The anchor of the team is the purpose of the team. Why does this group of people come together? Followed by, how do we work together.
If a team is not clear on its collective reason for being, its success will largely be down to chance. A meaningful and shared purpose, goal or objective is the driver. If a team is failing, the first question I ask is, "what is the purpose of this team?" In more cases than not the answer is vague, misunderstood or too lofty and ambiguous. It might be directionless like, "to deliver results" or ‘to execute our business plan’.
Remember
Ask yourself and your teams this question and see what comes up?
Is everyone clear?
If you need to do more work on this, do the team purpose or team charter course together.
Real teams align around challenging aspirations and meaningful goals. They have something to aim for that stretches them all, motivates and engages. With clarity around these goals or objectives, understanding the skills and expertise, as well as personalities of the team, you are more likely to form quickly and begin to perform.
Katzenbach and Smith talks of well-developed ways of working.
The sides of the triangle and the three internal triangles describe the elements and behaviours that enable the deliverables. For example; having a common approach and meaningful goals encourage commitment in the team members and that commitment, in turn, supports the collective work products and personal growth.
A later quotation from Jon Katzenbach explains how he believes that acting on these behaviours is far more important to improving the performance of the team than team-building.
Don’t fall into the belief that a group of highly paid, qualified people will naturally work together. In reality, without time and effort put into crafting and embedding ways of working, members are likely to switch their attention to more operational tasks run by their own departments or functions.
That is why I refer all leaders back to the team charter work.
Useful questions to explore are:
➤ Who leads on what?
➤ What skills do we have and what might be missing?
➤ How will gaps be plugged?
➤ How will we work together and to what timelines?
➤How do we deal with conflict?
➤ What information does the team need?
➤How will this be updated and how do we communicate with each other?
➤ How will decisions be made and by who?
➤How will we hold each other accountable?
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