The Anatomy of Team Building

THE ANATOMY OF TEAM BUILDING

INTRODUCTION
Everyone wants to feel that they can communicate clearly with their fellow man. Volumes have been written on how to communicate and there have been many fine efforts made at bringing people together in seminars to teach the value of combining group thought to solve problems. The key finding has always been that a group, working together as a Team, can achieve a better problem solution more quickly, and with a higher success rate, than by individuals working alone.

Unfortunately, Team Building has been limited to a set of principles dictated by behavioral science and society that leaves us short of a Team’s ultimate potential.

Consider an iceberg:
Only the tip is showing while 90% of the mass is under water.

If an iceberg represents a complete thinking process and the water is the chaos that the iceberg sets in, then it follows that Team solutions operate in the middle of surrounding chaos. Team solutions are thus adversely influenced by the chaos compared to what might be!

This article is designed to bring a Team out of chaos and into clear thinking by raising the Team iceberg completely out of the water until the correct solution is found.

This is a self directed mini-course in Team Building based upon the incorporation of Spiritual principles to align the Team with the Creator’s intent.

To begin, we will review many best practices for Team Building and introduce you to some new thoughts on how Teams can work together better. You will see guidelines that you intuitively know are true, but were not achieved in the environment in which you work.

We will show you how to assure that the solutions rendered by your Team are those that are correct for society and the institutions for which you work.

MODERN TEAM BUILDING CONCEPTS   - THE 90 % CONCEIVED IN CHAOS
There are four key sections to understand and apply that exist in the chaos layer.

1.   The Success Requirements for All Teams
   A. Make sure there is common passion to find a solution
The team will be enthusiastic if it sees a challenge, but the Team members will excel in their efforts if they are truly passionate about the topic they are trying to solve. Be sure the Team is composed of passionate members, not those who are merely passing the time of day!

   B. Identify the best thing that the Team can do and support
Usually when a Team comes together for the first time, they may have a fuzzy idea of what needs to happen. Frequently Team members will try to advance their own projects and beliefs. To combat this, a clear statement of intent should be in place by management before a Team is formed.

   C. Make sure that the Team is funded long enough to develop successful results
It takes a Team several meetings over several weeks, or months, to come up with Team solutions. Management becomes uncomfortable when employees are on an assignment where there is no measurement of their progress or activity level. Be sure that the Team is funded (unless everyone is a volunteer) for a sufficient time to produce results. Then measure the results.

   D. Get the right Team Members on board
Use people who are experienced with the business you are in AND are passionate about what they are doing. Team members should be the most experienced folks you can find. You are doing, not teaching!

The desired Team Member attributes:
•   Have sufficient education to meet the challenge. If a rocket scientist is needed, get the best you can find who has the needed credentials.

•   Members should be outspoken - be aware of personality types.

•   Members should be unimpressed by titles.

•   Members should respect one another.

•   Members are doers, not theoreticians.

   E. The Team Leader is responsible for failures
Team Leaders can be appointed by management, or elected by the Team. The important concept is that the Leader accepts responsibility for failures and does not blame the Team. A good Team Leader must have the skills needed to evaluate the Team and its efforts. What the Team Leader does is described later.

   F. The Team is responsible for success
The Team operates as one person. Therefore any success is a Team success, not an individual success.

   G. Do not begin until the Team is in place - bad starts are hard to fix
This is the most common failure in Team Building. Members are assigned sporadically, or join late because of previous commitments. Schedule Team meetings so that all can be in attendance. Otherwise, DO NOT start a meeting.

2.   Build the Right Team Dynamics
What is a Team Dynamic? We will define it as a published set of agreements AND operating conditions, designed to put everyone at ease. The agreements state:

   A. Everyone has an equal vote
You want to eliminate the importance of position or title from Teams so that the members can speak freely, without recrimination, or ridicule, and feel that their opinion counts.

   B. There are no hidden agendas
Teams must know up front that they are working on the real problem and not being used as political pawns for someone’s hidden agenda. To do so destroys trust and the Team.

   C. There are no internal Team secrets
Teams do not have to divulge their personal lives, but it helps Team tolerance if the Team knows that one of the members is experiencing a personal problem. E.g., the death of a family member. Other than that, there should be no business related secrets withheld from the Team that might influence their decisions.

   D. Openness and candor in Team relationships is paramount
Each of us seeks acceptance by our fellow man, but it is important that the Team members do not adopt an attitude of trying to please everyone else. This is not diplomacy. It can be misread as deception by the Team, if a Member does not openly communicate for fear of hurting feelings. We will show you later how to correct this behavior trait in someone on your Team as you may not realize that the trait exists until the Team is well underway.

   E. Leader sets expectations
The Team Leader must have a clear vision of what the Team is meeting about and the problem to be solved. Do not begin until the Team Leader can clearly state what is to happen. If the Team Leader has not been selected, the management of your organization owes the Team a clear mission statement and any constraints. What does management want you to solve?

The Team Leader should share that written statement with the Team and make sure the Team understands the charge and constraints.

   F. Leader style is important
Inexperienced Team Leader’s are prone to fall into the trap of promoting themselves to their management because they want management to recognize them. Another problem is that Team Leaders try to operate as all knowing dictators to control the Team. Neither tactic works and will cause the Team to falter.

The Team leader must act as a facilitator, not a dictator. He must promote the entire Team to his management, not himself. Most importantly, accolades should be addressed by management to the Team, not just the Team Leader.

Final decisions should be made by the Team Leader AFTER there is agreement in principle by all Team Members. If unresolved controversy exists, the Team Leader is responsible for the decision, not the involved Team Members.

All decisions must be made in a professional, not personal manner.

3.    Team Selection MUSTS
Today many multi-disciplined business people are assigned by their managers to a Team. Sometimes the Leader is elected by the Team, but often the Team Leader has been pre-assigned by senior management. In either case the following needs to be considered.

   A. Leaders must analyze and select their potential Team Members
Team members come in two flavors: selected and unselected. If the Team Leader “selects” the Team Member, then the Team Leader has hopefully made a selection based upon the attributes he believes are needed. The more difficult case occurs when the Team Leader inherits an “unselected” member.

The Team Leader should select a mix of people who are good at what they do now. An idea: Stretch a Team Member beyond his comfort zone without breaking him like a rubber band. Once the rubber band is broken it can not be repaired, nor can the Team Member.

   B. Changing Members
It should be obvious that a Team Leader should change out the players that do not fit BEFORE the Team starts the assignment. The Leader needs to address:

            The effect of inflated egos
People with overly inflated egos tend to dominate meetings and intimidate members into compliance. To correct this condition in an open forum is difficult in normal business because the Team Members will not risk the ire of the person with the inflated ego.

     C. A Wise Team Leader uses healthy stress
Stress should build from excitement and love of the assignment, not from fear or non-accomplishment.

Don’t let people intentionally fail. If they do fail the entire Team should review the failure to extract the lessons to be learned.

Reward as a Team, not as individuals but don’t flunk the whole class. One of the large computer manufacturers’s used to use two competing Teams to evolve new products. The winning Team had their careers advanced; the losing Team was disparaged and not promoted. Avoid this mistake. The cost in employee turnover is painful!

Provide an environment where Members are not afraid to fail and see failures as a learning experience. In doing this, the Team will embrace change as healthy.

4. Team Leader Methods for Every Project
   A. Start the first meeting by reviewing the management direction for what is desired.
This focuses the Team clearly on the objective.

   B. On a whiteboard, or easel, document the obvious
Write out where we are today. Do not assume the Team knows why they are there. Then write out a broad statement(s) that defines what the Team needs to consider developing as good solutions.

   C. Ask for new ideas
This is the heart of an integrated team response. The Team needs to brainstorm - Listen to and list on the whiteboard all ideas without argument. Ideas are book kept without discussion or negative comments

   D. Stop idea flow on a pre-agreed time
Usually an hour is plenty to get ideas out on the table.

   E. Now discuss each topic
Focus the discussion on each idea, keeping in mind that the solutions will eventually need to be tied to cost, schedule and profitability.

This is the time to be brutal in introspection, but do not paralyze the Team or the theme. In other words, be objective but not accusatory. Part of the analysis can be to play “what if” games for fixed time periods. For example, identify the risk vs. reward for each major idea. Then ask,
•   If we win or the idea works, what happens?
•   If we go down a blind trail, what happens?
•   How do we tell if we are going down a blind trail?
•   How do we recover?

   F. Vote on which solutions to keep or investigate further
If it is too soon to decide, investigate further and vote at a later meeting.

   G. Prioritize all the potential solutions
Each solution should be ranked in terms of need and potential economic benefit.

   H. Assign Team Members to refine specific functional details
Do this when further details are needed to make a good decision.

   I. Hold review meetings frequently
Twice a week may be too often, but weekly is about right because it gives the Team a chance to reorder thinking and take corrective action for anything.

   J. Build a prototype or refine and test the solution
There is a difference in approach for a consumer or industrial product vs. an improvement to a procedure. Do what the Team thinks is necessary for the circumstances.

   K. Align final solutions with any cost limits, schedule deadlines or profitability
The results of this step will tell you if your solution will fit the needs. You might have several good solutions which will need to be investigated further. Then reduce the selections to those that are manageable and meet the objectives.

   L. Test each solution for applicability, simplicity, timeliness and cost effectiveness
The Team should review its progress and redirect activities as needed by reiterating steps E-K above. Note: Do not reopen topics or ideas that have already been discarded. This forces closure and keeps the Team focused.

   M. Measure the results in dollars, not backslapping
Be sure to have an acceptable way to document the results of your solution. Otherwise, people will always second guess the results.

   N. The Leaders responsibility
Assign Members to execute against every prioritized action item. Hold them   accountable for completing their assignments; excuses are not accepted.

Hold regularly scheduled meetings to discuss progress. This keeps the Team mission in perspective when Team Members have assignments to complete.

The benefit of weekly meetings is that they give the Team Leader an opportunity to make corrections in the activity and direction being undertaken. If the Team meeting is monthly, or even bi-weekly, there may not be sufficient time to redirect the Team when objectives are not being met.

TEAM BUILDING -THE MISSING 10% -RAISING YOUR ICEBERG OUT OF THE WATER

Why an iceburg?
You are probably wondering why the reference is made to raising the iceberg out of the water. Here is why:

When we make decisions that are shaded by company goals, government, peer pressure, or other competing environments, we subject ourselves to a limited solution surrounded by that environment, the current chaos.

The chaos is caused by the lack of love and the refusal to make the Creator the leader of our problem solving team.

When we involve the Creator directly in our decision making process, we receive in return solutions that are endorsed by the Creator. These endorsed solutions can then be implemented by mankind according to how our solutions fit into the Creator's plan for us at every level of our existence. The concepts of cost and schedule attainment are thus driven by the spiritual efforts of the Team. The "Right Things" happen, when the Creator wants them to take place and they occur almost effortlessly. In other words, the obstacles to progress drop away, as does any resistance to change. Funding flows to the right ideas. Solutions are scheduled with ease. Team dynamics and personality issues become aligned with the right cause and effects.

Thus, when the right spiritual decision is made, the iceberg can operate in chaos bu the right outcome is produced, no matter what the state of chaos.

ACHIEVING SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE IN TEAM BUILDING
We all have egos and opinions that make us who we are. Sometimes these traits interfere with our ability to see the larger picture, be tolerant of other viewpoints, or understand what our Team Members are trying to communicate.

To get past these limitations, we simply invoke a simple Petition at the start of every meeting. Each Member recites the following Petition aloud in unison. When done, the Team waits for several minutes before continuing the Team meeting. This Petition aligns the Team with the Creator and each Team member then knows that:

•   What happens is done in a Loving way for the betterment of the Team.

•   Solutions proposed by the Team will be done through the Creator’s direct participation and guidance.

•   Differences in personality traits become tolerable and do not interfere with communications and group dynamics.

THE TEAM PETITION

I accept Divine Love and surrender my Will to the Creator's Will. I acknowledge the individuality of our Team and ask that the Creator resolve any issues in our Team according to the Creator's Will.