Creating/Instilling team spirit

[nmap]

A few days ago, I was talking with an acquaintance about the notion of teams and encouraging people to work together as a team. I hasten to mention that this is the low-intensity civilian version of a team, with paper cuts as the worst danger to be faced. I realized that I didn't have a clue about how one might take a group of people and create any team orientation.

I, like many, have been part of a group called a team within academic classes. I've even tried to create them. But generally they consist of one or two people doing the work while the rest observe. At best, the work is divided up and the results reassembled a few minutes before it's presented.

A simple search using the word "team" produced 500 threads, but only one seemed even close to the question - HERE (http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8949&highlight=team), and it focused on the book "Leadership and Training for the Fight", which I've just ordered.

So...any ideas on how one might take an ordinary group of civilians, largely unmotivated and uninterested, all seeing no particular benefit in working as a team, and create some team spirit? And, once started, how might one build and develop the characteristic?

All thoughts and ideas appreciated, as always.

[craigepo]

A question before I contemplate answering, if I may?

You note that the prospective team members are "largely unmotivated and uninterested". What precisely is going to be the "mission" of this team?

A sports team comes together for the purpose of winning a sporting event. A military team does the same for completing a military mission. Campaign teams come together to campaign. This shared mission necessitates that the team members work together(at least to some extent).

Conversely, a group of dudes, gathered together with nothing to do, generally devolves into nothing more than several fellows who wind up together in strip clubs or jail.

So, what do you want to accomplish with this team?

[The Reaper]

Concur.

What is the reward or penalty for cooperation?

TR

[Team Sergeant]

Our Teams consist of self-motivated men with purpose and direction.

You don't throw together a "team" you select them.

Now if you are attempting to make individuals work as a team you must have team oriented challenges where "all" must participate.

TS

[lksteve]

So...any ideas on how one might take an ordinary group of civilians, largely unmotivated and uninterested, all seeing no particular benefit in working as a team, and create some team spirit? It doesn't seem like you have the right people for the job.

[Paslode]

Sometimes nothing more than a fat lip and someone to point them in the right direction.

Once upon there was this hodgepodge group of 5 year old girls that showed up for soccer practice and played games. It was rec soccer, cartwheels and daisy picking, they had fun and did okay.

Then they one cold Saturday morning they met up with some mean Catholic girls with rabid parents. The game was a carnage fest, hair pulling, pinching, fists in guts, tripping and head butting. By half time one girl had a split lip, one had a black eye and the hodgepodge was disarray. By the end of the game long faces and tails between their legs.

Coach sat on the bleachers after the game with head in hands, a parent came by and patted him on the back and said to remember it is only a game. Coach said, it's not the game, they got beat up.

The next practice the coach and the girls discussed the game. 30 minutes of stories of abuse and who did what. Finally Coach asked why didn't you fight back? Why did you let them pick on your friends? Why did you stand and watch it happen?

The answer....because we will get in trouble, we'll get a red card if we fight.

So Coach said, Where a team right? Will I be at practice or game early? Yes they replied. You know I am always here early and you expect me to be here. You in turn expect and rely on your parents to get you here early. That is working together and making something happen, it's team work.

You ladies do a very good job of getting here on time, showing up for games, encouraging each other and not being critical of mistakes. But if you want to be a team you must work together and a big part of that is you take care of each other. You never, and I mean never let anyone pick on your teammates. It is never to happen again. If you see it happen, red card or not you make them pay. You keep at them until they think twice about messing with you.

Do I want you to play dirty , the answer is no. If I catch you playing dirty I'll pull you from the game. But I also don't expect you to accept being beat on.

If the Ref has a problem with it, you tell him to come see me.


It became quite a Team. League Champions twice, 5 varsity letters, 2 Division 1 Scholarships, the girls stay in contact with each other and the parents still talk about the experience.

And it probably would not have happened without the motivation of a split lip. They needed a spark to set the fire, and once the fire was started it consumed young and old alike.

[abc_123]

Our Teams consist of self-motivated men with purpose and direction.

You don't throw together a "team" you select them.

Now if you are attempting to make individuals work as a team you must have team oriented challenges where "all" must participate.

TS

Good point. You have to either select them up front (best) or suffer through inefficiencies/dysfunctionality unil you weed out those who aren't going to work out.

The comment on "all" participating also touches on motivation (Just as TR did in his post). Teams are made up of individuals and individuals either are or are not motivated. Now, developing an effective selection process makes the task of motivating the individuals easier as you can put together teams of like individuals who can be motivated using the same/similar techniques. If not, then you have to look hard at each as an individual and come up of a combination of "positive" and "negative" techniques to motivate the individual members to participate equally.

Once the team faces challenges and achieves some degree of success (too hard a challenge too early will prevent the team from effectively forming) it will begin to bond together as the individuals see that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Sun Tsu very effectivly motivated the King's concubines to become and perform as an organized Army...and you can bet they were interested to learn more... but alas, that technique would not work well in your situation...:D

[nmap]

Points well taken. I will attempt to refine my question here. The reason I did not provide more details was that I sought generalizable concepts; however, I can see that the specifics are necessary.

One kind of team is academic. Let us suppose we have 4 people - students, perhaps. The team could be created (assigned by the instructor) or voluntary (people choose who they team up with). The goal would be some sort of assignment, resulting in a product - a report, presentation, or other document. Consequences of failure are a bad grade.

This has two perspectives. First, the instructor perspective - how to create and build teamwork. Second, if one were a member of such a group, how to encourage other individuals to coalesce into a team.

The acquaintance I mentioned earlier is a new operations manager at golf club with a substantial dining facility, and the questions will center around the dining facility.

Their model consists of cooks (back of the house) and waiters (front of the house). Presently, members of the subgroups do not assist each other. Occasionally, mild mutual sabotage occurs. This pattern has persisted for decades, and has remained in place through numerous managers. The corrective action taken so far is to post a photocopied poster advocating teamwork. (No, really. I'm not jesting)

Replacement of workers is possible, but creates the risk of getting even worse replacements. This, of course, is directly connected to TS's point that selection is critical, so an aspect of the problem might be how one makes a good selection to promote development of team orientation.

The goal for the restaurant group is increased effectiveness, perhaps leading to improved profits (Rhetorical question: why would a cook or waiter care? Job security may be too much of an abstraction.)

So, there are some common factors. In each instance, there are disparate individuals who are (or were) thrown together. There are benefits to working together, but they tend to be deferred and abstract. Selection may be problematic, especially in the academic group. Risks of failure, from an individual perspective, are perceived as small. Benefits of success, likewise.

Is such a project well-nigh impossible? Perhaps. But hopefully it is possible to avoid having them all go to strip clubs.... ;)

[VA Pete]

Not sure if you are just looking for responses from the QPs, if so, please ignore.

I've been managing software development teams for 10 years or so and have picked up some good things from people who specialize in organizational dynamics. In general, teams work best with:

A goal. Something identifiable that they can work towards and succeed or fail at.
An identity. A name, slogan, etc that separates them from their peers and they can organize around.
An "enemy". People are driven to compete; give them something to compete against, whether it is other teams or something external to your organization.
Strong leadership. This leads to a whole other topic.

[nmap]

Not sure if you are just looking for responses from the QPs, if so, please ignore.


I'm always appreciative of good ideas. Thank you.

[nmap]

Now, developing an effective selection process makes the task of motivating the individuals easier as you can put together teams of like individuals who can be motivated using the same/similar techniques. If not, then you have to look hard at each as an individual and come up of a combination of "positive" and "negative" techniques to motivate the individual members to participate equally.


Short of using Sun Tsu's approach, is there anything you could mention about improved selection methods?

[craigepo]

Interesting question/issue. Here are some of my initial ideas aka ramblings;

1. The prospective team must have a goal/mission. Depending on the expected longevity of the team, you might have a main goal and several subordinate goals.

2. The team must "buy-in" to the team's missions. In business setting as discussed above, this motivation is often monetary in nature(for example, if the business does well, the employees receive a share of profits). However, it takes a lot of money to purchase enough motivation for a person to risk his life. That motivation is more often philosophical or spiritual in nature.

3. The team must delegate responsibilities/duties to each team member. Each dude(or dudette) must be a part of the team, or he/she will ultimately detract from the team.

4. The team, as a whole, must be ultimately responsible for the team's success/failure, so that each individual has a vested interest in the team's success. Any other mindset encourages sloth on the part of the lazier team members. We had a saying on my old team: "Peer pressure is a mother fuc##$".

5. In order to function at a high level, the team must have leadership. I still define leadership as "the ability to get people to do things that they otherwise would not want to do". Oftentimes, the better the leader, the better the team.

6. While it is preferable to be able to hand-pick the team members, that is not always possible. Oftentimes, the team must "go with what you've got".

I am sure that more knowledgable persons could articulate more and better points, however I think this would be enough to at least get started.

In my opinion, I would think that motivation and direction would be the two most important aspects of team-building. Without direction, the team might represent the "chicken with its head cut off", accomplishing nothing. Without motivation, the team will at best half-ass any task, again accomplishing nothing.

[Scimitar]

The model consists of cooks (back of the house) and waiters (front of the house). Presently, members of the subgroups do not assist each other. Occasionally, mild mutual sabotage occurs. This pattern has persisted for decades, and has remained in place through numerous managers.

The goal for the restaurant group is increased effectiveness, perhaps leading to improved profits


Ahh…good old change management…it’s an art not a science that’s for sure.
What you’re looking at here is creating culture change with-in an organization. It’s always difficult to give some ideas without full understanding of the situation but here are some thoughts.

You have two options with culture change management
1) Fire all but the good ones and start again…I’ve had to do that once before…it was fun to see the looks on their faces.
2) The slow method of attrition, a counter insurgence if you will. THEY have taken over and you need to slowly win back hearts and minds.

Option 1 is expensive but quick, Option 2 is slower but cheaper, Always comes down to organizational goals. I’m pretty sure you’re buddy would prefer option 2 here.

Here’s one way I’ve done it in the past.
1 – Realize it’s a slow process at first; he’ll need to achieve momentum.
2 – Hand pick your most positive, teachable, humble staff and roster them all on the same shift. Probably going to be your junior staff unfortunately.
3 – Use strategies to create change in that shift only. Should be easier, cos their naturally motivated.
4 – All new staff members are scheduled into that shift, therefore picking up the best cultural habits. If need be he should run that shift, and from a profitability PoV it should be the most profitable shift changed first.
5 – Slowly take over one shift at a time, as bad staff leave (natural attrition) you are replacing them with well cultured staff. Kinda like starting a cultural beachhead, build up forces, then break out. D-Day kinda thing.
6 – He’d probably only need to effect this change in the 6 weekend shifts and Thur Fri dinner shifts and natural momentum will carry it the rest of the way. 8 shifts over 6-12 months at my guess. Natural attrition is probably around 50% per annum at a guess. You’ll have some hard liners who stick around and don’t want to change, those you fire when it’s the right time and their experience is no longer indispensable.
7 – Don’t let any staff know what you’re doing; most won’t appreciate the feeling of being “managed” You may be able to bring only your most trusted and senior staff into your confidences.

This kinda thing needs to very carefully planned and managed, will tend to cost some money due to change becoming the focus not profitability, you need management buy-in, but there is a return on investment.

Don’t miss the opportunity to install other changes in the pilot shift as well, system changes, etc.

Ultimately you want to develop a customer focused culture…
Instill internal customer understanding.
Help cooks understand that the waiter IS the customer, difficult due to common arrogance in line cooks.
Help the waiters to understand operational constraints so that they LEAD the cooks better.

Instill remuneration structure accordingly. The Waiters ARE the cooks bosses, but teach the waiters good people and leadership skills. I know it’s common to have the waiters tip the bus boys and barman, how about the cooks?

Do a customer centric hierarchy diagram. Customer at the top, then the waiter, along down the line to management at the bottom. The manager serves the cooks who serve the waiter who serve the customer kinda thing.

Again can be very situation dependant, but hope that generated some ideas


S

[Scimitar]

One kind of team is academic. Let us suppose we have 4 people - students, perhaps. The goal would be some sort of assignment, resulting in a product - a report, presentation, or other document. Consequences of failure are a bad grade.

This has two perspectives. First, the instructor perspective - how to create and build teamwork.

Encourage leadership by getting teams to vote a leader who you hold responsible with a very small leadership grade perhaps. Perhaps instill a leader for them by building teams around you're most capable and motivated students.


Second, if one were a member of such a group, how to encourage other individuals to coalesce into a team.

Nothing frustrates me more then a leadership vacuum. If there is one then take control softly and encourage team direction and focus thru encouraging open discussion and then by-in. I often act as the team scribe, when actually I'm acting as the team benevolent leader.

S

[Scimitar]

Rhetorical question: why would a cook or waiter care? Job security may be too much of an abstraction.

From my experience the majority of people placed into an environment with an excellent leadership culture will thrive and want to contribute. An environment with mission and focus is rear enough that most find it a pleasant surprise and enjoyable.

One definition of organizational leadership I heard not long ago when something like...

"Most people are not insolent, they are just jaded. They resent wasting their time on the "mediocre" and the "getting no where", build trust in your staff that you not only want to but are capable of taking them somewhere, taking them to a better place"

You might be pleasantly surprised at the synergy that arises.

S

[vsvo]

My first experience with structured team building occurred in b-school. In the first-year curriculum, we were assigned to the same team for the whole year, starting on day one of orientation week. All of our assignments were team assignments, and our individual grades, except for exams and a few specific projects, were based on the team's grades. The first year was intended to be a mini team-building laboratory.

According to our Organizational Behavior professors, the four phases of building effective teams were Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. This was the mid-90's and my memory is fuzzy, so I don't know how valid that model is today.

The idea was that for teams to function effectively, they had to go through all four phases. You cannot skip a phase and expect to create an effective team. One of the most important phases was Storming. A certain amount of conflict is good, since it leads to Norming, where each team member begins to develop/understand/accept his/her role, as well as other team members' roles. Of course, if you drill deeper into each phase, you will find many of the issues discussed in this thread. This process was also iterative, and a team would often re-cycle through different phases throughout its lifetime.

During orientation week, we were given assignments designed to force us to go through each phase, hopefully resulting in a team prepared to perform throughout the academic year. I remember a lot of fighting and wheel-spinning during that week. Eventually, we did normalize, and worked well together for the rest of the year. Our roles changed often throughout the year, often preceded and followed by more storming. I don't know if it was because the process worked, or we just realized that we were stuck with each other for the year, so we might as well make it work. It surely helped that there was a big Krispy Kreme factory nearby, and often a couple boxes of donuts helped to soothe hurt feelings and grease the skids.

There were six of us, including me. One was a JD/MBA, another was an MD/MBA, and the rest of us were MBA candidates. Today, I still keep in touch with three of my former first-year teammates. I found one of them recently via LinkedIn. Once we connected, he sent me an email with just one line, "You're a f*cking lawyer now???" :D