design, deliver—meshes well with project management processes, and assists in building trust within teams and across the organization.6 Excellent resources on AI are available on the Web.7
Negotiating
Team members are likely to find themselves dealing with both third-party and in-house situations that call for major negotiation skills. The type of negotiation that tends to be effective in team settings is called principled negotiation. This is negotiation in which it is assumed that the players are problem solvers and that the objective is to reach a wise outcome efficiently and amicably.
Principled negotiation also assumes that the people will be separated from the problem, that premature position-taking will be avoided, that alternative solutions will be explored, and that the rules of the negotiation will be objective and fair. This means focusing on interests rather than on positions and implies fully exploring mutual and divergent interests before trying to converge on some bottom line. The tenet invent options for mutual gain—calling for a creative search for alternatives—is also fundamental to principled negotiation.
Influencing
In team situations, individual authority lags well behind the authority of the group. Therefore, effective teams depend on the ability of members to influence one another for the common good. Influence management includes the following principles:
• Play up the benefit. Identify the benefit of your proposal for the other party (factors such as more challenge, prestige, or visibility, or the chance for promotion or transfer). Then emphasize that benefit in conversations so that the message is communicated.
• Steer clear of Machiavellian tactics. Avoid manipulation. Concentrate on influencing with sincerity and integrity.
• Go beyond “I think I can.” Successful influence managers don’t waste time questioning whether things can be done. Their efforts are aimed at how the task will be performed and what needs to be done to make it happen.
• Put an umbrella over your moves. Effective influencing hinges on strategic planning, to give direction and consistency to all influencing efforts.
• Tune in to what others say. Successful influence managers learn to identify others’ expectations and perceive how given actions contribute toward fulfilling those expectations.
• Size up your plans for congruency. Make sure there is a fit between proposed actions, testing your plans for consistency, coherence, and conformity.
• Remember: “Different strokes for different folks.” Be sure to adapt your approach to fit each person’s individual characteristics. Size up your targets and adjust your presentation to individual needs.
• Watch your language! Be careful with what you say and how you say it. Screen out pessimism and other forms of negativity, putting positive conviction into what you say to increase the impact of your message.
When team members are schooled in these basics, teamwork is likely to come about rapidly. Synergy is generated as people work together to meet common goals.
FAST TRACK TO TEAMING
In projects, just as in sports, teamwork is developed and honed to excellence through practice sessions and in day-to-day settings. Practice sessions for developing team-work are built into training and are part of the formal team building program mentioned earlier in this chapter. Yet aside from the purely practice-session approach used in training, daily activities provide numerous settings for creating team climate and interaction. Kick-off meetings, review sessions, and interface meetings are examples of settings for spotlighting the team approach.
If a jump start is required to get things moving in environments where teams must ramp up rapidly (joint ventures, ad hoc teams, new projects), then experiential workshops are highly recommended. These can be of the ropes-course, adventure-course variety, or tamer versions done in indoor settings. The important factor is that is that task simulation be the focus of the training, thus requiring joint planning and execution of activities, leading to specific results.
In successful team-building undertakings, once the team concept has been kicked off through an experiential learning event, insights and lessons learned are then funneled into the formal team building program. This way, the teaming effort is not only jump-started, but further developed toward a long-lasting synergistic relationship among team members.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
In the classic team building model (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning), what factors might upset the sequence outlined? How can these be overcome?
Classify the ten rules of team building in two categories: “must do” and “highly desirable to do.” Discuss with colleagues.
Of the five conflict resolution techniques, which is most commonly used on most projects? Which in your opinion is the most effective? Are there circumstances where you have used a less desirable method with a good outcome?
REFERENCES
1 Eric Bonabeau and Christopher Meyer, “Swarm intelligence: a whole new way to think about business,” Harvard Business Review (May 2001), pp. 107–114.
2 “The Hawthorne Studies,” World Academy Online, http://worldacademyonline.com/article/27/383/the_hawthorne_studies.html.
3 “2012 Virtual Teams Survey Report,” RW3 Culture Wizard, http://rw-3.com/2012VirtualTeamsSurveyReport.pdf.
4 B.W. Tuckman and M.A. Jensen, “Study of small group development revisited,” Group and Organizational Studies 2, No. 2 (1977), pp. 419–427.
5 “What is Brainwriting?” University of Central Oklahoma Academic Affairs, http://www.uco.edu/academic-affairs/cqi/files/docs/facilitator_tools/brainhan.pdf, 2003.
6 Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin and Paul Dinsmore, “Appreciative inquiry: a new model for teams,” presentation at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 18, 2009. See also materials on AI by J. Cabanis-Brewin in Timothy Kloppenborg, Contemporary Project Management (Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2009) p. 371.
7 Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, “What Is Appreciative Inquiry?” http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/whatisai.cfm.