Building Team Effectiveness

After more than 15 years of professional engagement in individual, team and organizational development I have found a model that gives big flexibility in terms of its application in development and, what is most important, it starts for client’s / business need.

I have already published two articles on application of Saville Assessment Wave personality test in Leadership and Sales Development . This one, about one of the most relevant management topics today - Team Effectiveness, I wrote with my colleague Ana Ivanov , who is Saville Assessment Product Owner in Atria Group .

The team effectiveness development approach is based on Work Roles report, one of the many reports that you can get from Saville Assessment Wave personality test. So, before we jump into the Work Role model I would like to give you a short overview of Savile Assessment Wave personality profile.

The Wave explores professional styles in four areas

Each area contains three factors, with each factor explored in three dimensions and each dimension in three facets. In total, Wave explores 108 facets of professional style. This pyramid model allows the Wave user to switch between a global approach to professional Style and a more detailed examination.

Thinking

This area covers intellectual function: how does a person handle information, and do they use it to create ideas and evaluate situations? Wave shows whether a person is analytical or intuitive, imaginative or pragmatic, oriented towards learning and so on.

Influencing

This are is about relationships with others: how does the person interact with others? What influence do they have on others? Wave explores sociability, communication ability, persuasiveness, decision-making propensity, leadership etc.

Adapting

This area explores the persons capacity to adapt, in three ways: adapting to change, adapting to challenging situations, and adapting to others (listening, empathy, team working).

Making things happen

This area covers the tendency to take act: is the person focused on taking action, and if so what’s their style when doing this? Wave explores in particular how conscientious the person is, their dynamism and their ways of organizing.

The Wave Work Roles report

The Wave Work Roles report highlights the most desirable and least preferred work roles of an individual in the workplace and how to use them effectively in team work.

The model was developed by splitting the Wave Performance Culture Framework cluster. The Great Eight model, a work performance model developed by Kurz and Bartram (2002), was used to establish each of the eight scales of work roles.?The model focuses on individual team members and their purpose / function within a team. It identifies which individual contribution of each team member is likely to influence effectiveness of the team.

When considering the team as a whole, those teams with a greater variety of roles expressed are likely to be more effective than those with less (Benne & Sheats, 1948; Belbin, 1996; Fisher, Hunter and MacRosson, 2001). However, it is important to always take into account the core function of the team and ensure the balance of roles that are appropriate for this function.

The Wave Team Role model provides a vehicle for benchmarking groups in terms of their perceived motives, talents and competencies. This can be combined with information from the Saville Consulting Performance Culture Framework and can be used as a basis for the development of new performance driven frameworks (e.g. Competency, Capability, Values).

At the same time, The Wave Team Role model provides a means to identify and develop individual’s within an organization who are likely to contribute significantly to business growth. By first identifying and then investing development in such individuals, businesses are more likely to retain those that have the potential to bring the most to their organization.

Building Team?Effectiveness

Wave Team Role group report focuses on:

• How to make the most of your Primary and Secondary roles
• How to harness your preferences to have the best effect in your team
• How your least preferred role can be used to best effect
• How individuals can work more effectively with those who have roles different to their own
• How others work and how you can use your primary and secondary role strengths to help others
• Descends from your least preferred role (those most different to you)
• Understand how you work as part of a team using Team Overview Insights

Here are some of the really relevant information that you can get as part of team report:

Preferred Roles: Displays the two most frequently occurring preferred roles of the group. Information is given about the group’s likely dynamic and strengths. A role combination is shown that provides insight into how a group with that combination is likely to behave.

Less Preferred Roles: Displays the two roles most frequently indicated as less preferred by members of the group. Possible consequences for the group are given along with potential actions that offer practical advice on addressing them.

Too Many? Considers the implications of having too many of the top two preferred roles in the group. Potential developmental actions for the group are suggested to counteract any imbalance that might arise from having too many of these roles.

Too Few? Presents the two roles that were indicated as a preferred role by the group the lowest number of times. Advice is given as to how the group can negate any possible adverse impact of having too few of these roles.

Potential Actions Summary: Provides a summary of the key development actions that were presented in the previous sections of the group overview. These can be used as a basis for making action plans and initiating team development.

The Wave Team Roles model can be applied in:

• Improving the dynamics within existing teams.
• Providing clear feedback on the role preferences in the team and ensuring that gaps, overlaps and interactions are dealt with.
• Building a performance driven culture and playing to the strengths of the group.
• Improving problem solving within and across teams.
• Identifying obstacles and barriers to success before providing a platform for team coaching or action planning.
• Creating powerful new teams.
• Preparing teams to initiate, embrace and drive change from within.

More info about Saville Assessment portfolio you can find on this?link .?Atria Group ?is official reseller partner for ex-Yu region.