Outlining the critical dimensions of
Team Effectiveness Review, Anna Young, a consultant at Egon Zehnder International, Melbourne, reports on the practical challenges of dealing with team dynamics. Although the six dimensions of a team's effectiveness (alignment, resilience, energy, openness, efficiency and balance) are largely undisputed, "achieving a high level of competence across these dimensions is surprisingly hard to do. For many of the organisations I have worked with there can be 'elephants in the room' - distracting mindsets and behaviours that frustrate individual efforts and sap the energy of the team. In some cases, these issues negate the effectiveness of extremely high-calibre individuals. Collectively they become much less than the sum of the parts," Young writes in an article for the
CEO Forum Group.
In her experience, a "first step is to have a common language for team dynamics, and an understanding of what good looks like. Then there needs to be a rigorous process for surfacing where the gaps are for the team, in a way that gets to the issues but where team members feel safe to voice their views." Certain measures can be agreed on to move a team forward in the face of a special challenge like a turnaround situation.
Young concludes that investment in teams "should be seen as 'mission critical' and not an exercise to be reserved for when things improve. Indeed, it is exactly at these times that executive team effectiveness needs to be 'turbocharged' to help leaders rise to the immediate challenge and to lay the foundation for the future, leveraging the power of the group."
