Building Effective Teams Through Crises

Businesses operate in a very complex, challenging & dynamic ecosystem on an ongoing basis. The normal dynamism of the markets, competition, customers, business environment & policy frameworks stresses organizations to the edge. Teams are at the centre of these complexities & are the paramount competitive advantage for any organization and distinguish good & great organisations. In a constantly changing, interconnected, global economy, teams and teamwork play a critical role in sustained organizational success. Operating Business is a team sport, individual flashes of brilliance can fetch momentary wins in pockets.

Lots have been written & deliberated on the importance & role effective teams play in establishing organizational supremacy & leadership. Through this article, I wish to dissect an effective team in a competitive business world & thereby project how to build one, when the overall business environment is in crisis, such as now in COVID-19 times 

For ease of understanding what contributes to building effective teams, I have constructed a mathematical equation of an effective Team

ET = (CIS - CIW + AF + SEC + BE + C) x (Synergy of these variables & Interplay of Common/Shared Goals) 

ET – Effective Team, CIS – Collective/Sum Total of Individual Strength of each Member, CIW – Collective/Sum Total of Individual Weakness of each member, AF – Agility Factor of the organization to manage change, SEC – Strategy & Execution Capability of the Organization, BE – Overall Business Environment Drift, C - Constant – Represents host of other factors producing net +ve or net -ve value

Role of the Leaders & management is to navigate ET to be sufficiently positive & to ensure ET remains more than the threshold value so that the organization & teams remain effective. They do this by creating synergies in each of these variables coupled with the interplay of common/shared goals to bring out the maximum value of ET. Clearly for ET function to be maximised, CIS must be maximised, CIW must be minimised, AF must be maximised, SEC must be maximised, BE & C must be maximised

In a Crisis, two new variables get added to the above equation 

ET = (CIS - CIW + AF + SEC + BE – UF – NMS/F + C) x (Synergy of these variables & Interplay of Common/Shared Goals)

UF – Uncertainty Factor, NSM/F – Negative Market Sentiment & Forces, Constant – In crises the Constant factor, the combination of other factors to drive effective teams, skews towards a negative value 

Crisis exhibits times with a high degree of uncertainty tangled with limited information, subdued organizational & external sentiments, limited scope of success, disintegrated team with low morale & all this coupled with unpredictable decision making by the leadership. The leadership is expected to navigate the UF & NMS/F in a way where it has the least impact on maximising ET 

Building an effective team is not just the responsibility of the senior leadership team, but that of every individual in the organization. People managers & leadership teams only help create an environment that fosters effective teams. Having said that, leaders, managers & HR have a pivotal role to play in building & nurturing effective teams 

Role Leadership Must Play  

 The crisis is a time of disarray & hence binding the teams with a common goal & vision is extremely critical.

Leadership must communicate the context of the crises, its genuine assessment of the impact of the crisis & the plan of how it wishes to mitigate the impact of the crisis integrating every one of the organization. Adversities test the character of the organizations & individuals and hence leadership must communicate how the crisis will evolve the team members & organization stronger. It must reinforce the support & confidence in the teams. Leadership must communicate as clearly as possible the way forward defining detailed milestones. It must also sell hope & positivity in all its communication as this is the time to show it the most. Investing in overcommunicating is rewarding in crisis. This is the time when leaders communicate “HOW” and not just “WHAT”. Leadership must open a hotline for employees so that they can reach out directly to help address questions around any ambiguity. Regular town halls to reinforce messages is a good idea as well 

Crisis brings uncertainty along with it, & hence it's important that in the process of communication, all efforts are directed to remove the fear of uncertainty by fostering clarity on the plan of action, roles & responsibility, timelines, milestones and the outcome. Leadership must define opportunity in adversity & develop a pragmatic strategy, define specifics around how and must incentivise execution. Leadership must in crisis encourage an entrepreneurial mindset, where each team member looks for opportunities even in the most adverse circumstances 

During a crisis, teams & individual face more failures & fewer successes. Hence it is important on the part of leaders and managers that they help the teams manage failures. This is the time when leadership must lay more importance on the journey, efforts & execution rather than the end results. The organisation must plan for success & celebrate small wins, despite failures. Teams win because they plan to collaborate to win small battles

The organization must charter a journey to be agile during such a crisis state & must exhibit flexibility. It must iterate & adjust strategies constantly and must empower employees to make key decisions on challenging projects. It must also view unanticipated change as an opportunity. The crisis is the time to not wait but anticipate. Keeping focus amid the frenzy & thinking of people & not position will ensure a smooth pass through the crisis 

Leaders must ensure synergies between various functions & teams to bring out the maximum efficiencies within the organization. The organisational structure must be defined in a way that fosters & augments synergies without any losses from conflicts 

Role HR Must Play  

Refuel Skills Relevant in Crisis – Skills required in individuals during crisis varies vastly when compared to those required in normal times. The HR must define the skills required, specific to them, during crisis & make sure it refuels the organization by either developing those skills in their people or must acquire talent with those skills. The crisis is a time for effecting actions & hence attitude must take prominence besides experience. Sourcing, selecting & Talent Acquisition must be aligned to develop or hire identified skills. The crisis is the most opportune time to upskill, reskill and train, train & train your people 

In uncertain times that crisis is, the employee engagement machinery in the organization must be running at its peak efficiency. The uncertainty also disrupts employee stability & hence focus on retaining critical & crucial employees is a must. 

Effective & frequent communication is emphasised over & over again and HR must reinforce this through status updates on the journey travelled and celebrating small & big wins. In a time where failures far exceed successes, consistently communicating even small wins acts as stimuli & builds the morale of the team. Small capsules of the previous turnaround within the organization must be story told to bring about hope & positivity 

All of what is planned needs to be effectively & efficiently executed, hence it's imperative that the line management, execution machinery, must be upskilled & strengthened. The expectations from the line management must be mapped with any training gaps & measures must be taken to bridge the gaps. Role, task & responsibility matrix of the executive arm must be clearly defined & monitored. The line managers must exhibit, live & execute to ensure last-mile understanding & execution 

Augment Efforts of Teams for External Stakeholder Management During Crisis 

Customers drive organizations commercially. While the organisation is working internally to bail itself out of the crisis, the focus must also be on ensuring there is no disruption on the customer’s side. Customer & everything around its acquisition, management & delight must be accomplished in a way that is least/not disruptive. Customer’s experience with the organization & his brand perception of the company’s products/solutions must be retained at the previous level, if not possible to better it. Customer interface/sales team must be supported with initiatives that help communicate robust messages to build customer value, perception & societal benefits. The organization must help augment the effort of the sales team by engaging with the customers, market & society reinforcing the value proposition through new tools relevant in the crisis. 

Crisis such as Covid-19 is an unprecedented challenge for organizations and their leadership teams around the world. By expressing trust, establishing a shared view of the future, focusing on the common goals and cultivating a sense of belonging, teams can help each other weather the crisis while setting their organizations up for continued success when this crisis passes.