BUILDING TEAMS: A NINE-STEP APPROACH
by Don Phin
Follow these nine steps from Don Phin and you’ll build powerful teams.
I’m often asked to facilitate what we will refer to as “team building.” This need usually arises during a merger or acquisition, in forming a new company, or in dealing with a dysfunctional business environment.
Here are nine timeless principles that I employ in building teams:
1. The team comes first. Just ask the New England Patriots. All of us have seen sports teams loaded with superstars who fail to win the big games because they’re more focused on individual performance than the collective effort. If a partner or team member has a “me first” attitude, they can work elsewhere. This team stuff isn’t for everyone.
2. Engage in win/win thinking. Whether for good or bad, right or wrong, Americans are so competitive by nature that winning at all cost seems to be a perfectly acceptable mantra — sucking energy from others so that you can succeed is simply the nature of business. Not so if you want to have an effective team! Remember: “A rising tide floats all boats.”
In his eye-opening book, The Case Against Competition, Alfred Cohen points out that when it comes to teams, we should focus on cooperation, not competition. We can compete against those outside the team, but certainly not within it. Again, this doesn’t mean that all team members have all the same responsibilities or the same compensation structures; it does mean that they should receive equal, and respectful, treatment. After all, they’re teammates!
3. Be clear up front about your commitments. Assuming that everyone will follow team rules is guaranteed to produce failure and resentment. For example, if you’ve played team sports for your entire life, your perception of what constitutes team play will differ from that of someone who has never played on a sports team. Build mutual rules, commitments, values, or understandings through dialogue and consensus.
In game theory, there’s a classic story of the Prisoners’ Dilemma. For example, assume that two men are arrested for robbing a bank. The police separate them immediately and offer each one a deal, saying, “we’ll let you go or give you a lighter sentence if you rat out your partner.” Because the prisoners failed to define their commitments under such circumstances up front, they now find themselves wondering what the other guy will do. Inevitably, one or both will crack, believing that they’re more committed to the relationship than the other person is. If your team members are to trust each other, they must define and honor their commitments up front and in writing.
4. Treat every team member with equal respect. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, graduate students were able to define with 90% accuracy the success of a marriage by watching a couple during conflict for less than three minutes! These students focused on this “thin slice” of critical information: Whether or not one party was condescending toward the other during the conflict. Or, conversely, did they treat each other as equals who simply disagree? Although you wouldn’t treat a sibling or friend as “lesser than” just because they have a lower title or earn less than you, such treatment is often the norm in a business environment.
5. Make sure that the team is clear on its direction. Ask yourself if everybody is on the same page — whether you call it vision, mission, or goals. For example, in trying to strengthen a team among the staff of an insurance brokerage, I asked each employee what was the most important thing they did. Broker after broker gave a technical response. Then I asked the agency principal (who happened to out-earn all the other brokers combined) what he viewed as the most important thing that he did. His response opened my eyes: “The most important thing I do every day is make other people feel good about themselves.” When I asked him how he did this, he replied, “That’s easy! You just find the good in them. If you make a person feel good about themselves, they’ll work long and hard for you, or buy anything from you .
Now, when we ask these brokers what’s the most important thing they do, they all have the same response — as do the customer service reps and the administrative staff. That’s a team going in the same direction.
6. Remember the “Rule of Seven.” Anthropological studies of everything from hunter-gatherer groups to military organizations have shown that it’s very difficult to create a cohesive team with more than seven members. Tom Peters often points out that no division of an organization should be more than 50 people, broken down into seven groups of seven. Ma Bell created seven-digit phone numbers because the human mind has a difficult time managing more than seven inputs at a time. So, when building teams, keep the magical Rule of Seven in mind.
7. Eliminate dysfunction and drama from teams. Begin by addressing everyone’s fears and concerns. For example, if the existing members of a team are concerned that the new folks won’t play by the same set of rules, you can reduce this concern by identifying the rules and asking if they have any questions about them. At the same time, the new folks might fear that the best practices they have developed will be ignored by the existing team because of their reluctance to change. Eliminate these fears by agreeing that the higher thought or best practices, not the existing way of doing things, will govern.
Once you place such issues on the table, rather than keeping them buried, you can deal with them. As Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
8. Conduct exercises that expose the challenges among teams. For example, I ask people what’s the most important thing that they do every day and then have them rank the top three or five. I then ask how others can support them in this effort. Doing this throughout the team creates an incredible awareness and support structure.
Here’s another interesting exercise that I’ve done with everyone from partners, to couples, to work teams: First, I ask each person to write down all of those things that their significant other, partner, team member, or subordinate wishes that they would do differently. This list will probably be fairly accurate. I then ask the participants to exchange lists. Again, the chances are no participants would be missing much. The question then becomes, “If you know this to be the case, why don’t you feel that it’s important enough to try to make a difference? Or, if you are trying to make a difference, have you been as effective in the effort as you hoped for? Is it time to try something else?”
9. Finally, be sure to reinforce and reward team conduct. If your team is hitting home runs, make sure to celebrate them. If there are challenges, make it safe for people to come forward by inviting them and thanking them for doing so. The last thing that you want is for a team member to sit mired what I call a “culture of silence” because they fear speaking up for themselves.
Follow these nine steps — and you’ll build powerful teams.