from
How to Grow Effective Teams
And Run Meetings That Aren't a Waste of Time
© by Ends of the Earth Learning Group 1998

by
Linda Turner and Ron Turner
from

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

References and Copying Rights

Summary of Chapter Two

WHY WAS THIS TEAM CREATED? WHERE WILL PEOPLE GET THE TIME TO MEET?

1. What is the purpose of this team? 2. What is the final product of this team? 3. How will the team concretely measure its success? 4. Who is the team sponsor? 5. Are there any deadlines and if so, what are they? Is there a "sunset clause" for this team? If so, what is it? 6. How often is the team expected to meet? How many hours of work per month is the team authorized to schedule? What are the budget limitations for this team? 7. Are there money and other resource limitations final recommendations or decisions by the team? If so, what are they? 8. Who are the members of this team including the team leader and facilitator? Where will they find the time to work with the team?

ADAPT THE CHARTER TO YOUR OWN ORGANIZATION

Create your own Team Charter Review questions from Chapter One

End of Summary

QUICK READ MISSION CREEP OCCURS WHEN A TEAM CHARTER IS TOO VAGUE. FUZZY PURPOSE STATEMENTS LEAD TO FUZZY RESULTS.

DETAILS The first step is the most important step in growing a team. The Team Charter specifies the purpose of the team, the boundaries of its scope and authority, and team membership. One of the major reasons that teams fail is that the original charter was too vague. This leads to mission creep in which teams spill into areas that were never intended, or teams become confused about how much authority they have and stumble into conflict with supervisors and other teams. A Team Charter consists of a series of questions that should be answered by whoever is creating the team. The charter is then shared with the team at its first meeting. Team members ask questions at this first meeting and offer suggestions for changes. The final decision regarding Team Charters is made by whoever has created the team. This might be a supervisor or steering committee. The questions we include here are generic questions that should be used as a basis for creating charters. Each organization will want to fine-tune the questions to fit their particular situation. 1. What is the purpose of this team? In answering this purpose statement, it helps to specify the kind of team being created. Will the team be a functional team, such as a quality circle which will meet regularly to implement ongoing operations, a self-directed team which is a type of an advanced quality circle, and/or will it be a cross-functional project team which works on improving processes, re-engineering projects, or policy issues that cut across departments? The purpose statement specifies why the team is being created. It can be general and somewhat abstract in language.

ROLE CONFUSION SOMETIMES LOOKS LIKE POWER GRABBING. IS THE TEAM SIMPLY RECOMMENDING CHANGE?

Example for a cross-functional project team: "This team will examine the billing process,beginning with orders made by customers and ending with final resolution of bills, and then make recommendations for improving this process." Example for a quality circle: "This team will make decisions regarding ongoing operations of the team, will lead continuous improvement efforts for team members, and be a forum for communicating announcements." While most people think they know why they are setting up a team, putting it into writing is frequently much more difficult than at first envisioned. If writing the purpose statement proves difficult, this is an indication of fuzzy goals for the team that need to be clarified. Otherwise, teams may later expand into arenas their creators had not intended. This isn't due to power grabbing, but rather is a natural result of role confusion. 2. What is the final product of this team? This question helps make the purpose statement more concrete. Example for a cross-functional project team: "This team will produce three products: (1) a flow chart of the current billing process along with measures of effectiveness, (2) a recommendation for improvements based on experiments and data which confirm that proposed ideas appear workable, and (3) a final written report to the Steering Committee outlining recommendations." Negative space: "This team is not being asked to develop implementation plans nor to oversee implementation." Example for a quality circle: "This team will: (1) make decisions regarding coverage for vacations and sick time, (2) choose and monitor improvement projects, (3) will provide, when requested by upper management, information about operations and recommendations for changes, and (4) will act as spokesperson for the work team when communicating with management and other teams."

TEAMS ARE PERMITTED TO DO THAT WHICH ISN'T PROHIBITED. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO KEEP SCORE, IT'S DIFFICULT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE WINNING.

Negative space: "This team is not being asked to hire, fire, discipline, or otherwise act on personnel issues. The team is also not being empowered to create budgets and monitor them." When specifying the purpose and products of a team, it helps to include the negative space that describes what the team is NOT being empowered to do. Again this helps reduce role confusion. 3. How will the team concretely measure its success? Example for a cross-functional project team: "This team's success will be measured by the quality of the final report submitted to the steering committee. "In this report, the Steering Committee will evaluate how well the team has defined the current billing process including measurements of billing effectiveness, and by how well the team has measured the effectiveness of recommended changes. "Effectiveness measures should include billing accuracy, timeliness, and perceived fairness by customers. 'Perceived fairness' means, 'Were customers surprised by their bills, or were their expectations met?' "Effectiveness of recommended changes should include results of experiments and/or pilot studies conducted by the team." Example for a quality circle: "The quality circle will measure its success in the following ways: (1) satisfaction of team members with meetings, (2) tracking on a storyboard the number-of and progress on improvement projects as well as measures of effectiveness on those projects, (3) measures of effectiveness in meeting the needs of the three most important internal and external customer groups, and (4) the extent to which the team takes into account system implications in its decision making.

WHY WOULD MANAGEMENT DISBAND A TEAM? YOUR ANSWER DEFINES A KEY MEASURE OF SUCCESS. THE TEAM SPONSOR GIVES THE TEAM CLOUT.

It is difficult to come up with measures of success for quality circles because their activities change as they grow and mature as teams. Somehow, though, the team has to know how it is doing. These measures may have to be developed jointly between the quality circle and the supervisors who created the circle. The measures may change over time. 4. Who is the team sponsor? Formal power refers to the power delegated from management. Informal power refers to the respect that others in the organization give to a team. Sometimes even with formal power delegated to a team, it is stymied because department heads and others in the organization fail to respect that authority. This is an all too common occurrence especially for cross-functional project teams who rely on different departments for data and assistance. The team sponsor is someone in the organization who can enforce the authority given to a team. The sponsor must have enough clout that managers will listen to "requests" with the understanding that the "requests" must in fact be met. 5. Are there any deadlines, and if so, what are they? Is there a "sunset clause" for this team? If so, what is it?

PEOPLE NEED REALISTIC DEADLINES. HOW LONG AM AM I EXPECTED TO SERVE?

Example for a cross-functional project team: "This team is expected to present a report to the Steering Committee in three months (December 12.) If the team is not ready to present its report by December 12, then it will recommend a later 'sunset date' or recommend dissolution of the team at that time. The Steering Committee will make any final decisions regarding activities beyond December 12. Example for a quality circle: "Deadlines may be given for specific projects as they are assigned. Every six months, the Steering Committee will review the performance of the Quality Circle in order to determine if it should be reformed." 6. How often is the team expected to meet? How many hours of work per month is the team authorized to schedule? What are the budget limitations for this team? Example: "This team is authorized to meet for up to four hours per week over three months. The Steering Committee must approve meetings that take more than four hours per week. The team is permitted to request assistance from the company's Quality Advisors and Internal Consultants. Any monetary expenditures beyond this must be approved by the Steering Committee." This is one of the most important questions to answer because it lets team members know what they are volunteering to do. Sometimes people join a team expecting to meet one hour per week, but then are very surprised to suddenly be asked to meet much more often. 7. Are there money and other resource limitations on final recommendations or decisions by the team? If so, what are they?

HOW MUCH CAN WE SPEND? AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE?

Example:"Proposed changes cannot exceed a cost of $5000, cannot include hiring more people, and must be expected to pay for themselves within two years either through reduced operating costs, increased customer retention, reduced turnover costs, or increased collections." Example:"There are no resource limitations, but the Steering Committee gets final approval if more than $5000 is spent." 8. Who are the members of this team including the team leader and facilitator? Where will team members find the time to work with the team? This question could be answered earlier. Usually though, the choice of individuals will depend upon how the prior questions were answered. Someone knowledgeable about financial constraints should be included on most teams. In general, you want people from across a process. For very important issues, make a larger team. For less important issues, use smaller teams. There is no set rule, but remember that additional team members are an investment. While no doubt added members will add value, ask yourself if the added value is greater than the added cost. If unsure, err on the side of making the team too big rather than too small. For Quality Circles and Self-Directed teams, members are usually everyone who works in a given area. They usually include people who functionally do the same things. These teams should also include an immediate supervisor. We also recommend rotating lynch pins from other departments. These lynch pins help bring outside perspective and also help communicate team perspectives to other departments. Lynch pins should serve a minimum of six months.

WHERE WILL TEAM MEMBERS FIND THE TIME TO MEET? THE FASTEST WAY TO KILL A TEAM IS TO NOT GIVE PEOPLE TIME TO MEET. TAYLOR YOUR TEAM CHARTER QUESTIONS TO FIT YOUR ORGANIZATION.

The second part of this question requires one of four specific answers. (1) Team members will work overtime, (2) Team members will delay completion of ________, (Include the specific tasks or assignments.) (3) Team members will give up ________ to others, (Include the specific tasks or assignments.) 4) __________ will not be accomplished. (Include the specific tasks or assignments.) It is not acceptable to simply say, "Team members will continue doing everything they already did, nothing will be delayed, and no one will have to work extra hours." That last statement is probably the most common answer that supervisors give, and it is also the death knell for most teams. Asking the impossible will not result in the impossible being accomplished. If people spend more time in their teams, then clearly something else is being delayed or not getting done. Be up front about what these things are. The answer will also vary depending upon team members. Some organizations require direct supervisors of team members to "sign off" on this question in order to assure that team members will be able to follow through on their commitments to the team. Example: This team will include a salesperson, an order desk clerk, an accounts receivable person, a collections person, and the manager of the billing department. The team leader will be Joyce Matheson and the facilitator will be Larry Monroe. Each team member's direct supervisor will specify that the team member either will work overtime or will be relieved of certain duties while participating on the team. The supervisor will give the steering committee, in writing, a list of the duties that will be shifted or not done as a result of this person being on this team. CREATE YOUR OWN TEAM CHARTER. The team charter we have offered here is not an end-all. Use it as a starting point and then add, delete, and revise questions as you create teams. Over time, your charter will start to better reflect your own organizational needs. The advantage of having a team charter is that by writing down your key questions, you will improve the process of creating teams. Over time, as you experience headaches-- and heartaches-- from teams that did not work out well, you can then add questions dealing with the underlying root cause to your team chartering process.

NEWBORN'S LESSONS IN HOW TO KILL TEAMS:

"How does the team respond to new ideas?"

CHAPTER ONE REVIEW

1. A growth model of teams suggests that. . . .

A. once the recipe for building teams is worked out, then success will be guaranteed for every team.

B. teams don't develop without further training.

C. team success will vary depending upon the mix of people on the team and individual development.

2. People with follower attitudes. . . .

A. are the best kinds of people for teams because they will go along with anything.

B. tend to blame themselves when things go wrong.

C. have a victim's mindset that makes them feel like they have no control over what the team does or over their own lives.

3. Which of the following is an essential part of a growth environment for encouraging team development?

A. Creating a fear of failure in order to encourage people to be obsessive in their pursuit of perfection.

B. Creating a belief that people will have a job in the future.

C. A reward system that includes a money bonus for Team Member of the Year.

ANSWERS:

1. "C" is correct. Growing teams is different than putting together all the right ingredients in order to make prize-winning cakes every time you make them. Development can be on an individual basis or group basis. Further training (as in "B") might spur development, but development also occurs naturally even without further training. Stephen Covey describes this development process as moving from dependency to independency and finally to interdependency. In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey describes some exercises that help people develop.

2. "C" is correct. In the Flight of the Buffalo,the authors describe how difficult it is for management to empower workers who have been trained since childhood to be followers of the Head Buffalo. Empowering teams requires people to adopt new roles and ideas about their place in the social structure. When growing teams, it is essential to have patience and give people time and opportunity to grow into the kinds of leaders that make the most effective powerful teams.

3. "B" is correct. While we want teams to pursue perfection (as in "A"), we don't want them to feel like failures simply because they aren't perfect. We generally advise teams to start with two assumptions:

• "It's impossible to be perfect," and
• "Our goal is perfection."