"Teamwork" does not only mean "working together". Teamwork is an entire organizational philosophy, it is a different way of thinking, it is a winning path that companies have discovered in recent years to really make the worker really COMMIT to the company's objectives.
Adopting the true philosophy of teamwork in an organization, and its techniques (which in management are very clear and specific) can attract success to the company in personal and collective performance, boosting productivity by up to 40 percent only in the first year, according to studies.
You can have 10 people, and work with a group, or work with a team. The difference is SYNERGY. If you have 10 people doing the work of 10 people and giving results like 10 people, you have a group. If you have 10 people giving the result of 12, 14 or more people, you have a team.
Synergy means that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." That is, 1 + 1 is equal to 3.
To get to a team, there are four essential requirements. Those requirements are expressed in the following definition widely accepted by experts of what a team is: “It is a group of highly communicative people // with different backgrounds, abilities and aptitudes // with a common purpose // who are working together to achieve clearly identified objectives.
- First requirement: Communication.
Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, says that “for a company to be considered communication-oriented, it does not need to have - necessarily - the latest communication technology: it just requires every manager to ask himself, who needs what information, where and when".
In other words, that everyone is well informed, that the bosses do not "keep information in their back pockets". Also, that the employee has enough confidence and security in the system to say what they don't like, and that managers are willing to listen to their staff and –at least from time to time- put into practice the ideas of they.
- Second requirement: With different aptitudes, abilities and aptitudes.
Not all people are the same. A basic principle of the philosophy of teamwork is that each person on the team contributes to the success and performance of the team according to their own particular ability.
In cave time, men worked as a team, according to anthropologists. If you had good eyes, you were the lookout waiting to catch a glimpse of the prey. If the other had good aim, he was the one who threw the spear. If another had good legs, he was the one chasing the wounded animal; another carried it; another highlighted it. In short, each one contributed according to his own ability. And everyone, alike, shared the results: eating the hunted wild boar.
In a team like this it is exactly how things work. The leader knows each person's differential ability, and drives that ability. Precisely that diversity (not homogeneity) is what makes the team great and strong.
That is why this "Employee of the Month" technique is nonsense, which is totally contrary to the philosophy of teamwork, because it rewards a single variable, and does not reward each employee for their own valuable contribution to the success of the equipment.
- Third: With a common purpose.
This has to do with the organization code. Every organization has a code, made up of organizational mission, vision, values, and expectations. Everyone on the team must know and live that code.
Furthermore, the objective of every good leader should be to achieve a “holographic” team, in which each member of the team reflects the organization, that is, that they have within them the complete code of the organization.
This is achieved through acculturation processes that start from the induction of the new employee, to training programs and continuous reinforcement of the code, by the immediate leadership and the administration.
As a complement to this concept, the mission of organizations is often long, ambiguous and nebulous, and the common employee does not know it, and if it is known or understood. That is why it is very convenient that each team has its own very clear particular mission. Who understands how exactly it contributes to the success of the entire organization.
The mission of an army may be to win the war. But the mission of a unit of 20 men of that army, can be "blow up that bridge" or "recover that hill". That is what we call "common purpose."
- Fourth: With clearly identified objectives.
This is crucial. The goals of each team must be exact, specific, measurable, quantifiable, challenging. The team must know exactly how much is to be achieved. You have to have constant measurement resources.
The leader should be periodically reminding the team of how they are doing, how much they have accomplished, how much they lack. If the objectives are ambiguous and the leader does not keep the "marker", unfortunately the team's work will be diminished, exactly where it counts: in producing and winning.
- Teamwork is not easy to implement in organizations.
In the western world we have been taught to compete against each other. Even incentive systems are based on competition within the same team, when in fact what we are dealing with is that we all “work together”.
From school the boy is competing against his partner for the exam grade. How much did you get Research has shown beyond doubt that to achieve higher productivity, not only is competition not required, but rather the absence of competition.
People need to be taught to trust each other and to enjoy the team's collective success, not the bright, own light of "my star." People who start to adopt habits tending to the philosophy of teamwork must be reinforced (rewarded). And it is necessary to mount a serious situational training in what teamwork is concerned.
- To be successful in teamwork, you have to start from the beginning: that is, training recruiters to recruit and select human resources that tend towards collective, gregarious thinking. The "solitary llaneros" do not help philosophy. The first effort in the conceptual rethinking of this work philosophy must necessarily start from the head.
Senior and middle managers must become convinced, visible and committed promoters of the new philosophy. If not, on the plain the philosophy will not permeate, it will not be credible, but it will be considered by the staff only as "one more passing fad".
DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
- In the traditional management model, possibly more biased towards the autocratic, the boss is the one who always makes the decisions; this trend may be the product of a culture learned from the same system within which he works (the company) or may even reflect self-distrust He fears that if someone else proposes good ideas, his own position as boss could be “at risk.” But generally it is more about a culture, a style of administration. The autocratic boss is used to making decisions, he believes that he is paid for that, he does not fully trust the criteria of others, and then he says "do it as I say, I am the boss, I know more than you, you only abide by my instructions. ”But that type of autocratic boss does not realize that acting in this way is diminishing his efficiency as administrator,because his productivity is decreasing. The only way to make a person really commit to a project, to a goal, to an action, is for him to feel that it is a decision he himself made. When I come to a conclusion, when I feel that I had the opportunity to analyze options, I commit myself "with my own decision". Then it is easier to carry out the implementation of the project or idea. There are several levels of decision making. There is the "autocratic or individual" level, in which the boss is the one who makes the decision without consultation. There is the consultative level, in which the boss asks for criteria and then he makes the decision based on his own criteria but taking into account that of others. And there is the level of group decision, which is totally democratic,when the boss makes the group decide (almost to vote) and whatever the group decides is done. This last level does not enjoy a very good image among the administration experts. It's called “committee management.” A good boss actually uses a mix of styles. He can make autocratic decisions, not consultative, when the short time so warrants, or when the decision will not directly affect the team, or when it is necessary for strategic or confidential reasons.or when it is necessary for strategic or confidential reasons.or when it is necessary for strategic or confidential reasons.
The team will not resent the boss making autocratic decisions, as long as the boss consults them when it comes to any decision that will affect the interests or well-being of the team.
- Another area of broad-spectrum decision making is that sometimes staff will propose actions or make decisions that will not necessarily make staff very happy.
But the boss must understand that if he consults his team, but never implements the team's recommendations or approves the team's decisions, the team will eventually end up not believing the consulting philosophy. The moral is that if you consult the group, at least once in a while you should do what the team suggests, even if you don't "love" the idea.
- The issue of decisions touches on that of "delegation". Many bosses are "microadministrators": they get into everything. They are too much in the daily chore. They are afraid to let go of the operative. So they don't delegate.
Modern organizations know that many of the best ideas do not come from the boss, but from the staff in charge of that boss. So they encourage the boss to delegate and to boost creativity and innovation.
- Many bosses continually create "intellectually handicapped" among their subordinates, because they, the bosses, decide everything and they solve everything. So the employee gets used to going to his boss every time he has a problem. "Boss, I have a problem," they tell him. And the boss solves the problem for them, tells them what to do.
These types of headquarters do not give the employee the opportunity to “release his brain”, waste the valuable neural resources of the subordinate, and end up working with “handicapped intellectuals” who only act at an operational and not decisive level.
- In order to promote the philosophy of “making broad-spectrum decisions”, organizations have many techniques, including the famous “task-forces” of employees who focus on analyzing a particular problem and seeking solutions, and others as quality circles, Idea production programs (such as TUI: I Have An Idea) and flattening of hierarchical structures so that everyone is closer to the organizational heads. those that have to be opened so that the staff can “get used to” participating seriously and responsibly in the organization's decision-making process.
THE DEPARTMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATION
AS AN ADVISOR
- Concept of "staff". It presupposes the status of "experts" in a field of human knowledge, who provide their services at the level of "advisers" to facilitate decision-making at a higher level. The Department of Institutional Communication is a typical example of a unit whose mission in organizations is image management and projection. Elsewhere it might be called by other names, such as "Public Relations," but deep down, given its functions, it clearly falls into the typical role currently known around the world. It generally falls directly under the higher hierarchy of the organization, given the strategic significance attributed to them and which, in good theory, they have won.This condition of direct dependence on the primary source of power in organizations usually brings them some friction and misunderstanding with other high hierarchical dependencies, because although they generally do not have line authority towards those other dependencies, their influence towards the source of Power can drive policies, actions and decisions that make them be perceived as "on the line" towards them. The theoretical basis for deciding whether or not a communications or public relations unit should be placed on the "ADVISORS" level of the superiority, is the experience that their functions have, as well as the trajectory, level of success in that trajectory and total sphere of influence perceived. In theory it is accepted that in the field of organization marketing (in all fields: commercial, institutional, social,political) "perception is as or more important than reality." A good communications department, with the appropriate level of “empowerment” and the minimum resources necessary for its development, is capable of influencing and directing this “perception” among the different market segments that the organization reaches. The above should be Evidence and strong reason to consider that in an organization with the size, significance and projection of the INS, it needs to strengthen the position of the Department of Institutional Communication, and consolidate it as a strategic unit of crucial interest to the Institution.It is capable of influencing and directing this "perception" among the different market segments that the organization reaches. The foregoing should be proof and a valid reason to consider that in an organization with the size, significance and projection of the INS, it needs strengthen the position of the Department of Institutional Communication, and consolidate it as a strategic unit of crucial interest to the Institution.It is capable of influencing and directing this "perception" among the different market segments that the organization reaches. The foregoing should be proof and a valid reason to consider that in an organization with the size, significance and projection of the INS, it needs strengthen the position of the Department of Institutional Communication, and consolidate it as a strategic unit of crucial interest to the Institution.
Olman Martínez is President of the Universidad de las Ventas, an organization oriented exclusively to the training and development of Sales Managers and Professional Sellers. Visit the U-Sales Website or send an email to Olman Martínez at: [email protected]
TITLE: "KEY NOTES ABOUT TEAMWORK AND DECISION MAKING"
Contributed by: Olman Martínez, President, Universidad de las Ventas www.uventas.com [email protected]
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