My friend Fred said, “There were so many people I was dependent on to get anything done. It was frustrating. So, I left after 2 years.” Zak joined the conversation, “I just did not know what I could take credit for. It was very uncomfortable for me. So, I came back to academia.” (Names changed to maintain confidentiality.)
Fred and Zak were fellow post-docs with me in Joanne Chory’s lab, and we were meeting for the first time in 21 years. They had stayed in academia, apart from an apparently frustrating stint in the industry, while I moved to work in the industry.
This conversation highlighted the importance of teams and the frustration we experience with poor team work. It does not have to be this way. Here are four questions to ask (and answer) to create what I call a high-ROI team;
Do we need a team?
Why do we exist together as a team?
How are we going to hold each other accountable?
How will we disagree, decide and stay committed?
1. Do we need a team?
Contrary to the ubiquitous coffee mug quotes, the answer to this question is far from obvious.
I shop at Aldi. I like a store where choices are few and the exits are near. It usually takes me 19 minutes to grab a week’s worth of groceries. Yes, I timed it. When my wife and I go as a team, it takes 30 minutes. Sure, I value the time we spend together, but in terms of the task itself, not much value is added.
A team necessarily imposes costs and constraints on its members. Therefore, if you want to create a high-ROI team, it is important that the task is complex and requires a diverse expertise not typically found in one individual. And you need a clear process for team engagement.
2. Why do we exist together as a team?
The team must align on a common purpose. Alignment means giving up a few degrees of freedom. I usually demonstrate this by dropping six colorful ping-pong balls on the table to represent six people on a team. They bounce and each goes its own way, free to do as it pleases. This is not a team, it’s a free-for-all.
Alignment on common purpose does not mean agreement or harmony. One of the best teams I ever had the good fortune to be on, had this common purpose “Establish an ultra-high-throughput covid testing platform and demonstrate 100,000 samples tested in 24 hours by 8 December 2020.” Every single member of this global team, that spanned multiple commercial and philanthropic organizations, was absolutely aligned with this big-hairy-audacious goal.
It’s great to start with ‘why’ but not enough if you stop there. You must clarify two important ‘how’ questions.
3. How will we hold each other accountable?
Sooner or later, someone is not going to meet the team’s expectations. When we don’t deal with this effectively, the cost of team exceeds the value it delivers. What are our rules of engagement? In effective teams, everyone has permission to call each other out when expectations are not being met. How you deal with those not pulling their weight is crucial to maintain high-ROI. Does the team routinely have difficult conversations or avoid them?
When you have a clearly aligned common purpose, this conversation is about the impact on delivery of results, rather than a personal attack on the individual.
4. How will we decide, disagree and stay committed?
If the task is complex there are choices, with trade-offs, that must be made. But how? Most teams do not have a mutually agreed process to have the discussion while they are at that fork in the road. They hang around waiting for time to eliminate choices so decisions will ‘get made.’ Sometimes it works. Other times, the loud voice wins. Either way, the team is split. A wedge remains until there is an open discussion on the process.
A team must commit to a decision process and clarify decision rights before the difficulties arise. How will the team negotiate disagreements and stay committed to the common purpose?
Teams are vital and we know a lot about that makes them work. But knowing is not enough. Do you care enough, and do you have the courage to do what it takes to build a high-ROI team?
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