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This is one article from the issue of August, 2002.
For other stories and articles, go to the Current Issue.
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Productivity |
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Too Much Teamwork?
Is Excessive Collaborative Possible?
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Can you engage in too much collaboration?
Sure. You can spend so much time on
collaboration and building relationships that you fail to get the job done. Remember why you're in business, what you've been chartered to execute (see
"Why Are We Here?",  , June, 2002). But, the biggest risk is when the team's initial efforts at improving collaboration are seen as distracting from the job to be done.
Identifying Over-Collaboration
When a team is spending more time on how they work than on getting the work they're assigned done, then they're over-collaborating. A general rule-of-thumb you can apply is that the governance of a process should consume no more than 5-6% of available resources. So, if your team's spending 95% of their time on getting the assigned job done, you're well in the safety zone.
Occasionally, however, you'll have to spend more: Adding a new member to the team, dealing with a team crisis or adopting new technology. If these take people away from their assigned tasks for 10-15% of their day, for a few days at most, that's probably reasonable.
And, initially, while a team is developing essential rapport (e.g., going through Norming, as described in "The Insider" in this month's issue), you can expect to spend 25-50% of your time for as much as a couple of weeks.
Beyond those limits, you're probably investing too much time preparing, and not enough time doing.
Real Over-Collaboration
Some jobs don't lend themselves to collaboration across distance. It's difficult to imagine how to build a collaborative team of retail clerks across stores in several states. Building some way to get these employees together to develop "teamwork" probably has little value to the business.
"Team building" junkets, where entire teams travel to some recreational venue for thinly disguised fun are another waste of time. There's virtually no evidence that a "ropes course" will build teams. If you want to reward people, send them for the entertainment, but don't call it "team building."
In the same vein, spending lots of time in the safe area of "building a better team," can distract attention from the riskier business of making sales, or building product, or satisfying customers. It can be overdone.
Illusory Over-Collaboration
Collaboration is a way to share the power and authority across a group; some people (especially people used to being "in charge") may see that as a threat to their personal power and authority. Clutching any straw, they may label the very act of collaboration across space and time as a source of imagined ills of the organization. Many old-guard managers who still equate a paternalistic "Daddy knows best" with success as a manager will attribute any failures to collaboration, to people working outside the office environment.
Mastering new skills takes time. During learning, there will be times when you don't know whether to do it the "old" way or the "new" way, and that results in confusion. Be sure to separate the learning phase from the production phase, and set management's expectations accordingly.
You can also beneficially pick your time: A crisis is seldom a good time to initiate new team methods and models, but because any failure will be attributed to the "new" way. If you're in a seasonal business, lay the groundwork during the cyclical slump, and reinforce it while you ramp back up. As a result, you'll have maximized your probability of success at the peak, where it's needed. If there are other changes underway, see how you can leverage that momentum toward your team's advantage.
Success Strategies
| Listen — when people express concern about productivity, or focus,
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| Assess — take a cold, hard look at the situation, and
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| Amend — revise your plans based on the assessment you reach.
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Listen
Your boss and other senior executives are justifiably concerned with productivity. Their concerns may be valid...or an expression of their fears about changes they don't understand. Some managers, weaned on "command-and-control" thinking, distrust many of the new ways people expect to be led, so some of their objections may be personal biases you need to address.
Your own team may become frustrated with all the focus on these "soft issues" when there's work to be done. Hear their concerns. They want to be productive; if your collaboration efforts aren't making them more productive, they'll know it.
Assess
If your near-term efforts at developing a collaborative culture are temporarily depressing productivity, you have to decide whether to continue, stop or defer. When you see results right over the horizon, you may have to continue on the path you're on; if the resistance has been too intense, maybe you need to revisit how you're going about the effort.
Sometimes, just a short delay is all it takes to give yourself some "breathing room," while you restore productivity, then address the collaborative skills anew at a later time when it's more appropriate. Paradoxically, slowing down the pace may actually improve the quality of the ultimate result.
Amend
Survival must always be your first objective. You can only help your colleagues, team and peers grow and improve if you're still on the job. Amend your plan of action, to improve the methods you're using, or to introduce some change in focus to meet other important business objectives, too.
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