How to create winning teams?

The article is based on the book - Leadership 3.0
Links to articles about teamwork can be found at the bottom of the article.

A management board of a retail chain outlets decided to set a prize-winning competition between the outlets. The competition aimed at providing an incentive to increase sales. The prize was a medal for the winning team and an invitation for two to a fancy dinner for the team members.

Declaring the competition, management had two objectives:

• To push sales up
• To enhance and strengthen teamwork

Systems like the one implemented by the retailer above, in which salaries and bonuses are based on personal sales achievements, create rivalry amongst the team members. Though rivalry causes harm to the overall sales, management decided to elevate the competitive element to enhance teamwork and to encourage managers to consider the sales of the team as a whole rather than single salesmen.

Competition and cooperation are contradictive terms

Our competitive nature pushes us to the top, to be the first amongst others. Therefore, the awards were presented at a forum which hosted all management members of the company’s outlets and all team members and spouses who reached the goals.  

Management recognition is important as it drives employees to try harder, but competitions might have negative aspects. To win a competition, one may avoid cooperating with others or even actively damage colleagues’ efforts to win. Employees might ask themselves why help others win over them? In that respect, cooperation and competition are contradictory terms.

Cultivating the competitive nature is necessary in sport. But in business, it may be damaging.

This article starts with talking about competitions because it is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of increasing sales. The idea of a competition between the retail shops was acceptable at the time because the outlets were geographically distant and had minimal ability to confront.

Winning teams

I named this article “How to create winning teams” and not “How to create a winning team” because it is important to understand that cooperation between teams is no less important. In fact, it is necessary. For example, between teams that work on different shifts or in different departments and between sales reps working at the central office and the teams at the selling points.

How to turn individual employees into a team?

Not every group of people working together is a team. What makes them a team is a mutual goal. We often use the word “team” to describe a group of employees we expect to achieve a goal, even when the individuals do not operate as a team.

There is a difference between forming a team of members that are new recruits and forming a team consisting of employees that have been working alongside each other for some time.

Recruiting employees for a new team

Michal Hemmo - lotem, M.D. writes in her book Leadership 3.0 that there are two schools of thoughts regarding the establishment of new teams. One approach advocates that before starting to form a team of newly recruited talents, the company must apply the following steps: conduct a thorough analysis of the company’s requirements, execute a comprehensive analysis of the business objectives  and define the activities, roles and assignments in detail. The recruiting process of the best available people can only begin after full completion of these preparations.

The second approach recommends continuous headhunting for new talent and an ongoing search for clever, successful suitable employees.

Dr. Lotem, continues to say that, though the approaches oppose each other, both are good. When she established organization that had a fixed, predetermined budget, she acted in accordance with Jim Collins “First Who, then What” principle. She hired the best people available and chose the ones that were better than herself in at least one aspect.

Bonding teams

Dr. Lotem refers to recruiting new members for new teams.  However, most teams include employees who have already been working alongside as sales reps, service reps and production workers, who are now expected to cooperate as a team.

The process of forming a good team is similar when choosing new talents to be part of a new team or when trying to bond a group of existing employees.

In my experience, it is more challenging to form a team of newly recruited talents because they usually come with inflated egos, a strong will do be better than others and a determination to position themselves high on the list.

Working for a mutual goal

Dr. Hemmo Lotem says that to unite a team and create a strong bond the members must be assigned mutual tasks. The tasks can be complex or simple, easily achieved. […] A mutual goal makes a group of people a team, she says. A common purpose makes people work efficiently, feel significant and enhance their trust in the organization.

A common goal, though essential to form an efficient team, is not enough. Cooperation between the team members is also essential and so is an ongoing follow-up of the objectives set towards the final goal. The objectives must be measurable, the results daily or a weekly monitored and progress towards the final target must be closely managed.

A united team, working together to achieve a goal must continuously collect data, analyze the ongoing progress, find root causes to every problem, create action plans and follow up systems.

Targets are achieved when the team members work as one. Achievements bond the team, enhance commitment to the company goals, make people feel they matter and increase motivation.

Frequency of team members meetings is important.

Ideally the team should meet once a day or once a week. Monthly meetings are too far apart. The time lapse causes loss of continuity and minimizes the chance to bond the members and achieve the final goal.

In short, to build a united team and achieve the goal for which it was created, a mutual, measurable goal and continuous follow up meetings are required.

A winning team

Even teams that operate towards a common goal and daily analyse data are not necessarily winning teams. The characteristics of a winning team, says Dr. Hemmo Lotem, are “Happiness, breaking the boundaries and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

Happiness

Happy employees are more productive than unhappy, frustrated, and unsatisfied ones. The joy and uplifting feelings increase productivity. Being a part of a highly productive team increases work satisfaction and provides meaning to its members. Cause and effect.

I think that every reader can identify with the above statement about being happy at one’s job. Think of yourselves and you will understand its validity.

Breaking boundaries

Breaking boundaries is creating something that was never there before, i.e developing a new concept, inventing a new product, or finding a better way to solve a problem […]

Think, for example, of how to achieve an obvious target under new conditions, such as half the time or half the budget.

Breakthrough discoveries boost team members’ pride, provide purpose to their work, and enhance their motivation and commitment. A breakthrough can be achieved not only by newly recruited engineers or developers. The input of experienced employees, who have been working in the company for some time can be valuable and bear great opportunities.  

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

In a nutshell it means that the team is always smarter than the smartest team member, better managed than the best manager, develops better ideas than the best developer, is more professional than the most professional member and stronger than its strongest individual. A winning team can overcome, and sometimes even benefit from the fact that a key member had left it.

Knowing that the team is not dependent on a single member is very important as it strengthens teamwork.

It means that the team as a whole is preferred over one-star member.

Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of General Electrics, was a great advocate for nurturing “star” members whom he claimed made up 20% of his staff. Though considering the “stars” extremely valuable to every company, he warned against the problematic human relations they may cause and proposed sensitive ways to treat them. In his book Winning he says that “star” members should be recognized, rewarded, and embraced, but he also alerted that too much attention can turn things around because an inflated ego of an employee may be dangerous to the company. Welch continued to say that he had come across talented,  clever employees, who believed that the company could not do without them, so far as to stop being committed to the company’s values and goals.

Never fear that your “star” members might leave the company and never let them hold the company hostage.

Summary and recommendations

Companies operating in the current world market must advance all the time and exceed their competitors. To win the market, companies must recruit new employees and engage the existing ones to form winning teams.

Winning teams are created under the following conditions:

The first condition is cooperation between the team members within the group and between the various groups. Because competitions contradict cooperation, all types of competitions must be avoided. The only competition practiced should be between the company and its competitors.

The second condition is to set measurable goals. Goals are the essence of winning teams.

The third condition is to analyze the data, find root causes to every problem, and agree on plans and actions to achieve the target.

The fourth condition is happiness. Happy workers are more productive and achieve better results than unhappy ones.

The fifth condition is breaking the boundaries. Teams that achieve a breakthrough, even a minor one, contribute to the company because their members feel satisfied, significant, and full of motivation.

The Sixth condition is “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. It is a recognition that teams are more important than individuals.

All six conditions don’t happen on their own. They are under the responsibility of the CEO and the management team.

Links to articles about teamwork

1. Teamwork – How important is it and how do you create it?
2. How Do You Maintain the Human Machine?
3. What Makes Improvement Teams Successful?
4. Improving Company Performance, Profit and Strength by Working with New Targets
5. "Stars" and professional workers we can't do without
6. Should You Recruit Star Employees, and How and When to Recruit "Hungry" Young People?
7. The CEO and Management: Division of Responsibilities and Authority in the Organization
8. Why Do Many Managers Resist Improvement Teams and the Information they Provide?
9. How Employees Volunteering in the Community Helps Your Business
10. Why Do We Like to Volunteer?