Teamwork…do I have to?

November 9, 2009 by janet · Leave a Comment 

peopleLove them or hate them, teams are a part of our organisational language.  But, as much as the word is used, it is not always clear what makes an effective team. 

Let’s say your team has a goal to produce and execute a marketing plan.  In fact, your goal is to write the best darn marketing plan the organisation has ever seen.  Since the plan has various sections that need to be researched and written, it can be broken down into parts and assigned to various team members.  But wait…is that really the best way to create a stellar marketing plan?

How you structure the work depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  Doing marketing as a team is not like painting a house.  If you just all go off and do your own sections, you won’t benefit from the collective experience and ideas within the team.  A key benefit of teams is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.    The best ideas for your marketing  will likely emerge from the creative process.  To benefit from that emergence, you need to make yourselves more interdependent - in other words, how you work together as a team will impact the marketing plan that emerges.

So, before you jump into the details, take some time to get to know each others’ backgrounds and working styles.   If the task is important to you, take the time to talk about individual and shared motivations.  New research has shown that teams with well-articulated charters and performance strategies create initial conditions that foster the emergence of team success*.

But, you might be thinking… is it even worth it?  Not everyone likes these ‘getting to know you’ activities and there is something to be said for ’if you want something done right, do it yourself’.  Is there really any benefit to working in a team?  Well, that depends on what the goal is – more on that in next week’s post.

 *Mathieu, J.E. and Rapp, T.L. (2009).  Laying the Foundations for Successful Team Performance Trajectories:  The Roles of Team Charters and Performance Strategies.  Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol.94, No.1. 90-103

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