Cultivating Effective Teams with Chemistry

Where Business and Science Intersect, part 1 of 2

A system designed for the betterment of the team is the beginning of Team Chemistry.
- Gregg Gregory

Dream teams as they are so often called fail regularly. This is true across the board in sports as well as in business. Look at this past spring's World Baseball Classic. The best of the best from the United States lost to Mexico, South Korea and Canada. In business, a fortune 500 company paid top dollar and hired the cream of the crop from the best business schools. In essence a "Dream Team", and yet it failed.

Why; this is the question many ask. There several reasons as to why all star teams fail. The first so called reason that surfaces is teams are not really teams; they are no more than groups of people supposedly working together. A group of people does not constitute a team. Let's take the definition of a team from the book "The Wisdom of Teams" by Katzenbach & Smith.

A small group of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Now on the exterior a group of people working together towards a common goal may seem like a team. Now as you read the definition further it is more than a common goal it is also the purpose and approach which they will hold themselves mutually accountable.

First, let's look at the "mutually accountable" part; most groups have a leader and the leader is the one "in charge" and the leader is the person who is supposed to be holding everyone accountable. This is old school and simply does not even come close to working today. Today the team holds everyone accountable. They work together to help others out who are having difficulty. In some organizations, new hires are placed on a 90 probation period and if they cannot "cut it" then the team makes the decision to move on. Sound absurd? Some companies believe it is the future of teamwork. This is happening in service related industries as well as manufacturing based businesses.

What about "common purpose"? Over the last several years we have heard a lot about vision and mission; and that is what creates our purpose. It truly becomes the why we are doing what we are doing. When everyone from the senior leadership team all the way through the front line has a matching purpose the common performance goals are significantly easier to attain. More on this concept in part two of this article.

The big challenge is the "common approach". Look at a flock of geese. They fly in a "V" formation for two reasons. First It conserves energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of him, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a longer periods of time before they must stop for rest. Studies have shown that a flock of geese flying in the "V" formation can fly up to 70% further than if they flew solo.

The second benefit to the "V" formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Fighter pilots often use this formation for the same reason. It is this unique common approach to flying further and keeping an eye on everyone that creates the success of their flight.

We have seen the failures by not following this; now let's look at a few examples of success following these principals. In business take a look at Worthington Industries, a global company that processes steel for the use in the automotive, construction, hardware, aerospace and many other industries. CEO, John McConnell was recently quoted in Fortune magazine saying, "Give us people who are dedicated to making the team work, as opposed to a bunch of talented people with big egos, and we'll win every time." Other companies that follow this philosophy include Marriott, Nordstrom, and Southwest Airlines.

The most obvious success story is the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey team. Here a group of young men who had never played together came to understand this definition and overcame massive obstacles along the way to beat what many considered the greatest hockey team ever; The Soviet Union.

In the movie version MIRACLE, explaining why he wanted to change the style of coaching and preparation for the team, Herb Brooks puts it this way; "All star teams fail because the rely solely on the individual's talent; the Soviets win because they take that talent and use inside of a system that's designed for the betterment of the team."

A system designed for the betterment of the team is beginning of what I call team chemistry. In the next article we will discuss the chemistry component along with the culture that needs to be in place to allow the success to follow.

Continue reading Cultivating Effective Teams with Chemistry, part two

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