Myself
Having worked in many teams over the past few years and seeing how they’ve played out both as an active participant or a passive board member / consultant. I have almost a spectrum of teamwork styles and have seen either end of them. For this reason, I have put together this article as an explanation of what I see as an ideal culture for teamwork. There will be structural changes and other things but think of this as an underlying principal or way of thinking for your team. This is particularly aimed at managers but will be good to be enforced from all parts of your company.
Let’s start at the far left side of the spectrum, what I like to call ‘Family’ style teams. These teams tend to hire for the long term and may even literally hire family members on to their team. As the name suggests team members are treated like family and get the same perks as a family. When your brother messes up big time and causes the family distress, you don’t fire him. He’s still your brother. Very similarly, companies like this will keep people who perform poorly, provide excellent packages and hire / keep people based on emotional reasons. This doesn’t work because the company suffers from excess baggage and unnecessary people because management doesn’t have the heart to fire people. A family implies you cannot hold people accountable for their actions nor can you ‘draft’ your family members. It implies that you cannot choose who you are involved with. You cannot run a business this way.
On the far right side of the spectrum, is what I call ‘Military’ style teams. This is almost the opposite. If you think of an army, they send people into the fray and move people as units. Units are deployed and treated in a very hierarchy, no-questions asked method. If you need to sacrifice or remove people, you will do so without a second guess. Underperform and you’re dead. (I’m sure modern military deployments have much stronger values and teamwork now but for illustrative purposes let's treat it this way). This is reflected in companies that have a high churn rate and want out of the box team members who know what to do immediately. They want high performers and anyone who doesn’t hit numbers is out. They don’t have time to train or nurture employees, they simply find people who can do the job and once their usefulness has expired they are cut. As harsh as it seems there are teams across the world who still operate this way such as some call centres, retail businesses and other areas. In this environment, churn rates are high, losing money from recruitment overhead and also never having people long enough to build meaningful value or experience for the company.
Family
Sports
Military
So what is the optimal setting? There is a middle ground which I will call ‘Sports’ style teams. If you examine how sports teams work, they have a coach who helps the players grow. They are not entirely family style as team members can be subbed out or changed if skills are lacking significantly however they are not military as teams also prioritise training their athletes. There is a good trade off as hiring a new slightly more talented team member may not be the best move as the existing player has good sync and rapport with the team. Hence skill / team synergy and other factors are all balanced to keep the team in optimal shape. Players are coached and improve over time whilst constantly monitored and on occasion swapped out if needed.
After examining many teams, this is the standout quality in teams that performed the best regardless of the type of structure and systems in place. Treat your team like well polished sports teams, celebrate the victories, support them in hard times, give your team what they need to perform, help them improve their skills/teamwork and finally know when they aren’t the right player for your team.