Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage; greater than strategy, than finance or technology. People working in teams can achieve more than people working individually could ever imagine.
Here’s an experiment, that I’ve had much success with, in improving the performance of teams:
1) At a team meeting, ask each team member to have a short conversation with the person sitting to their right, answering the question: What do we do well as a team? What are our strengths?
2) Next, ask everyone on your team to anonymously rate from 1 to 10, how effectively you currently work together as a team, and how well you need to work as a team to be a truly effective team (1 is terrible and 10 is excellent). These two numbers can be written on pieces of paper and passed to one team member. Whoever receives the papers totals and averages the two scores. (For example, a recent team I worked with rated their current performance as a 6, and the desired performance a 9.) Then, post these two numbers – the average of where we are now; where we need to be, on a board, where everyone on the team can see them. (thanks to Marshall Goldsmith for a variation of this process.)
3) Then, ask the team, what are two activities or two behaviors that everyone on the team can do differently that would close the gap in the rating of where we are now, and where we need to be; that is, what are two things we can all do differently to make the team become more effective?
4) Write down everyone’s suggestions; then, agree on two behaviors that everyone can do differently.
5) Follow up – once a month for the following six months, check in with your team about how you are doing regarding these two behaviors. What are recent examples of making these changes? What are examples of not making these changes? After three months and after six months, ask every member of the team to anonymously rate how the team is functioning.
I find this to be a powerful process. For many teams, just focusing on how to improve the performance of the team can be eye-opening, sometimes a bit frightening, and can shift the team dynamics in subtle as well as not-so-subtle ways. This process is intended to reduce fears, reduce assumptions, and build trust.
For a deeper experience, you can also have everyone on the team meet in pairs, where each person asks every other person on the team: please tell me, what are two behaviors that I can do differently which would make our team more effective? Then, after meeting with every other team member, each person would report the two changes they are working to change. This activity requires a fair amount of trust, and is often more effective with the help of an outside facilitator.
