on the thinking and mindset of others is inevitably limited to those with whom I work face to face. My ambition is to have a greater impact. By publishing these tools, techniques and other information on team development, either in print or online, I hope to stimulate you and others to try them and build your own capability in creating effective, cohesive teams.
I believe that team building skills are really important. The scale and complexity of the world’s challenges are simply too great for individuals to tackle alone. The caricature of the heroic leader who will bravely step up and save the day is increasingly defunct. Most successful leaders are clear that their accomplishments are primarily the result of the efforts of a group of people working together as a unit. Teamwork is often extolled in books and articles on improving organizational performance. I have found, however, that for all that leaders talk about building a great team, most have little idea around the execution of a team development plan. Many managers would like to create a strong and vibrant team environment, but few know how to go about it.
The problem is that team building is often a slow process. As we will see, it takes time and energy both of which are in short supply in a culture when ‘urgency’ tends to override the ‘important’. In my research I have found that too many managers rely on a strategy of hope, and assume that as long as everyone does their job, an effective team will suddenly emerge. This complacent view will not be enough for the teams of the future. We live in changing times. The certainties that we used to be able to rely on are slowly disappearing. Writing in 2017, the political structures that sustained us through a period of growth and prosperity appear to be falling apart, leaving us in a highly uncertain environment where decisions must be made with no clear sense as to how the ‘law of unintended consequences’ will affect our future.
Economic cycles in which activity speeds up and slows down are becoming shorter. We can no longer rely on steady periods of growth upon which to make long-term investment decisions. Most organizations around the world are struggling to cope with the disruption created by the emergence of new technology. The potential efficiencies offered by the digital revolution are creating new winners, whose business models will start to dominate different economies around the world. The disruption is, however, causing significant stress in many established institutions. Recent advances in computing power are set to create even more turmoil as innovators find new and increasingly powerful ways of using data and developing artificial intelligence.
All of this change requires teams to find ways of adapting and then implementing programmes to whatever turns out to be the new normal. No one individual has the knowledge or experience to know how to adjust to this new reality. Organizations small, medium and large are all being forced to implement projects and change initiatives to work out how they can adapt. Many talk about the need for transformation but that is potentially misleading as it implies the shift from one steady state to another. In the immediate future it is difficult to identify what a steady state would look like.
There is an increasing sense that the old hierarchal structure which was used to manage ‘business-as-usual’ is becoming increasingly out of date. Many people now spend their working life engaged in projects rather than running the day-to-day business activities. And projects need teams. Difficult projects need very good teams and to build good teams takes skill, patience and a change in mindset.
SOFT SKILLS
Team development requires investment in the soft skills which turn out to be quite hard to develop. The command and control culture of the 20th century required little in terms of communication and empathy skills. All that managers needed to learn was how to give orders and rebuke subordinates who failed to achieve what had been intended. The complexity of the 21st century requires leaders who can stimulate discussion, find innovative solutions and inspire coordinated action. Developing those skills is, however, likely to be a good long-term investment. For all the technological advances we are likely to see in the next 20 years, it is unlikely that big data or artificial intelligence will be able to replace the critical role of moving the hearts and minds of a collection of human beings to bring them together as a cohesive team.
Interacting with other human beings requires an ability to connect at a level that will enable a team to work alongside each other in an effective manner. Unlike hard skills, which are typically technical or knowledge-based, soft skills encompass a range of features which include empathy, problem-solving, adaptability, reciprocation, conflict management and collaboration. Looking at this list, one can see why the term soft is used to describe them. The challenge in trying to master any one of these areas is that they are context specific. In other words, how you apply a particular skill will vary according to the situation. Soft skills are unlikely to be learned solely by reading textbooks. They are principally learned through practice.
In essence, most soft skills are contained within the concept of communication. Skilful communication is not merely the ability to speak or present well. Real communication requires a level of prediction as to how the recipient of your information is likely to make sense of the messages they receive. In other words, to understand how you will receive my message, I first need to know more about you. The ability to draw information out of people is a valuable skill in its own right. Some people have a natural inquisitiveness and within 10 minutes of meeting a stranger will learn many details of the personal life of their new acquaintance. For most of us, however, enquiry is not a natural skill, nor is it one we are encouraged to develop. In a command and control environment, communication is generally a one-way process. The transactional management approach is based on directive activity. People are told what to do, without much genuine interest as to what they think or understand.
There is a paradox in that many large organizations invest huge sums of money in soft skills training which the underlying culture cannot really value. New knowledge of the potential ways to improve communication is never practised and so the learning does not become embedded. The course notes are placed in a drawer never to see the light of day again. In a complex environment the nature of the game changes. Since managers can no longer accurately predict the future, it becomes more difficult to rely on one-way communication. In a ’sense and react’ culture, the effective two-way exchange of information becomes critical to the organization’s ability to adapt and thrive.
Real two-way communication therefore underpins virtually every process described in this book. As you read on, think about your current communication abilities and the extent to which you feel they could be improved.
BUILDING THE TEAM YOU NEED
The toolkit is designed to help you build the team you need. In the same way that a craftsman uses tools to cut, bind and mould a piece of material into the shape he wants, this toolkit has been written to help you craft a group of individuals into an effective team. You can leap straight into the toolkit sections and find a technique or tool that you need for a specific event or purpose.
If you have more time, however, you may find it helpful to understand a bit more about team dynamics and how the coaching process makes use of tools to influence human beings to build the relationships that are fundamental to good teamwork. These are discussed in the next two chapters.
CHAPTER 2
USING TOOLS TO SHAPE TEAM DYNAMICS
This book is designed as a toolkit that will help you mould a group into an effective and productive unit. If you are going to try and shape a team, it is worth taking some time to understand the nature of team dynamics, how they emerge and then shift over time. This chapter provides a basic insight into the human factors that will ultimately affect whether you are successful. We look first at the topic
