I’ve said it for years: a group of people in a room (or a Zoom meeting or a Slack workspace) is not a team.
It’s just a group of people.
It takes more than sticking them together under the auspices of a manager or team lead for them to become a team.
And I trust you’ve read enough of my work by now to know that I’m not talking about “teambuilding experiences.” I sincerely hope that trust falls, icebreakers, and other aspects of so-called teambuilding are historical remnants, relics of the past.
Teams don’t just click into place because they’ve been told that’s what they are. (Or because they go through those teambuilding experiences.) (Yes, I really dislike them!)
Teams need a defined purpose and members who are fit for their individual roles, rather than just “available to be on this team” or picked by the team lead because, well, they’re likeable.
And let’s face it: they need shared experience and behavioral norms. Teams don’t form overnight.
One of the worst teams I was ever on in my corporate career didn’t have that. We all liked each other well enough, there were no personality clashes, and we respected each other’s abilities and skill, but there were significant gaps in terms of expectations and how we were going to proceed. We weren’t entirely sure what we were supposed to be doing, whether as a team or in terms of individual roles. No surprise, then, that we didn’t get very far.
This was a failure of leadership, plain and simple.
There are models out there about team development – the best-known being Tuckman’s stages of group development – but models don’t tell us how; they just describe theories.
Obviously, I can’t give you an entire “this is how to create a real team” in a brief article.
But I can say that it takes focused effort on the part of the team lead, starting with a crystal-clear definition of what the team is supposed to accomplish, what the roles are for each person on the team, and what the norms are for team behavior. How will you communicate with each other? What’s the process for raising issues and handling conflict?
And so on.
One of the most intriguing ways for team norm-setting is the concept of the individual “user manual,” defining how each team member prefers to interact. I don’t remember where I first heard of this – it was long ago now – but you can Google it and see any number of examples.
It typically consists of six questions, with brief answers – it shouldn’t be more than a page – and is intended to be a reference for the best ways to interact with each person. It gives the team insight into how to apply the Platinum Rule (treat others as they wish to be treated) instead of the Golden Rule (treat others as you wish to be treated) – creating awareness that not everyone wants what you want.
Here are the six questions:
- My style
- What I value
- What I don’t have patience for
- How best to communicate with me
- How to help me
- What people misunderstand about me
Does this require trust and vulnerability? Yes – and isn’t that a norm you want for your team?
Go ahead and Google “team user manual”; you’ll find many examples. Try it out, whether you’re working with an established team or just putting the team together.
And let me know what happens!
What’s the worst team you’ve ever been on? Or, if you prefer, what’s the best? And what made them that way? Use my contact form and let me know!