How to Form a Team: Five Keys to High Performance

Kanaga, Kossler

• Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9781882197682
• eBook ISBN: 9781604916966
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

One of the first steps to take toward increasing team effectiveness is to pay attention to how the team is formed. You can head off most of the problems that beset teams during the formation stage by setting a clear direction, building organizational support, creating an empowering team design, identifying key relationships, and monitoring external factors. When a team is formed with the five high-performance principles described in this guidebook, it has a head start on achieving success.

Forming an Effective Team

Team effectiveness isn’t inevitable. Teams quite often fail to meet performance objectives, and the consequences can be harsh and lasting. The business opportunities a team is charged with developing may be missed, the business problem a team is charged with solving may persist and even worsen, competitive advantage may be lost, relationships between business units may be damaged, trust in the organization’s leadership and direction can erode, valuable people may resign, and subsequent teams may launch in an atmosphere of cynicism and doubt, increasing the likelihood that they, too, will fall short.

Yet most of the pitfalls teams encounter are predictable and preventable. In its research into teams and its work with organizational teams, CCL has learned that what a leader does or fails to do prior to and during team formation has considerable impact on the team’s fate. You can head off most of the problems that beset teams by considering in advance the composition of the team, its purpose, the resources it will need, and the potential obstacles it will face.

By carefully laying the groundwork you will greatly increase the likelihood that the team you launch will deliver on its potential. You can be sure to cover all of the facets of team formation by reviewing five critical components:

1. Set a clear direction. A common sense of purpose unifies team members and provides a context within which they can understand how the team functions and how their own contributions play a part.

2. Build organizational support. Teams are more productive when they are able to operate within an organization that provides resources that support their efforts.

3. Create a team structure that empowers team members. Establishing shared expectations, identifying and organizing resources, and creating a clear sense of how the team goes about doing its work allows team members to focus their efforts on achieving the team’s goal(s).

4. Identify key relationships. Building key relationships with individuals, other teams, and organizations allows more efficient and effective flow of resources into and from your team.

5. Monitor external factors. Gathering and analyzing information about the broader environment relevant to your team’s goals enables it to make necessary adjustments when conditions warrant.

Set a Clear Direction

When teams go awry it’s often the case that the team members have different ideas of what the team’s mission is and what they are expected to accomplish. Effective teams begin with a clear purpose. In addition to your view of the team’s purpose and direction, there are stakeholders with their own views. Talk to these stakeholders to gain an understanding of their expectations for team success. Compile this information so that you are prepared to share it with the team you’re forming.

A team’s purpose doesn’t specify how the team will carry out its work but indicates what the end result of the team’s work will be. For example, the result might be a plan for increasing sales or a strategy for penetrating a specific market. Hone your team’s purpose to a strong, memorable, and inspiring challenge. Use the Team Direction Worksheet on page 11 to help you clarify your team’s purpose.

Build Organizational Support

When a team fails to operate at its full potential, team members and sponsors often cite interpersonal conflicts and tensions as the reasons. But more often than not the real causes of failure lie outside the team, in the system that fielded and is meant to support the team. While forming your team make special efforts to ensure that your organization supports the team with adequate resources, organizational sponsorship, careful recognition of team member responsibility (to the team and to the organization), authority, a means of providing feedback on performance, and a team-oriented reward system.

Anticipate and obtain team resources. One measure of an organization’s support for its teams is whether or not the team members have sufficient resources to accomplish their goals. Time to develop is one of the resources your team may require. It may also need physical space, support staff, equipment, a travel budget, and training opportunities, all of which add to the bottom line. Teams are costly, and teams that fail because organizations don’t give them the resources they need are extremely costly. Plan for getting your team the resources it needs using the Team Resources Worksheet on pages 16-17.

Team Direction Worksheet

Who made the decision to form this team?

Why was that decision made?

Who has a vested interest in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• What Is a Team?
• Forming an Effective Team
• Team Formation: A Special Event
• Suggested Readings
• Background
• Key Point Summary