The Wisdom Of Teams
The Wisdom Of Teams
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Definition: *
“A team is a small number of people with
complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance goals, and approach
for which they hold themselves mutually
accountable.”
* The Wisdom Of Teams, Katzenbach and Douglas, Harvard Business School Press, 1993.
Team Basics
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Key Concepts:
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“Small number of people” - Five is ideal, nine is too
many
“Complementary skills” - All experts
“Committed to a common purpose...” – Meaningful
purpose
...”performance goals, and approach”
“Hold themselves mutually accountable” – Not
managers overseeing them (autonomy)
Uncommonsense Findings
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Teams naturally integrate performance and
learning.
Teams are the primary unit of performance
for increasing numbers of organizations.
Resistance to Teams
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Lack of conviction or clear purpose
Personal discomfort with groups and risk
avoidance
Individual contributors vs. team players
Questions to Ask to Make
Teams Effective
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Small enough in number:
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To convene, communicate easily and frequently?
To have open and interactive discussions?
To understand everyone’s roles, skills, needs?
Questions to Ask to Make
Teams Effective
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Adequate levels of complementary skills?
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Functional/technical, problem-solving/decision
making, interpersonal
New skills needed?
Diverse enough?
Questions to Ask to Make
Teams Effective
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Specific Goals?
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Unique to the team?
Clear, simple, measurable?
Realistic as well as ambitious, challenging?
Priorities clear?
Questions to Ask yo Make
Teams Effective
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Sense of mutual accountability:
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Individually and jointly accountable for team purpose,
goals, approach, and work products?
Can progress be measured against specific goals?
Is there a sense that “only the team can fail,” not
individuals?
Approaches to Building
Team Performance
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Collaboration improves when the roles of team
members have clearly defined and
understood.
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Even better when people feel their role is bounded in
ways that allow them to to do a significant part of the
work independently (AUTONOMY)
More likely to collaborate if the path to achieving a
goal is left somewhat ambiguous (AUTONOMY,
problem-solving challenge)
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Leader or coordinator’s role is to ensure that
roles and responsibilities are clearly
defined for each specific project.
Leader or coordinator’s role is to ensure that
each team member understands a project’s
purpose, importance (urgency), and objectives
(PURPOSE)…
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… but leave the exact approach to the discretion of
team members
Instituting a Team-Based Approach
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Teams must be supported by effective systems:
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Management assigns mission.
Team writes charter, decides on approach.
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Team evaluates progress, reports it.
Meets regularly as a team (online or in person).
Team evaluates its own performance.
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Effective post-mortems on each section
Team debriefs after project completion.
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Satisfaction surveys (internal and external)
Performance coaching
Feedback to individual members. Kaizen
Team disbands, regroups, or continues.