The five essential requirements of an effective team - 4. Commitment

The five essential requirements of an effective team - 4. Commitment

The five essential requirements of an effective team - 4. Commitment

This is the fourth in a series of 5 blogs on how to build an effective team. I am drawing on the work of Patrick Lencioni and my own experience of working with teams. This month I am focusing on accountability. According to Lencioni’s team pyramid, accountability is only possible if there is trust, the ability to manage conflict, and commitment. Without it there will be no results. So how do you make your team more accountable?

Context

If a team is to be accountable, the context within in which they operate, must make accountability the most obvious and compelling way to be. This context is partially provided by the presence of trust, effective conflict management and commitment to the task but there is another piece that must be at play and that is the ability to contract effectively.

Effective contracting

You can have the desire to get a result but to make it happen reliably, you must contract with each team member and the team as a whole, regarding their specific accountabilities and how they will work together. Written roles and responsibilities give some clarity but these must be translated by agreement into what they mean in practice. 

One to one conversations with each team member to understand their motivation, discuss targets and give feedback and encouragement, build accountability. Accountability can also be fostered more broadly between team members with 360 feedback within and beyond the team, encouraging transparency and opportunities to talk about ways of improving.

To be truly effective, accountability has to be built into the culture. Team leaders must be equally willing to be accountable themselves, being receptive to questions and receiving feedback. It must be demonstrated by all the leaders, especially those at the top of the organisation. When any team leader is not accountable for their actions it is an invitation to their direct reports to behave in the same way.

In practice

If these things do not already happen in your team, as a good place to start, Lencioni setting up this feedback process. Everyone on the team, including the leader, answers two questions: 

  1. “What is the single most important behavioural characteristic or quality demonstrated by this person that contributes strength to our team”
  2. “What is the single most important behavioural characteristic or quality demonstrated by this person that sometimes derails the team?” Starting with the leader, positive feedback first, each team member shares their answers with individuals in turn. Typically, the feedback tends to be consistent and thoughtful. Team members are flattered by the positive feedback, as well as hearing, in front of others, specific ways they can improve. Its effectiveness can further be enhanced by emailing the feedback to the leader who can then ensure the discussions continue.

Some cultures may find the above suggestions too 'touchy feely', in which case offering feedback and encouragement 1-1 can also help to support accountability habits.

Lightening round

Another technique Lencioni recommends is the lightning round where team members, in no more than 30 seconds, provide an update to the others on their top 3 priorities that week. If other team members feel these are not the right ones, they have an opportunity to comment. Regular opportunities to do this, help to build the confidence to carry out effective peer to peer feedback, which can then more easily, happen off line. To help a team have more of an overview of how they are doing, a dashboard can be provided, showing current progress by tracking key goals. This information makes it easier for everyone to see where a team member might need to change focus. 

With Covid-19 the above are even more important as the opportunities for having clarifying conversations in the coffee room are significantly less. As a result virtual systems to keep teams updated on decisions and even the conversations that have led to them, can be referred to in user friendly apps, like Slack. It is worth noting however these are only as effective as the teams that use of them.

Support

Team leaders aren’t always promoted because of their managerial capability, more often than not, promotion is related to their technical capabilities. This is why it helps to set up support in the form of mentoring or coaching, to nurture their confidence to experiment with what might be a very different approach. A willingness to be open to learning, acknowledging that mistakes are inevitable, will also help in building strong and respectful relationships that can weather the effects of today’s need to flex in response to the ever quickening pace of change. 

Self-organising

With technology, the market place within which organisations operate, is changing fast. Teams must now be more aware of their stakeholders, especially their customers. This impacts on the way a business sees itself. Whilst development professionals have been saying this for years, the changing business environment exerts more and more pressure on businesses, changing the way they are organised. Frederic Laloux, in his book Reinventing Organisations, talks about greater accountability being achieved through self organisation. He gives many examples of different businesses where teams decide on their own priorities. Buurtzorg in Holland, is a much publicised example, where health visitors are completely self organising. After consulting with those who will be affected, they are free to take their own decisions and act on them. As a result, accountability levels are consistently high as is team engagement. Laloux’s work confirms, if there was any doubt, that accountability in teams works better, the more responsibility and freedom to operate, team members are given.

Conclusion

Team accountability requires attention to detail. If one aspect is ignored, effectiveness can be undermined. It takes practice and focus and without it the results will be compromised. Results are the focus of the last article in this series is about that so watch this space.

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