the trouble with teams

So everyone is talking about teams: Teams for this and teams for that. But not all teams are successful in achieving their task and what happens when team members feel that they have failed? Often the team disbands before success is achieved and they usually have difficulty in putting their heart and soul into another project. This does not lead to a culture of sustainable and continuous Business Improvement. If we were to brainstorm all the reasons for teams failing we would end up with a list that looked a bit like this: -

*No clear direction. * Working on the wrong things.*Too many people on the team. *The wrong people on the team. *Not enough understanding of the aims of the team. *Insufficient training in meeting techniques. *No uniformed approach to problem solving. *No senior management support. *No measures of success.

If we accept that the reasons for failure are the very things we must address to ensure success, then we can see that management has a responsibility to correctly sponsor the teams at the start of their work. The effort we put in to "chartering" the team will almost always be worth it in the end. However, the rush to "get the job done" means we often overlook the fundamentals.

The Kingswood Partnership has a clear and proven model for setting up teams. Applying this model significantly increases the chances of success. For further information please contact us and we will be delighted to discuss this further.
David Peers
Managing Partner