An inspirational quote from years ago said, “Teamwork make the Dream work.”
Today, teams and workgroups are very commonplace in organizations. However, despite all the greatest intentions of a team, 76.2% of companies surveyed on the topic say that they struggle in two specific areas.
“There are several teams that fail or fall short of their goals and outputs, signaling a need to approach team planning differently.”
“Official teams and workgroups have inconsistent results. An analysis of why this is taking place reveals that they tend to jump into the work without taking the time to create a Team Charter.”
Both scenarios have a common theme – upfront team planning and organization. We tend to bring the brightest and best people resources into a team and launch them into action, urging them for quick results. That urge to produce results prompts the team members to skip over the most crucial step in the team’s journey, the Forming stage (for those who remember the Motorola Team Stages from the 1980s and 1990s). If you start off a team without a solid foundation, it will have consequences later on.
Now, let’s be realistic. Even with a solid Forming foundation for the team, things can still go whacky and fail to produce results later for a variety of reasons. However, the chances of team success greatly increase when the team starts off aligned and on the same page.
This is where the Conversation Framework TEAMS – Workgroup Management Activity can help. TEAMS walks a newly formed team through the team chartering process in a collaborative, focused, and proactive manner. It helps the team consider many aspects of the team’s journey that are typically overlooked or unaddressed until later when things are getting a little derailed. That is not the best moment to talk about these things for the first time. Emotions are high and pressure is creating tension. The “rules of the game” are best addressed at the beginning, when there are no emotions flaring and the pressure to push forward to the deadlines is low.
This team chartering process, using the TEAMS framework, aligns the team members and sponsors, creates a roadmap for the journey ahead, and creates an anchoring communication tool for all stakeholders.
While you can’t ensure team success 100% of the time, you can ensure that teams get off on the right foot every time and increase their chances of success with TEAMS – Workgroup Management Activity, the family of Conversation Frameworks from Innovative Management Tools.