This book was written by American author and consultant Jon R Katzenbach. It was originally published way back in 1992, but since then it got published many times again, as well as audiobook. This book doesn’t just aim to show you that “teams are important” like any other. Author tried to showcase what lessons actual teams and non-teams had for others who choose to struggle with change and performance.
I wanted to read a book about teams and team learning. And I believe I heard someone from TAP mention this book. I opened this book with the idea I will understand more the team of teamwork and maybe bring something to our Training sessions.
First things first, is the understanding the differences between working group and team. It is true that teams are better than working groups, but that doesn’t mean that working groups are necessarily bad, they are just different approach to work (as you can see in the picture below).
On this scheme we can see the difference in performance of various teams. We can see that the biggest performance gain is between potential and real team. To get to the point of high-performance team, there is needed an exceptional personal commitment. Beneath the line in the middle are all the disappointments and risks of pseudo-team performance. Even though it is possible to dodge all of these, it is very hard to do so.
Working in a team means that you commit to taking the risks of conflict, joint work-products, and collective and mutual accountability. Teams that don’t take such risks, but still call themselves teams are pseudo teams (the worst one in performance, as we can see above in the scheme). Teams must deal effectively with obstacles and endings to realize their full performance potential. Each time they overcome an obstacle, it strengths the team (builds individual and collective skills).
Unlike teams, working groups focuses on “individual bests” and no collective work products. Even though working groups can still be effective in large organizations. The best working groups come together to share information, perspectives, and insights, they also help make others job better, but they still focus on individual goals.
“Groups become teams through disciplined action. They shape a common purpose, agree on performance goals, define a common working approach, develop high levels of complementary skills, and hold themselves mutually accountable for results. And, as with any effective discipline, they never stop doing any of these things.”
One of the musts of successful teams is commitment to a common approach. This describes the way we work together to accomplish our purpose. It is suggested that we put as much time crafting our working approach as sharing our purpose. We all need to do “equivalent” amounts of real work. As we know in our working environment we set up, that is really hard to achieve, and even harder to keep track of.
“Fueled by interpersonal commitments, team purposes become even nobler, team performance goals more urgent, and team approach more powerful. The notion, for example, that "if one of us fails, we all fail" pervades high-performance teams.”
And how about the importance of meetings? When meetings become a chore to the team members, it’s a sign that they are uncertain about why they have gathered. Most will consider it a waste of time. That’s why we need to plan Training sessions and try to make them interesting. I believe that we had some moments where few members felt that Training sessions are just a waste of time. We then tried to plan ahead, connect some games, and most importantly make them effective, and I can say that in some capacity, it helped.
“All of us have the capacity for personal growth and need only be challenged in a performance-focused way.”
