Six Common Weaknesses With Teams
REFLECTION: FOR STUDENTS: “If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, both are useless.” —Darryl F. Zanuck
FOR ACADEMICS: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” —Henry David Thoreau
FOR PROFESSIONALS/PRACTITIONERS: “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” —John D. Rockefeller
Foundation
Teams and teamwork are much more a part of Quality and general business culture than a generation ago. The lone wolf “I’ve got this” type is almost extinct- but they are still highly useful due to being productive and often individually creative. I will not make this discussion about individual vs. team performance. The focus of this post will be to highlight some of the common failings in team dynamics (internal and external forces included), to help raise awareness. Too often, a team has become a “magic wand” used to fix a problem, and the team leader may have to drag a lot of that weight if the team does not properly understand how each moving part has to function for full success. When each part of the team has full accountability, the members are much more invested, and the team overall improved.
Team Weaknesses
- Team goals can become misaligned with the goals of the organization
- When teams and/or their decisions are not accepted and supported by management, the efforts of the team are wasted
- Time is needed to build and maintain high-performance teams
- Decision making is typically slower using a team because of the time it takes to make a decision by consensus
- Teams can also create negative synergy, where time is wasted simply because of the effort it takes to work with other people, or because teams get distracted with off-task activities, including social interactions
- Teams can be impacted by “group think”, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the team results in lack of diversity of thought, shutting down of alternative points of view, and dysfunctional decision making
(WestFall, 2016)
Discussion
The first weakness (more often known as lack of strategic alignment) can make the team feel like they are accomplishing something, only to be informed mid-project or post-project that the overarching organization has a different goal. I would not count that so much as a team weakness, but more as a common communication failure between Management and teams.
Lack of Top Management support is a severe moral dampener to any team. Even if a team is successful despite lack of support, Implementation may not occur when Management offers no support.
Time is money, and because it takes time to build a good team, it drains financial resources. The time required to be dedicated to maintaining teams often pulls focus from day-to-day activities. Tasks required by Teams for special operations should never overwhelm the day to day work of standard operations.
Team Decision Making- Most teams have hit the wall of being unable to reach a consensus. This natural weakness can be overcome by using techniques like multivoting or Nominal Group Technique especially with a facilitator.
Negative Synergy is a common issue and can be well addressed with team self-discipline, a diligent and attentive facilitator, or a combination of both as required.
“Group Think” is one of the worst enemies of effective teams. No member of the team should fear to put forth a dissenting opinion. When a team is open to being questioned, the team is actively practicing critical thinking. One of the ways teams can avoid the phenomenon of “Group Think” is by creating ground rules that require objective data to be presented to make a decision. I would caution, though, that statistics can be twisted to look pleasing to your personal view, so each team member should be just as responsible for confirming the stats on their own after a presentation.
Conclusion
Potential team weaknesses should be considered when evaluating Project Risks. The ability to mitigate those risks as a team will help the team be a more cohesive unit.
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Bibliography
WestFall, L. (2016). The Certified Software Quality Engineer Handbook 2nd Edition. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.
Leadership From the Viewpoint of Motivation
REFLECTION: FOR STUDENTS: “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Calvin Coolidge
FOR ACADEMICS: “Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
Stephen R. Covey
FOR PROFESSIONALS/PRACTITIONERS: “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie
Foundation
The best leaders understand two key things: The nature of Motivation and the nature and consequences of Self-Betrayal. First, a Leader must realize how one person cannot motivate another. The feeling of motivation is brought about by creating an environment where the person feels comfortable and motivated. There are two categories of motivation: Extrinsic and Intrinsic.
Extrinsic Motivation– The satisfaction gained from material or psychological needs applied by others in the organization through incentive or reward.
Intrinsic Motivation- The qualities of work or of relationships, events, or situations that satisfy basic psychological needs (achievement, power, affiliation, autonomy, responsibility, creativity, and self-actualization) in a self-rewarding process. (Russell T. Westcott, 2014)
The concept of Self-Betrayal is a bit more abstract but inherent in all human beings. An act of Self-Betrayal is an act contrary to what you feel you should do for another person (or even for the organization). (The Arbinger Institute, 2010)
What a Leader Needs to Know about Self-Betrayal
The best way to categorize the behaviors and attitudes that lead to acts of Self-Betrayal is In the Box and Out of the Box. Out of the Box means you see yourself and others more or less as we are- as People or Entities. When you are In the Box, you see yourself and others in a systematically distorted way-Others are mere objects. Existing in the Box can create barriers to effectiveness in change, coping, communicating, implementing new skills, or even changing your behavior.
What Follows Acts of Self Betrayal
- You begin to see the world in a way that justifies the self-betrayal
- Self-Justification (without objective evidence) leads to a distorted view of reality
- You enter The Box
- Over time, individual boxes become characteristics of you, and you carry them with you
- By being in the Box, you provoke others to enter their Box
Getting out of your Box as a leader is essential to leading others out of their Boxes. Being in the Box is not a passive act. Being in the Box is actively resisting what your humanity is calling you to do. While in the Box, you are assigning blame to people rather than trying to help improve. The blame game serves no useful purpose.
Once you stop resisting your natural tendencies and honor your original commitment to do what is best for the person beside you or what is best for the company, most of the barriers will evaporate. (The Arbinger Institute, 2010)
Conclusion
A good leader cannot push “followers”. The very term follower precludes the concept of pushing, so others must be motivated from within, either Intrinsically (just from the internal reward) or driven from within by the feeling that comes with an external incentive or reward (Extrinsically). Culture and the interconnectedness of the organization are essential. Remove yourself from the Box and connect with all others on a human level, or you as a leader will become just an object to your followers, and your followers will begin to seem distorted objects as well. If the entire culture is built upon a distorted reality, nobody will see the organization as a living entity worthy of serving. The organization will morph into an object to be used and abused. Lead your employees and your organization out of the Box, and lead towards a culture that is value-added for all stakeholders.
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Bibliography
Russell T. Westcott. (2014). The Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.
The Arbinger Institute. (2010). Leadership and Self-Deception. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Quality Concepts Matter 