We spend a lot of time, effort and money on so-called “team-building” events and initiatives. But that term [team-building] usually relates to enhancing the morale and cohesion of existing teams.
Picture credit: Tom Brogan
We don’t, however, spend so much time thinking about real team-building – i.e. creating new teams, from scratch. Which is a pity. Of course such opportunities don’t present quite as often, because most organizations usually have well-established teams.
Nevertheless, new teams and departments are sometimes created, either by mergers and acquisitions activity, or by our old friend: “corporate re-organization;” that’s when we usually get the chance to design a new team, even if some of the members are simply being shuffled about.
One of the big problems with such team-building is that it usually has to be done quickly, we may not be allowed the luxury of deliberating the pros and cons of our team design.
Which is perhaps why we have to re-organize so often, to correct hasty design faults.
How could this be different?
Well, off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of ways: firstly by making more time for team design when we actually do have to build; secondly by occasionally thinking, speculatively, about how we would re-design our current team, if we had to do so now – try it, the exercise is always thought-provoking.
But every new team has to start somewhere so here is the killer question: which role is first on your new team-sheet and why?
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Great post. For me the answer depends on the purpose of the team, but it is likely to be the Knowledge Leader or “Subject Matter Expert”, then I build the rest of the skills around them.
One could start with the team leader, but only if one is going to delegate the creation of the team to them. Personally I prefer to know that the team has the capability to do the right thing first, and then build the supporting skills (leadership, management, execution etc.) outwards.