Team Development

Overview

Developing the Top Management Team

The strongest driving force for top organizational performance is the executive team.

This series of documents focuses on Executive Team Development and provides a set of proven concepts and development methodologies useful to any organization that is trying to improve the performance of their executive team.

We are providing a compilation of proven ideas and concepts used by Work Systems Associates based on our experience in working with hundreds of organizations over many years. These ideas have been honed over decades of consulting and are pragmatic and powerful for improving organizational performance.

We believe the opportunity for improving organizational performance through these methodologies is substantial for all organizations where there is a team of individuals charged with running the company on a day-to-day basis.

 

  

Effective Teamwork is Needed to Drive Complex Change
Overview


Section One:
Executive Teamwork - Why it is Needed

The first section focuses on why a Team approach is not natural for a top team. This may be counter intuitive today when the word “team” is used indiscriminately in business circles. In our experience it is in fact not the case. They are often a team in name only and subject to all of the petty power struggles that often negatively impact overall company performance. Often the senior members are assumed to be team players and offer “pseudo” team behaviours that are surface deep. We have spent much time dealing with these issues and significant effort explaining their existence and showing the dangers of this behaviour when left unchecked. The change can only begin when the senior executive team realize why it is so important. This document describes the why behind executive teams.
more. . .

Section Two:
The Executive Team and Its Leadership Role

Leadership is achieved through excelling in three disciplines:

  • Vision Casting - Where are we trying to go
  • Alignment - Getting energy focused on the vision
  • Deployment - Making sure success is achieved in the tasks needed to accomplish the vision

This section drills down into the sub-components of leadership and shows how Top Teamwork development needs to be tied to these key issues that drive improved organizational performance in today's competitive environment.
more. . .

Section Three
Issues Addressed in Developing the Top Team

This section explores core concepts on how to go about developing a senior team. It makes the case for a top team and explores the differences between a traditional and team approach. It reviews the stages of team development and how to build the foundations on which good team work is built.

The final few pages are devoted to some easy to use tools that enable ongoing measurement of team performance and some diagnostics that help leaders understand what may need adjusting to create a smooth running team. We know this process works! We have been privileged to have a ringside seat many times as the new CEO has asked us to help in developing his/her direct reports into an effective team. This is not a simple process and it takes persistence and energy to develop a team. This is borne out in the sporting world where teams practice for many hours before taking to the field for the actual game; where the difference between a team that clicks and one that doesn’t is profound. The dividends are more harmony and trust and perhaps most important an example is set for other teams throughout the company.
more. . .

Section Four
The Chartering Process for Top Management Teams

The final section deals with the process of chartering. The word derives from the old French word for paper on which in times past agreements were written. Existing teams can use this process to bring clarity to changes they have made. Today it is used as a term to describe the company’s direction and how the resources would be deployed to achieve the business goals that have been set. This section is also practical and lays out the six steps we have learned through experience to be essential to develop a sustainable charter that will ensure the team has clarity on all aspects of the work they plan to achieve together.
more. . .

Summary

The WSA approach to large scale organizational change management is based on the effective development of the Top Management Team. For further discussion on how these process could address issues in your organization contact us.

We wish you well on your journey.

NEXT: Section One: Executive Teamwork - Why it is Needed