Team Building - Developing Performing Teams
 

Moving from Command and Control to Teamwork

Cross Functional Teams at Kodak

Continued from page 2:

Principles of Great Teams

Warren Bennis[5] conducted a study to identify the principles that made great teams successful. He studied teams that worked on the Manhattan project[6], and those who worked in the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)[7] of Xerox, Apple Computers[8], Lockheed Skunk Works[9], and Walt Disney animation studios. According to Bennis though all these teams were extraordinary in their own way, there were some principles that were common to all and these principles apply to all the organizations where these teams worked. The principles[10] are:

Protection from Leaders

All the great teams had leaders who protected the team members from the corporate headquarters. These leaders managed to keep the headquarters satisfied and told their team members to remain focused on their work. In all these cases, the leaders tried to maintain physical distance from the headquarters and this seemed to have helped in achieving their missions.

Fostering Enmity

A team with even the noblest of missions benefited when it had real or invented enemies. For example, the enemies of the Manhattan project were the Japanese and the Germans. An implicit mission such as destroying the enemy is more motivating than an explicit mission. During the heydays of Apple computers, its mission was to bury IBM and Apple’s advertisements reflected this enmity.

Dare to be Different

Great teams generally consist of people who consider themselves as mavericks and are generally at the periphery of their disciplines. They like to operate on the fringes and do not have respect for the mainstream thinking or activities. As Bennis says, their sense of operating on the fringes feeds their obsession to succeed.

Pain & Suffering

A place in great teams is rarely assured without personal sacrifice. The nature of their work is such that the team members generally go through intense pain and suffering. At Skunk Works of Lockheed, the team members could not disclose information on their project even to their families. The team had to work in a cheerless, rundown building at Burbank, away from headquarters and main plants.

Strong Leaders

Though great teams are nonhierarchical, egalitarian, and open, yet they have strong leaders. As Bennis observed, the leaders in great teams are not always the most intelligent or capable in the team but neither are they passive players. They are like curators who appreciate and preserve talent in the team. Great teams make great leaders.

Meticulous Recruiting

Young and Energetic

All great teams had people who were quite young. Young people have the physical stamina necessary to withstand the arduous tasks involved. They do not consider anything impossible and that makes them accomplish the impossible. Great teams are also young in spirit, ethos, and culture.

Great Teams Deliver

Great teams always believe in tangible outcome. Steve Jobs gave adequate importance to this aspect at Apple. He reminded his team that their work was not good enough unless it resulted in a great product at the end.

Leadership Approaches That Foster Team Performance

Team Learning

[5]  In Warren Bennis is a leading thinker on Leadership.
[6] The team invented the atomic bomb.
[7] Pathbreaking comp uter technologies like GUI, LAN, and Printer were invented at PARC. Even the commercial
prototype of PC was invented here.
[8] Macintosh & other technology breakthroughs are credited to Apple computers.
[9] Teams here worked on fast and efficient development of top-secret aircraft.
[10] The secrets of great groups, By: Warren Bennis, Leader to Leader, No. 3 Winter 1997