Teams, Tantrums and Transformations
Mentor Speak
This series of short write ups provide pearls of wisdom from Global Leaders and Mentors who are associated with us. They bring in a practitioner’s perspective and serves as an effective combination of advice that has authenticity, experience and most importantly – relevance.
As the famous saying goes –
“If you want one year of prosperity, grow seeds. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.”
That’s how important Teams are in the formula of success for any great leader. There is more than enough evidence to show that being a great leader has much more to do than pure academic qualifications. I believe that as a leader we need three mantras in order to be successful – Passion, Hunger and Discipline. Get them all and see the difference! And getting them just by oneself isn’t enough – what is important is cascading these traits to the team that one is working with and that will make all the difference.
However, the most critical question is, “is it that easy to work together and generate results?”
This reminds me of a porcupine story(1) which holds a highly relevant lesson for each one of us. The story goes that it was a particularly harrowing time in porcupine land. The winter was severe and the porcupines were finding it difficult to survive and were freezing to death. That’s when they held a meeting to decide the future course of action. As they got together to discuss their survival strategy, they discovered that by being in close proximity with each other, they were able to feel warmer and protect each other. Being close together meant that their bodies generated heat which helped everybody keep warm. So they found that they could survive the cold by just staying together. But there was a problem. As they moved closer, they found each other’s quills a problem – they poked and hurt. Feeling the discomfort, some porcupines decided to avoid the pain from the quill pokes and moved away. And as they ventured out on their own, the cold got them and they died. Soon, better sense prevailed and the porcupines realized it was better to stay together, tolerate the pain and survive rather than go out on their own and die.
The story does ring a bell about how it applies to the context of organizations! This is a perfect example of how teams function sometimes and perhaps the quill pricks are similar to the team tantrums that we often encounter in organizations. So while porcupines naturally like to keep their distance and avoid getting hurt by each other’s quills, it takes a severe winter to bring them all together. Great leaders ensure that there is winter in the horizon as they act as the binding force within their teams to create transformation. It is important to realize that great teams are not always made of perfectly compatible people and not all would gel well. The key is to learn to live with the differences and imperfections and value the outcome it generates. That’s what great teams are all about.
Teams
In organizations, the most common types of teams that are found are problem-solving teams, self-managed teams, cross-functional teams and virtual teams. The key components in creating effective teams can be summed up in four categories as follows:
Work Design: Effective teams need to work together and take collective responsibility to complete significant tasks.
Composition: This includes variables as to how teams will be staffed i.e. ability and personality of team members, allocating roles, diversity and size of the team, member flexibility and members’ preferences.
Contextual: The contextual factors that significantly relate to team performance are the presence of adequate resources, effective leadership, the climate of trust and performance evaluation and reward system.
Process Variables: This includes members’ commitment to a common purpose, the establishment of specific team goals, team efficacy, managed level of conflict and minimizing social loafing.
Tantrums
One of the most well-documented findings from the studies on individual and organizational behaviour is that members in an organization resist change and this is true in case of teams as well. This resistance can be overt, immediate, implicit or deferred. It is easy to manage team tantrums when they are overt and immediate in the form of voicing complaints, engaging in work slowdown, threatening to go on strike and the likes. Implicit and deferred resistance is difficult to manage and this can be in the form of loss of loyalty to the organization, loss of motivation to work, increased errors, enhanced absenteeism due to sickness etc. In a nutshell, the Tantrums or resistance to change can be attributed to the following:
Habit: To cope with complexity we all rely on habits, but when confronted with change, the tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of resistance for teams.
Security: People with a high need for security in a team will resist change because it threatens their feelings of safety and security.
Economic factors: Changes in job tasks or established work routines can arouse economic fears if people in teams are concerned that they won’t be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards, especially when pay is closely linked to productivity.
Fear of the unknown: Fear of ambiguity and uncertainty might lead to resistance and some people in teams may function dysfunctionally.
Selective information processing: Some team members shape their world through their own perceptions and once they have created this world, they tend to resist change. They are guilty of selective information processing in order to keep their perceptions intact.
Politics and Group Dynamics: Team members resort to influencing decisions to suit their interests instead of organization, through politicking, reciprocity, altruism, groupism etc. This can lead to camouflaging of real issues and problems.
Transformations
Often leaders encounter the Tantrums while working with their teams and it becomes imperative for them to manage these by acting as “change agents”. The following approach can be used in dealing with resistance to change and create a transformation of sorts:
Purpose and Vision: It is important for leaders to set a clear vision and develop a sense of purpose. The vision needs to be translated into a lucid action plan.
Cascading and Communication: Once the vision is defined, it needs to be cascaded to people so as to help them understand the ‘WHY’ behind the same, so that they are actively involved in the process and help in creating solutions. Resistance can be overcome by communicating with people to help them see the logic of the change. This can happen through team interactions, one-on-one discussions, memos, focused groups, group presentations, reports etc. This will help in building trust and credibility thus eliminating the resistance to change.
Participation, Facilitation and Support: It is difficult for people to resist a change in which they have participated. Hence it is important to involve them in the change process to reduce resistance, obtain commitment and increase the quality of execution of the change. As change agents, leaders can offer a range of supportive efforts to reduce resistance. People them themselves act as “Change Champions” instead of throwing tantrums.
Reinforcement: Once the change is implemented, it needs to be reinforced for sustenance. Else there is a high chance that the change will be short-lived and people will tend to return to the previous equilibrium. Reinforcement can be achieved by way of continuous communication, education and involvement of the teams.
Conclusion
As leaders, dealing with teams and enabling them to create transformation is a challenging task. But if dealt with in the right manner, it can create wonders. Once you have a strong WHY i.e. a vision, the HOWs i.e. the means are easy to find. Conversely, no matter how lucrative or righteous the change is, if the team isn’t excited by the purpose or the goal, it is unlikely that they will execute the process in its true spirit. To quote a French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery – “if you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea”. And that will create miracles! Get them excited about the joy of winning. Along with the how-to-do messages, help them to create vivid images of the end results and what would a winning team look like when they achieve the results. Paint that picture and the results will be magical and instant. When wonderful ‘Teams’ work together for a common goal, the ‘Tantrums’ take a back seat and the incredible ‘Transformations’ happen.
(1) Iyer, Prakash (2013). The Secret of Leadership. Penguin Group.
