By DIANE KOZ on JUNE 30, 2012
I’m Diane Koz and I take teamwork very seriously. Not team building, but teamwork. I think back on my adventures with teams and teamwork and in some cases wonder how I survived some of the projects I was associated with. The teams were quite dysfunctional. Did we produce significant results? In most cases I would have to say no. We produced mediocre results, just enough to get by, to say we completed the project so we could move on to the next project. We cared about teamwork but were more concerned about our individual careers, how to get ahead, and no matter at what expense. As long as on the surface it looked like we were a successful team was all that mattered. Deep inside that team we were not functioning well. Successful Dysfunctional Teams are fairly easy to recognize and most often commonly accepted because they produce results, and are successful at a superficial level. It wasn’t until I experienced a truly functional team that I realized how relatively effortless it was to set the course to a functional team and the success it would produce for the individual, the team, the business and for our customer. When I think back the results we produced for the customer, they were outstanding, whether a new product, a promotional program, a new system or process.
We had no one to guide us or help us. There was no teamwork guru to call in to help fix the team. What we did was learn by trial and error. That’s what worked for me and this learning is what is translated into the programs that I developed and currently work with. I know they work, because I’ve lived them. I know these will have an effect on your competitive advantage.
Take a couple of seconds, step back and ask yourself a few questions about your team:
- How’s my team performing?
- Am I a member of a team?
- Does my team help my business or hurt my business?
- Why should I even worry if my team is performing or not?
- Why should I bother spending money, time and resources on teamwork?
- Do my employees feel like they belong to a team or do they even care?
These are questions that we ask businesses owners to think about. Why? Because the answers can and will affect your competitive advantage. Obviously, businesses want effective teams, and most believe that their teams function well, so there is no need to dedicate time, resources or effort into evaluating their team and making changes. Why bother? Most believe that the group of individuals that work in their organization are working together as a team. Yes, they do have a group of individual but they are not necessarily functioning as a team. What they are doing is functioning as a group of individuals, that’s it. Is this hurting the business or helping the business? Is this a functional team or dysfunctional team?
The individual team member is key to a dynamic high performing team. What does the individual bring to the team? They bring experiences, behaviours, attitudes, beliefs, values, assumptions, their personality, knowledge and skills to name a few. What a team has to do is capture, capitalize and utilize the best of these attributes from each team member, meld them together such that each team member is contributing to the whole. Where they are lacking, build these, especially in the area of skills.
If your team is just not in sync, there is no life to their efforts or they are unsure of their goals, then you most likely have a dysfunctional team, one that isn’t moving the organization forward. A dysfunctional team could be lacking in a competent leader, focus, trust, accountability, commitment, role clarity, and effective communications. There are varying degrees of team functionality. Even if your team is functioning well, it too can be moved to a higher level of performance. Regardless of the state of your team’s performance level, an individual and a team’s mindset can be changed. In most cases it’s a matter of awareness and a desire to make a change for the betterment of the whole. Being aware of your individual and team strengths and weaknesses, patterns of behaviours and attitudes can ignite a pattern of transformation that can produce sustainable results and the effect that your team has on your bottom line. Another key ingredient to a functional team is relationships: strong, healthy, productive relationships. The stronger the relationships within your team, the stronger the relationship with your customer. A powerful team will not only perform, it will exceed norms and outperform. This calibre of team will impact your bottom line and create a much sought after competitive advantage that every company wants in today’s business environment.
So what does a functional team look like? First of all let’s define what a team is. There are many definitions of a team. The one that we align with is, a team is a group of individuals, with a full set of complementary skills and knowledge with the aim of reaching defined goals. The moment you start doing anything at all with another person, you’ve established a team. A functional team is composed of members who communicate, collaborate, cooperate and celebrate. Team members are committed, caring and confident. There is clarity to the team’s purpose and culture of success and achievement is prevalent. This is a team that is “teaming smart”. On the other hand a dysfunctional team is just the opposite and “teaming dumb”. Transforming a team is not difficult, it’s logical and practical, it’s achievable, it really is effortless and it makes sense. It take commitment and So let’s examine the questions again. How would you now answer the questions? Would a transformational blueprint help out? A blueprint that clearly assesses the status quo performance and character of your team and develops a going forward strategy and action plan to change the path of the team and the outcomes for the company. Why not? Why not determine the degree of functionality of your team or teams. You may find out more than you anticipated.
The BOTTOM LINE – Assess where you are as a team. Take advantage of teamwork and boost your competitive advantage. Team Smart through Team Energy Optimization (TEO)!
the art of teamwork 