Teams in the Future - Mike Peckham

Teams are phenomena that are arguably extensions of human kinds natural desire to work in ‘tribal’ or family groups. Their omni-presence in organisations seem to suggest that they will be ever present. Unfortunately, for most people their direct experience and benchmark for team working is through the vicarious pleasures of either watching or playing in sports teams. Teams in organisations are very different; the model of the sports team is proving inadequate. The new teams on the organisational horizon include ‘Teams of One’ and also ‘The Expert Team’.

1. Team of One

Teams of One’ are inherently paradoxical; in the new business landscape of ‘Branding Me’ individual resourcefulness is valued over loyalty. ‘Teams of One’ are based on networks of individuals that pool resources to achieve a transient aim. Within many organisations contract labour and outsourcing has removed staff, some have disappeared, some gone to competitors and some have reappeared as sub-contractors or consultants. Today people are required to achieve more with less; the ‘less’ that they have may not even be a fellow employee. With the ‘Team of One’ the individual finds themselves responsible for delivering results that were formally undertaken by a whole internal team.

The development of the single member of the ‘Team of One’ is based on building relationships, understanding that all of life is meeting and all of meeting is negotiating. The role of the member of the ‘Team of One’ is to be both team leader and team member; personal organisation is paramount and the skills of successful network building and maintaining are critical.

At the point of interface between the ‘Team of One’ and the network, relationships are traded and authority is based on influence rather than authority. With the ‘Team of One’, traditional management development is a nonsense as it presumes that the attendee has ‘direct reports’. Getting things done is a subtle art of encouragement and gentle persuasion. Managing the network to better performance or increased demands is more likely to be about coaching rather than managing; the style informal rather than bureaucratic.

2. The Expert Team

The ‘Expert Team’ is one in which each of the members of the team have different domains and are regarded as ‘experts’ in their chosen field. Critically, their skills cannot be found in any other part of the organisation. These are the people who have the potential to be the ‘Prima-donnas’ of the organisation; who, if not handled properly, will work against an unwitting leader. If handled well they can be the creative geniuses that distinguish and hold the intellectual capital and competitive edge of an organisation.

Arguably, members of the ‘Expert Team’ are unmanageable. They will invoke their skills when and if they choose to do so. Each of the experts believes that their part is the most important part. They will often not conform to the organisational norms and instead create their own new sets of standards. With the ‘Expert Team’ freedom, creativity and innovation are valued most highly. Status is held through expertise, rather than actions. Within the ‘Expert Team’ quality of relationships are the key factor in ensuring success and whilst this is ever present in all teams, it is more so in the ‘Expert Team’.

Team development for ‘Expert Teams’ must attend to maintaining technical skills as well as building ‘relationship’ based trust, rather than ‘deterrent’ based trust. Relationship based trust emphasises ‘obligations’ rather than rules or prescribed lists of values. Communication within the team requires frequent opportunities for informal, nodal, rather than, linear communication. Meeting regularly and informally for tea, cakes and a chance to chat are a major way of ensuring that, in the relatively non-hierarchical ‘Expert Team’, all are given equal voice and can find out what is happening. Team briefings will not work!

The leader of an ‘Expert Team’ must learn very early that they absolutely do not know the answers and, as such, their role is to create an environment where talent and expertise can flourish. The metaphor of the conductor of the orchestra is doubly appropriate. The role of the leader is to ensure that the ‘Expert Team’ is absolutely playing the ‘right’ tune at the ‘right’ time, when they themselves cannot play any of the instruments! An understanding of people and what makes ‘them tick’ is more important to the leader than more conventional aspects of team leader development. The role of the team leader is to nurture the team, to keep them focused on the final outcome and not to allow expertise to hijack purpose.