Different goals require different team Leadership & Team Work
Routine teamwork may need to get accomplished quickly
Innovative or complex teamwork may require learning & risk that creates variations from everyday work routines.
The chart below serves to think about teamwork, team leadership & membership in various contexts of the goal. One is not better than the other.
How you approach the teamwork depends upon several factors.
- The expected time for the goal to be completed.
- Knowledge of the work & having team members who have been a part of the creation or improvement of the process/goal.
- Whether the goal has ever been accomplished before
- The number of steps & possible integration of systems, pieces, parts, people.
- Use of internal or external stakeholders, customers, process owners, etc.
- Pressure to complete the goal.
- Ability to acquire information about progress/regress.
Team-Learning View
- Teamwork happens in mainly unknown, little known or rapidly changing complex environments. The team must continually learn what’s working to increase + what’s not working to decrease.
- This may be frustrating for the team leader & members, plus management who wants to see results. Using the Team-Learning view may be most useful in gaining an understanding of the work.
Team-Results View
- Teamwork happens in known or stable environments. The team can get together & rapidly define their purpose, who is on the team + their roles, set goals, then implement the work.
- This does not guarantee a quick-fix & the team leader can reasonably control all the variables. Using the Team-Results view may be most useful in getting the work done, without dragging the team into continued work.
Team goal & whether a learning or results based leadership approach is best
View of the work |
Team-Learning View |
Team-Results View |
Team leader’s perspective of their role. |
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Team leader’s view of team members. |
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View of the work to get done & the goal of the team. |
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Team Development by Mike Cardus
Team development happens when people learn together. Learning is a differentiator. The organization with learning teams may be able to understand, learn, apply, re-learn and make rapid changes that competitors cannot understand.