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Workplace teams
and
team
leadership development
This
article surveys some
ideas about
workplace teams and issues for team leadership development. It
links to detailed ideas about groups vs teams and self managing teams,
managing "back to work" issues and communication and conflict.
We
are currently writing articles on team leadership development. These
are practical and focus on issues like dealing with conflict, exploring
values and so on.
Background articlesThe first article discusses
the differences between work groups and workplace teams.
The keynote of the second article is the implications for group leadership and team leadership styles and approaches
First, our
article, Groups v Teams
begins with an observation from the classic work of Jon
Katzenbach and Douglas Smith. Their book The Wisdom of Teams
(Harper Business, 1993) was widely praised by reviewers when it was
first published.
Their brief and accessible
introduction to the work - a paper called The
Discipline of Teams - was originally published by
the Harvard Business Review at that time. It was included in a 2005 HBR
collection as a classic paper on developing high-performance teams.
You'll
find it by searching for the title on the web.
It
has influenced our work and what we have written here.
In
carrying out a few searches while preparing this article, The Discipline of Teams
still reads as a solid and insightful approach to the subject.
We
follow their lead in insisting that managers are clear what a team is
and what a team is not. Our first article describes the differences
between work groups and workplace teams, exploring how their
characteristics and dynamics differ.
We also look a
the decision about whether a team or a group is required to fulfill the
role in the organization.
The
bulk of the article is made up of a discussion of the qualities and
characteristics of workplace teams compared with work groups.
The first article concludes with a brief summary of the
different demands and expectations placed on group leadership compared with team leadership.
In our second article, team vs group leadership is a much more central focus.
Self managing teamsOur
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 processOne 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 conflictYou'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.
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