Teams, Getting the Work Accomplished
Time to become productive is a luxury that organizations can no longer afford. Team Coaching—coaching team members as one holistic unit instead of a group of individuals—takes Tuckerman’s (1965) team formation model and puts it on steroids to move team alignment forward faster. As HR Business Partners, we need to think proactively about how to maximize a team’s potential in the shortest amount of time and sometimes that means trying something new: that is our deliverable to the bottom line. In today’s fast-paced corporate environment where organizations continue to flatten and resources are scarce, teams are a business necessity to get work accomplished that formerly was completed by individuals.
Team Coaching occurs over either a one or two-day session. The focus of the session is solely on the team as a unit versus each person on the team. Prior to the first team coaching session each person on the team completes an assessment determining where they think the team is currently performing in two ways—Productivity and Positivity behaviors. Based on the results of the assessment, the team openly works through the results during their one or two day session.
Before the end of the session, the team creates an action plan to work on over the next three to six months. During that period, the team receives coaching to ensure that they are making progress on the action plan as well as check-in on the productivity and positivity aspects that are at the core of making them a high-performing unit. At the end of the three to six months, the team completes another assessment to measure their overall progress at becoming a high-performing team.
The concept of teams has evolved and changed significantly. I first started practicing HR 20 years ago. At that time, teams were typically formed for mid-to longer-term projects that were not necessarily critical to the bottom line. It was not unusual to be assigned to one or two teams either cross-functionally and/or intra-functionally. Of course, there were deadlines, but there was also time to accomplish goals with some fun injected into the process. Tuckman’s team formation model (forming, storming, norming, performing) was the way we understood team behavior.
Flash forward to the current environment where teams look very different as they accomplish work that individuals used to perform. Not only have you read and heard this, you are living it. How many teams are you on? How about your direct reports? Teams are stress-filled, with deadlines of yesterday, and guess what? It is not going to get any better as organizations continue to respond to the external environment.
So what is the answer? Is it just getting teams to be productive faster? Is it still relying solely on Tuckman’s model of team formation while just wishing the team moves more quickly through the process? The current environment is challenging businesses to be more productive faster, give Team Coaching a shot.
Karen Toole, Ed.D., EMBA, Principal
