Category Archives: Teams

Group Accountability?

“At first, this group dynamics stuff looked interesting, you know, everyone together under a team incentive bonus. It sounded exciting in the seminar, but in real life, this is painful,” Naomi explained. “The worst part, is we’re not getting any work done.”

“So, who is accountable?” I asked.

“I think everyone has to take a small part of the responsibility for the team not cooperating,” Naomi replied.

“No, I don’t mean who is responsible for the mess. I mean, who is accountable for the goal?” I insisted.

“The goal? We’re not even talking about the goal. We are just talking about cooperating better together, as a team.”

“Perhaps, that’s the problem,” I suggested. “You are spending so much time trying to cooperate as a group, that you forgot, we are trying to get some work done around here.

“Is it possible,” I continued, “that you have been misdirected to think more about shared fate and group dynamics than you have about your team. A team is not a group. A group may be bound together by shared fate, but a team is bound together by a goal. Stop thinking about group dynamics and start thinking about the goal. That’s why we are here in the first place.”

Pace and Quality Output of the Team

From the Ask Tom mailbag –

This is Part 2 of 5 in a series. This post is in response to a question by Herb Koplowitz, contributing editor to Global Organization Design Society. It is based on a discussion about Collins’ organizational model.

  • Level 5 – Level 5 Executive
  • Level 4 – Effective Leader
  • Level 3 – Competent Manager
  • Level 2 – Contributing Team Member
  • Level 1Highly Capable Individual

Question:
I didn’t read Collins’ levels as layers, but as personality fit to being a good manager. (He actually describes behaviors and then ascribes them to the manager as though ones manager has nothing to do with ones behavior.) Please explain how you see Collins’ levels as relating to Jaques’ strata. What is Stratum I about being a capable individual, what is Stratum II about being a contributing team member?

Response:
Yesterday, we looked at Collins’ Level 1. Today, Level 2.

Level 2 – Collins – Contributing Team Member. The central decisions in Stratum II roles (Requisite Organization), are also about pace and quality. But no longer, necessarily about my pace and my quality (individual output), but the output of the team. Calibrating Stratum II roles, I typically see job titles like supervisor, coordinator, project manager. This enlarged role requires a higher level of capability in solving problems and making decisions. It is the first layer in the organization where I hold the supervisor (coordinator, project manager) accountable for the output of the team. These roles require cumulative processing, adding many elements together in a coordinated recipe, with longest Time Span task assignments landing between 3-12 months.

Tomorrow, we will look at the decisions associated with Stratum III.

Practice

We were running north with a hint of a tailwind. The bike computer said we were running an easy 23 mph. Six cyclists in a pace line. The lead cyclist created the forward wind tunnel, expanding larger as each team member passed through. Even with a 5 mph tail, at 23, we still had 18 mph of head wind. The efficiency of the pace line allowed the team to run quicker than a single cyclist alone. The leader on the nose can put maximum effort into the wind, with the rest of the pack safely tucked in behind. The pace line rotates its leader to keep fresh legs up front.

In the dark, the approaching car was easy to see, its headlights piercing out from a hidden driveway. The halogen beams continued to brighten the road in front. We could see the car, the car couldn’t see us.

“Car right! Car right!” echoed off the passing buildings. The pace line, which had been a steady snake for the past 7 minutes suddenly began to bunch, alternating riders cheated left and right. “Slowing!” yelled the lead. Each rider focused simultaneously on bike separation, an escape path and the intersecting car. What would happen next? The riders were bunched, speed had dropped to 18, the efficient wind tunnel disappeared, each bike now flaring its own path into the resistant air.

The headlights stopped. The lead rider made eye contact with the driver and held up a stopping hand. The driver clicked to high beam and back to low.

The lead rider came out of his saddle and pressed hard into the wind, pushing back to 20. The second rider came back from the left and tucked in behind the lead 24 inches off the wheel. Each successive rider adjusted position, pressing into the forming tunnel.

The last rider hooks on and the lead hammers back to 23. In the short space of 8 seconds, the pace line approached danger, lost its effectiveness, then regrouped into a highly interdependent efficient team.

How does your team run its pace line? When circumstances throw it off course, how quickly does it react to protect itself? How does your team re-establish its operating groove? What is communication like? How quickly does the wind tunnel return? Does your team practice this drill?

Even If a Machine Breaks Down

Torrey took a long breath. “So, I am responsible for the output of my team members?”

“That is what I will hold you accountable for,” I replied.

“Even if they get sick, or a machine breaks down, or materials are late,” Torrey was looking for a way out.

I nodded my head. “Torrey, the reason we selected you for this project, is that you have been successful on other projects, six months in length. I expect you to manage the uncertainty of events that could happen and will happen during a project of this Time Span. I expect you to make contingency plans, schedule redundancy where it’s appropriate, inspect for quality, anticipate schedule changes, vacations and prevent accidents. I don’t expect you to make excuses. I expect you to anticipate, modify, readjust and meet the deadline.”

Common Purpose Trumps an Orientation

It was a late weekend morning. I was headed south on A-1-A, returning from a solo bike run to Boynton inlet. The headwind was light, but enough to knock the speed to an even 19mph. Three hours into the ride, I was in no position to hammer the wind, yet impatient to keep the speed up.

“On your left,” was a friendly heads-up as an unknown rider with fresh legs slipped in front. I downshifted and picked up the reps to catch his wheel. I settled into the quiet space of his draft at 21mph. Seconds later, I sensed a third rider on my tail. Now we were three.

For thirty minutes, we snaked down the road, changing leads, holding 21, taking turns on the nose. I was struck with the purity of teamwork between three people who had never met before, with only three words between them.

A team will never gain traction without a common purpose.

This was a team with nothing, except a common purpose, executing skillful maneuvers, supporting each other, communicating precisely with each other. There was no orientation, no “get to know you session,” just a purity of purpose.

When your team works together, how clear is the purpose? What is the commitment level of each team member to that purpose?

Short-Term Precious Time

“Why is it important to get your team involved in problem solving?” I asked.

Carl had been promoted to manager six months ago, after two years with the company as a supervisor. Stress cracks had begun to show.

“Well, some decisions, I have to make. Between me and my boss, I am still accountable for the productivity of my team,” he replied.

“I understand. But why is it important to get your team involved in problem solving?” I repeated.

“Well, I would get them involved if I thought it would help, but I have to tell you, sometimes the things they come up with are way off base,” Carl continued to resist.

“So?”

“So, it wastes a lot of time. And you know how busy we are around here. Time is precious.”

“Short-term time is precious,” I agreed. “And team problem solving eats time for breakfast. In the short term, it might appear that little is accomplished. So, think about this. What is the long term impact of team problem solving?”

Interest, Passion and Value

Donna was quiet. “You talk about necessity. It was a volunteer team, so the necessity had to be something inside each of us. To create a new team on my new project, I have to find people who find that same necessity, inside.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “What do you look for?”

“To be on this team, you have to be interested in the work. You have to have a passion for the work,” she replied.

“And what work do we have interest in, as individuals? As a manager, how will you identify the passion we might have for the project?”

Donna was searching. Her eyes moved up and to the left. “I know I have an interest, or passion, for work in which I place a high value. If I don’t place a high value on the work, I will not be interested. I mean, I may show up and slug my way through it, but I will not pursue it, with enthusiasm.”

“Value?” I asked.

“Value. If I see high value, you have my attention.”

“As a manager, how will you see that in another person?”

Something Inside Each Team Member

“How could it be necessity. I thought you said it was a volunteer project?” I pressed. “Volunteer means you had a choice. How could it be necessity?”

Donna sat for a minute. “You are right. We were volunteers, as a team. But to us, it was necessary. It was necessary to show up on time. It was necessary to support each other. It was necessary to challenge each other. It was necessary to finish the project.”

“Look, you said it was necessity that made your team perform at such a high level. But if you were all volunteers, what made this project necessary?”

“I don’t know,” Donna replied. “It was something we saw in the project.” She stopped. “Or something we saw in ourselves that made the project necessary. For each person on the team.”

I let her words sink in. She had just made the connection. The necessity that drove her team was something inside each team member, that made them push forward.

And then I pressed again, “So, how do you, as a manager, create that necessity, with your team, on this new project?”

Moving a Group to Become a Team

“If you want to build a team, give them a real problem to solve,” I started. “Forget about sensitivity training and communication seminars. Give them a real problem to solve.”

“You mean I should forget about the team circle with all the falling and catching?” Donna smiled.

“Yes. Think about a high performing team you were once a member of. And tell me all about it.”

“Okay,” she responded. “I remember a team. I was just out of college and a group of us got involved in this community service project. We were together for only six weeks, but it was pretty intense. After the project, we all moved on to different things, but when we worked together, against all odds, we were unstoppable.”

“Don’t tell me about the project, tell me about the team. Who was on the team, why the intensity, what was it that made that team so powerful?”

“We were focused. The project was very clearly defined, along with several problems, issues and challenges. The more difficult the problem, the better we worked together.”

“What was it, about the team that made it work so well?” I pressed.

“The biggest thing,” Donna nodded, “was that no single person could do the project alone. It was necessary to cooperate, necessary to ask for cooperation, necessary to communicate. It wasn’t that we were good at being a team, there was just no other way. It was necessity.”

Creating the Crucible

How often do we sit in meetings, watching people check out? Fred surreptitiously checks e-mail on his Blackberry when he thinks no one is looking. One ear open to the meeting, one eyed glancing at a report he was supposed to review yesterday. Jill brazenly has her laptop open on the table, supposedly taking notes of the meeting. A sideways glance shows she is downloading e-mail and checking her horoscope.

Who is responsible for creating a different atmosphere, a different context? Who is responsible for creating the crucible in which a problem can be explored, alternatives generated and a solution selected? Who is responsible for creating the kind of meeting where each team member is engaged from beginning to end? Who indeed?

If that’s you in the mirror, the next question is “how?” How can you create maximum participation from every person in the room? How can you create full engagement?