What We Talk About When We Talk About Teams

What do you mean when you use the word team (in the context of your daily working world)?

From the dictionary.com

1. a number of persons associated in some joint action: a team of advisers.
2. two or more horses, oxen, or other animals harnessed together to draw a vehicle, plow, or the like.
one or more draft animals together with the harness and vehicle drawn.

From Merriam Webster

1. crew, gang
2. a coordinated ensemble

From the BusinessDictionery.com

A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project.

From About.com

Functional or departmental teams: Groups of people from the same work area or department who meet on a regular basis to analyze customer needs, solve problems, provide members with support, promote continuous improvement, and share information.

Belonging to a successfully functioning team is fab on so many levels -- for both worker bees and management (AKA Les Grand Fromages). Happy, involved, motivated artisans mean greater, more efficient production levels. Members of a successfully functioning team get, amongst other things, the sense that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. They’re not just numbers, punching a clock -- they’re involved and invested in the company’s, the organization’s success. That's always made me feel good.

What do the Les Grand Fromages get? Higher, more fruitful production levels (more profit!) and fewer daily headaches.

So, you’re a manager, a COO, a company owner or some other sort of LGF and you want that whole team thing going on (not just the smell of it ). Why? Ask yourself what your specific hope/idea/plan is.

Then, and be honest with yourself, do you sincerely want to hear and act on the recommendations of your employees, your team? Is your company really up for/able to make change vs minor shifts? Is a certain amount of risk taking understood and cool? Do you value innovative thinking, new ideas and ways of doing things?

Don’t throw the word 'team' around like so many Mardi Gras beads and doubloons unless you actually mean it. Toss 'team' around promiscuously and you’re seen as a buzz word spouting, out of touch manager AND you run the full on risk of blowing up all future efforts as well. For rillz and shit.

To form a successful, happening team there’s got to be buy in from BOTH worker bees and management.

What’s this buy in look like?

From the management side:

* Did you, Mr. or Ms. LGF, hire the most appropriate person for each role, the jobs you need done? That is, do you have a goal driven, upbeat Type A sort with more than a soupçon of Type B mixed in as your Customer Service Manager/Team Leader or is that person more of a Type C (programmer/accountant) or D (Line Worker)?

If you didn't hire that A/B Type for this role, you need to get all self reflecting on your good self. Why are you shooting yourself in the ass here?

* Are you, as LGF, constant in your support of the team  -- what they need whether it's equipment, people or time?

* Does this team you’re hiring/forming understand what they can and cannot do? That is -- what are the boundaries, financial and otherwise? How far, how high can they go to keep the customer satisfied?

* Are the results of the team’s efforts seeable/knowable? They should be. Everyone wants to see the results of their efforts.

* Do you give kudos to the team as a group and individually when hurdles are cleared and goals are reached? Remember, live and in person ‘attaboys’ are much more meaningful/come off as way more sincere.

* Get feedback, both negative and positive. Interview your supervisors, department leads and producers openly. How do they think it’s going. What do they think of their team’s efforts? What do they think of your support? Get the good and the bad BOTH.

As for the team members:

* Do they want to play an active team type role or just clock in, do their assigned tasks and clock out?Are they psyched or reluctant?
* Does everyone understand what their roles entail? Do they know what’s expected of them -- actions, quantity, quality, time frames and the like?
* Does the team have the aggregate knowledge, skills and ability to tackle their goals and are all the members aware of this?
* Is there smooth cooperation between teams/departments? If not, why not? Fix it NOW if you want success.
* Is everyone down with the established priorities and goals? Did the players on the field have a hand/a say in crafting those babies?
* Do they see their contributions as valuable both to the company AND to their own career hope and dreams?
* Do employees fear a slap in the face with a three day dead carp if they say the wrong thing/step outta the box/fail to blow enough smoke up management’s pant-leg/skirt? If so, there's not going to be buy in OR creative problem solving brainstorming going down.

* Within any one department and inter-departmentally, is open communication and idea sharing actively encouraged?

There are many different layers to every company/organization. Success isn’t all due to one CEOs grand biz sense. Goodness, no! Accomplishment, achievement, the mondo spondoolicks are always a group effort. Even for genius’ like Steve Jobs.