Whether on a new team at work or outside of work — at your kids’ school, a community, religious, or affinity group — we are constantly on and off teams. And as you probably know from personal experience, the transition on and off these teams don’t always go so smoothly, even with the best intentions.
You’re new and want to be helpful so you jump in with an idea to help a colleague, who in turn thinks you stepped on their toes. You miss the kick-off meeting and have no idea what was decided, what’s next or where to find that information. You show up to your first community service event with brownies, only to learn there is a ‘no outside food’ policy.
The list of bumpy transitions goes on and on. And yet, in each of these examples the intentions were good, but that wasn’t enough to avoid those missteps during change and transitions. So, how can we be mindful about how people enter and leave teams? How can we ensure the least disruption as possible when bringing on a new team member?
As a consultant, I find myself on and off teams all the time. Depending on the project, scope, and budget, I could be on a team for a few weeks or several months. Regardless of the amount of time on a team, I have found that I am most successful on these teams when I understand what I am working towards, what my role and decision rights are, and what behaviors drive team member interactions. Based on my experiences working on and with teams, I have found that the most successful (and healthy) teams all share the elements illustrated below.
The other thing I’ve learned working on and working with teams is that during times of transition, these elements often get pushed on, tested, and even muddled. Teams that haven’t done work to clarify and discuss these elements have a much harder time making it over those bumps in one piece. For example, the transition of any team member often reveals how teams and the roles of those on them have an unarticulated, under-designed quality about them. Maybe you never formally appointed a note-taker but the person who left always did that; now they’re gone and you notice the absence of it. Perhaps when it came time to make a decision, there was always someone the group trusted to have the final say, but that individual doesn’t have the formal “D” or the power to make the final decision. Or possibly the purpose of the group shifts as the ratio of members from one team or department changes. So, as is the case with most change, there is both anxiety created by the change and an opportunity to recalibrate.
Leading a team through the transition
Using the framework illustrated in Figure 1 will help to prevent some of the pain typically felt by teams during transitions. Additionally, being intentional about giving or getting answers to these elements will help everyone — the team in transition, the individuals experiencing the transition, and the person leading the team through the transition. This work will not only ensure the transition goes as smoothly as possible, but it will also ensure the team remains a high performing team.
Purpose
An effective team has a clearly defined purpose. For someone who is just joining a team, a quick way to get caught up is to ask the leader to help her understand the team’s purpose. For those leading a team, ensuring that the team’s purpose is clear, understood, and communicated to all of its team members is absolutely necessary. Briefing a new member joining the team is also a great way to revisit this conversation with existing team members and re-center around why you’re all there. For new teams, workgroups, or project teams, defining the purpose of the group and how it supports the department or organization can be a part of the kick-off conversation to lay the foundation of a shared understanding for why the team exists.
Work & Roles
Whether it is a temporary workgroup or a department or function, knowing and being able to articulate what the value-added work your team does is important for a few reasons. By understanding what the work is, specific duties and tasks can then be distributed to specific roles and creates a clear swim lane. This not only ensures that work is done efficiently but ensures there are no duplications of effort and people know when to collaborate. Lastly, ensuring that the work and roles are clear guarantees that people know where they fit in and how they can add value.
During times of transitions, it is key to ensure that work and roles stay clear for all team members. Spending additional time intentionally clarifying and discussing the team or group’s work, roles, and responsibilities will help to avoid the potential bumps ahead I see all too often in my work when this isn’t done — unclear swim lanes and ownership, duplication of work, lack of collaboration, conflict, hoarding information, dishonesty, turf wars, and cross-functional rivalry, etc. These discussions not only allow you to see the bumps ahead and avoid them but it also helps to reveal work or roles that are unknown, but still things that people do, such as the person who organizes the files on the shared drive. Or the team member who took over a key responsibility of another team member when he left, because “it had to get done” and no one noticed she picked up the slack until now!
Decisions and Decision-Making Methods
During transitions there is a temptation to delay decisions until things “settle down”. Rather than the dust settling however, teams often get stuck in indecision. If you have clarity on your work and roles you can then discuss the decisions that need to be made and the best method to make them (e.g. consensus, team lead, vote, etc.). Don’t let a team transition dilute the focus of your organization by delaying and postponing critical decisions. The only bad decision, is no decision.
Group Norms & Agreements
Understanding the norms of a team and ways to behave early on will help those transitioning onto a new team be more successful. They’ll spend less time worrying that they did something wrong when, for example, no one responded to that email they sent last Friday, only to find out later that individual updates are shared verbally at the department morning meeting! Who would have known in this day in age that email wasn’t the preferred method to communicate and share updates?!
Another way I have seen teams ensure productive group behavior is to write Interaction Agreements, an activity detailed in Mark Samuel’s book, Creating the Accountable Organization. He explains that “To ensure performance isn’t interrupted by relationship issues… high performing teams create interaction agreements. These are not just guidelines for behavior, but include a set of conditions for acceptance and recovery systems for times when an agreement is broken.” During transition, the agreements are revisited, adapted, and discussed frequently.
In addition to knowing how the team operates, creating time for team members to learn more about each other can help to reduce interpersonal conflict down the road as well. By allowing team members to learn each other’s work styles and preferences, team members can better collaborate and interact with one another, in good times or in times of conflict. The reality is that this (learning about others) may feel constant. Yes, it will feel constant. You’ll learn to interact and work with someone, even if dysfunctional, and then a new person comes along to fill that role and do that work but has their own style and set of preferences and expectations when interacting with colleagues.
Team transition are inevitable. As long as we’re social creatures, we’ll find ourselves on some sort of team. Learning ways to weather the change and steer clear of bumps that will set you off course is both paramount and can be approached practically with these tips and the elements and questions in Figure 1. I have found that during times of transition, ensuring you understand why you’re there, what the work is, and how best to interact with colleagues, classmates, or community members, will allow you to quickly jump in and hit the ground running.
Enhance your organizational effectiveness with our executive leadership coaching services.