Posts Tagged ‘team working’

Creativity is an important aspect in any team that is aiming to deliver great results.  If you have two teams and one plays it safe within the boundaries of what they already know and another one that is always seeking to test the possibilities, chances are that the latter will have more success.

 

So how can you unlock the creativity in teams so that they contribute to great results?

 

Brainstorming

 

Brainstorming is a highly effective technique where team members initially put forward ideas freely without discussion and debate.  These ideas are then reviewed to establish which are likely to have the greatest impact and also to determine the challenges and obstacles to making the ideas reality.

 

Ask lots of questions

 

Questions are often the thing that can really help a team shift to a new level.  However, not any old question will do.  Questions that are likely to open up possibilities and unlock creativity are likely to be short, forward focussed and non threatening.  Examples include:

 

• What’s possible?
• What matters?
• What do we need to do?
• What’s the first step?
• What else?

 

Think big picture

 

Detail has its time and place but when in the creative space, you want to be keeping the focus on the big picture, the end game or vision.  Holding this as the focus will encourage people to push the boundaries.

 

Encourage real active listening

 

We all love to get our point across, be heard and be the person who comes up with the breakthrough.  At the same time if everyone is focusing on what they want to say, chances are no one is really listening and when no one is listening things get missed or lost in the noise.

 

Don’t stereotype

 

On a team, especially if it is cross functional, it is really easy to fall into the trap of stereotyping folks.  You know the scenario, only the marketing folk are creative, the accountants are only interested if it makes a payback quickly, the human resources folks are only worried about what it means for staff, the production folks are only interested in top specification, etc.  Remember, people are not so limited as job roles would have you believe, so embrace and use the diversity of views.

 

Bottom Line – All breakthroughs come from an idea so what do you need to be doing differently to unlock the creativity in your teams?

 

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professionals improve leadership and management skilss and team working.  For information about services and programmes click here 

When teams are in flow and upbeat they are able to deliver results with ease.  I know during my career in large organisations that there were times when it felt easy.  At the same time I know that these instances are few and far between.  So why is this?

 

Reason 1: Personal egos get in the way

 

I am sure the majority of people have come across this one.  It is those times when people on the team are more interested in how they look or are viewed by others than the team objective.  It becomes a competition that has little benefit to the team.  Surprising as it might seem, the more senior the people on the team are, the more likely that this type of power struggle arises.

                 

Reason 2: Turf protection

 

We all know our own area of the business or organisation really well.  When we go into a team our experiences to date or the norms of our function significantly influence the way we look at things.  As a result people tend to be resistant to anything that might result in more work or change in their area.  When this turf protection mindset is replicated across a team stalemate can easily arise.

 

Reason 3: Negative attitudes

 

Teams are often established in order to respond to a particular difficulty or challenge that the organisation is facing.  Sometimes the members are so focussed on the obstacles and the difficulties of the challenges just about everyone starts to become negative.  When this happens it is difficult to make any significant progress.

 

Reason 4: No one wants to take a decision

 

The leader should take the decisions- right?  As this often happens most of the time, people when asked to work together find it to take decisions collectively.  This can easily result in a situation where there is a lot of talking, little decision and as a result little action.

 

Reason 5: The wrong people are on the team

 

Another challenge is when people are put on a team not because they are the best person to be part of it but because they have some spare capacity.  A variation on this is where senior people are asked to be on a team but don’t participate and always send a deputy.  While there is nothing wrong with someone deputising, the deputy might be reluctant to make major decisions which can hold up progress.

 

Bottom Line –  Getting teams to work together and deliver results is a real challenge.  What steps do you need to take to improve team working in your organisation?

If you are a leader you will be leading at least one and in reality probably multiple teams.  Building a successful team is a challenge but there are some simple things that you can do to greatly enhance the likelihood of success.

Be clear on the results

If you are to have any chance of building a successful team you need to start by getting clear about the outcome or result that is to be achieved.  The result needs to be specific and written in a language that will be understood by everyone.  Remember that vague specification of results is likely to lead to okay but less than optimal outcomes.

Be clear about the skills you need

A successful team needs to have the right blend of skills to deliver the results.  A soccer team for example needs the right mix of defensive, attacking and creative players.  A business team is no different.  Get clear on the essential skills to deliver the results you want.

Be clear about the attributes that are needed

Skills are important but they are only part of what helps you achieve results.  Attributes or interpersonal qualities are just as important.  They include areas like motivation, influencing, relationship building, personal drive and resilience to name just a few.  Make sure that you don’t lose sight of having the right attributes when building your team.

Bring out the best in everyone

It’s all too easy to pigeon hole people or make up what they can or cannot do based on their job title.  You know the kind of things that people say day in day out like marketing are the only creative folks, accountants won’t take any risks, quality assurance get in the way, human resources are too rules based to name just a few. 

Make a point of finding out what people can bring to the table rather than just guessing what they can or cannot do.

Recognise that it takes time

No team ever leaps immediately from forming to performing.  They go through a series of stages where they move forward, move back, work together, have conflict and hit obstacles.  Accept this and see it as a short term setback for a bigger long term gain.

Bottom Line – Teams can deliver great results.  So what do you need to do differently as a leader to get more success from teams?

As a leader you recognise that more can be achieved collectively than you could individually.  Yet in my experience, leaders often make mistakes that stifle rather than encourage performance.  Are you making one or more of these mistakes?

Mistake 1: Holding on to things out of habit rather than neccessity.

Mistake 2: Playing at pretend empowerment where you keep interfering and checking up.

Mistake 3: Having to be right and so not listening effectively to others contributions.

Mistake 4: Needing to be liked rather than respected and letting popularity cloud your decision making.

What else would you add to the list?  Go ahead and leave your comment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps orgnisations to get great results through teams.  To find out more click here

When leading workshops, training or speaking about teams, I often get people to think about what the key characteristics are of the best teams.

Without exception, having a common goal is one of the first things that people tend to highlight. So why are goals seen as so powerful when it comes to team working?

Firstly a goal gives everyone a clear and specific outcome to aim for.  The team knows what is trying to deliver and has a clear direction of travel.

Secondly, delivering the goal, especially if it is going to make a big difference to a number of stakeholders becomes a huge desire for those in the team.  This desire drives the team on, even when things are tough.

Thirdly a common goal breaks down the barriers of which function or specialism people work in and shifts the attention to delivering the result.

We all know that teams have huge potential to deliver great results.  How has the existence or lack of a goal impacted on the results your team delivers?

Delivering a training course recently, I was really impressed how one group used real life comparisons to illustrate some of the characteristics of the best teams.  As an example, one pointed to one of the reasons a choir works so well is that everyone has a very clearly defined role.  Team members in business teams also need to have clearly defined roles.

So often it is all too easy to fall into the trap of looking at things such as business challenges through a limited business lens.  I wonder just how many more ideas we could generate if we simply looked beyond a single lens and drew on the wealth of experiences that we all have.

We all have experienced times when we were part of a great team and there are other times when we struggle along in isolation.  In my experience there are 6 main benefits of team working:

1. More creativity leading to more ideas and better results
2. Increased employee satisfaction
3. The opportunity to develop and acquire new skills
4. The speed at which things can be achieved
5. A sounding board for testing out ideas and thoughts
6. A support network that you can draw on

What do you consider to be some of the additional benefits of team working?

For the exhaustive reference on working with, leading and managing teams, check out the special pre-release on my latest book. If you are serious about your team, don’t miss this special Click here for more details