Tips for teamwork

Gene Mage

Great teams are no accident. They result from hard work and a purposeful, deliberate effort on the part of leaders and team members to create something special.

In response to ever accelerating product development cycles and ever shortening product life cycles, businesses today are learning how to operate with maximum agility. Where rigid organizational structures, job classifications, and reporting relationships used to be the norm, today we find people coming together on a more temporary basis as project teams. Once the project ends, the company re-assigns team members to other projects, and the cycle continues.

For employees, this lack of firm ground upon which to stand can be disconcerting. But if the project team comes together well, the experience can be both fun and rewarding. So how do you build a great team? Here are some tips:

Build a shared vision. Effective teams come together around a common vision. To the extent team members participate in developing and articulating a vivid, compelling picture of how things could be, they will express commitment and motivation as the project progresses. But sometimes it takes time for the vision to crystallize. It takes dialog, a willingness to listen non-judgmentally to ideas, and a skillful facilitator to help the team see the themes that emerge.
Establish shared values. Everybody comes to the table with unique expectations about what good teamwork looks like. It’s important to forge some agreements within the group for how you will work together. Focus on those behaviors and attitudes that foster trust, respect, and accountability. Make a list of your team “norms” and refer back to it often.

Try to create an atmosphere where people feel free to speak up. Avoid the mistake of focusing so much on collegiality that nobody wants to rock the boat. Very often, a dissenter will contribute a critical point of view to the discussion.
Create role clarity. Nothing is more frustrating than role confusion on the team. Take time to talk about the role of the leader. Effective leaders help guide the team towards the goal, while finding ways to best utilize the unique talents and personalities of team members. Some people are full of initiative and ideas, while others are more detail oriented and sensitive to problems. You need all these perspectives to get good results.

Also use sound planning methods to stay on track. Make sure every task has a name and a date by it. Follow up regularly, and expect team members to keep their promises for delivering work.
Identify customers and deliverables. The work of the project team should begin, progress, and end with customer needs. But often teams are clueless as to the identity of their real customer. Ask yourself who’s paying the tab and what value they expect from the project team.

Often there are a number of customers to be considered: external customers, senior management, other departments, or even government agencies. Anyone who has something to gain or lose based on what your team does has a stake in the outcome, hence the term “stakeholder”. List out all the stakeholders and identify what their needs. Not sure what stakeholders want? Go out and do some research.

Build and sustain sponsorship. All effective teams have a sponsor. A sponsor is that individual, or group of individuals, who commission the work of the team, provide people and resources to get the job done, and define what a successful outcome looks like. Sponsors also assist by greasing the skids and eliminating barriers that arise as the team progresses. To have a successful team, you must attend to the care and feeding of your sponsors. Keep them informed. Let them know what you need to keep going. Involve sponsors in key decisions and in establishing the boundaries for the project scope. Happy sponsors make for happy teams.

Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is President of Soaring Oaks Consulting, Inc., and author of the book Managing for High Performance. Contact Gene at gmage@makingitwork.com, or visit www.makingitwork.com for the complete Making it Work archive.