Creating High Performance Teams Creating High Performance Teams Programme Transcripts LISA CALLAHAN: I think the idea behind setting up a high-performing team is -- the most important thing is you really need to be working on a clear goal together. So, if I think back to my own experiences, a few years ago I was leading a team, and it was very much a team of individual contributors. And they had some things in common. They were doing the same kind of work, but they were doing it for different areas of our business, and they didn't really have that need to come together. And I was obsessed with making them into this high-performing team, and I couldn't do it. Two years later, I still couldn't do it. And I think it was because they didn't have that shared goal. That shared goal is very important. So, if you want that high-performing team, set up that shared goal, set the expectations, make those expectations for that group really clear, but also be prepared to provide feedback for that group so that they always know where they stand, they know how they're doing against that. And you can create that supportive idea, that supportive environment so that the high-performing team can flourish. I think the other thing that you want to do is you want to make sure that you have the right people on the team. So, if you bring in people whose skills are complementary to one another, it goes back to the idea of flow. You're trying to create flow. So, you have people in there who have the right skills, they're confident in their skills, they have just the right amount of challenge that you're giving them, and then they can all work together collaboratively as a group. That's when you're going to get that high-performing team. Having a culturally diverse team is so important in this environment that we're in right now. If you look at this frictionless economy that we have, the barriers to entry are so low right now, you'll have some 21-year-old kid in some country you've never heard of sitting at a computer, and they'll create some disintermediator that will literally change your entire business. In that kind of an economy, we're like the fish that can't see the water around us, right? We need to be creative. We need to think in a different way or we're never even going to recognise those things. And we would rather be able to think creatively and come up with those ideas ourselves than have it done to us. So, I think that's why it's just so important to be able to master these skills. 1 All rights reserved 2015 RMGT 125- Managing Technology Professionals Motivating and Keeping Team Performance High Much of the work done in a technology is done by groups or teams. Knowing what makes groups function is as important as understanding individuals. When operating at their best, team members are energetic, creative, collaborative, dedicated and committed. Motivating the team by setting and communicating the right goals, solving problems, and supporting the ongoing growth and development of team members will help sustain a high level of team performance. Managers of teams have basically three roles to perform: facilitator, mediator and mentor. As a facilitator managers need to encourage team members to recognize each other's differences and strengths, to strategize and to work together as a team. When conflicts arise, the manager-as-mediator need to encourage team members to meet all challenges and acknowledge their efforts. As a mentor, it is the managers' responsibility to serve as a role models of professionalism and teamwork and must guide the team to further growth and development. Setting And Communicating Goals Team members must understand goals and why the goals are important if they are to be motivated to pursue them. Managers must set not only the right goals, but must ensure that goals are achievable within the time frame. Challenging goals provide members with an opportunity to further develop their ability to function as a collaborative, creative, and high-energy team. While aggressive goals are designed to make optimal use of the individual skills represented on the team as well as the synergy created when team members work together. The key to maintaining enthusiasm for team and organizational goals is communication: ensuring that all members understand not only the team goals but also the bigger picture - the goals of the organization and how the goals of their team contribute to organizational goals. Team members need to be updated on progress towards goals, both at the corporate and team level and kept informed when a goal is changed. Both team and individual contributions towards goals must be acknowledged or team members may begin to feel unappreciated. Note: researchers have found that quick informal \"huddles\" are more effective in sharing crucial information than formal meetings are. The \"huddles\" alerted team members to urgent concerns that might emerge over the day or were and were most effective when held at the start of the day (Emmerich, 2002). Solving Problems Managers often feel that they need to be the focal point for the team, solving 1 All rights reserved 2015 problems, giving direction, and monitoring the team's progress. While these are all important aspects of the manager's role, the manager is also a facilitator. Team members need to be involved in decision making, because their buy-in is critical for motivation and performance. A manager can involve team members by encouraging members to strategies, forming committees and task forces and appointing team leaders. This type of involvement leads to enhanced individual thinking and problemsolving skills along with an increased commitment to goals when members have a say in day-to-day decisions, leading to a sense of ownership. Sustaining Development Over time, teams can become stagnant when the projects they work on begin to get similar in scope, tasks, roles, and responsibilities. When this happens energy levels decline, team members become dissatisfied with the job and motivation declines. A manager may not have any control over the projects assigned to the team, however a manager can introduce change as a means of stimulating the energy and commitment of team members. The following is a list of some of the techniques that can be used for stimulating this growth and development in your team. Cross - training: Assign team members to complimentary roles so that they can learn each other's responsibilities. This stimulates team members and prepares the team to mobilize as needed for future projects Conduct exercises and simulations that will stimulate thinking and develop problem-solving skills Ongoing training: Schedule training to update members' skills in various jobrelated functions Redesigning processes: Choose a process, for example, quality assurance, that could be made more efficient. Assign the team to redesign it and develop a plan for introducing a new process. Unique Challenges Faced By Virtual Teams As organizations expand globally, the need to tap the talents and experiences of people working in distant locations increases. To meet this need, businesses have turned to virtual teams that offer advantages in cost, creativity, and employee loyalty. While many of the same ideas apply to both local and virtual teams, there are some differences that need to be acknowledged when working with a virtual team ranging from cultural to social to environmental. 2 All rights reserved 2015 Enabling technologies have made virtual work possible. Managers of virtual teams must find ways to inspire performance from members they cannot see, motivate and build trust between people who may have never met and coordinate the project goals of team members all over the globe. Challenges Faced By Virtual Teams Building and maintaining trust - with less interpersonal interaction and greater need for self-reliance, it's hard for virtual team members to trust one another. Creating synergy - when people don't spend time with one another, it's difficult for them to connect with one another. It's even harder for their manager to encourage that bonding take place. Battling isolation - many virtual team members (including managers) work along in home offices, or in remote company offices. Isolation can make a team member feel out of the loop and can create social problems that are hard to assess (because you can't see them) and address (because it's harder to connect on a personal level) Collaborative processes - managers need to adapt their management style and establish new ways to encourage and monitor group processes. Virtual team members are required to be independent thinkers and self-starters. Sometimes that means they'll try to do everything themselves. Assessing performance - When employees are scattered around the globe, it's hard to see when they're neglecting their work. It's also hard to see when they're performing above and beyond their duties. This makes it difficult to detect and address performance problems or to reward excellence. Virtual team managers must establish reliable quantitative and qualitative measures for accurate performance assessment. Cultural Concerns Successful virtual team members learn to cope with different national, corporate, and vocational cultures. As a member of a team working across borders, members must prepare themselves for the likelihood that they will be confronted with all kinds of dilemmas, ranging from cultural to social to environmental to ethical. There are a number of elements that reflect the cultural diversity of a team. Here, we will briefly address two areas of particular concern for virtual team members: language and time; addressing these areas can increase both team performance and motivation. Language - verbal, nonverbal, and technology mediated - will certainly have an effect on the communication between team members of complex projects. Differences in communication style may affect knowledge-sharing and other 3 All rights reserved 2015 goals of meetings, both real and virtual. In some ways, language is also among the most "cultural" aspects of human behavior, meaning it is transmitted largely through enculturation, mostly unconsciously or tacitly. Socio-culturally complex projects, global projects, and technology mediated projects, can assume highly complex linguistic structures. Although the team may operate exclusively in English, an awareness of linguistic complexity may prepare members to understand communication issues that may emerge over the course of a project. There are several reasons to take the time to familiarize yourself with the linguistic environment in which you are operating: To express (and develop) an interest in your team members. To appreciate the potential for cultural misunderstanding. To recognize where, along a complex chain from production to consumption, there may be communication "bottlenecks." To appreciate global diversity. Time - scheduling and perceptions. Virtual team members scattered around the globe will be operating in different time zones. While one member is ending her day, another may just be starting his day. It's important to accommodate team members in different time zones so that no member is consistently having to be on a conference in the middle of the night, for example. While it's important to work out overlapping core working hours, it will help to change meeting times periodically. Obviously, time is important in business in general and virtual teams in particular. So the cultural construction of time is a particular challenge to working on projects across cultures and geographies. Edward Hall (n.d.) argues that time is not a universal, not an absolute, but is experienced and displayed (performed) differently in different cultures. Time is largely subconscious and taken for granted. Therefore exposure to alternative conceptions of time may cause culture shock. For example, what does a delay in answering a communication mean in the US? A backlog of work - large volume of business Poor organization Technical difficulties Lack of interest - low priority I would add, absolute confidence in the relationship - you are dealing with a true ally who will forgive you for the lapse. In other cultures, the same delay may indicate high priority. For example, in Ethiopia, the time required for a decision is directly proportional to its importance. This is so much the case that low-level bureaucrats there have a way of trying to elevate the prestige of their work by taking a long time to make up their minds. 4 All rights reserved 2015 In the Arab East, time does not generally include schedules as Americans know and use them. The time required to get something accomplished depends on the relationship. More important people get fast service from less important people, and conversely. Close relatives take absolute priority; nonrelatives are kept waiting. Rewards Lastly, to create a truly synergistic team, it's important to ensure that individual team members benefit from participating in virtual teams. This can be done in several ways. Virtual reward ceremonies - when a team succeeds make everyone a part of it. Celebrating doesn't have to be expensive: a box of chocolate, silly toys, or a team t-shirt mailed to each remote team member can stand in place of an inoffice party Recognize individual achievements at the start of each virtual meeting Ensure that each team member's \"real location\" boss aware of the members contribution. In collocated teams, people each lunch together, or just chat. Virtual teams form friendships too, but it may be harder for \"off topic chat\" to happen. Picking up the phone to call a colleague can serve this same function. 5 All rights reserved 2015 6