3 signs that you are in a group not a team

Think about the last time you were part of a group, where someone proposed an idea that you thought was quite poor. However, everyone else in the group agreed with the person who suggested the idea and the group seemed set on pursuing that course of action.

When you see this happening it’s a pretty good indicator that groupthink is occurring and preventing creative thinking, effective decision making, efficient problem solving and goals being met.

What is Groupthink?

It is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group.

People who are opposed to the decisions or overriding opinion of the group as a whole frequently remain quiet, preferring to keep the peace rather than disrupt the uniformity of the crowd.

Why does groupthink occur?

In many cases, people end up engaging in groupthink when they fear that their objections might disrupt the harmony of the group or suspect that their ideas might cause other members to reject them. Members place emphasis on everyone agreeing and want to be on good terms with the group no matter what the cost.

Situations where the group is placed under extreme stress or where moral dilemmas exist also increase the occurrence of groupthink, as does a strong persuasive charismatic leader.

Symptoms of groupthink

These fall into 3 broad categories:

Over confidence in the groups power
Limited thinking about a problem
Pressure to comply within the group

Over confidence in the groups power

You will see the group become overly optimistic and take big risks believing they are invincible. Alternatively you see members of the group rationalize thoughts or suggestions that challenge what the majority is thinking.  This causes them to ignore warning signs.

Limited thinking about a problem

There is a belief that whatever the group does it will be right as they all know the difference between right and wrong. This leads members to ignore possible moral problems and ignore consequences of individual and group actions.

You may also get members stereotyping. This leads members of the in-group to ignore or even demonize other group members who may oppose or challenge the group’s ideas.

Pressure to comply

The majority directly threaten the person who questions decisions by telling them that they can always leave the group if they don’t want to agree. Direct pressure to conform is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous.

Alternatively, members of the group take it upon themselves to discourage different ideas from being expressed in the group. These "Mindguards" act as self-appointed censors to hide problematic information from the group.

This can result in people who have doubts to hiding their fears or misgivings.

How to Prevent or Minimise Groupthink

There are steps that you can take to minimize this problem when you see it occurring or prevent it from happening:

• Breaking up members into smaller independent teams can be helpful.
• As the leader of the group avoid stating your opinions or preferences when assigning tasks. Give people time to come up with their own ideas first.
• Discuss the group’s ideas with an outside member in order to get impartial opinions.
• Encourage group members to remain critical. Don't discourage dissent or challenges to the prevailing opinion. Encourage alternative views and challenging of ideas.
• As the leader be absent from many group meetings to avoid overly influencing decisions.
• Have a process in place for checking the fundamental assumptions behind important decisions, for validating the decision-making process.
• Utilise group techniques like brainstorming and six thinking hats when exploring a problem. 

It would be great to hear your stories on where you have overcome groupthink, so please share them. We can all learn from your success.

"The important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable."

James Surowiecki

Where is Your Leadership Reinforcing Unhelpful Organisational Habits and Preventing Change?

We all know, or at least I hope we do. That it’s not the organisation that changes but the people who are in them who change. That’s either because the people change their behaviour or they leave and are replaced with new team members who have a better ‘fit’.

Creatures of Habit

We are all creatures of habit, which is why implementing anything new can be a challenge. As human beings we will always revert to our established way of doing things. Unless we make a conscious effort to change and practice something new, new habits are not built.

Our habits are our conditioned autopilot and whilst we may know what these are for ourselves are we consciously aware of what these are with in the organisation.

What habits are there in your organisation that as a leader you perpetuate?

Meetings are often the easiest place to start observing organisational habits:

Do you always have meetings with start with small talk before you get into the agenda?  

Is it OK for people to turn up late?

Is there a formal agenda and do you stick to it?

Do you set a time limit for the meeting?

Other habits may be:

When something goes wrong you look for someone to blame.

All new ideas are listened to and presented to a committee.

Elements of the dress code are not enforced.

The question when introducing something new is to decide which current habits are helpful and which are disruptive.

Signposting Change

What I see most organisations doing if they want a change in behaviour is make a statement that is generic such as, more customer focussed, or celebrate success, or value our people more, or more efficient…

This is great for pointing out the direction of travel, however what people need is more specific tangible instructions on what to do differently.

You may have the best strategy in the world, but if you haven’t considered the behaviour(s) that are required to support it you may not succeed.

Worse still if those behaviours are not present in your organisation, you can be sure the strategy will fail.

Building new Habits

If you are in a position where you are about to lead a change project or are about to implement something new here are 3 steps to take:

1. Identify the 5 most important routines (habits) that will enable the strategy to succeed? Get really specific about what these need to look like.
2. Consider what current organisational habits will support you and identify those that will limit you.
3. Then identify what specifically needs to change so you can clearly direct people on what is required.

I want to stress here this is about keeping things simple. If it’s over complicated you’re going to have trouble communicating with clarity. If there are too many changes for people to focus on behaviourally they’ll either give up or choose one that is less important for you and the change initiative.  

If you are struggling to get your head around this feel free to give me a call.

I can also recommend a great book on change management: Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath. They also have a very good website: www.switchthebook.com/resources

 

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”

Peter Drucker

Four Skills Great Managers Apply to Engage Their Teams Fully

Fifteen years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to hear Marcus Buckingham speak to mark the publication of the book I he co-wrote –‘First Break All The Rules’. I know it was fifteen years ago because I still have the invitation pinned to the inside of the book! This book is one I go back to regularly when considering employee engagement, as it’s full of useful information that any manager can apply on a regular basis.

 

As well as laying out the twelve questions that measure the strength of a workplace (the most important information that measures the core elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented employees), it also explains what great managers do to create the right environment.

In summary these are:

Select for talent: Great managers do not select purely on experience, intelligence or determination. They define talent as ‘a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behaviour that can be productively applied’. Every role performed to excellence requires talent because the role requires a recurring pattern. While experience, intellect and will power are important it is the presence of certain talents that allow people to excel.

Everyone has talents. The trick is finding the right role for them to shine.

 

Define the right outcomes: Great managers set expectations and steer away from defining the steps. This encourages individuals to take responsibility and it also builds self-awareness and self-reliance. They consider what does the task look like when done well?

The outcomes will clearly stipulate any standards that have to be met, particularly if there are legislative requirements to be met.

Focus on strengths:  Great managers motivate by doing this and not focusing on weaknesses. Helping people to become more of who they are. It’s not about ignoring poor performance. If there is a performance issue they start with questions like is it trainable? Is it me? Am I not spotting the right trigger to motivate this person?

Find the right fit: When developing someone they help find the right fit for the person not simply the next rung on the ladder, or what would work for me, or this organisation. The next rung on the ladder may be the right fit – but it isn’t always. It might be with another organisation.

Great managers get people to look in the mirror. They are excellent at performance feedback and consider the individuals’ dreams and aspirations to truly engage them.

“People don’t change that much.

Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.

Try to draw out what was left in.

That is hard enough.”

Taken from ‘First Break all the Rules’

Which one of these skills are you naturally brilliant at?

Which one may need some further focus?

How are you doing with your employee engagement?

Team Alignment – A 4 Part Health Check

I recently read some research that looked at the winning leadership behaviours that lead to outstanding team performance, particularly when under pressure. One of the top three was alignment, (The other 2 were capability and autonomy).

So, I’ve put together some simple questions to assist you in conducting a quick health check and determining where you may need to put some focus:

How would you describe the alignment of your team?

Are you?

1. Fully functioning, running like a ‘well oiled machine’ where balls are rarely dropped.
2. Managing to get along and just about hit deliverables but it’s all a bit like hard work and you feel as though you have to constantly chase people.
3. You’ve had to re-adjust several timescales and deadlines to accommodate the team. Things just never run smoothly and lots of mistakes are made.

Hopefully you are somewhere between 1) and 2) and if you are 3) what I have to say will still be of value, although it’s probably going to take a little longer to get fully aligned!!

Wherever you are right now these 4 questions will help you determine what needs ‘fixing’. I would recommend you address them in this sequence, as they will also help you prioritise action. The questions are:

1)   Why do we exist?

2)   Where are we heading?

3)   Who does what?

4)   How do we behave?

Why do we exist? The foundation

What is the team there to do? What is their role in the company? Is everyone clear about this?

It sounds obvious, but if you are a team who’s role is to develop new products and there are members of the team who think you are there to develop existing products this can cause some friction albeit subtle.

Ensuring every single member of the team understands what you are there to do can bring great clarity in determining where to focus efforts and what to say no to.

For me it’s the ‘why are we here’? Your teams mission statement and the foundation piece to alignment.

Where are we heading? The guiding system or sat nav

 

Does everyone know in what direction you are heading? It helps if you are all pointing North. How you get there can be varied but if you are all pointing in different directions it’s going to be a longer and potentially exhausting journey.

Your direction may be your strategic goals, your operational objectives, or your company vision – the key is clarity and simplicity. Do your team know what you are going to deliver and the difference it will make? Can you describe it in a couple of sentences? If you find you are rambling, or trying to cover every eventuality you’ll find your team will make their own interpretation, leaving room for missed opportunities, inefficiencies and conflicting priorities.

You may find you have to repeat this several times to make sure it’s fully understood. It will be worth it in the long run!

Who does what? The resources

This is being clear about roles. Who is doing what? Do the roles in your structure allow you to deliver what you are meant to deliver? Where does accountability for delivery sit? How do the roles interrelate? What’s required for the team to run smoothly around the tasks/projects you are delivering?

Is everyone in the right role? Having people fully equipped not only ensures great teamwork it will also increase individual engagement and as a result greater performance.

Are people playing to their strengths? When people play to their strengths there is a sense of ease as well as enjoyment.

How do we behave? The driving path to get you there

What’s the culture you want in your team? How do you want your team meetings to run? How will you make decisions? How do you want it to feel? How will team members communicate with each other? How will problems be resolved?

How often will you review collectively how you are doing? Are you prepared to have a degree of candour so the real conversations take place when they need to and not in the corridor with the people who aren’t involved?

Even the best teams need to stop to reassess.

These questions will allow you as a leader and to quickly review where you are, and be used as a review with the team to identify any areas of realignment.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”

Michael Jordan

4 Steps to Identifying the Culture of a Team

It is rare that you have the opportunity to create a team from scratch and select every member yourself. It has only happened to me once. More often we join an organisation or new division and have a ‘ready made’ team in place for us.

 All too often in these situations we focus on getting things done and talking to individuals about what has to be or is being done. Very rarely do I hear of anyone giving some attention to the How of the team - How it operates.

Yet today more leaders are having to:

• ·       Take on newly created positions
• ·       Are asked to achieve more and have broader objectives
• ·       Have frequent shifts in job responsibility
• ·       Must deliver results faster

Personal agility is obviously important in managing these changes. Harnessing the energies of your team sooner rather than later will also help. Therefore, being able to quickly read the culture of a team when you join it, is a great skill to have.

Here are some ideas on where to look so you can see the ‘wood from the trees’.

First let’s be clear about what we mean by culture. It’s the how things get done around here. The ideas, customs and social behaviour of the group e.g. how decisions get made, the look and feel of the space, how ideas are generated and developed.

So here are some simple, but not easy steps to take:

Step One: Identify the Essence of the team

Approach this as if you are an archaeologist uncovering the origins of the team and how it came about, or a historian uncovering the story and folklore about it. In some ways this is the hardest part as the aim is to get a handle on the intangible ‘stuff’.

Questions you might want the answers to are:

·    How and why was this team/department originally created? Was it to create change? Was it to bring about some structure and stability? Was it to grow the market? Create new products?...

·    How was it positioned at the time?

·    What was going on in the broader organisational culture at the time? Was it going through a merger? Was it growing? Was it in crisis?

·    How have customers related to it over the years?

·    How do they relate to it now?

·    What makes it stand out?

·    If there were a documentary or film about it what would it be called?

Step Two: Searching for Substance

In this step you are continuing your ‘dig’ or research and looking at what is in place to substantiate what you may have discovered in step one.

Questions you might ask here are:

·       What is the basis of its relationships customers? Is it to solve their problems? To make them feel better? To make their life easier?

·     What policies and processes are in place? Are they formal or informal?

·     What is the product/service the team produces?

·     What does this look and feel like?

·     How do the team interact? Do they socialise together? Is there a lot of laughter and joking? Do they seem very closely knit? Are they very respectful?

·     What value does the team bring to the organisation?

·     How do people in the team dress?

Step Three: What’s not Working

Here you are looking at what is missing or what isn’t working. This can also give you clues to the culture of a team; for example I worked with a function where team meetings didn’t happen, or if they did they were inconsistent. It helps you in identifying what the culture isn’t rather than what it is and if you are struggling with the steps above it can really shed some light on the situation.

Some questions you might ask here are:

·     What confuses or mystifies you?

·     What values, approaches or topics cannot be talked about? For example can people talk about mistakes, new ways of doing things, success, poor performance?

·     What do people complain about?

·     Are people distorting or failing to see reality clearly?

Step Four: Reflection and Analysis

This is where you get to put all the pieces together to see what picture develops. What is the predominant orientation of the team? It’s important at this stage you identify what is actually happening rather than what you think it should be. When I do this I take a balanced scorecard approach, it’s one way of keeping it simple. So here it is:

Areas to Consider	Which Category Best Fits your Analysis?
Structure and Process	1.    Structures and processes are built around the needs of customers (either internal or external) 2.    Structures and processes are there to bring stability, control or efficiency 3.    Structures and processes are there to support innovation and learning
Results	1.    Results are achieved by being goal focussed, driven and working as a team 2.    Results are driven by vision and inspiring people 3.    Results are based on breaking rules, continually improving being non conformist
Relationships	1.    Relationships are based on us all being equal and banding together 2.    Relationships are based on having fun and being playful 3.    Relationships are based on community and closeness – best friends
Learning & Innovation	1.    Learning and innovation is based on loyalty, job security and not rocking the boat 2.    Learning and innovation is slow based on research, analysis, planning and learning as you go 3.    Learning and innovation is more about employee autonomy and a pioneering approach

Now, you may well be reading this and saying well teams do all of these things! In truth, and in my experience that is very rare. True they may do a number of these things, however, the skill I talked about earlier is to identify which ‘style’ in each quadrant is the most dominant and there is usually 1.

The trick with this is to not spend weeks analysing it. You can do this in the first week or 2 and often the first team meeting (if you have one) will give you lots of clues.

A cautionary note

It helps if you know your own preferences. This way you can remain objective. If you find you are having an adverse reaction to how things are done, they are likely to be operating in a way that is not to your preference.  This may be good or bad news, depending on why you have been brought in.

 For those of you who are task focused you may be asking why bother?  There are 3 clear benefits.  You will:

1. Be able to harness the strengths of the team quicker 
2. Be able to see where team effectiveness can be improved 
3. Be able to integrate new members to the team quickly

All of which will enable you to deliver better results.

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." 

 Nido Qubein