Kickstarting a Brand New Team
Kickstarting a Brand New Team
In high performance organizations with project-oriented environments, ad hoc teams are becoming the norm. Examples are companies like Levi Strauss, ABB, and 3M.
Temporary teams differ from permanent teams. Most importantly, they have high demands placed on them to produce results quickly and then disband. Their mandate and authority (e.g. can they make final decisions? can they implement them?) are often unclear. And if the team is also cross-functional, it will have complex goals affecting many parts of the organization and beyond.
And then there are the team members! They come with varying degrees of commitment, different agendae, functional backgrounds, perspectives, and loyalties. But they all wonder whether their efforts here will be rewarded at performance review time.
The ad hoc team faces a unique challenge. It must sort out its human dynamics issues early, get everyone aligned on a common mandate, and build the genuine commitment of all members to that goal quickly! devote to the project. They need to get on with the task–asap!
Yet, again and again experience has shown that when team members do not address the human dynamics part right at the beginning, team performance suffers seriously later on.
So, what should your project or ad hoc team do to maximize its performance? Its first meeting is crucial. Plan to invest just one day, up front, on its “process” issues. This initial session should be facilitated by a skilled person who is not a team member. As a guide, here is what my one-day “kickstart” program typically covers:
Purpose/mission
Why was the team created? What goals and deliverables (e.g. design a process to reduce wastage by 18%) are expected of it? Ensure that all members understand and accept these objectives and their related time-lines.
Champion(s)
To which manager, board or steering committee does the team report? What support has this champion promised? What information/updates do they expect from the team? How will the team liaise with the champion?
Team Members
What skills, knowledge, and experience do they bring? Identify and discuss each person’s hopes, desired benefits, expectations, concerns, and initial degree of commitment to the team. Make it OK not to be committed at the outset.
Operating Guidelines
Determine how leadership will operate within the team. Is there one leader? What is his/her role? How will the team make decisions? How often will they meet? How will they communicate amongst one another? What is expected of each member? Can someone miss a meeting? What happens if someone fails to meet a commitment?
Next steps
Now it is time to turn the group to its task. Here members start developing a plan of action and assign responsibilities. The day should end with this underway.
The above fills a very productive day. A facilitator will fast track the team to performance by:
What about your temporary teams? Can they afford a slow acceleration to maximum performance?
Kickstarting a Brand New Team - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Cook's Website.
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Do you remember the last time you attended the initial meeting of a new task force or project team at work? No one could agree on the goals. A couple of people complained about all their other work demands. Someone was pushing a personal agenda to become the team “leader.” After a couple of hours of struggle, with the “team’s” wheels totally spinning, you began to ask yourself why you were here.
In high performance organizations with project-oriented environments, ad hoc teams are becoming the norm. Examples are companies like Levi Strauss, ABB, and 3M.
Temporary teams differ from permanent teams. Most importantly, they have high demands placed on them to produce results quickly and then disband. Their mandate and authority (e.g. can they make final decisions? can they implement them?) are often unclear. And if the team is also cross-functional, it will have complex goals affecting many parts of the organization and beyond.
And then there are the team members! They come with varying degrees of commitment, different agendae, functional backgrounds, perspectives, and loyalties. But they all wonder whether their efforts here will be rewarded at performance review time.
The ad hoc team faces a unique challenge. It must sort out its human dynamics issues early, get everyone aligned on a common mandate, and build the genuine commitment of all members to that goal quickly! devote to the project. They need to get on with the task–asap!
Yet, again and again experience has shown that when team members do not address the human dynamics part right at the beginning, team performance suffers seriously later on.
So, what should your project or ad hoc team do to maximize its performance? Its first meeting is crucial. Plan to invest just one day, up front, on its “process” issues. This initial session should be facilitated by a skilled person who is not a team member. As a guide, here is what my one-day “kickstart” program typically covers:
Purpose/mission
Why was the team created? What goals and deliverables (e.g. design a process to reduce wastage by 18%) are expected of it? Ensure that all members understand and accept these objectives and their related time-lines.
Champion(s)
To which manager, board or steering committee does the team report? What support has this champion promised? What information/updates do they expect from the team? How will the team liaise with the champion?
Team Members
What skills, knowledge, and experience do they bring? Identify and discuss each person’s hopes, desired benefits, expectations, concerns, and initial degree of commitment to the team. Make it OK not to be committed at the outset.
Operating Guidelines
Determine how leadership will operate within the team. Is there one leader? What is his/her role? How will the team make decisions? How often will they meet? How will they communicate amongst one another? What is expected of each member? Can someone miss a meeting? What happens if someone fails to meet a commitment?
Next steps
Now it is time to turn the group to its task. Here members start developing a plan of action and assign responsibilities. The day should end with this underway.
The above fills a very productive day. A facilitator will fast track the team to performance by:
- providing structure and leadership
- training members on group dynamics
- helping them through the startup energy-draining issues around power
- ensuring that they stay focused
What about your temporary teams? Can they afford a slow acceleration to maximum performance?
Kickstarting a Brand New Team - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Cook's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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