teamwork matters
TRANSCRIPT
Teamwork Matters The Synergy Illusion - Five Components of an Effective Team
Dr John Kenworthy
There's a mistaken belief that synergy is lost when someone is different.
The truth is, we're all different to begin with.
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Contents
Teamwork Matters! ......................................................................................... 4
But what is an effective team? .......................................................................... 4
The Five components of an effective team .......................................................... 5
Shared Values ............................................................................................. 6
Clear Command Instruction ........................................................................... 6
Shared Experience ....................................................................................... 8
Shared Situational Awareness ........................................................................ 9
Communication .......................................................................................... 10
Team dysfunctions and issues ........................................................................ 11
Diagnosing the Issues in the team ................................................................ 11
What does the leader need to do? ................................................................... 12
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Teamwork Matters!
Organizations accomplish what they do because of teamwork. Whether you are in
business, sport, education, the church and even marriage – teamwork is what paves
the way to success. What a leader can do with a great team far surpasses anything
they can accomplish alone. As a leader learns how to unite the right people around a
shared vision, their influence truly begins to take off.
One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Dr John C Maxwell
According to Dr. John C. Maxwell in his book, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, the 1st
Law of Teamwork is The Law of Significance:
One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Leaders who fail to promote teamwork
undermine their own potential and erode the best efforts of the people with whom
they work. To accomplish anything significant, leaders must learn to link up with
others.
Recently I began working with a very successful businessman. In our first session,
he proudly informed me that he was a "self-made man". He was rather taken aback
when I appeared unimpressed. After all, this man is successful and rich. I
responded, "That's too bad. Imagine just how much you could have achieved with a
great team."
The reality, of course, is that no-one is truly self-made. We may not have been
gifted our businesses by our parents, but they have played a part in making you.
Your education may have been cut short or even, not especially good, but your
teachers did impart something. For a few of my clients, what they perceive as being
negative in their lives is actually the turning point for their success.
A leader's job is to develop the team so that the team is effective?
But what is an effective team? There are probably as many definitions of an effective team as there are teams. But
there does seem to be a commonality and this, I believe, distills to:
An effective team has unity of cohesion and effort
towards a common goal.
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The Five components of an effective team
The Five components of effective teams are integrated and together create
this thing we call "synergy".
These five elements stem from research undertaken largely by the US Military (in
particular, post-Gulf War I, when the number of "friendly fire" incidents became
unacceptable).
Only when all five components are present in a team is there the potential for true
unity of cohesion and effort.
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Shared Values Shared values define the team. Without shared values, everyone on the team has a
different opinion about what's important. Values put people on the same page. Just
as personal values influence and guide an individual's behaviour, organizational
values set the standard for a team's performance.
Too often, the values of a team are prepared by a marketing consultant, discussed
and pasted on walls. Yet these are not the underlying true values of the individual's
within the team. Rarely does one see a team's values statement include payment for
their contribution, nor do we often see values pertaining to providing a safe and
secure home for our families.
When we ask our clients why they work, the number 1 response is unsurprisingly,
money. Joint second is providing for a family home and education for children; third
is God.
I liken shared values to the image of an iceberg.
The 10% above the water is what we see the
values that a person or the team holds – it
represents the behaviours that are manifest.
The 90% below the water is the character of the
individual or team – which is defined by the
values that the team members hold.
It's the 90% below the surface that sinks the
ship.
The leader who neglects the real shared values
of the team may find that the team:
Stagnates or fails to grow
Avoids obstacles
Loses achievement-oriented employees
Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals
Is easily distracted
What are the key shared values in your team?
The visible aspect of leadership is just 10% of
the whole. What sinks leaders is the 90 % below the surface.
Copyright © 2015 Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved - www.celsim.com P a g e | 7
Clear Command Instruction Clear command instruction gives team
members direction and confidence. If you
lead your team, then you are responsible
for identifying a worthy and compelling
vision and articulating it to the team.
People continually need to be shown the
team's compass clearly and creatively so
that their actions align, and they stay
motivated by a captivating picture of the
future.
Clear command instruction gives
team members direction and
confidence
Each team member should be able to
make decisions readily and rapidly based
on the clarity of the command instruction.
Clarity is essential. Often we see the use of delightful, yet nebulous words used to
describe the goal and provide the direction. The word excellence (or excellent) is
one example. Like values statements, the intentions are good, but what does
excellence mean? We each have our own definition, all perfectly valid, of what
excellence means.
In "Made to Stick", the Heath Brothers refer to this as 'Commanders Intent' and
recommend that leaders strip down the goal to the core message. The Combat
Maneuver Training Centre, the unit in charge of military simulations in the US
recommends that officers arrive at the Commander's Intent by asking themselves
two questions:
1. If we do nothing else during tomorrow's mission we must
__________________.
2. The single most important thing that we do tomorrow is
__________________.
In this way, any team member who faces a decision can make that decision in line
with the command instruction.
Establishing this takes time. Sometimes it is easy – when there are specific
standards laid down by an industry body such as a Ministry of Health, the Inland
Revenue or a professional body – then the goal of achieving those standards makes
command instruction comparatively straightforward:
Clarity about the direction the team should take is critical, yet so often it is unclear... if it is known at all.
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Achieve these standards.
But what happens once those standards are met? The leader then needs to create
the new standards and articulate these to the team. And like any goal you want to
achieve it has to be SMART, sensory and compelling, and, of course, it must satisfy
the values.
Leaders who are unable to articulate clarity of command instruction often find that
the team fails to commit and:
This creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities
Team member's watch windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis
and unnecessary delay
It also breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure
Team's revisit discussions and decisions again and again
And also encourages second-guessing among team members
Shared Experience Having clarity of direction that will
satisfy shared values is only the
beginning of effectiveness for the team.
Shared experienced is the 'how the team
will do this'. What skills and knowledge
are needed to achieve this?
Teams are, of course, filled with
individuals. And each individual brings
with them their own set of skills,
knowledge and abilities. And all players in
a team have a place where they add the most
value. Winning teams require more than
the right people. You may have a group
of talented individuals, but if each
person is out of position, then the team
won't reach its potential.
Leading a successful team involves putting people in spots where they can excel.
The leader can think of team members as resources and fill the spots like playing
checkers, or the leader can recognize the particular strengths and abilities of each
individual. Using their strengths work together as a team – like a chess player.
When the leader fails to use the right strengths and abilities…
This creates resentment among team members who have different standards
of performance
Encourages mediocrity
The team misses deadlines and key deliverables
And places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of
discipline
It's all well and good to have a goal,
but how do we do this? This is when shred experience comes into play.
Copyright © 2015 Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved - www.celsim.com P a g e | 9
Shared Situational Awareness The most neglected component, of developing
effective teams, is shared situational
awareness.
Shared Situational Awareness is when all team
members' continuous perceptions of
themselves and their peers in relation to the
dynamic environment of business, competition,
goals and the ability to predict, and then
execute based on shared perception.
This is often neglected because it is so difficult
to pin down. And the moment that you do pin
down that you are fully aware of the current situation, the situation has already
changed. Further, in circumstances where an individual's situational awareness is
well developed, much of the processing is unconscious.
Take, for example, driving a vehicle:
When you first learned to drive you were acutely aware of the very many things that
required your attention. All of which had an impact or potential impact on your
response? You have to steer, change gear, accelerate, break, and watch what is
behind you, beside you, in front of you. You have to predict the behaviour of every
other road user and make decisions based on a common set of rules. All on the
basis of trust. Trust that the other road users will obey the rules, trust that the
brake pedal will work, and trust in your own judgment call about what each other
road user will or will not do.
Now imagine attempting to instruct another person remotely how to do
that, in real time.
You would need to know that person's knowledge and experience, where they were,
what vehicle they were driving and all the other information. Impossible.
To enable this to work, the leader and each team member needs to be sure that
every team member will perform their role effectively and how each will respond to
given, known (and unknown) situations (following the command instruction based
on known shared values using their known abilities and experience). It also means
that team members look out for each other in the interests of the team.
When shared situational awareness is poor, teams: Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another
Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without
attempting to clarify them
Fail to recognize and tap into one another's skills and experiences
Waste time and energy managing their behaviours for effect
Hold grudges
Shared situational awareness is
something you experience every day driving in heavy traffic. But
not everyone behaves rationally
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Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together
Communication The fifth component of an effective team is in their communications. Communication
brings to light disagreements so that teammates can hammer out their differences
and move forward in unison. Communication also spreads information, which
eliminates redundancies and prevents teammates from working at cross‐purposes.
Communication within the team must continuously reinforce and support each of the
other four components. Openly and candidly.
And critically, communication is the
response you get. If a team member does
not understand what their teammate is
saying, the teammate is responsible for
getting their message across.
The culture within the team is created,
reinforced or undermined by the
communication within the team. Consider
communication as a family virus. The virus
spreads rapidly and easily because the
family stays close together and has
members who are similar. The more
virulent the virus, the quicker it spreads…
and for communication, nothing spreads
faster than gossip, cynicism and untruths. A wise leader ensures that they inoculate
every team member with their chosen contagion that supports the desired team
culture and prevents the spread of any malicious or damaging chatter.
Teams that have poor communication:
Have boring meetings
Create environments where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive
Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members
Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management
Without effective communications, none of the rest matter
Copyright © 2015 Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved - www.celsim.com P a g e | 11
Team dysfunctions and issues
In our work with hundreds of work
teams, we have found that the
lack of Shared Situational
Awareness is always the number
one cause of issues in teams. Even
in teams that are high performing.
It is most often manifest in the
apparent lack of trust in the team.
Lack of trust is the fruit of
behaviours that good SSA would
overcome.
The second dysfunction of teams is communication – often brought about because
of a lack of shared situational awareness or, as most people think of it, trust.
Clarity of command instruction is
most often the third issue teams
face though in competitive
business organizations the third
issue is frequently shared
values.
Diagnosing the Issues in the
team In our work and research with
organization teams across
industries and across the globe
we have identified the symptoms
of team dysfunction and how
frequently each occur within a
team. By surveying team
members, we have been able to
identify the frequency of
dysfunction symptoms and
thereby identify the key
component issue.
Data collected from 582 teams between Jan 2008 and June 2011 in South East
Asia organisations. Shared Situational Awareness was the #1 problem, with communications coming in second
Data from 582 teams, showing number of symptoms in each team for each component
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What does the leader need to do?
Law 4 in John Maxwell's 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork is the Law of Mount Everest
As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. As the journey grows in
difficulty, you can no longer cruise along with ordinary talent and average
cooperation. To climb past the obstacles to your dream, you need to have a team of
peak performers working in unison and clicking on all cylinders.
If your team is facing challenges or you want it to perform better, then the first task
is to recognize that it is your responsibility as the leader. It is not the team
members' responsibility nor is it an external consultant's responsibility to "fix" the
team. It starts with you.
Use this chart to identify the key symptoms of ineffectiveness your team
exhibits and thus which is the critical component that needs work as a priority. There’s a larger version of this on the next page for you to use.
In each area, there are common key symptoms. This is not meant to be an
exhaustive list, just an overview of the top and most frequently uncovered issues in
our work with teams:
Observe the symptoms of dysfunction that may be present and raise each issue with
the whole team. Now is the time you can ask the team to help you fix the issues.
Knowing your goals, having the right experience and resources and working together
towards satisfying shared values are well known to be important for effective team
performance. Shared Situational Awareness and clear communication though is the glue
for teams: How you understand my context and situation, and we adapt to each new
situation as it arises - collaborating to gain those synergies everyone promises. And
the key to SSA is open and candid communication.
Copyright © 2015 Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved - www.celsim.com P a g e | 13
Teamwork Matters
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If you haven’t gone through the exercises yet, go back and do it now. Remember
that applying best practices with discipline and consistency, even if the actual steps
seem trite or obvious, is what leads to results.
Thanks so much for reading this guide – if you have any feedback or comments you
can reach me at [email protected].
Don’t settle,
John and the GAPPS team
To learn more about our
Talent Management and
Coaching programmes, visit
us at www.celsim.com
Copyright © 2015 Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved - www.celsim.com P a g e | 15
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