Weeks 7-8: Team Performance: Internal and External Concerns

In Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance, W. Dyer, W. G. Dyer, Jr. and J. H. Dyer (2007) outline key aspects for team success. For them, there are 4 factors that are critical to understand and manage for team to be high performing in a superior manner:

1. Team Context: The team must have the appropriate organizational structure and culture in which to function, an environment that supports its particular make-up and task. It is imperative that the team members, particularly the team leader, understand and is able to manipulate the organizational environment to its advantage. "High-performing teams manage context effectively by 1) establishing measurable team performance goals that are clear and compelling, 2) ensuring that team members understand that effective teamwork is critical to meeting those goals, 3) establishing reward systems that reward team performance (more than individual performance), 4) eliminating roadblocks to teamwork that formal organizational structures might create, and 5) establishing an organizational culture that supports teamwork-oriented processes and behaviors" (p. 7).

2. Team Composition: Team members must have the requisite skills needed for the assigned project, be committed to each other, be motivated by the task, and have complementary skills that can be used in a synergistic manner. "High-performing teams effectively manage team composition by 1) establishing processes to select individuals for the team who are both skilled and motivated, 2) establishing processes that develop the technical and interpersonal skills of team members as well as their commitment to achieving team goals, 3) cutting loose individuals who lack skills or motivation, 4) managing the team differently depending on the skills and motivation of team members, and 5) ensuring that the team is "right sized," which usually means making sure the team is not too large or small to accomplish the task" (p. 8).

3. Team Competencies: Team compentencies are not just abilities that individual members possess, but that are part of the "team's" make-up, its formal and informal processes. "High-performaing teams have developed processes that all the team to 1) clearly articulate their goals and the metrics for achieving thos goals, 2) clearly articulate the means to achieve the goals, ensuring that individuals understand their assignments and how their work contributes to team goals, 3) make effective decisions, 4) effectively communicate, including giving and receiving feedback, 5) build trust and commitment to the team and its goals, and 6)resolve disputes or disagreements" (pp. 8-9).

4. Team Change Management Skills: Adaptation and change are just part of the daily workplace. This is no different for high performance teams. "High-performing teams have developed the ability to change by 1) establishing team-building processes that result in the regular evaluation of the team context, team composition, and team competencies with the explicit objective of initiating needed changes in order to better achieve the desired team goals, and 2) establishing a philosophy among team members that regular change is necessary in order to meet the demands of a constantly changing world" (p. 10).

An important point in #1 is that the organizational structure and culture supports teams, and that they truly foster and reward teamwork, not merely individual contribution. If such support is not present, it is difficult for a team to have the interdependence--ability to feel valued by and to be connected with the larger organization--needed to be perform well and be successful. This is still a challenge for many organizations.
The notion of "complementarity" and "team synergy" mentioned in #2 is equally important. It is about the team as a "whole," its ability as a unified and talented group, that is key. Team members, while having pride in their capabilities and drawing upon them, focus on the operations, contribution and success of the team. To do this, including being complementary, does not mean that all are the same, and that harmony is the norm. The energy of the tension of diversity and disagreement is harnessed to create innovation and creative problem solving.

The above perspective is an important and viable view of teams, but one that is concerned about the team and its internal composition and operation. Teams have to align themselves with the organization; they have to serve the goals of the organization, be in sync with its core leaders and engage with the core stakeholders related to its project. They must be able to satify their "cleints" and engergize those who need to implement or carry-on their ideas.

D. Ancona and H. Bresman (2007) in X-Teams: How to Build Teams that lead, Innovate and Succeed point out that a team must be consciously connected to its environment, cross its boundaries, and work for the good and overall success of the organization. In their view teams must:

1. Engage in high levels of external activity, particularly conducting scouting activities that provide an understanding of the "world" in which they exist and function, being ambassadors and creating links and working relationships with top management and others as needed, and cordinating the task well with the organization and its goals.

2. Combine high levels of external activity outside the team with exetreme execution inside the team, including having an open and safe team culture that allows for frank discussions, team reflection, and knowledge sharing.

3. Change their core tasks over the team's lifetime to enure that they do not get stuck in any one way of functioning. They explore and discover, expoit ideas by choosing a course of action, and then present, act and get others involved. They turn over their work to others.

So successful teams have to manage their internal and external arenas. So organizations cannot just focus on and reward individual, nor can leaders and team members cannot just be focused on the team itself. It is about the team as a unified entity gathering information from, and communicating, networking and collaborating with the organizational system--the organization as a knowing and producing enterprise.

What do you think are the challenges for teams to achieve these two functions? What competencies and skills do both team leaders and members have to have to do the above, and function well?

Week 6: Decision Making

Focusing on decision-making, let's take the previous discussion on organizational communication further.

Well-informed decision-making takes up-to-date information, sound knowledge, and practical wisdom. As Choo in the Knowing Organization points out, organizational knowledge creating activities involve importing knowledge, shared problem-solving, implementing and integrating new tools into its operations, and experimenting and prototyping (p. 152).

"The fundamental task of an organization is to integrate the knowledge and coordinate the efforts of its many specialized individuals. Four mechanisms for integrating specialized knowledge are rules and directives, sequencing, routines, and group problem solving and decision making (p. 196)."

The decision-making process works best when it is an "intentional" process that is both formal and informal, structured and unstructured, and reasoned and intuitive. It involves:

• Describing, clarifying and understanding the situation, issue, and/or problem.
  Identifying and articulating the causes and factors influencing the situation or issues.
• Compiling and critically analyzing the above, and collecting all of the data that is reasonably and realistically possible.
• Understanding one's biases, fears, self-interest in the situation, etc.
  Discussing information, questions, insights, etc. with colleagues and experts who have similar and opposing views, as well as with mentors.
• Outlining all possible solutions or decisions, and discerning the pros and cons of each.
• Discerning the ramifications and consequences of each solution or decision.
• Taking time to reflect and deliberate to eliminate non-workable possibilities.
• Making a choice from the viable possibilities.
• Assess and evaluate the outcomes.

How do you make professional decisions? What are the strengths and limitations of your process?

Chuck Piazza