Is There A You In Team Feb 25 2009 At The University Of Waterloo

Process Transformation • Project Excellence • Performance Metrics

Confidential

Is there a Is there a YOUYOU in in TEAMTEAM??

High performance teams as a High performance teams as a competitive tool for the competitive tool for the entrepreneurial business...entrepreneurial business...

Performance Advantage

• A Canadian Consulting company with international reach

• Focusing on helping public and private sector organizations achieve breakthrough levels of performance

• Strategy, Process Transformation, Program and Project Excellence, Customer and Stakeholder Management

• Industries– Health Care– Telecommunications– Financial Services– High Technology

Where we’ve worked...

Public Sector & Not For Profit

Presenter

Jim Love, FCMC, Managing Partner• Jim is a consultant who has worked internationally to help companies develop and

execute strategic plans• Expert in leveraging technology, process transformation and business strategy • Works with large multi-nationals and innovative startups (particularly “green tech”)• His approach is distinctly collaborative and team based• His work – both nationally and internationally -- has been featured in publications

such as the Cutter Journal. His consulting career has included roles as Global Vice President for DMR Consulting and Principal at Ernst & Young.

• He is the current president of CMC Canada’s Toronto Chapter

Our Expertise in the Topic

The Topic

• Today’s discussion is about “how to work in teams”

• As would be fitting for such as discussion – I want to try to tackle it as a team event.

• Some ground rules…

The Rules

Politeness Not Platitudes

Do I Look Like A People Person?

Ultimately, I don’t care whether you believe in

people or not. This is about results.

Ultimately, I don’t care whether you believe in

people or not. This is about results.

You can disagree with anything I say…

• We’re good with this?• Any other rules YOU

think we should have?

• Are you ready?

?

Let’s Get Started

???Break into

teams

Let’s do a little exercise to get us and running.

We’re talking about teams. Let’s get some “hands on” experience.

Let’s Get Started

???Break into

groups

Form into groups

Select a name.

Now we’re going to have a little team event..

The Rules

• Pair up with a member of another group

• The event is called “Thumb-Wrestling”

• You have one minute to get as many points as you can…

Results

What I Want To Cover…

1. The value of teams

2. Why we suck at teams

3. How we can do it better– Some tips to help you understand and change team

dynamics and behaviour– Group planning and facilitation techniques– Two sessions with an assignment in between

I want to leave you with at least 3 practical things that you can do to get

more out of your teams

I want to leave you with at least 3 practical things that you can do to get

more out of your teams

And your objectives?

???Objectives

What would you like to take away from this session?

And what do YOU bring to this discussion?

???Objectives

What are you prepared to contribute?

And what experience do you have that might be valuable to this team as we discuss this topic?

The value of teams

Do you think that teams have value to the entrepreneur?

If so – why? If not – why not?

Do you think that teams have value to the entrepreneur?

If so – why? If not – why not?

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The Power of Teams…

Any team…if it focuses on performance regardless of where it is in an organization or what it does – will deliver results well beyond what individuals acting alone in non-team working situations could achieve…

The Wisdom of Teams

‘Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.'

Michael Jordan

So why do we suck at it so much?

How can a team of committed managers with individual IQs above 120 have a collective IQ of 63?

Peter SengeAuthor of the 5th Discipline

How can a team of committed managers with individual IQs above 120 have a collective IQ of 63?

Peter SengeAuthor of the 5th Discipline

The reasons teams fail…

Top Reasons Teams Fail

Break off into teams – real teams this time

Do an honest review of your practicum team.

Put your results on the post it notes.

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Presentation…

Identify 3 issues that are blocking your team from achieving its full potential.

How have these affected your teams?

THEN do your discussion…NOT before!

Write them up. Put them up

Write them up. Put them up

Write them up. Put them up

Write them up. Put them up

Why teams fail to achieve their potential?

• Myths and misconceptions – we don’t really understand teams. We tend to mythologize them.

• We don’t really believe in teams – but we are politically correct or we like followers not a team.

• Team behaviour is not natural – it’s learned (or not). We need to be trained in team formation and team work.

Discussion

Does it even matter?

Senge thought it did

"Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations“

Peter Senge

So do I…

Increasingly a company’s real competitive advantage may rest on it’s ability to rapidly assemble teams, bring them quickly to optimum performance and disassemble them when they are no longer needed…

Jim Love

So what can we do?

• We can truly start to understand teams – We can dispel the myths. We can really understand what they are, how they are formed, the rules that govern team functions.

• We can cut the crap and start talking realistically about teams. We can start talking about teams not as something moral or inborn but as a way of working that has to be learned. We can honestly look at the barriers and address the reasons for failure.

• We can learn some of the skills that are needed to work effectively and practice them.

The Myths – And Myth Busting

Teams:• like each other• cover each other’s back• get along• spend time together• share common interests• have a lot in common• agree on things• need to have top talent• need a great leader

What is a team?

A team is a group of individuals pooling their collective talents, ability and effort in pursuing a shared goal or common purpose.

A team is a group of individuals pooling their collective talents, ability and effort in pursuing a shared goal or common purpose.

Breaking the Myths

• Great teams make each other uncomfortable

• They have strong discipline and expectations

• They can be extremely diverse

• They often disagree• Some teams never

meet

Any unanimous decision by a group is inevitably wrong.

Craig Hubley, --one of the developers of the Green Party’s Living Platform

Harnessing Diversity

The best teams harness their diversity and achieve synergy…and can be in a state on continual conflict.

Any unanimous decision by a group is inevitably wrong.

Craig Hubley, --one of the developers of the Green Party’s Living Platform

Teams Are Developed – Not Just Picked

• Teams develop in stages

• Attempting to skip a stage can cause the team to underperform

• Conflict is a normal and vital part of the development process

BruceTuckman 1965

1. Forming

2. Storming

3. Norming

4. Performing

Myth – Teams Must Be Collocated

• Virtual teams are often MORE productive than teams which are collocated

• An AT&T study showed savings of 100 million dollars per year

• Another study showed a gain of 25% in productivity and a 90% reduction in absenteeism

• In a recent HBR study, it was shown that virtual teams could:– Deliver in a fraction of the time and cost– In as little as 1/10th of time – For a little as 1/8th of the cost– Often delivered better results

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The Leadership Myth

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Collective Leadership – The Self Managed Team

Perhaps most puzzling is the strong impression of intentional centralized control. Yet all evidence indicates that flock motion must be merely the aggregate result of the actions of individual animals, each acting solely on the basis of its local perception of the world." - Craig Reynolds

Common Goals – Common Processes

• Some of us think that the real purpose of leadership is to help team members:– Challenge the group to stay true to those

things that work and discard those that don’t– Hold up a mirror when required – make the

process visible, manage with the force of facts, measure progress (or lack of it), confront issues

– Stay united behind a common purpose– Keep a focus on the end goal

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Facilitation And Self Managed Teams

They believed right from the start that there would be savings, I think the focus they provided proved this to be possible.

Peter Drucker

The best and the brightest are volunteers

The New Model Of Accountability

Low Control

High Accountability

Accountability – 7 Plus 1

1. Clear mandate and scope2. Sufficient authority and latitude to act3. Competence and skills 4. Resources commensurate with the

task5. Clear lines of accountability6. Understanding rights and obligations7. Relevant performance measures

…and ?????

Accountability – The Missing Link

Acceptance of Accountability

1. Clear mandate and scope

2. Sufficient authority and latitude to act

3. Competence and skills 4. Resources

commensurate with the task

5. Clear lines of accountability

6. Understanding rights and obligations

7. Relevant performance measures

The Talent Myth

If you don’t know where the bus is going – get the best people on the bus…

Jim Collins,

Good to Great

But is this realistic? After all – don’t many of us don’t get to choose the members of our teams.

Are they realistic for most of us?

If you don’t know where the bus is going – get the best people on the bus…

Jim Collins,

Good to Great

But is this realistic? After all – don’t many of us don’t get to choose the members of our teams.

We need solutions for the REAL World!

If you don’t know where the bus is going – get the best people on the bus…

Jim Collins,

Good to Great

But is this realistic? After all – don’t many of us don’t get to choose the members of our teams.

Is there a solution for those of us who live in the REAL WORLD?

Peter Drucker

The best and the brightest are volunteers

So Why Do We Always Get The Prize?

• Slacker • Skeptic• Promises, Promises• Apologist• The Questioner• Silent Witness• Born Leader• Sunshine• Boxer

Behavioural Archetypes

Some patterns of behaviour are so common – we can consider them as archetypes.

Archetypes

Primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered universal.

Britannica concise

Peter Senge brought this term to business in the

Fifth Discipline

Ingrained In Us All

We are almost “pre-programmed” to avoid successful collaboration.

It has to do with our perceptions and is rooted in how we communicate.

Our Filters Create Our Individual View Of The World..

We filter information in three ways. We:

Delete

Distort

Hallucinate

Noam Chomsky – Transformational Grammar 1957

Our Filters Create Our Individual View Of The World..

We filter information in

three ways. We:

Delete

Distort

Generalize

Combine that with our predisposition to attribute…

And we are always harsher with others…

Attribution – The Leaden Rule

In the absence of other information we attribute motive to behaviour. And we attribute more negative motives to others!

Oh, come on – hurry it up, will you?

What are your hot buttons?

???It drives me crazy when people ……

So Is It Real – Or Is It Our Unconscious Attribution?

• Slacker • Skeptic• Promises, Promises• Apologist• The Questioner• Silent Witness• Born Leader• Sunshine• Boxer

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Exercise time…

• Get into pairs• Ask the person next to you this question• Do NOT paraphrase• Write down their answer

Why did you choose your current line of work?

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What did they say?

Options• List of criteria• Opportunities, possibilities• Options and choices

Procedures• Didn’t really choose• Answers the question why by telling how• Gives the facts or a story

AT WORK approximately 40% are options people, 40% are procedures people and 20% are half and half.

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What happens when…

• An options person tries to talk to a process person in a crisis or under time pressure?

• What happens when there is no context to guide them?

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Exercise two…

• Back into pairs• Ask the person next to you this question• Do NOT paraphrase• Write down their answer

How do you know you have done a good job?

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What did they say?

Internal• They decide – “I know”• Evaluate on their own standards and criteria• Resist when someone tells them what to do• Outside instructions are taken as information

External• Other people OR external information (facts)• Compare to a standard• Outside information is taken as an order

AT WORK approximately 40% are Internal people, 40% are External people and 20% are half and half.

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What happens when…

• An internal person receives criticism?

• An external person is put in a situation where there is no feedback? Or it’s all “honest” but negative?

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The power of language…

There are fourteen of these divided into

• Motivation Traits – Language that people need to get and stay motivated OR what will demotivate them

• Working Traits – The internal mental processing that a person uses in a specific situation

How we see and interpret situations and people!

Shelle Rose Charvet - Behavioural Archetypes

Motivational Traits

• Pro-Active and Reactive• Toward and Away• Internal and External• Options and Procedures• Same and Different

Working Traits

• Specific and General• Self and General• Feeling, Choice, Thinking• Independent. Proximity,

Cooperative• Person and Thing• Rules• Convincer – See, Hear,

Read and Do

Impact Of These Archetypes

These patterns are so ingrained that they can be seen as archetypes of behaviour.

Recognize any of these in the patterns we discussed?

• Slacker • Skeptic• Promises, Promises• Apologist• The Questioner• Silent Witness• Born Leader• Sunshine• Boxer – “I will work harder”

Recap

The understanding

moves nothing …

Aristotle

Now that you know that these patterns exist, what do you do about it?

Three Suggestions

1.Build awareness – make unconscious patterns visible and disarm them.

2.Harness diversity – the power of AND

3. Build trust – change the game

Forming Checklist

Set clear goalsMake them

measurableDefine the scopeTake stock of

the resourcesList

assumptionsExplore risksAgree on any

deadlinesBut Do NOT fix

roles – yet!

Set clear goalsMake them

measurableDefine the scopeTake stock of

the resourcesList

assumptionsExplore risksAgree on any

deadlinesBut Do NOT fix

roles – yet!

Forming is an act of exploration!

It’s a time to define the questions! And the process!

Don’t jump to solutions!

Some Basic Rules of Engagement Can Be Set Here

Politeness Not Platitudes

You can disagree with anything I say…

Making It Visible – Declaring Our Patterns

Helps me hear?• Logic, proof and thought • I like to know there is a process that will take us

where we need to go• Honest about what YOU needWhat I need to BE heard• Time to absorb• Visual – pictures, symbols• Permission – outside signalsWhat shuts me down• Time pressures and deadlines

• Absence of reflection• Criticism and blaming• Not taking responsibility

Helps me hear?• Logic, proof and thought • I like to know there is a process that will take us

where we need to go• Honest about what YOU needWhat I need to BE heard• Time to absorb• Visual – pictures, symbols• Permission – outside signalsWhat shuts me down• Time pressures and deadlines

• Absence of reflection• Criticism and blaming• Not taking responsibility

Declare your patterns…

Commit yourself to paper…

What is Trust?

Three are three conditions which must be fulfilled for real trust to exist….

1. Perception of empathy and listening

2. Acting with integrity

3. Getting results

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Open It Up – Get Messy

Prepared for the storm. Sometimes it’s harder to be an ass if you are off of your

own.

Prepared for the storm. Sometimes it’s harder to be an ass if you are off of your

own.

Storming - If you can’t change the team, change the game!

• Remember your patterns!

• Don’t fall victim to attribution

• Who are you really competing with?– Game theory

– Nash’s equilibrium

Change the game (cont’d)

• Unanimity always sub-optimizes the result.

• Don’t drink the kool-aid!

• Embrace diversity

• The power of AND

You have to think OUTSIDE the box in consulting. Unfortunately, you have to

deliver IN the box.

You have to think OUTSIDE the box in consulting. Unfortunately, you have to

deliver IN the box.

Check your soft side at the door

Like teamwork, trust is built consciously and lost easily… If you consider it a functional necessity and not a moral imperative, you might be more successful at building and maintaining it.

Summary - Making Lemonade

Collaboration is the most effective way to achieve breakthrough performance – no matter where it is.

Our Focus Is Collaboration

Collaboration – builds sustainable relationships focused on a shared pursuit of one or more common goals or objectives.

Collaboration

Collaboration – is not a natural state. It is a learned behaviour and a conscious process that it built and constantly maintained.

It starts with awareness and agreement

Collaboration

Collaboration – is not a natural state. It is a learned behaviour and a conscious process that it built and constantly maintained.

It follows a process. A process you can improve with practice.

Recap

• What did you take out of this and what do you remember?

Group discussions

Thank You!

Process Transformation • Project Excellence • Performance Metrics

Confidential