In a Nutshell
Team chemistry is one of
the most complicated keys to the success of organizations. Effective
teams are more than just a collection of talented members. To be
effective, a team has to be able to combine the efforts and abilities of
members in the right way. Just as no two people are identical, no
two teams are identical. Consequently, what works well for one team
may not work well for others. However, research has identified several
factors that usually produce good team chemistry:
In This Issue
Team
Chemistry is a Key to the Los Angeles Lakers' Success
In the photo above, Kobe
Bryant is holding the trophy for the championship of the National Basketball
Association (NBA), while Shaquille O'Neal holds his trophy for being the
Most Valuable Player in the NBA Finals. Bryant would not be holding
the championship trophy without the help of O'Neal, and O'Neal would not
have the been the Most Valuable Player without Bryant. Bryant and
O'Neal are members of a high performing team--a team on which the members
are able to achieve more by supporting each other than they ever could
achieve by making their immediate personal goals a higher priority.
Good team chemistry is a
key to the Lakers' success. Admittedly, they have two of the league's
best players, and that's also extremely important. However, talent
alone is not enough to win a championship. In fact, it's the opinion
of many observers that the Sacramento Kings, as a team, have more talent
than the Lakers. The Lakers were able to prevail over the Kings because
each Laker knows the role he needs to play, and is willing to help his
teammates excel. The Kings need to continue to work on their chemistry.
What We Know About Team Chemistry
At the risk of taking the
"chemistry" metaphor too far, we can think of teams as having the following
properties: elements (members), interactions (roles and norms), catalysts
(leaders), energy (motivation), attraction (cohesiveness), and mass (size).
By examining these properties, we can identify a number of keys to good
team chemistry.
Elements.
People are the elements that make up a team, and the diversity among people
is probably the single greatest reason why teams are so complex.
Nevertheless, diversity of team members can also be the greatest strength
of teams. Diverse team members have diverse viewpoints, knowledge
bases and skills. That's why a team working properly tends to produce
better decisions than any single member of the team could produce working
alone. Certainly, the quality and diversity of the members of a team
affect its performance, but there's also much more to team chemistry than
putting together the best elements. For instance, even though the
Lakers had the same two exceptional players (Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe
Bryant) before coach Phil Jackson joined them three years ago, they were
unable to contend for a championship. Phil Jackson helped change
the team's chemistry.
Interactions.
Team members have to interact constructively in order to perform effectively.
Roles and norms are an important aspect of team interactions. To
be effective, team members need to take the appropriate roles, and develop
and enforce appropriate norms.
A role
is a set of duties that a team member performs. The most prominent
role in a team is leadership. When there's no formal leadership role
on a team, different members may take responsibility for leadership at
different times. Nonetheless, teams tend to perform better when there's
a single direction for the team, and that's normally best achieved by having
a single leader.
Even though only one member
is typically identified as a team's leader, nonleaders often take roles
that assist the leadership of the team. Such nonleader roles augment
the efforts of the leader and may subtly influence the leader to redirect
the team, but they don't normally obstruct the efforts of the leader or
challenge the leader's authority. Struggles for power in teams are
necessary at times, but a team is unlikely to perform at a high level during
a power struggle.
As a team member, you're
engaging in what's known as role-making
behavior when you spontaneously take responsibility for certain tasks,
and role-taking behavior when
you accept responsibility for duties that others would like you to perform.
In effective teams, members are inclined to take initiative and accept
their roles. Returning to the example of the Lakers, the team has
performed much better since Kobe Bryant has accepted the role of defending
their opponent's best offensive player. In their series with the
Kings, Kobe Bryant played very aggressive defense against the Kings' guard
Mike Bibby. Defense is not as glamorous as offense, and Kobe spent
a lot of energy playing defense on Bibby that he could have reserved for
playing offense. But, to his credit, Kobe accepted his role as "suffocating
defender."
Effective teams also develop
and enforce norms that promote the
efficient and effective operation of the team. Norms are informal
rules that all group members are expected to conform to. Examples
of constructive norms that many teams develop include responsiveness to
customers and a willingness to do things that aren't strictly in anyone's
job description. Not all norms are constructive. Examples of
dysfunctional norms that some teams develop include quitting work early
and censoring dissent within the group. Whether the norms are functional
or dysfunctional, team members tend to sanction those who violate their
norms through subtle but important actions such as cold treatment, a reluctance
to provide help, stopping any socializing, and even pushing the violator
off the team if he or she won't conform. However, there are occasions
when a team member who does not comply with a norm causes the team to give
up that norm. That kind of influence can be positive or negative.
It's positive when a team member takes a stand against a dysfunctional
norm and gets the team to change it.
Catalysts.
In terms of the chemistry metaphor, leaders are catalysts because they
promote interaction among the elements. Leaders provide direction,
structure activities, share information, encourage participation, promote
positive relationships, and support and encourage members. Phil Jackson
was a catalyst for the transformation of the Lakers three years ago.
Before he joined the Lakers, they had a reputation for being a collection
of undisciplined and selfish players. Based on his experiences with
other championship teams, Jackson conveyed to his players what it took
to become the best. Over time, Jackson was able to change the interactions
among the players.
Energy.
Human motivation is the energy in teams. Unfortunately, motivation
is not only directed toward teams' goals. A lot of energy can also
be devoted to conflict.
In a perfect world, all
of a team's energy might be directed toward doing the work required to
achieve the team's goals, but in reality it never is. Carrying the
chemistry metaphor a step further, some of the team's energy takes the
form of heat � due to friction � i.e., interpersonal
conflict. Because people are not omnipotent, conflict
in groups is natural and necessary. Each of us has a unique knowledge
base and a unique way of perceiving and processing information. Consequently,
team members often disagree, and it would be counterproductive for members
to hide their disagreement. Hence, effective teams experience disagreement,
and it enhances the quality of their decision making by challenging assumptions
and expanding the number of ideas considered. On the other hand,
teams that hide their internal disagreement, let interpersonal conflict
become personal rather than business-related or spend too much time debating,
tend to be less effective.
To reach the highest levels
of performance, team leaders should ensure that members have goals
that motivate them. Furthermore, the highest performing teams are
driven by a vision of the future to
which the team aspires. Team leaders who can articulate a vision
for their teams can create passion and inspire exceptional performance.
While goals are normally specific and measurable (often expressed numerically),
a vision is a vivid picture of something exciting that a team can achieve.
For the Lakers, their goal each season is probably to win the championship,
and their vision might be solidifying their place in the history of their
sport.
Attraction.
When team members appreciate being a member of the team and feel an attraction
to it, they're committed to working toward the team's goal. This
cohesiveness facilitates collaboration, spontaneity, and mutual support,
and it reduces counterproductive conflict. Effective teams tend to
be cohesive.
Cohesiveness can be created
through many processes. Smaller groups are more likely to develop
cohesiveness than larger groups. When group members have many things
in common, they tend to develop higher levels of cohesiveness. Cohesiveness
also tends to develop as team members spend more and more time together.
Interestingly, one of the ways to build cohesiveness is by making members
go through a tough initiation before joining the team, and communicating
to them that they've been selected as team members because they're special
in some way. Finally, success engenders cohesiveness. It's
difficult to feel excited about being a member of a team that loses, and
much easier to feel an affinity for a team that succeeds. Look at
the picture of the Lakers above. Team members are celebrating their
victory, and that helps increase the bonds among them.
Mass.
While large teams have more resources (e.g., viewpoints and knowledge),
small teams tend to be more efficient and cohesive. In large teams,
individual members don't see their efforts affect the overall performance
of the team as clearly as members of small teams do. Members of large
teams are more likely to feel inconsequential. On average, members
of small teams put forth more effort than members of large teams.
Managing Team Chemistry
Since team chemistry is
so complicated, it helps to have many members committed to fostering good
team chemistry. Both leaders and nonleaders can help.
Leadership Roles
Developing
credibility. To effectively influence team members,
leaders should have credibility. Credibility is developed in the
following ways:
Nonleadership Roles
Task-facilitating
roles. Leaders are primarily responsible for providing
direction to their teams. However, nonleaders can take the initiative
to assist the leaders' task-related efforts. Nonleaders can perform
task-facilitating roles by �
Photo Credit
REUTERS/Mike Blake: e-mailed
to me from Yahoo! News; news.yahoo.com
Sources
George, J. M, & Jones,
G. R. (1999). Understanding and managing organizational
behavior, (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Robbins, S. P. (2001).
Organizational
behavior, (9th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron,
K. S. (2002). Developing management skills, (5th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
About the Newsletter and Subscriptions
LeaderLetter is written
by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj
Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
It is a supplement to my MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class.
It is intended to reinforce the course concepts and maintain communication
among my former MBA 751 students, but anyone is welcome to subscribe.
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E-mail Your Comments
Whether you are one of my
former students or not, I invite you to share any insights or concerns
you have regarding the topic of this newsletter or any other topic relating
to management skills. Please e-mail
them to me. Our interactions have been invaluable. Let's keep
the conversation going.
Good, Clean
Joke (or, at least a clean one)
The Baltimore Police Department,
famous for its superior K-9 unit, was somewhat taken aback by a recent
incident. Returning home from work, a woman was shocked to find her house
ransacked and burglarized. She telephoned the police at once and reported
the crime. The police dispatcher broadcast the call on the channels, and
a K-9 officer patrolling nearby was first on the scene.
As he approached the house
with his dog on a leash, the woman ran out on the porch, clapped a hand
to her head and moaned, "I come home from work to find all my possessions
stolen, I call the police for help, and what do they do? They send a blind
policeman!"
