You’ve probably noticed. Teams don’t bond overnight. Some take longer than others.

Have you ever thought about why that was the case?

It’s important that you do because it will make you more cautious about simply throwing people together and then telling them to get on with it.

What’s in it for me?

We live in a society that continually asks the question, “What’s in it for me?”. If you don’t have an answer for this that’s good in their eyes, then you won’t get the cooperation that you expect.

At the very least, it will take a lot longer for any group to unify as a team than it would have otherwise. That’s because instead of looking for ways to work together, they’ll be searching for what they can get out of their membership of the group.

That’s key because while all teams are groups; but not all groups are teams.

What does this have to do with preparation for teamwork?

Everything.

If those in a group aren’t determined to work together, then they never will. Instead they’ll devote their time and energy proving to you how much they can accomplish without the help of anyone else.

So in order to prepare a group to work as a team, you have to provide one or more bona fide reasons for them to do so.

Team evaluation

Perhaps the most effective way to do this is to make it clear from the outset that the team will be evaluated as one; that is, that any efforts made by individuals to prove that they don’t need the others will be penalized rather than rewarded.

This is easier said than done.

Managers, not to mention team members, are not used to being evaluated like this. They expect there to be something of a contradiction in terms. That is, they expect to be called a team, but also to be rewarded for their exemplary individual results.

Why is that?

It’s because they believe that some team members will do more than others and that consequently those who do should obtain a greater reward; but that flies in the face of what it means to be a team.

You really can’t have it both ways.

What this means is that you have to treat teams according to the behaviour that you want to get; not according to what they expect will work.

What happens when you add a new team member?

If truth be told, it’s best if you don’t. That’s why preparation is so important. You need to identify the people that you want on the team at the outset, put them together, and then let them bond with each other.

When you add another person, no matter how qualified, affable, or even well-known that person is, it will change the dynamics of the team.

Roles aren’t the only thing that will change. The psychological dimension will also change. To a certain extent, team members will all regress back to the day that they first began to work together. Relationships will change, too, and so will expectations.

Let’s think about an example that has nothing to do with teams, but which illustrates this principle perfectly.

Imagine that you and your extended family goes on a picnic. All of the children are sitting around one table outside. (We’ll pretend that it’s a nice day.)

It’s a little crowded, but everyone manages to find room to sit. They’ve all known one another for years and so they want to eat together.

Just as they get ready to tuck into their sausages, a mutual friend shows up. Let’s call her Jane so we can avoid all of the he / she, him / her awkwardness.

Jane is well known to all of them and has also grown up with these kids. She has lived in the same neighbourhood as the other children and attended the same schools. An innocent bystander would assume that she, too, was a member of this large family.

As it happens, Jane was visiting the same park and saw everyone when they arrived. She was invited over to join the picnic. The question is, where will she sit?

Some adjustments will have to be made; but no matter where she sits she will be between two people who until then were sitting side-by-side. It doesn’t matter if a conversation had begun or not. What does matter is that there has been an intrusion. The rhythm of the party was broken, and now Jane is part of a group that a moment before didn’t include her.

That’s what it feels like when you add a new member.

It’s also why the team as a whole has to back up psychologically. It’s so that they can re-learn how to accommodate this person in their group.

What happens to the team member?

Now that you understand what happens to the team when a new member is added, you need to think about what happens to the individual.

Think back to when you were growing up. What was it like when you changed schools? Some kids moved a lot because they had parents whose jobs took them everywhere. Others only changed when they completed their GCSEs or went to university.

In any new setting, the new person will look for a place to be accepted and failing that, a way to fit in if wholehearted acceptance isn’t possible.

When someone is suddenly put on a team – one that has been functioning as a unit, even for a short time – that person goes through a process where he / she tries to be accepted; to be made to feel like one of them. This is true of all of us.

Some are welcomed quickly and their ideas are embraced. Others struggle for a while before they finally figure it out. Some actually change their views in order to be accepted and still others never feel that their peers appreciate them for who they are.

Team performance

How does this affect team performance?

In the early days especially, ideas that might help the team could be withheld because the individual concerned may feel that to contribute anything would jeopardize his / her acceptance with the group.

Think about an experience that you’ve had recently or in the distant past with a supervisor. How many times did you have to have your ideas shot down before you didn’t bother to speak up? Once? Twice? In a team, a new member may never offer an idea simply on the basis of observing what happens when someone else does and who has been there longer than he / she has. To offer an idea that’s unacceptable would risk unpopularity, the antithesis of what the new member wants to achieve.

Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said that “It’s better to have people think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”. New team members want to make a favourable impression, and it’s unlikely that they will take any chances by saying something that could prevent that.

The key to team performance lies in the shared value that all members feel about one another.

When each person respects the opinions of others and trusts their judgement, then members feel that they are able to let down their guard. That’s because they no longer have to prove their worth. They know that the team needs them and wants them to be there.

It is in such an environment that the most creative solutions can be found.

Preparation for teamwork

You can see that every team goes through a kind of incubation period and that the introduction of a new member disrupts that.

No matter how much you want to add another person to an existing team, even one that hasn’t been together for very long, you must resist the temptation. If you’re desperate to use that person in that capacity, then create another team; but don’t force that person to sit around the same virtual picnic table.

Even if the fit seems natural, the team will never be the same if you do.

If you want to improve your team and their performance – contact me here