Critical ingredients for workplace teams

Managers should never lose sight of the critical nature of personalities within teams.  It’s all about balance between personal and technical competence.  Although individual differences are a potential cause of conflict amongst team members, these differences can, if managed well, be a significant source of opportunity.

A team is more than a group of people.  Teams can generate ideas and deliver greater output than the component individuals.

Characteristics of teams include: 

• Openness to shared risk taking;
• High level motivation due to inherent responsibility to others in the team; and
• Strong support for individuals within the team.

Good governance is the solid foundation upon which a well-selected team builds. Team goals must be clearly established, as well as the key roles of individuals. The decision making process must be clearly stated and practiced and the climate should be collaborative and ideally the leadership shared.

Specific projects or functions will dictate the required technical competencies.  The correct mix of personalities determines if a team thrives or flounders. British psychologist, Dr Meredith Belbin undertook extensive research in the early 1990s into individual behaviour and its influence on a group.  He identified nine roles, or behaviours at work in a team, each with allowable weaknesses. The following table summarises his work[1]:

Role	Allowable weakness
Plant:  problem solver, is creative and imaginative.	Ignores detail and is too preoccupied to communicate effectively.
Resource Investigator: enthusiastic and communicative.	Is overoptimistic and loses interest after initial enthusiasm.
Co-ordinator: clarifies goals, promotes decision-making and is a good chairperson.	Can be seen as manipulative and delegates personal work.
Shaper: dynamic, thrives on pressure and has the courage to overcome obstacles.	Can be provocative and hurt people’s feelings.
Monitor/evaluator: strategic and discerning, looks at the options and has good judgment.	Lacks drive and ability to inspire others.  Can be overly critical.
Team worker: co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic.  Listens, builds, averts friction, calms the waters.	Indecisive in crunch situations.  Can be easily influenced.
Implementer: disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient.  Turns ideas into practical actions.	Somewhat inflexible.  Slow to respond to new possibilities.
Completer: painstaking, conscientious, anxious.  Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time.	Inclined to worry unduly.  Reluctant to delegate.
Specialist: single minded, self starting, dedicated.  Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.	Contributes on only a narrow front.  Dwells on technicalities.  Overlooks the ‘big picture’.

Problems arise for teams when individuals do not subscribe to team goals nor perform key roles.  Dysfunctional teams can be rescued with appropriate diagnosis of deficiencies – but it is better to get the composition right in the first place.

Recognition of team life cycles is paramount.   After initial enthusiasm many teams hit a wall of unproductiveness and disillusionment in the absence of strong leadership and clear objectives. 

Resolution of disagreements and establishment of mutual trust and harmony produce team synergy.  The natural decline of teams upon achievement of goals will occur, but break-up prior to completion of stated objectives must be avoided.  Premature break-up of teams places pressure on a replacement team to “get back on track”.  Recognition of the team life cycle will optimise productive progression.

A final risk is found when teams cannot reach agreement or alternatively lose their initiative in total consensus.  The destructive extremes of individual and group thinking require astute management.

Managers need to focus on team objectives and the technical and personal competencies of the proposed players.  Disciplined selection and clearly stated goals always help towards delivering success.