Managing Others: Teams and Individuals: Your guide to getting it right

Steps in successful team building

A team is more than just a group of people who happen to work together. It is a group of people working towards common goals and objectives and sharing responsibility for the outcomes. Team building is the process of selecting and grouping team members effectively, and developing good working relationships and practices that enable the team to steer and develop the work and reach their goals. Increasingly, a team may be composed of people drawn from different functions, departments and disciplines who have been brought together for a specific project.

The use of workplace teams to carry out projects of various kinds has become widespread. Teams can play a key role in organisational success, but the development of good working relationships is crucial to team performance. Organisations that take the time and trouble to invest in the development of positive interaction and cooperation in teams will reap the benefits of improved morale, more effective performance and the successful completion of projects.

Successful team building can:

coordinate the efforts of individuals as they tackle complex tasks

make the most of the expertise and knowledge of all those involved, which might otherwise remain untapped

raise and sustain motivation and confidence as individual team members feel supported and involved

encourage members to bounce ideas off each other, solve problems and find appropriate ways forward

help break down communication barriers and avoid unhealthy competition, rivalry and point-scoring across departments

raise the level of individual and collective empowerment

enhance engagement with and ownership of the task in hand.

This checklist provides an outline of the main steps in the development of workplace teams, but does not cover aspects specific to virtual or remote teams.

Action checklist

1 Consider whether you really do need a team

Don’t assume that a team is necessarily the best way of achieving the objectives you have in mind. Think carefully about the tasks that need to be completed and the skills required before forming a team. Teamwork may not always be the best approach – it may be difficult, for example, in an organisation with a culture of rigid reporting structures or fixed work procedures. Ask yourself whether one person with the relevant knowledge and skills could carry out the task more effectively.

It is also important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of teamworking – there may be losses in coordination and motivation if teams are not carefully developed and managed. Consider whether there is a need for a mix of skills and experience, the sharing of workloads, or brainstorming and problem solving. In such cases a team will often be the best option.

2 Define objectives and the skills needed to reach them

Think carefully about the nature of the tasks or projects to be carried out by the team and the mix of knowledge and skills needed. For teams handling routine tasks on a long-term basis, low levels of diversity in the team and clear definitions of tasks and roles are required. In this context, the main aims would be high levels of team cohesion and commitment and low levels of conflict.

For innovation and problem solving, however, high levels of diversity and complementary skills will be required and the definition of goals and roles may be left to the team. This might involve losses in coordination, much less cohesion and fairly high potential for conflict, but could be worthwhile if new ideas and solutions are required.

3 Take team roles into account

The work of R. Meredith Belbin provides some useful insights into the patterns of behaviour exhibited by team members and the way they interact with each other. You may wish to take these into account when putting a team together or seeking to shape an existing team. Belbin identifies a number of roles which team members can play and their respective strengths and weaknesses. He suggests that teams need a balance of members with differing roles if they are to work together effectively. Furthermore, an understanding of personal differences and roles can help team members to cooperate more successfully, complementing each other’s strengths.

4 Plan a team-building strategy

Invest time at the outset in getting the operating framework right so that the team will develop and grow.

The following aspects should be considered:

a climate of trust – where mistakes and failures are viewed as learning experiences, not occasions to apportion blame

the free flow of information – to enable team members to integrate their work with business objectives

training – in interpersonal skills, including communication and negotiation. Training may also be needed in handling the tasks required and taking responsibility for them. Team leaders will need project management skills and the ability to manage meetings and moderate discussions

time – ensure that the team has the time needed to coordinate activities, develop thoughts and ideas, monitor progress and hold regular meetings, and has access to the resources needed to achieve its objectives

resources – make sure that the team has access to any resources and materials it needs to complete the work

objectives – these need to be clearly understood by all team members. This is increasingly a matter of involving team members in setting objectives rather than dictating prescribed objectives to them

tasks and roles – team members must be absolutely clear about what is expected of them and what tasks have to be carried out

feedback – everybody needs to know how well they are doing and if and where improvements can be made. Feedback should focus primarily on the positive aspects and on ways of addressing any problems or difficulties.

5 Get the team together

At the initial meeting you should aim to start building the team as a team rather than a collection of individuals. Discuss and agree the outcomes the team is to achieve, rather than attempting to address the detailed issues involved in the project or task. Bear in mind that most teams pass through several stages of growth before starting to produce their best work. Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 model of team development presents this process in the following stages:

forming – as team members come together

storming – as they work through the issues

norming – as conflicts are resolved and working practices and expectations are established

performing – as objectives are achieved.

Bear in mind that these stages vary in importance depending on the type of task being carried out. For example, in the case of routine tasks, groups should proceed more quickly to performing. Teams with innovative tasks will need more time for forming and storming and often never reach the performing stage. Once a problem-solving strategy has been found by an ‘innovative’ team, it may be necessary to form a new team to implement the solution.

Make sure that everyone knows what their personal contribution to the team’s success will be, its place in the project schedule and its importance to the project’s success.

6 Explore and establish operating ground rules

Agree processes for decision-making and reporting for the life span of the team. Establish when and how often meetings will take place and how they will be managed. Encourage a climate of open and honest communication, so that, as far as possible, team members will be able to express opinions without fear of recrimination and minority views will be heard and considered.

7 Identify individuals’ strengths

Carry out an audit of individuals’ strengths and place people in the right position based on their skills and competences. Consider also how contributions and responsibilities overlap and how synergy can be released. It is important for team members to reach a common understanding of each other’s strengths, so that they can work together efficiently. This will help to integrate the skills of team members, strengthen team cohesion and improve the performance of the team as a whole.

You may also consider bringing in someone with team-building experience to help with the initial phases, especially if the team’s task is major or complex.

8 See yourself as a team member

Your role as team leader is to be a member of the team, not just the boss. Make it clear that everyone in the team has an important role to play and that your role happens to be that of team leader. Act as a role model and maintain effective communication with all members, especially through listening. Be aware of the formal and informal roles within the team and endeavour to keep conflict between them to a minimum. In some cases it may be beneficial for roles to remain fluid, adding to the flexibility of working relationships, but don’t allow team members to lose their focus on their individual strengths or objectives. An effective leader may decide to cede project leadership, albeit temporarily, to another when specific skills are required.

9 Check progress towards objectives

Check regularly to ensure that everyone still has a clear focus on what they are working towards, both individually and as a team. Identify milestones and hold team members accountable for progress towards them. As the team develops pride in shared success and lessons learned from failure, this should help to develop a sense of shared purpose, strengthen commitment and contribute to improved performance in the long run.

10 Time meetings with care

Unnecessary meetings are a bane, but if there are too few, the project – and the team – can lose focus. Meet regularly but with purpose:

to provide an opportunity to check ‘how are we doing?’

to review progress on the task

to reflect on how the team is working.

If any problems are identified, plan and implement appropriate action or corrective measures.

11 Dissolve the team

When the team has accomplished its tasks, acknowledge this. Carry out a final review to see if objectives have been achieved and evaluate the team’s performance, so that team members may learn, improve and benefit from experience. If all the objectives have been met, the team can be disbanded.

As a manager you should avoid:

expecting a new team to perform effectively from the word go

dominating the work of the team, whether intentionally, unintentionally or even unconsciously

exercising excessive control which may stifle creativity

overlooking the impact of formal and informal team roles

allowing the team to lose focus on the tasks to be completed

letting a team become too exclusive, in case it loses touch with the rest of the organisation

allowing individuals to take credit for the achievements of the team.

R. Meredith Belbin

Team building

Introduction

R. Meredith Belbin (b. 1926) is acknowledged as the father of team role theory. As a result of research carried out in the 1970s, he identified eight (later extended to nine) useful roles which are necessary for a successful team. His contribution has gained in significance because of the widespread adoption of teamworking in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Belbin is an academic who has also spent periods working in industry and who now has his own consultancy company. It was while working at the Industrial Training Research Unit in Cambridge in the UK that he was asked by Henley Management College to conduct some research into the operation of management teams.

The college’s approach to management education was based on group work, and it had been noticed that some teams of individually able executives performed poorly and others well. This impression was reinforced when a business game was introduced to one of the courses. Belbin discovered that it was the contribution of particular personality types rather than the merits of individuals that were important to the success and failure of such teams.

There has been a continuing interest in Belbin’s work because teamworking is increasingly an important strategy for organisations. There are many reasons for this. Teamworking is variously seen as a means of:

providing greater worker flexibility and cooperation

helping to achieve cultural shifts within an organisation

improving problem solving and project management

tapping the talents of everyone in the organisation.

There are different types of teamworking: for example, temporary teams, cross-functional teams, top management teams and self-directed teams.

This interest in teams means that team building, including team selection, group dynamics and team performance, has become particularly important. Although there are many models of team relationships, such as Team Management Systems (TMS) developed by Charles Margerison and Dick McCann, Belbin’s model is probably the best known.

Team role theory

It is important to remember that Belbin’s findings relate to teams of managers rather than other types of team. They were first published in Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail and later refined in Team Roles at Work.

Belbin says that a team role ‘describes a pattern of behaviour characteristic of the way in which one team member interacts with another where his performance serves to facilitate the progress of the team as a whole’.

The essence of his theory is that, given knowledge of the abilities and characteristics of individual team members, success or failure can be predicted within certain limits. As a result, unsuccessful teams can be improved through analysis of their shortcomings and making changes. But it is also important for individuals within the team to understand the roles that others play, when and how to let another team member take over, and how to compensate for shortcomings.

Although each of the nine roles has to be filled for a team to work effectively, they are not needed in equal measure, nor are they needed at the same time. There can be fewer than nine people in a team, since people are capable of taking on back-up roles where there is less need for them to fulfil a primary team role.

Figure 1: Team roles – contributions and allowable weaknesses

These roles are determined largely by the psychological makeup of those who instinctively adopt them, measured in terms of four principal factors: intelligence; dominance; extroversion/ introversion; and stability/anxiety. The ratings are shown as traits in the list of team role contributions.

The self-perception inventory and the Interplace system

Belbin devised a self-perception inventory, which has been through several revisions, as a quick and easy way for individual managers to work out what their own team roles should be. It was, however, taken up by organisations and used to determine employees’ team types, and it has been questioned whether it is psychometrically acceptable for this purpose. Academics were concerned that it was too subjective and recommended that feedback should come instead from a range of sources. In response to this criticism, Belbin reiterated that the inventory was not designed for this purpose and developed a computerised system called Interplace to cater for the needs of organisations.

Interplace is a more sophisticated approach to role analysis than the self-perception inventory because it incorporates feedback from other people, not just the individual concerned. The main inputs to the Interplace system are data from self-perception exercises, observer assignments and job-requirement evaluations. Interplace filters, scores, stores, converts and interprets the data gathered. It offers advice based on the three inputs in terms of counselling, team role chemistry, career development, and behaviours needed in certain jobs and team positions. The system works as a diagnostic and development tool for organisations.

Later theories

In the 1990s, Belbin extended his work by exploring the link between teams and the organisational environment in which they operate. He suggests that an effective model for the new flatter organisation may be a spiral or helix in which individuals and teams move forward on the basis of excellence rather than function.

Belbin has also devised a system for defining jobs that he calls ‘Workset’. The aim is to define the boundaries and content of a job through interactive communication between the manager and the job-holder. Colour is used to denote different aspects of the job. There should be five main outcomes:

the facilitation of empowerment

the encouragement of greater job flexibility

the promotion of teamworking

the support of cultural change

a continuous improvement process for jobs and job-holders

It is too early to say what impact the progression helix theory or Workset system will have. They are undoubtedly a contribution, however, to managing in today’s de-layered organisations and flexible working environments, with the associated need to involve and communicate with staff.

In perspective

Although independent recent research has thrown doubt on the existence of nine separate team roles, Belbin’s broad findings have not been questioned, nor has the popularity of his theories been disputed. There has been an enduring interest in team role categories on the part of managers in a wide variety of organisations. This is because:

there is an increasing