The Team-Building Workshop

A Trainer’s Guide

Team-Building Workshop, The

Author: Vivette Payne
Pub Date: 2001
Your Price: $35.00
ISBN: 0814470793
Format: Paperback

 


Chapter 2: When to Do Team Building

Team building begins with a perceived need. The success of team building depends upon establishing that it is the best way to meet the identified need. Both operating managers and trainers may wonder, are there factors that indicate a need for team building? Obviously any type of breakdown in teamwork is an indicator. But team building can also enable vigorous performance in meeting strategic challenges.

Team-Building Indicators

The following two assessments help identify the need to do team building. The Issue Identification Assessment (Figure 2.1) focuses on indicators of poor task execution and troubled interpersonal relationships. These are the traditional reasons teams engage in team building. For example, teams exhibiting poor communication, conflict, missed deadlines, low morale, or similar problems point to a need for team building. This assessment will help you pinpoint the specific issues that need to be addressed. The Strategic Impact Assessment (Figure 2.2) presents opportunities to do team building in response to strategic challenges or impending, or actual, change. Team members as well as the manager may complete the first assessment. The second assessment is designed for managers.

ASSESSMENT
Figure 2.1
ISSUE IDENTIFICATION ASSESSMENT
Please indicate the extent to which the following problems are impacting team effectiveness.
Not At All Some Impact High Impact
1. Low output and productivity. 1 2 3 4 5
2. Complaints within the team. 1 2 3 4 5
3. Confusion about roles. 1 2 3 4 5
4. Unclear assignments. 1 2 3 4 5
5. Lack of clear goals. 1 2 3 4 5
6. Low commitment to goals. 1 2 3 4 5
7. Lack of innovation. 1 2 3 4 5
8. Lack of initiative. 1 2 3 4 5
9. Problems working with the team leader. 1 2 3 4 5
10. People do not listen to each other. 1 2 3 4 5
11. People do not speak up and contribute ideas. 1 2 3 4 5
12. Lack of trust. 1 2 3 4 5
13. Decisions are made that people do not understand. 1 2 3 4 5
14. Decisions are made that people do not support. 1 2 3 4 5
15. People feel that good work is not recognized. 1 2 3 4 5
16. People feel that teamwork is not valued. 1 2 3 4 5
17. Different working approaches and styles inhibit collaboration. 1 2 3 4 5
18. People are not encouraged to work together. 1 2 3 4 5
19. There is favoritism with respect to assignments, how people are treated, etc. 1 2 3 4 5
20. People do not keep commitments. 1 2 3 4 5
21. Only a few people are involved in decisions. 1 2 3 4 5
22. Issues between team members remain unresolved. 1 2 3 4 5
23. Meetings are ineffective. 1 2 3 4 5
24. There is a lack of information sharing among all team members. 1 2 3 4 5
25. The team does not have good working relationships with other teams. 1 2 3 4 5

Total:______________________

Individual Scoring: Add up the scores for the twenty-five items. 100+ team building should be a top priority for your work unit. If you scored your team between 99ø75, you should seriously consider a team-building session. If you scored your team between 74ø50, there is some evidence that team building is warranted. This is particularly true if your score on seven to ten items is very high. If your score is between 49ø25, there is little evidence your unit needs team building.

Group Scoring: If you administered this checklist to an entire group, calculate the group average and use the same scoring parameters as described above. In addition, identify those questions that have a broad distribution of responses from low to high. For example, three individuals responded 1, two individuals responded 3, and four individuals responded 5 in answering to a particular question. This indicates a need to address the issue, either through team building or some alternative.

ASSESSMENT
Figure 2.2
STRATEGIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Please indicate the extent to which the following issues are impacting the team or are likely to impact the team over the next three to six months.
1. The team must deal with a major new challenge. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
2. A merger or acquisition has impacted roles, structure, lines of authority, values, etc. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
3. The organization is undergoing a major change and the team is having problems dealing with it. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
4. You, as the team leader, are new, or there are several new team members. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
5. The team needs to better align its goals with the organization's strategy and goals. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
6. The team is experiencing turnover and is losing high-quality individuals. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
7. There is a need to strengthen quality, customer satisfaction, technology utilization, global execution, or other aspects of performance. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
8. The team needs to agree on its strategic vision or clarify its shared values. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
9. A large-scale transformation is planned or underway that will impact the team in significant ways. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
10. The team is forming strategic alliances with other teams. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
11. The team needs to work better with other teams in a boundaryless way. Not At All Some Impact High Impact
12. There is a need to strengthen relationships with internal and/or external customers. Not At All Some Impact High Impact

Scoring: If you identified any of the twelve items as High Impact, you should consider team building. Team building can help the group determine how to address the issue and ensure its ongoing effectiveness. In some instances, for example, numbers 10 and 11, it is important to do the team building with other teams. To address such issues as numbers 2, 3 or 9, the team leader will need to work with his or her manager and other key stakeholders to clarify the issues that need to be addressed in team building.

Signs of Team Distress

Signs of distress exhibited by team members also indicate a need for team building. The following represent various dysfunctional behaviors that divert individuals from doing the work of the team. The more widespread these behaviors, the greater the urgency to do team building. These signs of distress are manifested by the following symptoms:

Team Distress Checklist
_ Irritability that diverts attention from work
_ Decreased communication
_ Reduced trust
_ Decreased directness and openness
_ Defensive behavior
_ Protective behavior
_ Blaming others
_ Reduced risk taking
_ Poor decision making
_ Absenteeism
_ Apathy or lack of interest
_ Undermining others' efforts
_ Complaints about lack of empowerment
_ Increased conflict
_ Complaints about other team members
_ Avoidance of team interaction, that is, meetings

The manager must determine if these symptoms are widespread or only manifested in the behavior of one or two team members. When symptoms are widespread, team building can help uncover and address the underlying issues. Otherwise, the manager needs to address these symptoms on an individual basis. It is important to remember that deeper issues cause these symptoms. A thorough understanding of the deeper problems is important and guides the design of the team-building session.

Readiness to Do Team Building

In today's changing business environment, teams find themselves with a need to seize opportunities to strengthen performance or deal expeditiously with problems. The urgency of improving team performance is an important consideration about whether or not to engage in team building. Likewise, dealing with signs of distress motivates a desire to do team building. Operating managers must consider both the high price of unresolved problems and the high cost of missed opportunities. Teams can jeopardize their current performance or fail to turn around poor performance because they delay team building. The failure to prepare for change or to deal with it responsibly can, over time, become a major setback.

Timing then is an important issue in deciding when to do team building. When operating managers resolve to tackle problems or seize opportunities, this is the first step toward readiness. It means that the price of maintaining the status quo is greater than the cost of investing time, energy, and resources in team building. However, because team building generates changes in the way the team works, managers must genuinely desire these changes and, in fact, be prepared to accept them. For example, the manager of a professional services team struggled with the need to do team building. She was comfortable involving herself in most of the team's decisions, sharing information selectively, and rarely exploring ways to improve services. But the pressure to provide faster service and stem growing customer dissatisfaction made action imperative. The manager recognized that reducing cycle time in responding to customers was crucial and that the team had to make this happen. She made the decision to engage in team building and, as a result, modify her leadership behavior. The Manager's Team-Building Readiness Assessment (Figure 2.3) helps managers assess their readiness to do team building. Even if the prior assessments strongly indicate a need for team building, the leadership attitudes and behaviors described in this assessment are critical for success.

ASSESSMENT
Figure 2.3
Figure 2.3
MANAGER'S TEAM-BUILDING READINESS ASSESSMENT
As a manager or team leader, you believe there may be a need for team building. Consider the following statements. To what extent are you ready to engage in team building?
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1. You are comfortable sharing leadership and power with team members. 1 2 3 4 5 0
2. You want members of your team to be involved in making decisions. 1 2 3 4 5 0
3. You want to involve everyone on your team in helping to meet business and competitive challenges. 1 2 3 4 5 0
4. You want your team to help set goals and determine priorities. 1 2 3 4 5 0
5. You want a more collaborative environment. 1 2 3 4 5 0
6. You are interested in getting feedback about your effectiveness so that you can do a better job leading the team. 1 2 3 4 5 0
7. You want your team to be more involved in resolving day-to-day problems without your involvement. 1 2 3 4 5 0
8. You want everyone to know how their work supports your organization's strategic goals. 1 2 3 4 5 0
9. You want the team to help you deal with operating problems or improve processes. 1 2 3 4 5 0
10. You want to improve information sharing between yourself and team members, as well as between team members. 1 2 3 4 5 0
11. You feel it is important to uncover and deal with sensitive issues that exist in your team. 1 2 3 4 5 0
12. You want to resolve operating or interpersonal problems that exist on the team. 1 2 3 4 5 0
13. You want to give your team an opportunity to discuss what's working well on the team and what needs to be improved. 1 2 3 4 5 0
14. You plan to make major changes and want to get your team's buy-in and support. 1 2 3 4 5 0
15. You believe the team is working below its potential and you want to understand why and address it as a team. 1 2 3 4 5 0

Total:______________________

Scoring: If your total score is between 53 and 75, you are probably ready to go ahead with a team building. If your score is between 38 and 52, talk the situation over with your team and others to see what needs to be done to get ready for team building. Examine closely the areas you rated below 3 and determine how to deal with this barrier to readiness. If your score is between 15 and 37, you are not prepared at the present time to engage in team building. Talk with an internal trainer, probably in human resources, who can help you identify what's hindering readiness.

When Not to Do Team Building

Chapter 1 defined team building as a vehicle for helping individuals work together better and accomplish important results. This chapter has presented indicators of the need for team building and readiness assessments. But you also need to consider when it is not appropriate to do team building. There are times when readiness is high and indicators are strong, but team building is not the right solution. For example, a team of environmental compliance officers was experiencing several signs of distress. Apathy, low morale, and lack of commitment to team goals were all evident. There was also confusion about roles and little shared decision making. The trainer, working with the team leader, identified all of these issues and initiated a discussion about the need to do team building. However, the manager knew he was going to be reassigned within the next sixty days. He and the trainer decided not to engage in team building, feeling that it would be of more benefit to do it with the new manager in place. The delay meant team building could be used in conjunction with leadership change and give the team a new start. This was a wise decision. When the team building was done, it proved to be of enormous benefit. There was a sense of a new start, and team members willingly tackled the issues. Team performance, including morale and commitment, were turned around as a result.

As this example illustrates, there are times when, despite all the indicators and the leader's readiness, it is advisable to delay team building. There are other situations in which team building is not the appropriate way to meet the team's needs. The following guidelines will help you identify situations in which it is not appropriate to do team building (Figure 2.4). Alternative strategies are recommended that will help the team get back on track or meet its needs.

This chapter described important prerequisites to engaging in team building. Although Chapter 4, Assess the Need, identifies how to target specific problems, the indicators discussed in this chapter are important warning signs. Sometimes they are so severe that the issues that need to be dealt with through team building are evident. But even in these circumstances, the team leader must be ready to engage in team building. Finally, it is important to use team building appropriately and find other ways to address issues team building cannot resolve.

HANDOUT
Figure 2.4
ALTERNATIVES TO TEAM BUILDING
The following guidelines indicate situations in which team building is not the appropriate intervention. For each situation an alternative strategy is offered.
When Not To Do Team Building Recommended Alternatives
Team members lack the skills required to do their job. Provide training for the team. This is appropriate when teams are having problems making decisions or communicating. Indicators of poor decision making, communication, priority setting, etc., should be explored to determine if training is required rather than, or in conjunction with, team building.
The team does not have the resources it needs. This is an issue teams may not be able to solve. You need to work with your boss to determine how to acquire the additional people, budget, equipment, or other resources the team needs to meet its goals.
Teamwork is not rewarded or reflected in the performance management system. This is an issue teams cannot resolve through team building. Identify things within the team's authority that can be done to reward teamwork. However, compensation and performance management systems are bigger issues. Let human resources and others know the extent to which these issues are impeding team effectiveness.
Individual performance problems are impacting team effectiveness. Individual issues need to be addressed independently of team building. Team building should not be done to handle performance issues. This can damage the morale of the entire team. Deal with these situations one-on-one.
The team is experiencing problems attracting or retaining individuals. This is not an issue that can be addressed through team building. Work with human resources and others to evaluate recruiting strategies, reasons for turnover, assimilation techniques, and other factors, and take the appropriate action.
Team members feel stuck and perceive there is a lack of opportunity for career growth and development. Organization-wide, companies need to put in place systems that allow individuals to develop their skills and talents. You should do all you can to provide growth and learning opportunities for team members. This includes making sure individuals assigned to cross-functional project teams get the full benefit of this experience. For intact teams, you can use rotational assignments and special projects to increase personal satisfaction.
You lack the technical or functional expertise or interpersonal skills required. You need to have the expertise required to win the respect of team members and effectively lead the team. Also, you need effective people management skills to facilitate group interaction. This can be addressed through training and coaching. Team building should not be conducted to help you acquire the skills required.
There is confusion about the team's authority. Although teams can clarify their shared purpose or mission, they may not be able to resolve problems related to their limits of authority. This is particularly true for cross-functional project teams or problem-solving teams. When appropriate, the management sponsors and the team leader need to agree on scope of authority, boundaries, and limits.
It is not possible to get all the team members involved in team building. Sometimes there are geographical or logistical factors that impede a team's ability to come together for team building. Alternatives include:
  1. ÊConvening a meeting of managers and supervisors and working with them to resolve issues. They can take the agreements back to their team.
  2. If time is scarce, focus the team building on the key issues, so you can conduct team-building activities as part of regularly scheduled meetings.
The team has had a bad experience with team building. In these situations, it is important to delay team building. Look for ways to set aside time in regular team meetings to help the team improve its effectiveness. As the team makes progress, it may become ready to engage in full-fledged team building.

© 2001 Vivette Payne.
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