This is the third in our series of articles challenging businesses to properly identify and react to business disruptions that are sure to come in 2019 and beyond.
It’s important to remember that there are always two sides of change that should be of top concern to businesses whenever there is a major change and/or a business disruption. The first side is the “Technical” side of change, and the second is the “Human” side of change. Both sides should be of equal concern and importance for all businesses. However in many cases, businesses typically focus on the Technical side of change and often times fail to address all of the circumstances surrounding the Human side of change.
An argument can also be made that the Human side of change is in fact a more critical issue to be addressed than the Technical side of change for businesses to consider. Businesses will ultimately react as they have been conditioned to react by their long standing corporate culture. Is the business a “people focused” business or a “process focused” business? For those businesses that are “process focused” businesses, we urge them to also consider the Human side of change as it will have a tremendous impact on the success or failure of change management.
Seven Principles for Team Success:
If companies are going to be successful with their change management or Business disruption strategies, they will clearly need to develop a Team Success approach to ensure success. So having said that, what are some of the elements of a Team Success strategy?
1. Everyone needs to be inspired by a purpose – In professional team sports, it’s not one individual that is responsible for the success or failure of a particular game or series of games; it’s the entire team’s responsibility. To be successful, each teammate must buy-in to the game plan or game strategies. Once there is total buy-in, each member of the team does their part to make sure the outcome results in wins and not losses.
The same philosophy should apply in business where ALL key stakeholders understand the mission and how critical their individual involvement is in the overall success of the change management/business disruption plan. Leave one or more of these key stake-holders out of the game plan and the plan will be ripe for failure.
2. Everyone must be focused on the shared journey – Again, everyone on the team needs to buy-in to the mission and fully understand their part of the plan. Success will only come when there is a shared plan with all of the key stakeholders pushing or pulling in the same direction. Companies that have some team members pushing in one direction while others are pulling in an opposite direction will surely fail. Don’t think this can happen? It WILL happen if the mission is not properly strategized, completely understood and followed to the letter of the law by everyone on the team.
3. The team must be held accountable and maintain a collaborative mindset – First, every team needs a leader or leaders. Secondly, that leader or those leaders NEED TO LEAD! Sounds logical of course but very often assigned team leaders fail to lead. And, you can be sure of this, if there is no one to lead, there certainly won’t be anyone following.
This also means that no one on the team will be allowed to point fingers at others if there is a problem or a complete failure. To ensure success, everyone on the team must work in a collaborative way and all be held jointly responsible to achieve success.
4. Ensure the right skills are aligned with the right roles – The old adage that says “you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole” is very obvious, however companies continually try to achieve success with the wrong people in the wrong roles. Businesses must have full knowledge of the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of their team members and properly assign specific responsibilities that allow the team members and therefore the entire team to be successful.
5. Create strong and clear interdependencies which reinforce team agreements – So we all know that a “chain is as strong as its weakest link.” So, if a team is going to be successful, everyone on that team needs to work hand in hand and support the team to the best of their ability. The team leader has the responsibility to ensure that the team will be successful by ensuring there is no “weak link” in the team’s chain. And, if a weak link should appear at some point, the team leader or leaders need to make an immediate change to eliminate the weak link.
6. Advocate strategies to ensure successful outcomes – Every step of the way, the team leader(s) and the entire team must be focused on winning the battle, or more likely battles they will be facing as they navigate through the business disruption/change management process. A hitter in a baseball game must keep his eye on the ball if he or she is to be successful. The same is true for the corporate team charged with steering the company to successful outcomes, by never taking their eyes off the mission.
7. Design a laser focused implementation plan that resolves all constraints for the highest level of success – Is the team a strong team with a clear focus? Does the entire team have aligned priorities? Does the team act with accountability, and finally does every key strategy, decision and activity have a single owner who is accountable and, is the team laser focused to ensure total success?
The team must be clear about where shared work exists and who is responsible for what part of that shared workload. The team must also be able to collaborate effectively and have clear and effective rules of engagement.
All team leaders must advocate for total alignment of how to move forward to ensure a successful outcome, each with the perspective of their own role in service to the ultimate results. Committed to communicating a compelling way forward, taking action, changing courses if and when necessary and delivering tangible results in a way that creates confidence and trust.
If the team’s current purpose is not clear and not inspired, it must be challenged to move to a state that inspires the team by its overall purpose.
Secondly, teams that are not of the same mindset are mistrustful of each other or are completely unaligned. They must be challenged to move to a high degree of mutuality, trust and total collaboration.
And finally, teams that find themselves with unresolved conflicts, or operate like two ships passing in the night, must create clear systems of on-going meetings and protocols that drive conflict resolution and create specific strategies to monitor key processes and ensure successful outcomes.
to receive our FREE white papers: