It’s interesting how fashions change. Only a decade or so ago, the fads and fashions in management were all around teams. Self m
anaged teams were in vogue and the buzzword was all about team working and team building.
A whole industry flourished in the training world around outward bound training, team events, treasure hunts and conferencing to name but a few ‘teamy’ activities.
So what happened…? Why are managers and leaders so relentlessly and single-mindedly focused on individual development, arguably at the expense of teams…??
I believe the fault lies in the definition of a team. The idea that a team is ‘a collection of individuals in pursuit of a common goal’ creates a low performance expectation and is the root of why teams seem to fail to deliver returns – never mind the current plethora of fads around individual assessment and development…!
I have always preferred some of the John Adair concepts (call me old fashioned..!) around synergy – the idea that the definition of a team is when the outputs are greater than the total of the inputs – in other words, the team creates increased value in some way to the individual efforts and outputs of a group of individuals.
This creates an opportunity as well as an problem for managers and leaders – at one level, they must think pragmatically whether they run a team, or just a group. Also, they need to figure out how they can create synergy – in addition, given they are part of the team themselves, they also have to consider how they add value to the team themselves (rather than the team adding value to them).
I wonder how many managers see team working as much more than the building of a sociable working climate with a bit of shared good practice thrown in, concentrating far more on the down sides of personality clashes, jealousy, rivalry and bitching which can characterise an ineffective team (or even a group).
Many managers spout the team mantra but really have no more than a group of people only bound together by being a report to the same person or a shared input to a section of a P+L.
Perhaps it’s time for good leaders and managers to recapture the team ethos and really develop a modern idea of synergy – really begin to exploit the performance gains they can bring and begin the measure the outcomes – after all, if you wan to avoid cuts, why not seize the initiative and demonstrate some synergistic value?
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