Feb 11, 2017 - member and their prior experiences working with teams (Katzenbach and Douglas). If the task or decision that the group has set out to ...
Leading Teams in the Digital Age
Elizabeth Gerrish M.S. Leadership and Management Western Governor’s University February 11, 2017
Introduction Technology is changing the speed that knowledge is shared throughout an organization. Today’s companies are highly digitized work spaces, commonly operate in multiple locations, and can communicate and share documents instantly. However, the elements that form the structure of a functional team are interpersonal ones and the speed that relationships are developed. The speed that teams communicate and does not negate the time which it takes individuals working toward a common goal, to become a functional team. While project management and communication can be mechanized through technology, the human dynamics of team building and the stages that a team must undergo to become a highly effective group, have not been effected. The following paper analyzes the factors that influence professional team dynamics and group development. A1. Factors to consider when creating professional teams and work groups As the world becomes a global economy, it is connected by technology and emphasis is being placed on innovation, communication and effectively sharing information. These foci seem to imply that team work is always be the best practice in the technology driven age, but an important implications of team formation should be considered before automatically assuming a consensus from a team will lead to efficient or creative outcomes. One reason is that a team of individuals takes time to form a cohesive group. Further, many teams never work together effectively at all. Last, many team do not take time to create goals or key performance indicators and are simply not relevant to the overall performance of the organization. 1. Teams take time to form. According to Tuckman, task based teams and work groups must go through four stages to become a functioning team. Becoming a function team means that the group works innovatively to come up with collective ideas which a single individual could not create on his own (Tuckman). Working through this process is complicated by the interpersonal skills of each team
member and their prior experiences working with teams (Katzenbach and Douglas). If the task or decision that the group has set out to accomplish is needed urgently, there may be a discrepancy in the time that it take to form a functioning team and the time line for necessary to complete the task. 2.A team may never work together effectively. Because teams are dependent on the interpersonal skills of its members (Katzenbach and Douglas) a group of induvial may simply never form a cohesive team. Even though emotional intelligence can account for up to 69% of an employee’s success, interpersonal skills are often undervalued and overlooked during the hiring process (BielaszkaDuVernay). Because of lack of current emphasis of hiring for emotional intelligence, there is inherent risk that a group of people, who have not worked previously together, will never for a functional team and they not be able to accomplish a given task (Tuckman). 3. Some teams are not relevant. It is not uncommon for a team within an organization to not be relevant to a company’s performance. The article “The Discipline of Teams” from the Harvard Business Review says that “teams confuse the broad mission of the organization with the purpose of the small group.” Without a clear purpose, a team can never work through it stages of development (Tuckman) and there will never be any great burst of innovation, which is normally the motivation for putting together the small group in the first place. The first commonly overlooked step to accomplishing a task with a team is consciously decide if a team is necessary or beneficial to completing a task. A2. Building trust among team members In the first stage of forming a team, a common vision is created and trust is formed between the team members (Tuckman). According to Katzenbach and Douglas, “When people work together toward a common objective, trust and commitment follow.” Trust is an essential part of a functional team and must be established in the early stage of team formation in order for a group of induvial to work together collectively. (Tuckman). The step of establishing trust between team members cannot be
rushed or skipped because it inspires the team group members to be engaged and support the purpose of the team (Covey). If team member do not trust each other, they will be disinclined to put forth alternative ideas that will lead to innovation. According to Covery, there are thirteen things that can be done to inspire trust. Three of these practices, creating transparency, clarifying expectations and extending trust are paramount to the team formation. 1. Create transparency. One of the most effective ways to build trust in others is to create transparency of your own actions (Covey). Since the creation of email, it is very easy to streamline the documentation of written material in the workplace. However, people commonly make the mistake that emails that are sent between two parties and will stay between two parties. Further, it is very easy to alter digital media or take it out of context. While technology has outwardly made documentation easier, the subtle ways that it can be used for Machiavellian purposes actually work against creating transparency and building trust. 2. Clarify expectations. The second way that a team builds truth is through clarifying expectation (Covey). Clear expectations that can be evaluated with measured data, give everyone a clear understanding of what job was being done and where performance fell short. A clear, concise and fair evaluation of measurable results help build trust in a team because both evaluator and evaluate can easily agree on results. A number of software programs that support HR evaluations of performance metrics are available. 3. Extend trust. A third action to inspire trust is to extend trust (Covey). The members of the team must be able to contribute honestly and openly for the benefits of a team to be fully realizes. If a member of the team is highly resistant to participation and does not extend trust to their fellow team mates, the team collective that potentially has better solutions will never be realized. While technology can track metrics are results, it inherently cannot persuade a team member to trust or extend trust to fellow team mates.
A3. Effectiveness and team structure The effectiveness of a team is also dependent on its ability to move through the second stage of team formation, which allows each member to learn to work with the others and to assume specific roles within the group (Tuckman). This stage is also frequently referred to as “Storming”. In addition to the specific task that a team sets out to accomplish, the individuals of team must take on specific roles in order to accomplish the task. Teams are most effective when the roles that the team member accept are in line with their personal strengths. A4. Purpose of the team By stage three of a team’s formation, everyone in the team must be working toward a common purpose (Tuckman). Many strategies exist for clarifying the purpose of a team but two highly effective techniques are finding a compelling task that motivates the entire team and specifying the specific performance goals to measure the achievement of the team. The keys to all successful teams are a balance of intrinsic rewards associated with a compelling common purpose and the extrinsic rewards that come from accomplishing a goal together (Tuckman). 1. Compelling common purpose. Intrinsic reward is one that comes from personal fulfillment. If a group member believes that she/he is participating in a meaningful activity because the task is compelling, all team members will be engaged and have a personal stake in the completion of the task (Tuckman). In the work place, teams that form work groups are normally in addition to their daily job responsibilities. In non-profits, teams are normally unpaid volunteers. In both cases, team member need a compelling reason to bring 100% to the table and collaborate freely, even though the work is an additional responsibility. 2. Measured results. Extrinsic reward is a reward that you receive for accomplishing a goal, such as public recognition or notoriety. Extrinsic rewards can be created through clear measured results of a
team’s progress toward a task (Katzenbach and Douglas). A team that wins is one that hits it’s objective. Because a “win” is an intrinsic reward, measured achievement creates extrinsic value. Further, extrinsic value is created when a team member can clearly measure how their role in the team lead to the teams success. A5. Using power and influence for team objectives In teams of professional peers, power and influence can be used to sway a team in a number of ways (Raven). Common ways to establish power are self-promotion, ingratiation and demonstration of effective surveillance. Self-promotion is a common way to establish you own superiority about a subject and yourself as an expert whose opinion should be taken at face value. Ingratiation is a form of coercion, because someone seeks your flattery, they perform for you and automatically put you in a position of power. Demonstrating effective surveillance is the opposite form of coercion and forces people to watch their behavior around you because they may be threatened as a result of misbehavior. A6. Strengths of individual members Companies known to track the skill profiles of employees include, Safeway, IBM, and Unilever. High tech HR tracking systems can monitor an employee moves through the organization and predictive analytics can be used to judge the employee’s success or readiness for a new position. Large investments in these types of tracking systems, acknowledge the importance of getting the right person in the right job (Queltch &Bloom). Many factors should be considered when creating professional teams or work group, but there are three particular considerations that effect the interpersonal dynamics of a team. The members of a team should be chosen who have complimentary skill set, membership should be selective, and groups should always include a deviant.
1. Complimentary skills. Technology is changing the way we track and evaluate an employee’s progress. The strongest team is one in which the skills of the members are complimentary (Katzenbach and Douglas). A recent study at Harvard was able to use a key set of questions to evaluate interpersonal characteristics of that would determine the success of a relationship can be evaluated with relative high accuracy (Pentland). Using these tracking and matching algorithms, high tech companies are able to form teams of individuals with highly complementary skills and characteristic. However, the interpersonal characteristics of each team member must mesh well in order for a team to form and technology does not currently exist to accurate predict this. 2. Be exclusive. While technology has given us options to choose who is on our team, the need to be exclusive about team members still remains. Whether considering virtual or in person teams, not everyone interested should be automatically included in the team (Katzenbach and Douglas). Some people simply don’t work well together or don’t have anything to bring to the table. For example, a person who is not committed to the cause of the team may not have the urgency to preform to the team’s standards. Katzman and Douglas give an example of a CEO they had worked with. Because of his title, the CEO was automatically included in a work group. However, he was an ineffective team member and frequently derailed team discussions. After months of being derailed from the team goals, it was clear that they had to find a way to disengage the CEO before to group would be able to move forward on its project. 3. Include a deviant. Once a team group has formed, participants share a common goal (Covey). Participants may opt to avoid asking tough questions in the interest of completing the task quicker. This herd mentality can actually be detrimental to identifying alternate solutions. Therefore, it is in a team’s best interest to have a deviant among its ranks (Tuckman). A deviant is someone who will ask tough questions like “Does what we are doing make sense in the first place?” The deviant role is a double
edged sword, while it is one of the most important positions in the team, it can also be viewed as detrimental to the team’s overall progress. A7. Technology and communication in virtual teams Technology is increasing the speed at which an organization can share information with members across the globe. Digital communication tools, like Skye and Google Hangouts are making it easier for employees working in multiple locations to connect. There are three ways in which technology affect team communion, real time voice and video tools and collective virtual document sharing (Siebdrat, Hoegl, And Ernst). 1. Text based communication. Instant text communication is common in most work places today. Employees can communicate almost instantly through email and a variety of chat applications. Even organizations that have employees dispersed between floors or buildings are prone to use these tools to overcome the distance (Siebdrat, Hoegl, And Ernst). New options in text based communication allow organizations to build diverse teams that are based at locations all over the world. The main draw backs to purely text based communication is that it is difficult to build trust, can be incorrectly understood and there is a greater chance of conflict from text based communication. 2. Voice and video based communication. Several forms of voice and video based communication are available that make it possible for virtual teams to connect with real time two-way video and with voice chat. In addition to the telephone, cell phones and internet options allow people to connect in real time voice chat. Further, video conference is becoming more frequently used in virtual teams and several applications come pre-installed on most computers to support this. The benefit to voice and video chat is that a team can actively listen and participate in discussion that lead to collective ideas. 3. Document sharing. In addition to communication of ideas through text, voice and video, several tools exist for members of a team to collectively work on a document at the same time. Documents such as Drobbox allow a team to see other member contributions in real time, provide their own contribution
and give real time feedback. For a collective virtual project, there must be a collaborative method to share data in order for the team to effectively complete its task. Conclusion Technology is offering teams more ways to communicate and speeds up the flow of data across an organization. However, the interpersonal stages required for the formation of a highly functional team have not changed. The stages that a team must undergo to become highly functional cannot be rushed and can actually be complicated by the use of technology.
References
Bielaszka-DuVernay, C. (2008). Hiring for Emotional Intelligence. The Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2008/11/hiring-for-emotional-intellige/
Covey, F. (2009). “The Speed of Trust”. Webinar retrieved from: http://ondemand.franklincovey.com/mod/scorm/player.php?a=356¤torg=CourseID&scoid=1 152&cid=377&selectedid=40509&uid=93608&pack=multiple&track=true
Katzenbach, J. and Douglas K. (1993). The Discipline of Teams. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/services/proxy/content/50491572/50491596/1b92e529d73ee4b 6e489e2c71ccf453e
Pentland, A. (2012). The new science of building great teams. Harvard Business Review, 90(40), 6070.
Philipson. Three Key Questions That Can Predict Whether a Relationship a Relationship Will Last. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/relationship-advice-andromance/10706844/Three-key-questions-that-can-predict-whether-a-relationship-will-last.html
Quelch &Bloom. Ten Steps to a Global Human Resources Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.strategy-business.com/article/9967?gko=db7b9
Raven, B. (2008). The Bases of Power and the Power/Interaction Model of Interpersonal Influence. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1—22.
Siebdrat, Hoegl, And Ernst. (2009). How to Manage Virtual Teams. MIT Sloan Management Review. Summer VOL. 50 NO. 4. 62-68.
Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental Sequence of Small Groups. Psychological Bulletin. Vol. 63, No. 6, 384-399.
