What factors are really necessary for teams to work effectively? Unfortunately a great deal of nonsense is talked about this. Articles about teamwork are ten a penny but reading them one is bound to ask if the authors have ever really been involved in a team seeking to meet major challenges.

The major error is to over-elevate the importance of secondary factors for team success that may possess a warm aura but are not key to driving achievement – namely good communication, shared mindset, patience, delegation, conflict management, mutual respect, trust. To be sure, all of these factors can be important but they are not primary drivers for success.

The performance of the team leader is the single most important determinant of team success. A team cannot succeed without good leadership. The most important attributes of team leaders are:

▪ drive and a focus on operational priorities

▪ the ability to set roles for the team and assign team members to them

▪ the ability to maintain effective working relationships across the team

▪ the ability to sustain a positive team culture.

The key set of knowledge and skills that underlie these attributes are:

* understanding the real-world priorities of the team

* communicating the need for hard work, good organisation and professional habits

*monitoring performance and instigating any necessary corrective actions

* understanding people, their capabilities and their potential capabilities

* assigning individuals to roles and modifying roles if necessary

* making new appointments to roles when necessary

* treating individuals fairly

* diffusing tensions and dealing with incidents

* putting in place social actions in support of good relationships

* providing a personal example of professionalism, hard work and courtesy

* possessing a genuine desire to communicate openly with team members

Apart from the abilities of the team leader, the most critical determinant for team success is the design of the team roles and the choice of individuals to occupy them. Real World Management have derived a method of team development based on roles and relationships termed R² Team Development because of the reciprocal relationship between roles and relationships and the multiplicative benefits from their positive interplay. It is essential that roles that directly fit all the main functionalities of the team are put in place. Mapping the service delivery process – the activities and interfaces – assists this process. A set of roles that provide full coverage of functionalities avoids uncertainties about responsibilities and is a basis for good relationships. A team leader often has the opportunity to redefine roles in relation to job workflows. Whilst considerable variation exists, the following stages may be present in the delivery process: acceptance of job – signing in of job – allocation of job – devising a work plan –delivering on the plan – reporting the work – maintaining job records.

Specific roles – possibly completely new and unique as a result of the particular circumstances of the team – can be designed around any of these stages of the work or combinations of them. It is an opportunity for creative thinking. Team roles can sometimes be low effort, big reward – their positive impact can be greater than the apparent plainness of the duties might suggest. A significant issue is the extent to which routine tasks common to many staff are combined into a separate role. Team leaders need to take the initiative: some team members may not appreciate role opportunities. In making changes, small pointers in the performance of team members may be significant such as the particular ways that they organise work, the issues that they comment on and what disappoints them when it is not achieved. In the longer term, role changes may be driven by changes to the service delivery process, staff losses, performance and relationship issues or simply by a need to refresh a team and provide new impetus.

The main reasons team fail are:

▪ the team leader does not possess the necessary mindset and skills

▪ roles are not set correctly, and the wrong people are appointed to them

▪ the culture is poor, leading to poor relationships and a loss of focus

▪ bad luck in the nature of targets, the availability of team member skills or the skills and attitudes of more senior management

To end on a happier note, the reasons teams succeed are the opposite of this. The ultimate team compliment is reached when observers remark ‘your team runs itself’. It does not; it only appears to do so because it has good leadership, well designed roles, well chosen role appointments, well crafted processes and a positive culture – a major leadership achievement.

Read more about effective teams and the R² Method of Team Development in the book Targets and Terror, England’s Public Services Management Revolution by William Barclay. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targets-Terror-Englands-Management-Revolution/dp/1916035388