Business Teamwork Is Never An Accident

Hello again. It's been awhile since the last issue, and I hope you're having a terrific summer. One lesson I learned this summer is sometimes you have to turn off one creative spigot in order to do other things. After writing an average of more than two articles a month for the past five years and posting them on my website, I took the past three months off. Partly to reenergize my brain, partly to finish the manuscript on my first book and get it to my publisher, partly to spend more time with my family (we had three long weekend trips and one glorious week in Destin), and partly to begin work on another book. Now I look forward to the monthly task of trying to craft value for a very diverse audience.

In the past three months, I've received more calls to help strengthen corporate teamwork than I have in the past three years. When something unusual like that happens, I ask the profound question, "What the heck is going on?' Here's my hypothesis. From 2001 - 2003, corporations were focused on just surviving. Their attitude became: "If teamwork falls apart, who cares? We have to make sure we remain a business and we'll need to lay off people and downsize and put all issues aside until we weather this storm." Well, in many ways the storm is over and now companies realize that people need to be effective in group settings in order to accelerate their critical business companies.

Teamwork simply means a group of people who support one another toward achieving a meaningful cause. If it's that simple, then why is true teamwork an extraordinarily rare occurrence in the business world? Why do teams fall apart? And how can a group of people become a true team?

Teamwork rarely happens because people have to set aside their own agendas to support the other members on the way to driving better results. That's hard to do. People want their careers to accelerate and they don't appreciate it when other people get in their way of success. When you go home, your spouse doesn't say, "How did you help the team today?" More likely, your spouse says, "How is that going to help your career?" At a gathering with friends, people don't talk about how they assisted a fellow employee with a big presentation that won a brand new account. Instead they talk about how they achieved record-breaking sales. If employees could work in a vacuum and never have to worry about their promotion or salary or prestige at home, then they might focus more on the pure enjoyment of being a member of a great team. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we don't operate in a vacuum. Creating great teamwork doesn't happen by accident. It requires sustained, focused effort over the long-term.

Why do teams fall apart? It's usually a case of "purpose outage" or "passion outage." If the group loses the sense of the incredible importance of their work, then they end up focusing on internal issues. Suddenly issues that would seem insignificant molehills compared to the overall purpose of their group become huge mountains that eat up everyone's time and energy. One way to get an immediate sense of purpose is to be confronted with a crisis. One of the greatest crises in the history of the U.S. was September 11th, 2001. Suddenly Americans pulled together in an unprecedented display of teamwork. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we can't create a crisis in the business world everyday. Each group has to take the time to identify the reason why their group exists and it has to be an important reason.

The other reason why teamwork falls apart during tough times is people lose their passion for their work. They see their friends losing their jobs even though they were doing good work. They watch as the company shifts from one strategy to another. The employees refuse to get excited about the new approach because they know it will change again in a year or so. The net result is a group of individuals who have lost their sense of purpose and their passion for the job they do. These individuals then spiral downward into an atmosphere that generates anger and frustration and bitterness. Everyone is focused on their needs and not on supporting their comrades. Why support other people toward achieving something if it's not at all clear what that something is?

So how do you build teamwork in such a quagmire? First, you remain very patient. Individuals don't regain a sense of teamwork overnight. They don't clarify an important purpose for the group without pouring in some effort. They don't buy into the benefit of supporting other people when they've been burned in the past. So you take the long, steady route. You find examples of where a member of the group or several members of the group made an enormous difference in the life of a customer and you highlight the heck out of that. Rather than asking people to identify what's wrong with the group, you ask them to identify what noble work the group is doing. Rather than asking what additional benefits you can provide to individuals, ask the individuals to identify the benefits of supporting the larger purpose of the group. If people don't see the value of supporting other people, then they won't do it. If people don't see the value of communicating with respect, they won't do it. If people don't see the value of sacrificing for their comrades in order to achieve greater success for everyone, then they won't do it.

In the end, teamwork is created when the individual members of the group believe that the purpose of the group is enormously important and that supporting one another toward achieving that purpose is worth the effort. No book or workshop or speaker can ever make a group of individuals into a team. The only way is for the individuals to clarify the purpose of the group, believe it is a very meaningful purpose, and then support one another toward the achievement of that purpose.

So, for starters, ask the members of your group this question: "What is the purpose of our group? What significant thing are we trying to achieve together? Whose lives are we going to make better and how are we going to do it?" If you can recharge the "purpose batteries," the passion outage will be solved.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Book Recommendation: It's Your Biz: The Complete Guide to Becoming Your Own Boss by Susan Solovic with Ellen Kadin

Recently I read a magnificent book for people who want to start their own business. The thing I like the most about, It’s Your Biz, is the absolute honesty with which it was written. It removes the glossiness and sexiness of owning your own business and breaks in down into reality. Click here to read Dan's review of the book.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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