Workplace teams and team leadership development

Self managing teams

Our second two articles for team leaders and group leaders focus on self managing teams (also referred to as self managed teams).

The first article is called Designing self managed teams. The article is based on action research (research designed and carried out by the people most closely involved - NOT professional researchers!) carried out by the prestigious Tavistock Institute in London, England.

It looks at the necessity to first visualize a future state and describe it in detail. It then describes the gradually expanding responsibilities of the self managed team will need to master.

We describe a second - in many ways complementary - model that describes the core skills, support skills and boundary skills that this approach to self management will need to develop.

We include a list of positive and negative factors that are likely to impact on the success of a move from more traditionally managed workplace teams to a self managed team.

Designing self managed teams can be accessed here.

Our second look at self managing teams focuses on The Transition to self managing teams.

We take a look at coping with the potentially overwhelming nature of this change by re-visiting the issue of describing the future state. It is important to realize that the clearer this description, the greater the accuracy of the mapping and evaluation of the change process.

We look at external and internal factors that impact on the decision to make changes in the current organization of workplace teams.

The key focus of this article is on the challenge to managers: to give up pre-existing control of their work groups.

It is important that change begins with managers. It is important to know how to avoid their resistance torpedoing best efforts to restructure in this way.

We explore how managers change from "doing mode" to "being mode" - in effect a leadership development shift, requiring a change in emphasis.

We look at what Emotional Intelligence brings to our understanding of that shift and use that to introduce a five step Continuum of Management Power and Influence. When considering how to map and evaluate change in the management of workplace teams, this has proved invaluable.

Here is the article on The Transition to Self Managing Teams.

Workplace teams: managing a back to work process

One of the more difficult situations a manager to team leader can face is managing a back to work transition.

The challenges vary depending on the situation that caused the absence in the first place. Dealing with the aftermath of a bereavement is very different from dealing with a return to work after maternity leave, for example.

Both can bring up resentments in team members who have had to "step up to the plate" to cover. The distress of others (returning to work can amplify loss ... the permanent loss of a loved one, the loss of the intensity of a full-time parenting role) can be difficult to deal with.. For all concerned.

We've coached one individual who couldn't bear to go through an appraisal process and - after a particularly stressful episode - had been absent from work for some time. This was a highly competent organizational leader, and member of a very senior workplace team.

The skills required to ensure a positive back to work process for this individual required a level of support that would be unusual in the leadership of most workplace teams. In these circumstances skilled external leadership coaching can be very helpful.

Challenges like this merit a separate section on this site. While that is in preparation we're happy to recommend this site to managers dealing with the transition back to work.

Workplace teams: communication and conflict

You're managing or leading a team, ergo ... you deal with communication and conflict issues! If ever anything is an enduring part of the team leadership experience, it's team conflict.

The first issue to sort out in this context is whether the conflict is - potentially, at least - constructive or is it destructive.

By constructive conflict we mean conflict around substantial issues that are absolutely part of the team's remit. Individuals see things differently, bring different experiences and therefore they reach different conclusions about ways forward. And they commit individually to their own vision of that way forward.

This is the strength of a passionate, hardworking team. Provided individual commitment does not become self-serving; an ego-trip and way of scoring points over a colleague (who is now seen as a rival).

Harnessing that passion in a constructive way enables the team's goals to be realized. It is a key part of your role as a leader of workplace teams to facilitate this.

As part of your team leadership role, you will also confront destructive conflict: situations where team members are "acting out" old rivalries and settling old scores. You see and hear the "same old, same old": individuals who rehearse the same kinds of arguments; factions lining up around old grievances ... I'm sure you can supply your own examples.

First issue for you as team leader: become aware of the game that's being acted out. Increase your own awareness of cycles of conflict and how they are perpetuated.

The scales fell from my eyes when I was intoduced to the Karpmann Triangle at a team leadership workshop I attended myself. It's also called the Drama Triangle. We've put together a page of exercises that you can use, first with yourself to increase your own awareness and then for you to use with a team that's stuck in conflict.

You can find that article here: the Drama Triangle or Karpman Triangle.

We've recently discovered a wonderful site that has a similar "feel" to ours. We've had some brief, very positive correspondence with the Alan Sharland, the site's author. He comes to issues of communication and conflict from a background in mediation.

We're sure you'll find lots of value on his site, which is called Communication and Conflict.

Workplace teams stages of development

The leadership skills required to manage teams can vary depending on the stages of team development. Is your team new, or well-established? How mature are the relationships and work processes?

When considering how to build effective teamwork, a leader needs to understand what will be the best strategy for his or her team. We've come across a site (called Team Building Bonanza) that may help if you're seeking team building ideas and information. It also has an extensive collection of team building quotes for those managers wanting a little inspiration.