Optimizing Teams for Engagement

Part 4 of a mini-series on employee engagement.

1. The Case For Engagement
2. Hiring for Engagement
3. Developing Engaged Players
4. Optimizing Teams For Engagement

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As I offered up in ‘The Case for Engagement’ optimizing our relationships is the knowledge economy’s equivalent of the post-industrial revolution’s time-motion studies.  If we expect to continue to grow our businesses we need to do more with less and do it better.

photo by tobyadamson.co.uk

The system we’ve set up has created micro-niche specialization.  The consequence is that we’ve all become dependencies for others.  In order for our system to operate smoothly we all have to communicate and do our part like never before.  Therefore, to do more and better we require not just engaged employees but engaged teams.

I’ve just started exploring this concept so please disagree or add your thoughts in the comments.

For my money, the starting points to engage a team are:

1. Know the connectors on your team.  When on-boarding new team member’s hook them up with a connector.  Create a buddy system where the connector realizes the value of her strength and the new employee gets to meet the team and learn how to navigate the system.  By accident, I was fortunate to have the greatest connector I’ve ever met as a peer at Yahoo! who did just this.  My first three months were vastly more productive than learning the ropes cold and having the super connector as a wingman instantly bought me credibility with the external groups.
2. Ask everyone on the team to identify the strengths of the others (both functional skill sets and interpersonal dynamics).  While there isn’t yet agreement on how to build hot teams you can begin creating teams that compliment one another.  Not just in terms of functional role, but also in terms of the role they play within the team.  Some will be natural sales people, others will be problem-solvers, etc.  But you’ll be able to avoid pairing people up who can’t use their full skill set because it is duplicated or overridden by another.
3. Communicate early, often and universally.  This one is obvious, but not done often enough.  Making sure everyone knows the same information prevents disagreements caused by information asymmetry.  Doing so provides the added benefit of creating norms within the group that selflessness rules and information is not a commodity to be hoarded.
4. Cede responsibility. Everyone needs to know the destination but there are always different routes to get there.  Give the team the authority to choose the route so they can optimize their strengths.
5. Reward selflessness. Overcome your urge to listen to and praise the loud voice or the all-to-confident contributor.  Look a layer deeper to see who is clearing the way for the rest of the team to do their piece better.

This is just a start.  I hope to return to this topic again soon.  I’m convinced we need to pay more attention to optimizing our human relationships.  The company’s who get this will have a significant advantage to those who continue to treat their employees like cogs in the wheel.

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