Current Newsletter Archives Subscribe "After diagnosing the problem, The Plaid Group provides concrete solutions, not just big picture observations."   Click here for more testimonials.		Plaid Group Newsletter   Join The Plaid Group mailing list and you’ll receive a free bimonthly email newsletter filled with insights and ideas you can use to enhance your company’s operational performance, spur growth, and increase bottom line profits.           Stop the Madness! End the chaos at work … and start winning through teamwork. by Tim Smith, Principal       [ Print Version ] Early in my career, I worked for a company where chaos ruled the day.   The organization’s leadership had lost control, leaving us floundering with no clear direction.   Customers complained non-stop – and rightfully so, because our product quality left a lot to be desired.   Employee turnover topped 50 percent. Turf battles and infighting were the norm; healthy partnerships with other firms had fizzled. Not surprisingly, our competitors were eating our lunch, and enjoying every last morsel.   Nobody likes that kind of chaos. But unfortunately, it’s all too common in business. You probably can think of a workplace that matches my description above. It may even be the business you manage today!   How do you turn a company like that into one with a great atmosphere, where employees are challenged with interesting work and customers are appreciative of everything you do? To answer that question, we first have to consider what a company really is.   My favorite way of describing a company is that it is “a group of people working together to get something done.”   In some ways, successful companies are like successful sports teams. Winning teams operate as finely tuned units, with a clearly defined common goal and teammates who mesh seamlessly while performing their own tasks at the highest possible level.   It’s true that it can be difficult for companies with large numbers of employees to share the personal bonds that sports teams do. But it IS possible to emulate the winning attributes that turn also-rans into champions.   Winning teams, winning at business Have you ever been part of a successful sports team? Maybe you helped your soccer or baseball team win a championship when you were younger. Perhaps you play right field on a winning church softball squad.   Or maybe your experience was with a non-sports team such as a choir, theater group or garage band – all of which have to work cohesively to perform well, too.   A top-notch team in sports or the arts resembles an excellent company. Both are focused and high-performing, with members/employees who are committed to one another and to the team. But how do good teams get good?   A simple explanation of team development – called the GRPI Model – has been around for more than three decades, and its authors say that most winning teams share three common ingredients that form the foundation for their success:   Ingredient No. 1 – They have clear goals that all team members share. In sports, it’s easy to develop goals that everyone on the team can buy in to. “We want to win a championship” is clear-cut and easy to understand, and the path to success is easily measured. Did you win more than you lost? In business, it can be more difficult to tell when you are winning. But good companies invest the time to set short- and long-term objectives, and a game plan for reaching them. They also take care to communicate the company’s goals – and progress toward them – so that all employees know what is expected and how it is measured. Ingredient No. 2 – Every team member has a clearly defined role, and everyone knows who does what and when they do it. Ever watched a football team run a successful play, a basketball team on a fast break, or a baseball team relaying a ball from the outfield to home plate? The good teams make it look easy, but it’s actually the result of everyone knowing his/her roles … and hours of practice perfecting them so that no one has to guess where their teammates will be. In business, it’s critical to define everyone’s role so they understand what is expected of them, and what their teammates are responsible for, too. Ingredient No. 3 – The team has defined procedures for how members coordinate their efforts, and how they monitor both individual and team progress. This dovetails with No. 2 above. Team members must perform their individual roles well, but they also must work together in an organized, structured manner. In sports, teams practice set plays or formations again and again so that the tasks themselves become second nature. Yet in work, we often allow mission-critical activities to be handled on the fly, with little thought or planning. And we often don’t track our progress … allowing poor performance to go unchecked. The end result is the kind of chaos I experienced in my job years ago. Winning is fun, but there’s more to it Let’s think a little more about your personal experiences on successful teams. Your team had to work hard to be successful. What made the work satisfying – even fun – for you? When it comes to recreational teams, both formal research and informal anecdotes highlight five typical characteristics of recreational work. You can probably identify with these factors that make work fun:   Your goals are clearly defined. Scorekeeping is objective, you can determine your score and you can compare your current score to past scores. You get frequent feedback. The rules of the game are constant and you have some flexibility in how you play the game. The environment is competitive. As author Charles A. Coonradt wrote in his book “The Game of Work,” those characteristics also manifest themselves in business, and help determine how a company’s culture and work environment evolve.   In fact, one could argue that in many ways, a main difference between a team and a company is scope. Many small successful companies operate as a tight-knit group – a focused, coordinated team. So, why do so many lose that edge as they grow and evolve?   One reason is that sheer size and complexity causes them to lose the elements above – goals become less defined, processes develop gaps, individual and departmental roles become either more territorial or less structured, feedback declines and more.   But even the largest organizations can bring back coordination and teamwork, with the right focus. Winning organizations make certain that their employees work as a team by continually asking –and answering – three key questions:   Where are we headed? To start, establish and communicate a clear direction. What does your company’s ideal performance look like? What is your company’s plan for making that ideal performance reality? What are the company’s goals and related initiatives and programs for reaching those goals? After you define it, relentlessly remind people that that’s where all of you are headed. Refer to the specifics of your direction in memos, newsletters and reports. Mention it in your discussions of current performance and during problem-solving discussions and training sessions. Don’t let anyone forget where you are going. How are we organized to get there? Next, establish the operating structure that you and your employees will need to support the company’s goals. How is your work divided – into division, department, team and individual roles? What are the responsibilities of those divisions, departments, teams and individuals? How do those departments work together and rely on each other? You’ll need to define your business processes, too, because they are a critical part of the operating structure. While the division, department, team and individual roles make it easier to get pieces of the work done, your processes are the mechanisms that tie everyone’s efforts together and allow them to reach the company goals. How are we keeping score? Finally, establish ways to track and communicate your company’s performance at all organization levels – division, department, teams, process and individual – and then do it. Keep score and make it as easy as possible for people to know how they are doing in their jobs, and how their team, departments, divisions and company are doing, too. Without that feedback – unless they know the score – they won’t know whether they are on a successful course. C’mon coach, you lead the way! As the company’s senior manager, you are the coach with responsibility for the team’s performance. If you take the time to establish clear goals, roles for each department and person and processes that describe how team members coordinate efforts – while monitoring progress regularly – your team can improve its performance dramatically and add value to customers and the bottom line.   More Information? If you’d like to learn more about developing a winning team, please send an E-mail to info@plaidgroup.com, visit our web site at www.plaidgroup.com, or call us at 713-627-3569. The Plaid Group publishes a free bimonthly e-mail newsletter filled with insights and ideas you can use to enhance your company's operational performance, spur growth and increase bottom-line profits. To subscribe, change your e-mail address or unsubscribe, please visit www.plaidgroup.com/newsletters_subscribe.asp.   Author's Note: Tim Smith is a Principal with The Plaid Group. The Plaid Group helps companies simplify and stabilize their business operations to improve financial performance and gain a competitive edge.   Copyright 2008 The Plaid Group