Is your team effective? Key categories for success

There are 5 key areas or categories that need to be functioning in order for a team to work and be effective:

1. Mission, vision and goals 
2. Team roles
3. Operating processes
4. Interpersonal relationships 
5. Interteam relationships

A description of the first three categories was described in my previous post.

1. Mission, vision and goals
2. Team Roles
3. Operating Processes

Now comes the tricky part and often times the most rewarding part - your people.

4. Interpersonal Relationships
For effective teamwork to occur, interpersonal relationship must be of high quality. Each groups member needs to be fully interactive with every other group member. A high level of trust is required if problems are to be solved and group work is to be satisfying.

Ineffective groups often have poor interpersonal relationships. Members may be cautious in their disclosures and unwilling to take interpersonal risks. Constructive feedback may not be an operating norm. Until all of the interpersonal relationships are dealt with, it will be close to impossible for a group to function effectively and solve problems as an authentic team.

5. Interteam Relationships
One of the most serous drains on organizational energy results when departments or devisions within the same organization compete inappropriately.  The more specialized various work groups become, the more difficult the problems of coordination become.  Research suggests that from variables are at the root of cooperation between groups:

1. Time orientation: depending on the nature of the work, groups operative with different time frames
2. Goal orientation: different groups have different goals
3. Interpersonal orientation: some groups emphasize task-oriented styles while others have relationship-orientated styles
4. Internal formal structure: some groups have more written policies, systems, and controls for performing their work.

Theres differences can serve to weaken intergroup relations.

Think of your different areas of responsibilities.  Are there different groups with conflicts? Think of what could be the root cause? It can be rampant in libraries. Think of your Marketing department and its timelines and the different work structures in I.T.  Then add the general public into the mix and you can see that interterm relationships can often be improved.

Real-life Scenarios:
To make this information come alive, think of personal scenarios that people can relate to easily. Family gatherings can often be used to start conversations. Listen to people after large family gatherings and you often hear of people coming late, bringing an extra guest, there are some interpersonal relationships that have been festering for years, and there is little formal structure UNLESS there is a strong leader (in my experience, the matriarch).  She let's people know what to bring to the family gathering, when things will happen, she will deal with those who don't live up to the time, goals of the event, and she will certainly deal with interpersonal issues and interterm (inter-family) issues.  In short, she runs a tight ship and there is respect and a healthy outcome - family time together.  It may or may not be a big love in, but it works.

Do many of your team watch or participate in sports? Bring that forward for discussion. Curling has become very popular and since I curl, I sometimes use it to demonstrate the five important elements. While not everyone has played the sport, the size of the team is small and the goal of the game is easily explained.  More importantly, curling fulfils the 5 elements clearly:

1. Mission, vision, goals:  The mission is to win the game.  Each end of the game has a goal, and every team member knows the goal.  Every shot is visualized and all of these elements are used to make a successful team.  There are know different games in curling -- doubles and skins have different goals to fulfil of the mission of winning. 
2. Team Roles: every team member has a specific role and every team member is involved in each and every short. Poor shots can be saved through good sweeping or by having the skip to change thinking as a result and call "plan B." Every team member knows that communication is key and there is frequent feedback between members and especially the skip. 
3. Operating processes: the team knows the rules. No discussion. Problem solving and decision making is left to the skip (captain) unless input is requested. Off the ice, there are many opportunities to review and analyze the game and individual skills can be discussed in a social and supportive setting. 
4. Interpersonal relationships.  The team that has strong interpersonal relationships typically does well.  They know each other well - both their strengths and weaknesses. They know who needs more feedback and when someone is "off" their game.  But a team with strong interpersonal relationships are close and generally produce results.  It is not unusual for large competitions that a team may enter with a "stacked team." In short, all the team members are skips and are skilled players.  This does not always work.  Many skips are not great sweepers simple because they don't have to do it for 30 seconds at a time (they do short bursts of powerful sweeping).  
5. Interteam relationships: you need to ensure your team has good relationships with other teams, and clubs. Having a strong network ensures you are kept informed, have additional support and minimize internal sabotage.  It just makes life a whole lot easier and nicer. 

Give this some thought, and have some fun thinking of some real-life scenarios that work for you.