A Team Building Program to Develop Your Team to Self-Reliance

Have you been on a team building program that lasts 1-2 days? Did you find that you were a team after that? A team that worked together effectively for the long term? Probably not!

Creating an empowered team-based organization takes time. The model discussed here is one that you will be able to use for years. It is a process and a team building program all rolled in to one. The model helps you to understand the way in which teams develop over time and the typical behaviors you can expect at each stage of development.

Certainly in the early stages of my career I knew there had to be a better way than the traditional command and control system that I found myself working within. The difficult thing was, whilst I knew there must be a better way, I didn't know exactly how to achieve it. You may be in a similar position.

The model provides you with a map to help you develop both an empowered team based organization and the individual's within that team. It is specifically designed for use with operating teams. An operating team can be described as one that:

• Is organized around and responsible for core work processes

• Works together on a regular (generally daily) basis and

• Is interdependent i.e. the members rely upon each other to get their work done

Most team development models describe a various number of stages that a team matures through until it becomes self-reliant (sometimes described as self-managing or self-directed).

I prefer the term self-reliant. A self-reliant team is one that relies upon it's own abilities and decisions.

This is a 4-Stage Team Development model which describes the interactions between the team leader and the team as it grows toward self-reliance. Please note that while the model might indicate a linear progression, in reality this rarely occurs. Teams generally move back and forward through the various stages.

• Helps you to understand where you are going
• Provides you with a map as to how to develop your team
• Informs you of the capability needed for the team to become self-reliant
• Enables you to assess the competence level of the team (and team members) and to negotiate the appropriate leadership style for their competency level
• Assists you to set training and development objectives to develop the team to the next level

• Focusing on goals and outcomes
• Observing and monitoring performance
• Providing feedback and inspiration

• The amount of direction the leader provides
• The amount of support the leader provides
• The amount of team member involvement in decision-making
• The degree of team member interaction

As a leader, creating an empowered team based organization, you have the same opportunity before you. This is a team building program that over time enables you and your team members to move from telling to inspiring.

Below is a brief description of each of the stages that the team flows through to becoming an empowered team. Click here, for a more detailed description of the behaviors of the team at each stage of the team building program.

Stage One of the Team Building Program

Start-up - (The Directive Leader)

It is easy to be autocratic and tell people what to do, but this approach does not build a high performance team. In the tell system people produce, but they do not perform, a subtle but important distinction. They produce to standards and not beyond.

It is certainly very appropriate in the early days of a team's formation, particularly whilst people have limited technical/business/social competency, for the leader to start by telling people what to do. Sadly, in many organizations this is how it remains.

In an economic environment with high unemployment organizations can easily stagnate here. The mindset being "Shut up and do what you're told. If you don't like it, look out the window there's 500 people who'd love to have your job".

Stage One communication is downward, with very little upward. It is a compliance environment where people give you time because that's what they are being paid for, but they don't engage their heart, soul and energy.

They do just enough to avoid 'punishment'. They have little interest in quality, change or opportunity. "That's not my job" is a statement of frequency. They do what they are told and no more.

People often become resentful when they are not allowed more freedom.

As frustrating as it is for team members in a tell environment, so too it can be for the team leader. In this type of environment the team leader makes all the decisions. S/he finds him/herself mostly fighting fires. A bit like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland this team leader finds him/herself constantly rushing, but not really going anywhere. Certainly there is little if any time for the leader to be focused on the long-term future of the business.

So, if you want to move from mere compliance toward high performance, if you want to expand your people and yourself, if you want your people's work life and your own work life more rewarding, it's time to move through to Stage 2.

Stage Two of the Team Building Program

Pivotal - (The Coaching Leader)

By giving team members more responsibility and freedom, asking for their input and suggestions, engaging in mutual goal-setting and creating more two-way feedback, you are bringing them through Stage II development.

Team members are gaining some small influence and enjoying their work more. The Team Leader still holds the decision-making power (or managers' higher up do) on anything that costs money, affects any policies or requires any significant change. The team leader listens to team member suggestions and complaints and often (but not always) uses the team input in his/her decision making.

Team members are learning and contributing more. There is some team training in meeting skills, problem-solving, interpersonal communication and process improvement.

As you begin to empower more you provide much greater opportunity for upward and horizontal communication. (Often people who are asked if they could change only one behavior in their boss they reply they would ask for a boss who would ask more and tell less!)

Team members continue to produce (do what they are told) but they also perform (do more than they have to).

This stage is often the most frustrating of the team building program and certainly the most pivotal. Like teenagers, sometimes team members want more authority and freedom than they are necessarily ready for or the leadership team is necessarily ready (mentally and emotionally) to pass over. Often organizations stop here, but there is a whole other world beyond that ... Stage 3

Stage Three of the Team Building Program

Coordinating - (The Supportive Leader)

The team leader takes more of a back seat and becomes a team coordinator. Team members are more goal focused and handle most of the day to day tasks. People are more committed to what they are doing. They are doing things because they want to, not because they have to. They give you their time and their energy.

These teams, to become and stay empowered, need to receive considerable delegation of real decision authority, have accountability for results, and work diligently on developing alignment of direction with their external environment (vis customers and corporate bodies).

At this stage, the team members and the team leader MUST continually work on developing their capabilities. All true empowerment is based on increasing personal and team capability, ableness, capacity -- call it what you will, because now it's the time to excel ... Stage 4 A Self-Reliant Team

Stage Four of the Team Building Program

Self-Reliant - (The Facilitating Leader)

The Team leader primarily works outside the team. Team members can solve both day to day as well as more complex problems on their own.

The team hits its targets on regular basis and is on the look out for continuous improvement opportunities. People perform consistently at high levels. Here we have people who are engaged heart and soul in their work. This is the part of the team building program that any leader worth his/her salt will want to achieve. It's when you have the satisfaction of knowing that you've had a meaningful and significant impact on the lives (and livelihoods) all everyone who has been associated with your team.

Performance comes from using Functional Team Pillars!

You are now being presented with a tool - called Team Pillars. Pillars are the backbone of your team building program and enable you to create an empowered team based organization in a structured manner.

I've called these team pillars as the dictionary says that a pillar is something that supports a superstructure. That is exactly what these do. They are the foundation of your team building program. They are the support you need to create the superstructure of a self-reliant, empowered team based organization.

Whilst, general descriptions for the stages of team development are important and valuable on their own, they become far more powerful when you begin to look at the various functions that an organization requires for a team to be successful. For example if you are leading a manufacturing team some of the functions that a self-reliant team could be responsible for might include:

• Team Productivity
• Safety
• Maintenance
• Improving Individual Performance
• Quality
• Team Meetings
• Customer Service

By working with your team to develop a pillar, for each of the functions that are important to the successful operation of your business, you will come to understand the specific behaviors you expect at each stage for that particular function and be able to assess the stage at which your team is operating for that particular function.

Be aware that to create a pillar from scratch is a time consuming process, but is terrific for the development of your team as it assists them to understand where you are heading as a team and the behaviors that will be expected of them in the future.

When creating an Empowered Team Based Organization the most important thing to understand is that teams develop at differing speed for each function.

For example generally teams very quickly become results focused and can be relied upon to achieve performance targets - often moving quite rapidly through Stage 1 to Stage 3-4 in terms of "Team Productivity".

However, most teams take a very long time to move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 in terms of "Improving Individual Performance". As a leader you would probably agree that one of the most difficult tasks that confronts you is managing the under-performance of individuals - it seems to be a task that most people find difficult.

Consequently, it is quite feasible to have a team who is performing as a Stage 3-4 team in terms of their capability to manage team productivity but very much at Stage 1 in terms of managing individual performance. I.e as a group they can easily hold each other accountable for achieving performance outcomes, but when it comes time to address the under-performance of an individual they expect the team leader to do it.

Once each function is assessed you will know exactly the appropriate style of leadership given their stage of development for that particular function. It will also enable you to negotiate how you lead with your team. Click here to see how I used team pillars with an under-performer.

Also following assessment it will be very clear the behaviors and capability you need to develop in people in order to truly create an empowered team based organization. This is the part of the team building program that enables you on a daily basis to know what it is you need to focus upon and grow within both the individuals and the collective team in order to move the team from say Stage 2 to Stage 3.

This team building program IS NOT an EVENT - It's A Way Of Operating

You have probably realized by now that this is an on going team building program that develops your team to self-reliance over time. It isn't a quick fix. It's a process that you continuously use to develop both yourself and your team. Changing Workplace Culture

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to know more about how you could use the Pillars within your organization.

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