what makes teamwork work?

What Makes Teamwork Work?

An IT Leaders Guide to Getting the Rest of the Organisation On-board


Why Teamwork Matters Or does it? There’s a lot of talk about teamwork. About how much better teamwork is than

working independently. Words like “Synergy”, where the sum of the whole is

greater than the parts.

But many of the proponents of teamwork fail to mention the less than productive

meetings, the fact that some team members rather than contribute, actually

appear to sabotage your own work.

And doesn’t individual skill and character of all the team members have a part to

play in this “synergy”.

I’m sure that I could gather 11 of you together and call you a soccer team. Then

you’ll play your first match against Man Utd. OK? Your chances of winning?

OK, so how about Kallang Utd.?

The local Primary school?

OK maybe then, but that rather depends on which eleven of you I choose,

because even 6 or 7 year olds could run rings around some of you

Granted, the skills and knowledge of the team members will have a part to play.

But is teamwork really a good thing? Is it better than working independently? And

when, as I suspect in your own situations, you don’t get to pick all of your team

members, you may have some doubts about the efficacy of teamwork over

working independently.

Today I hope to raise your

thinking about teamwork,

and why it matters…. Or

does it?

Why Teamwork Matters .................................................. 2

The Law of Significance .................................................... 3

So, are teams more productive? ..................................... 5

Why we like to go it alone (aka What makes

teamwork NOT work) ....................................................... 6

What Makes Teamwork work? ........................................ 7

Leadership Lid and Effectiveness ................................. 10

IT Leadership Lid and Profitability ............................... 11

IT Leadership Flexibility ................................................. 12

So when is team work a good thing and when is it not

such a good thing? .......................................................... 13

IT Leadership Flexibility and “Success” ........................ 14

To summarize: ................................................................. 15


The Law of Significance Dr. John C. Maxwell wrote the 17 Indisputable laws of teamwork, and Law number

1, is the Law of Significance:

One is too small a number to achieve greatness.

Leaders who fail to promote teamwork undermine their own potential and erode

the best efforts of the people with whom they work. To accomplish anything

significant, leaders must learn to link up with others.

At a recent seminar, a delegate came up to me beaming and full of pride and told me

“I’m a successful businessman, I have a beautiful bungalow, , not one but two Ferraris,

and a 42 foot luxury yacht… and I’m a self-made man!”

He was surprised when I responded “Oh that’s a shame. Just imagine what you could

have achieved with a team.”

He walked away deflated, but I trust, thinking.

So I put to you a simple challenge: NAME ONE SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT THAT WAS THE RESULT OF ONLY ONE PERSON’S

EFFORT?

Anyone?

Anything?

Even inventions of one mind, to become significant, require a team of people to

make, market, sell and support.

Heck, even inventions come about from minds educated by others.

So let’s accept that at some point, a team of people needs to be involved. i.e. it

takes more than one person to create anything, certainly anything of any

significance. But do teams actually perform better than a collection of individuals?

Is “synergy” real?

We set out to find out. ..

To be able to compare individual effort against team effort we used one of our

business game simulations – “Strategy Edge”. This simulation can be played by

individuals competing with other individuals or competing with teams of people.

We compared two groups, one group from the telecomms industry, another

group from the IT industry.


Proof for the Law of Significance

Analyzing data from 2 groups of 156 teams and 78 individuals all working in the

same industry as each other within different companies.

Here we compare the two key indicators for any business, revenue and profit.

A team is considered to be 3 or more individuals working together for a common

purpose.

Here’s a brief summary of what we found:

On average, a team shows 276% higher revenue, and 115% higher profit.

Less than 6 team members and the difference is insignificant,

greater than 9 team members and team performance plateaus and falls off.

Two individuals competing show a higher revenue and profit than sole

individuals, this is due to the raised level of competitiveness. Which remains

constant for sole individuals competing up to 12 individuals.

More than two individuals competing (up to 5) and performance

improvement is marginal.


So, are teams more productive?

SO it seems that teams are more productive!

And, despite what your best friends might tell you, Size matters!

The Ideal team size is 8 or 9 members - this concurs with so many

researchers on teams from Meredith Belbin in the 60’s onwards, so we are

unsurprised.

Each team, for our research had a nominated team leader. What we found

was:

If the Manager’s leadership lid was greater than 5, the team averaged 6%

higher Revenue and 5% higher profit than team with a team leader whose

lid was less than 5

If the Manager’s flexibility >4, the team averaged 8% higher revenue and 7%

greater profit

There are times when teamwork has been shown to be COUNTER-productive:

Nature of work matters: Creative work – such as computer programming!

So if a team leaders lid and flexibility have such an impact, what is it that prevents

teams from being effective?

First, let’s challenge you again…


Another Challenge 1. Think of three things that you do each week that you do entirely alone.

2. Now think of why you do these things alone?

3. Now, consider that you are recommending to someone else about how

best to tackle those things… would you recommend that they do it alone or

with someone else?

Why we like to go it alone (aka What makes teamwork NOT work)

In John C Maxwell’s Law of Significance, he identifies these things as restraining or

reducing the effectiveness of teamwork

All these things reduce and constrain our ability as a leader.


What Makes Teamwork work? What we found is that teamwork works, under two key conditions:

1. The Leadership Lid of the Team leader and

2. the Leadership Flexibility of that leader.

Let me, briefly outline what these two things are:

Law of the Lid John C Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership starts with Law Number 1, The

Law of the Lid.

Everything rises or falls on leadership.

Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness:

The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential.

The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness.

Your leadership ability – for better or for worse – always determines your effectiveness and the

potential impact of your organization.

Maxwell uses the McDonald brothers as example of weak leadership putting a lid on

their ability to succeed. The brothers started the McDonald’s hamburger chain but

lacked the leadership to take it to national prominence. Ray Kroc had a vision for a

national hamburger chain and bought the brothers’ business and turned McDonald’s

into the successful giant restaurant chain it is today.

Ray Kroc’s lid was high and obviously the McDonald’s leadership lid was low.

I know this for myself.

You may already know this, but I was born as a chef. Actually that’s not quite true.

I was born as a baby and became a chef. Or at least that was my first career.

I started cooking because my mother, God bless her, was a terrible cook. And

when I say terrible, let me give you an example. My mum overcooked everything.

On Sundays we would often have roast beef for lunch. Roast beef in my home was

a charred blackened, rock like substance that would not be out of place in a stone

quarry.

Everything was overcooked. We used to joke that on Sunday morning, mum

would put the brussels sprouts on to boil before we left for church. By the time


we returned home, 2 or 3 hours later, the cabbage, potatoes and carrots would be

a grey mushy slop, whilst the roast meat would make up for this with an entirely

inedible texture.

Mum would put the Christmas treat of Brussels Sprouts on in October… OK,

perhaps a little exaggeration but still.

So I started to learn to cook. Mostly so that I would have something I could enjoy

eating.

I even got pretty good at cooking. I worked with some of the very best chefs and

became a lot sure of myself and my fantastic abilities.

Brilliant. Now of course, I knew everything there was to know about leading and

running a kitchen.

In my first real leadership test came in the Isle of Man, when after assuring

everyone how brilliant I was, I was (rather foolishly as it turns out) given charge of

the Palace Lido kitchens. Our first event was for 800 delegates at a

telecommunications union conference. And just so you know, the telecomms

union was at the time, a very militant bunch.

Well, it was a disaster. I had 30 kitchen staff, 30 waiting staff, a great kitchen and

had even ordered enough food. My planning however was, well let me say, there

wasn’t really any.

Lunch for 800 hungry, angry and loud delegates was late… by 2 hours!

It was not pretty.

It was not good.

Perhaps my mum had a better way after all.

I didn’t know the Law of the Lid at the time. But very clearly, what I had

demonstrated was a very low number on my leadership. All the skills and

competence to do the job of cooking, had not prepared me to effectively lead a

team of 60 to deliver something.

I was ready to quit in shame. Already to hide out and hopefully disappear. But

along came the Executive Chef for the hotel. A big Swiss guy, renowned for his

violent temper. I wasn’t going to be fired, I was going to be sliced into pieces… or

so I thought. He, on the other hand wasn’t about to let me get away with it. He

immediately called the entire team together, issued instructions and took

command. Hey, we had a dinner to prepare and we were already running late.


I realised as I watched and listened in awe. My job wasn’t about cooking at all. My

job was to lead a team of people and prepare and serve meals to the customers.

Looking back on this day in my life, I now realise that this was the day I chose to

develop as a leader and raise my leadership lid. After all, a team of great people

were expecting me to guide them to deliver and a whole multitude of hungry

people were relying on me to make sure they were served.

I wasn’t fired that day, by the way. Chef later told me that such a very expensive

experience wasn’t something he was about to throw out.

Your team, your organization, your church. Are limited by your leadership lid.

It’s the maximum headroom of your organization. The team must fit

under the bridge.

Consider, for a moment, a leader you worked for who, shall we say, “could do

better as a leader”. Maybe it’s your current boss.

Do you often feel like you are banging your head against a wall and “not getting

through”. You are pretty certain that you could do better but frustrated by politics

or simple inertia this is you banging against your leaders lid.

You have a choice:

Stop banging your head – i.e. stop pushing so hard and accept mediocrity.

OR

Help lift your leaders lid – i.e. support your leader and help him or her be

better but with humility and great subtlety. OR

Push past and become the leader – i.e. assume the leadership role where

appropriate (without the position, promotion or title or the pay increment!)


Leadership Lid and Effectiveness

If the leaders lid is at one, then, in spite of the team or organizations success

dedication, or their competence at doing the job they do. The effectiveness of the

team or organization is held down by the leaders lid.

As the leader increases their leadership lid. Improves their ability to lead… so the

room for effectiveness grows.

Challenge #3 What is the number on my leadership lid?

Would others around me agree with my assessment?

What is my plan to increase my leadership lid.

What are the lid numbers of those who work with me?

What is my plan to increase the leadership lid of others?

How many of you have worked for a leader whose leadership lid was low?

We all have, haven’t we?

Very often, when I work with leaders in organizations on the leadership lid, they

will tell me that their own boss should really be learning about this. Well that may

be true. But what matters here and now, is that we consider your own leadership

lid.

But where’s the proof that leadership lid makes teams more effective?


IT Leadership Lid and Profitability

From the same research project. We found that, as the Leaders lid (their ABILITY

or COMPETENCY to lead) increased, then both revenue and profit increased (this

was true for individuals AND for teams)

The Leader’s Lid was measured using our GAPPS4 leadership assessment tool.

The revenue and profitability increased significantly when the leader’s lid was 4 or

higher, though between 6 and 9, there was less significant results… however,

profitability was improved at the higher levels, albeit marginal in percentage

terms, 2% is still better than the return from a bank… and that’s the ‘extra’ profit!

And this is compared to the same computer generated competitor.

So a quick fourth challenge. Think of a leader you admire.

Why do you admire them?

If your ability as a leader has an impact on team performance, what’s this

flexibility all about?


IT Leadership Flexibility

IT Leadership flexibility (or agility) is the single greatest differentiator between

successful leaders and less successful leaders.

To have flexibility of your style, learning, approach demands that you have:

Good, high level leadership skills (competencies) and

Depth of leadership character.

The most flexible successful leaders in Singapore and most of South East Asia are,

incidentally, leaders in the civil service and/or politics and have a legal or finance

background.

Please note that “Flexible leaders” does not

necessarily mean ‘good’ leaders.

A ‘good’ leader is one who’s approach and style at the time, in the context is

the most appropriate.

But without the full toolkit available (through continuous development), there will

be times when you are forced to use a hammer when a velvet glove would be

more appropriate.


Let’s compare and contrast a “Flexible” and a “Stubborn” IT leader:

Thus, you can see why leadership flexibility increase team effectiveness.

So when is team work a good thing and when is it not such a good thing?

AND THE PROOF?


IT Leadership Flexibility and “Success”

Based on the 22 thousand plus individual leaders in SEA in our database as of last

year.

We looked at the average salary of those leaders and the number of years

between significant promotions through their career.

Leaders with greater flexibility (and in order to have this, they must have a

higher leadership lid too), are paid 50% more on average for every

additional flexibility they score.

Up to a flexibility of 7, each additional point for leadership flexibility

reduced time between promotions by 9 months.

Until a flexibility greater than 7, when promotions take longer. Largely

because, these leaders are already near or at the top of their

organizations… and there’s nowhere higher to go!


To summarize: Teamwork Matters:

Teamwork increase profitability, efficiency and productivity

“synergy” does seem to exist in practice. IT Teams outperform individuals in

profitability, efficiency and productivity.

Lift your own Leadership Lid IT Team Leaders who have developed their leadership perform better than

other leaders

Increase your Leadership Flexibility IT Team Leaders who are show greater leadership flexibility have more

productive and efficient teams

Highly flexible IT leaders are paid more and get promoted faster

When the IT team leader is both more competent as a leader and shows

the flexibility to change their style appropriately (they are flexible).

Additionally, the more competent you are as a leader and the more flexible you

are… the more you can command in salary and get promoted faster.

Being the best you can be, pays you, the leader, the team, and the

organisation.

Work with me to develop your Leadership Lid and increase your flexibility and

together we can significantly increase the effectiveness of your team.

You’ll find my contact details on the back page.

what makes teamwork work?

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