Introduction

It’s always interesting to watch people who have been incredibly successful in their own businesses work in a group made up of equally strong personalities. It takes a special kind of leader who can effectively manage a team of veritable strangers and find the best way to get strong, winning performances from them.

—Donald Trump

Over the past decade, teamwork has received increased attention as more and more companies have recognized the power of cross-functional collaboration. Organizations are making every effort to bust functional silos and limit individual contributors. Business is too complicated to rely on singular heroes. Companies that embrace the power of collaboration realize that business problems are often solved when multiple people with different expertise and skills tackle the problems together.

Today, many business processes cut across departmental boundaries, warranting the involvement and input of many. In fact, company squads are everywhere—project teams, functional teams, cross-functional task forces, and steering committees. There seems to be a team for every type of business need.

TEAM REALITY

Have you ever watched the TV show The Apprentice? It is a reality show that originated in 2004 in the United States. Billed as “the ultimate job interview,” the show consists of 16 contestants from around the country, each vying for an employment opportunity with Donald Trump. Businessmen and businesswomen compete in an eliminationstyle competition for a one-year, $250,000 job running one of Trump’s companies. Each week the group is split into two teams, and each team is assigned a new “project manager.” The project manager guides his or her team through project assignments. The team members endure long hours, grueling mental challenges, personality clashes, and intense scrutiny as they work together to complete assignments and beat the competition. The ninth season of the show will air in spring 2010; versions of the U.S. show can now be viewed in more than 20 countries.

To satisfy the voyeur in us, we tune in each week to experience the shaky, often volatile dynamics among contestants. Although the show focuses on the high drama among team members to emphasize the entertainment value, the scenes are not far from reality.

Whether you are a fan of the show or not, the weekly episodes depict the chaotic, highly charged realities facing teams in business today. And whether you like “The Donald” or not, he’s right—teamwork is tough.

GROUP OR TEAM?

Before we introduce ways to promote healthy team dynamics, it’s important to understand the differences between teams and work groups. Is your group a real team, a work group, or something in between? How you approach the development of your team or group will differ depending on the nature of the group, the duration of the project, the project scope, and the targeted project outcomes.

Don’t confuse a group with a team. All teams are groups, but not all groups in an organization are teams.

The difference between a team and a group is that members of a team are interdependent for overall performance. In other words, a team is created when members are committed to a common purpose or set of performance goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A group, on the other hand, consists of individual contributors, each vying for individual outcomes.

Teamwork is essential in today’s global arena, where individual perfection is not as desirable as a high level of collective performance. A group qualifies as a team only if its members focus on helping one another to accomplish organizational objectives.

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, project teams have emerged as a requirement for business success. Projects range in size and magnitude, and team sizes vary. But regardless of how short or long the project or how small or large the team, all projects are completed through groups, which tend to be complex from a management and communications point of view.

If you can improve group dynamics, you can improve project performance. The stronger the group, the better the performance. Therefore, all project team leaders should consistently facilitate the evolution of project groups into project teams. To achieve project success, everyone on the team must help one another achieve the project goal.

After receiving a project assignment, many managers are quite adept at guiding the project through its life cycle. Regardless of methodology type, experienced project managers instinctively know how to initiate, plan, execute, and close projects. Launching the project team, however, is not quite as intuitive—especially when corporate culture dictates most work relationships.

HOW CORPORATE CULTURE DRIVES BEHAVIORS

Knowing the difference between a group and a team is important; understanding the influence of corporate culture is critical. People in every workplace talk about corporate culture, a mysterious phrase that characterizes the work environment but is difficult to define. As someone once put it, “Corporate culture is how everyone behaves when no one is looking.” Yet, even when it cannot be described, you usually know when you have found an employee or team member who appears to fit into your corporate culture.

Corporate culture should not be confused with the corporate mission. Corporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions, and meanings that make a company unique. It can often be identified through the philosophy and leadership style of the CEO; in fact, this is a much better indicator of corporate culture than the stated mission of the company. Simply put, corporate culture is about the traditions, ideas, and social behavior of an organization.

Senior leaders drive corporate culture; often, they impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. In addition, there is an extant internal culture within the workforce. Work groups within an organization also have their behavioral quirks and interactions, which to some extent affect the whole system. Hence, project teams can establish their own team culture, although doing so is difficult if the team culture does not somehow align with the corporate culture.

Throughout their life cycle, organizations tend to follow common evolutionary paths in their culture type, resulting in both advantages and challenges to organizational success. Taking the time to identify your organization’s cultural type will help you leverage your team dynamics.

Let’s consider how human system types drive behavior across an organization. David Kantor is a systems psychologist and organizational consultant who has made significant contributions to organizational development theory and practice. The Kantor System Typology and Communicational Domains™ includes four systems types:

Random

Open

Closed

Synchronous.

Each of these systems contains characteristics and behaviors that either promote or impede business results, and each organization typically has a natural inclination toward one system or another, based on the industry in which it operates and its leadership style. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Random Culture

A random culture, according to Dr. Kantor, is one that can be described as “individualistic.” It is an environment that supports responsiveness, creativity, and entrepreneurship. When behavior is extreme, however, the organization can become chaotic and reactionary and can lack real direction. Table I-1 shows how Dr. Kantor describes a random culture.

Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee shop operator, comes to mind when I think of a random culture. It is an organization that has found success in innovation, rapid expansion, and commitment to social responsibility. Yet, it is also an organization currently struggling to remain on top. As Starbucks seeks to restore what President and CEO

Howard Schultz calls the “distinctive Starbucks experience,” many analysts believe that Schultz must determine how to contend with higher material prices and increasing competition from lower-priced fast food chains.

Starbucks first announced it would discontinue its warm breakfast sandwich products (originally planned for nationwide launch in 2008) in order to refocus the brand on coffee, but then the sandwiches were reformulated to deal with customer complaints and the product line was retained. The sandwich line has since been repriced to compete more successfully with fast food chains.

In March 2008, Schultz made several announcements to Starbucks shareholders. He introduced Starbucks’ new state-of-the-art espresso systems and also announced that the company hoped to enter the energy drink market. In June 2009, the company announced that it would overhaul its menu and sell salads and baked goods without artificial ingredients. The move is intended to attract health- and cost-conscious consumers without affecting prices.

The company continues its roller coaster ride. It recently cut U.S. expansion plans amid growing economic uncertainty and has dropped more than 1,000 non-retail jobs as part of its bid to reenergize the brand and boost profits. Not long ago it introduced Via instant coffee, comparable to fresh-brewed coffee. Some suggest it is Starbucks’ last real chance for survival.

In spite of the shifts in focus and business challenges, Schultz has talked about making sure growth and change do not dilute the company’s culture and the common goal of the company’s leadership to act like a small company.

Open Culture

An open culture, described as “collaborative,” is known for its open and constant communication. It relies heavily on teamwork and is adept at problem-solving. Yet, those who peer in from the outside might also view this culture as “all talk, no action.” Table I-2 shows what an open culture looks like.

Bluewolf, Inc., is an on-demand enterprise consulting firm headquartered in New York. It provides business consulting, IT resourcing, and remote database administration. Since 2000, Bluewolf has been the world’s fastest-growing provider of on-demand software services, helping companies leverage the power of cutting-edge software applications.

The vacation policy at Bluewolf sounds like a manager’s worst nightmare. Employees at the consulting firm are allowed to take as much time off as they want, whenever they want. Extended vacations, trips to the movies, or watching a child’s afternoon soccer game are all allowed, no permission required.

In exchange for that freedom, employees must meet strict standards for success. Salespeople are evaluated on deals closed; consultants, on billable hours; and other employees, by customer satisfaction measures. Called “results only,” the policy allows workers to take unlimited vacation time as long as they are performing according to expectations and are reaching their goals.

Bluewolf believes the more power it gives its people, the more responsibility they will take.

Best Buy has also adopted similar policies nationwide. At Best Buy, corporate employees are granted unrestricted time off. Empowered to make time-off decisions without guilt, most Best Buy employees take less time than their peers who have defined vacation and sick time policies.

Closed Culture

A Closed culture can be described as “structured.” It has stability, instills high levels of accountability, and is procedure-heavy. It typically contains strong leadership, is hierarchical in nature, makes quick decisions, and has efficient work processes in place. In other words, it is highly structured and productive. However, a closed culture can also be viewed as dictatorial, autocratic, and authoritarian. Table I-3 shows how Dr. Kantor describes a closed culture.

When I think about a company with a closed culture, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) quickly comes to mind. It operates with a high level of precision, maintains very specific performance metrics, and has a clear chain of command in place. NASA’s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958, partially as a response to the Soviet Union’s launch of the first artificial satellite the previous year. President John F. Kennedy focused NASA and the nation on sending astronauts to the moon by the end of the 1960s. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 men to walk on the moon, meeting Kennedy’s challenge.

NASA continues its scientific research and exploration. Its fleet of satellites is designed to help us understand how our world is changing, and NASA aeronautics teams are focused on improved aircraft travel that is safer and cleaner.

I spoke at a NASA event in 2007 and got a firsthand view of how methodically NASA employees perform their work. Procedural requirements often dictate how they conduct business. When you consider what NASA does and the precise requirements of its work, a closed culture is probably “right” for it.

Synchronous Culture

A synchronous culture can be described as “aligned.” It has strong values, high levels of harmony, and a strong sense of direction. Table I-4 shows how Dr. Kantor describes a synchronous culture.

Google comes to mind when I consider a synchronous culture. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company as a research project in 1996, when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce a better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page. Originally, the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford. edu. The domain google.com was registered in 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google, Inc., in 1998 in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California.

The name “Google” originated from a common misspelling of the word googol, which refers to 10100—the number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Having found its way into everyday language, the verb google was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006. It means “to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.”

Google has been known for its informal corporate culture, of which its playful variations on its own corporate logo are an indicator. Google’s corporate philosophy embodies such casual principles as “You can make money without doing evil,” “You can be serious without a suit,” and “Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun.”

According to Sunil Chandra, Director, Human Resources, Technology and Operations at Google, staff are required, not just encouraged, to bring their laptops, Blackberries, and other electronic devices to staff meetings. This supports Google’s desire to enhance creativity at all times.

STRIKING A BALANCE

There is no “right” culture, but every organization has a tendency toward one of the four systems described above (see figure I-1). Dr. Kantor suggests that balanced systems are the most agile and are most likely to maintain success when facing adversity or the need to change. He also believes that cultural tension is most prevalent between open and closed cultures. In fact, organizations that try to move from one to the other too quickly will certainly encounter significant challenges.

Figure 1-1 Balanced Systems

This is an important point because many organizations experience cultural change at some point in time. The catalyst driving cultural change might be from one of a variety of factors. A change in corporate leadership and the merger of organizations are the most common drivers for cultural change. Organizations with strong and adaptive cultures foster effective succession in the leadership ranks. In large part, the culture both prepares successors and eases transition.

When organizations want or need to change their culture, they can do so in a number of ways. The first is to lead by example. Leadership is critical in codifying and maintaining organizational purpose, values, and vision. Leaders must set the example by living the elements of the culture—the values, behaviors, measures, and actions. Values are meaningless without the other elements.

Culture must be made real through actions and team learning; it is much more than slogans and empty promises. At Baptist Health Care, for example, managers constantly reinforce the culture by recognizing those whose actions exemplify the organization’s values, behaviors, and standards. Baptist Health Care rewards individual accomplishments through such things as “WOW (Workers becoming Owners and Winners) Super Service” certificates; appreciation cards for 90-day employees, which list their contributions to their team; one-year appreciation awards; and recognition of workers as “Champions” or “Legends” for their extraordinary achievements or service. Managers at all levels offer frequent informal recognition and send handwritten notes (which stand out in the age of email). Those who aren’t living up to Baptist Health Care’s values soon get the point.

We need to bust functional silos in a lasting way. On project teams, this means we must embrace participant involvement and contribution, and at the same time eliminate functional identities that stymie team performance. This suggests that project team leaders must maintain a sensitive balance among team members. Subject matter experts are recruited to the project team for a reason, but their functional knowledge must blend with that of the other experts on the team for the project to be successful.

People must be open to learning new cultural norms and recognize that learning new behaviors does not require them to become someone they are not, but to improve on who they are. Just as each of us has probably gone through some type of exercise to increase our awareness of who we are and how we naturally behave, we should also take time to reflect on the culture in which we operate.

Complete the following sentences when assessing corporate culture:

1.My preferred system type is _____________

because __________

2.The system I have the most difficulty with is________

because_______________

3.The system type I want to belong to is_____________

because____________

Every organization has a unique cultural identity and operates in its own way. This reality should always be considered when launching a team, particularly when you are combining a group of diverse individuals who come from different organizations (combining internal and external resources). We’ll explore how to launch a team in part I.