Team Effectiveness & Development

Team Effectiveness

& Development

“Most organizations are over-managed and under-led.”

- John Kotter, Harvard Business School

In his 1996 book, Leading Change, this famous quote by John Kotter unfortunately remains true in many organizations today. Our philosophy on why this is still the case is that organizations can only be as effective as their leadership teams - as teams not individuals. Therefore, our approach to team effectiveness is based on this core principle and is not solved for by traditional, one-shot, “team-building” approaches.

Our methodology requires a systematic process including assessment, focus and disciplined execution. It is grounded and substantiated in the work of Patrick Lencioni, Jon Katzenbach & Douglas Smith.* However, our process also integrates the alignment of organization culture to the chosen market leadership strategy. It also leverages the unique and common talents of all team members to fulfill a collective team purpose. In our opinion, this is the best and most expeditious way to achieve extraordinary organizational goals.

Purpose of Team Effectiveness & Development

To build cohesive, high-trust teams inspired to work together to achieve aggressive team goals, enable more productive organizational engagement, and collectively build an energized culture where colleagues can thrive and achieve their own personal visions.

In our opinion, a high-performance management team, which inspires a passionate and productive culture, is characterized by the following five key principles:

Shared purpose and values
High trust of team leader and team members towards one another
Ability to put the tough issues on the table and resolve them effectively
High confidence that peers are committed to decisions made
Mutual accountability for both overall results and optimal performance of individual member functions

Outcomes

Our systematic and focused approach to team development enables teams to:

Create consciousness of the team’s impact on culture and engagement, and its level of cohesiveness
(See Culture Change & Assessment and Customized Tools)
Generate awareness of each member’s talents and effectiveness both as a team member and
functional team leader
Leverage each others talents, skills, and experience for the benefit of the team and self
Commit to high impact change and culture initiatives to increase organization effectiveness
Provide objective data on team progress and opportunities to calibrate initiatives to continually foster
mutual accountability and skill development

*Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Jossey Bass, 2002
*Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, The Wisdom of Teams, Harvard Business School Press, 1993

Sample Process and Assessment Tools

Ilene Patasnik & Associates, LLC has access to many standardized and custom assessment tools to measure team and organization effectiveness. However, in all cases, the results of these assessments are presented in a way that powerfully demonstrates the current impact of a leadership team on the productivity of the organization. In our experience, this compelling data provides the catalyst for change. It also establishes an objective baseline to measure the team’s progress in a quantifiable and consistent manner.

A sample team development process will:

Use either Lencioni’s “Table Group Team Self-Assessment” or a custom team assessment tool, followed by
   targeted interviews, to contextualize the data. We seek to uncover the most important issues that are
   currently de-railing a team’s effectiveness. The workshop design is heavily focused on resolving the most
   important team issues which are surfaced
Utilize the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Model to enable team members to learn the importance of mutual
trust, constructive conflict, commitment, and mutual accountability for achieving collective team goals.
Focus on building team trust by using numerous trust models including the concepts in The Speed of Trust
by Stephen M.R. Covey which proves greater ROI results from high trust teams
Surface any concerns or impediments to accelerate trust levels of the team members
Raise and resolve any potential decision-making issues in a “matrix” environment

Develop an “interdependent” team purpose statement that will galvanize a team, accelerate any necessary
   cultural changes, and provide a clear, collective, and measurable purpose for team. Using the survey data
   results as impetus, this results in creating energy to inspire the team to work together to fulfill their
   mission and drive the right cultural changes

Apply Gallup’s “Talent Theory” to deepen the team’s understanding of how to better capitalize on one
another’s strengths and experiences and to build and leverage capabilities across the team. This helps
shift a team’s thinking from independence to interdependence.
Implement either a “One Key Issue” survey (See Custom Organization Assessments) to surface and
   resolve any issues or processes that may be impeding organization success. Or, alternatively, implement
   an "Organization Culture Assessment" (See Culture Change and Assessment) to understand if the current
   culture is supporting or hindering the organizations market leadership strategy.
Commit to “new” team behaviors that will accelerate becoming a high-performance team that leverages
   each others talents and holds each another mutually accountable for team goals. This results from the
   Team Self Assessment, StrengthsFinder Team Profile, Key Issue Survey, and/or Organization Culture
   Assessment.
Re-organize team meeting agendas and objectives as the team moves forward. The agendas are typically
   re-focused on achieving the team’s purpose, reaching collective team goals and measuring progress against
   cultural changes and team goals. A shift from “operational/tactical” meetings to more “strategic/ problem-
   solving” meetings is commonly a team commitment.

A sampling of team assessment tools and techniques are: