Before the financial crisis, we were almost seduced by the idea that the happier we were at work, the better the results we created. You were supposed to be a kind of mental Superman who could choose his own mood at any time, no matter what you’d been through. It was a way of thinking I helped spread, too. Through the financial crisis, though, a paradigm shift has happened — we’ve opened our eyes to the value of community. This isn’t old hippie talk. It’s sound economic sense. We’re going back to old virtues.
Old virtues like ownership, a duty to work and community have come into focus, because today we value creating good results far more. In the end, it’s not about happiness at work or wellbeing. It’s about creating results, because that’s what gives us the best chance of keeping our jobs.
That’s why, over the past year, I’ve had a growing focus on what makes teams succeed, rather than only focusing on what makes the individual succeed. It might sound like two sides of the same coin, but there’s a big difference. You know the saying ‘One bad apple spoils the whole barrel’. Taken to its logical end, it means each individual employee has to choose to be happy. There’s no doubt we can do a lot ourselves — but if we lock a grumpy colleague in the copy room every time, we also make a big mistake by not recognising how much our surroundings shape our mood.
Nobody affects your mood in your free time more than your friends and family. Nobody affects your mood at work more than your colleagues. If you’re part of a good team, you can handle the grumpiest of customers.
Before the financial crisis, we chased happiness at work because we believed it was the source of good results. There’s still a relationship between happiness at work and results — but if your happiness at work affects your results by a factor of 2, your results affect your happiness and wellbeing by a factor of 4. There’s nothing better than being part of a team that succeeds.
In the end, it’s not about happiness at work or wellbeing. It’s about creating results, because that’s what gives us the best chance of keeping our jobs.
That’s why I’m increasingly interested in what makes a team succeed. Because we form teams every time we need to get something done together — and that happens all the time. You’ll always be able to find a small, close team of people who had a hand in it, however individual the achievement might look. Why do athletes have to train in teams? Because, on their own, they can’t push themselves as hard as winning demands.
Most people recognise the need to be able to work in teams. The challenge is that we use the word ‘team’ so often that it loses its meaning for the discipline it takes to succeed together. So when the good intentions have to be put into practice, the chain comes off the cogs. Something as simple as setting goals and reaching them together is incredibly complex. On top of that, what goes for a team at the operating table doesn’t necessarily go for a team of schoolteachers. What suits a management team doesn’t necessarily suit a work team. The literature on teamwork varies in quality, and the research still has plenty of gaps. Inspiration ends up becoming distraction if we don’t build it on a foundation.
Why do athletes have to train in teams? Because, on their own, they can’t push themselves as hard as winning demands.
So in the new year, I’ll be writing a series of articles on the themes of trust, conflict, engagement, ownership and focus on the result — because I find these themes often trip a team up. The articles will be about how you influence yourself, your colleague and your team, so they’re relevant whatever your role on the team.
Are you part of a team?
Not everyone is automatically part of a team, but the odds are good that you are. Broadly speaking, a team is a close-knit group, but not all groups are teams. Here are 8 characteristics of a team (D. Forsyth, 2013):
- Size: Typically 2–9 people. The more there are, the greater the need for coordination.
- Goal: Team members work towards a clearly defined shared goal and depend on each other.
- Structure: Clearly defined roles and norms.
- Unity: Teams have a high degree of belonging.
- Interdependence: The members are closely connected and complement each other’s abilities and skills.
- Interaction: Teams are highly focused in how they work together.
- Need: We naturally form teams when we carry out a task that is important, hard and complicated.
- Types: Management, project, advisory, work and delivery teams.
Source and further information
D. Forsyth, 2013, Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc
