Flexible ordering:

• Online (credit card)

• Phone (credit card)

• Fax (credit card)

• Check/Money Order

• PayPal

• Bank/Wire Transfer

• Invoice

All major credit
cards accepted:

• Visa

• Mastercard

• Visa/Check Card

• American Express

• Discover

• Eurocard

• Master Money

Choose your Credit Card transaction currency:

 US Dollar
 Canadian Dollar
 Pound Sterling
 Euro
 Australian Dollar

Download Product Catalogue

Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter

Team Types in Change Programs

You may be using teams in designing and implementing your change initiative. Or your organizational change program may be tasked with setting up teams of one description or another. Which of the following kinds of teams are you currently involved with?

• management decision-making
• cross-functional or functional improvement teams
• autonomous work teams
• project teams

Whichever team types you are involved with, there are a number of considerations in making sure that your team setup and development activities are successful.

Team Setup

Team size is important. If it is too small, there will not be enough ideas and variety of viewpoints for well-informed and representative decision-making. If it is too large, decision-making becomes laborious and protracted, with a tendency for members to form cliques. The optimal size appears to be somewhere between five and eight members.

Ensure that the team leader is motivated and with a good measure of interpersonal skills. Also make sure that there are enough team members with formal authority and credibility with the rest of the organization. Team members will also need a good dose of interpersonal skills and access to the needed subject matter experts if your change program is to be a success.

Teams are so much more effective than groups of people working on the same task because team members capitalize on each other’s strengths and fill in the gaps for each other’s weaknesses. With that said, have you got the right balance of team roles? The two most popular instruments for balancing teams are the Margerison-McCann Team Management Profile and the Belbin Team-Roles Profile. As an example, Belbin uses nine team roles in three categories.

The trick is to make sure that all of the team roles in your organizational change program are covered by at least one team member.

Our comprehensive eBook, Managing Change in the Workplace, discusses team profiling in more detail.

Team Development

Some teams get off to a flying start and then get stuck. Other teams seem to never get going. All teams progress through developmental phases – much as we do as individuals. The most widely recognized way of looking at team development was proposed by Dr Bruce Tuckman. Tuckman explained that teams progress through four phases of development as members start with initial uneasiness and a concentration on protecting themselves before moving on to a strong focus on group cohesion and common goals.

Which stage are your teams at? Some teams get stuck in the forming, storming or norming phase, never becoming a “performing” team. Our eBook, Managing Change in the Workplace, lists suggested strategies for teams stuck in each of these stages. Click here to find out how to buy and start using straight today.

Two activities that you can use to bond your teams are setting “Ground Rules” and asking “Team Questions”.

“Ground Rules” are the set of expectations that team members have of each other whilst operating as a team. It helps to make these explicit in the Norming stage. The team leader can facilitate this by setting up a team meeting where team members discuss and debate for themselves the team rules and come to a consensus of opinion in their own time. Rules can take the following form:

• I will not interrupt whilst another member is speaking
• I will be punctual
• I will be prepared at meetings
• I will support the team goals and objectives

If at any time the team has lost its way, a facilitated discussion on where the team is at and where it is going often helps set the team back on track. Here again, the team leader sets up a meeting where fundamental “Team Questions” are raised and discussed and a consensus achieved. The list below presents a typical set of such “Team Questions”.

• Why are we here?
• What stage are we at?
• What are our objectives?
• What is our game plan?
• What do others expect of us?
• What resources and skills do we need?
• What will be our rewards?

Team Success Factors

What makes for a successful team? How can you create high performance teams in your change program? Our Teams Table ^© provides a succinct statement of the five ingredients necessary for team success.

Targets The team mutually agrees on objectively measurable goals and continuously measures performance against their targets. Emotional   Intelligence Each team member displays self-awareness and emotional self-control, and is able to empathize with and inspire others. Team rules are mutually agreed, with each team member working actively in support of team cohesion. Authority The team has sufficient authority and influence to command the resources that it needs to achieve its goals and to get things done by others outside of the team. Motivation Each team member is highly self-motivated towards achieving the common goals. External rewards are set up to further enhance this strong internal drive. Skills Each team member is competent in the range of personal and interpersonal skills required to build and maintain the team. Technical and professional skill gaps are identified and filled with the required training and coaching.

We encourage team leaders to paste up the Teams Table ^© in a place that is visible to team members and to use it as a means of introducing talk about the team inside and outside of team meetings.

Learn more about building and using teams effectively in your change program. Download our eBook, Managing Change in the Workplace.

[Change Management Guide] << Click here to find out how to buy and start creating your high performance team today.
 

Click here to find out more about: process approach to managing change managing change program stakeholders goal setting for effective organizational change management identifying the various change roles and responsibilities developing an effective change program training plan dealing with resistance to change change management principles practical guide to managing change in the workplace