Case Study 1

Global Project Team: Improving Team Efficiency, Quality and Performance

PROBLEM

We were contacted when the team leader of a global cross-functional project team, whose complex project was deemed critical to the future success of his company, received a surprising call from senior management telling him that the quality and efficiency of his team’s work was not meeting expectations.

Our first action was to interview the team and its key stakeholders. Below is a sample of what we learned — organized by the three big factors we use to assess a team’s strengths and weaknesses:

Leadership:

• Clear direction was needed and the leader was not comfortable leading a virtual team.
• The team was not kept informed of changes being requested by senior management.

What We Do:

• Changes made by senior management continually affected the team’s ability to plan and align their goals and objectives.
• Accountabilities were not clearly documented and there was little clarity about who needed to be involved in critical decisions.
• There were blurred lines between the role of the team leader and the project manager.
• Regional and functional silos existed.

How We Work Together:

• Team decisions took too long and were being rehashed over and over again.
• Too many decisions were being brought to the full team (as opposed to sub-teams).
• Relationships between team members from the US and the EU were strained and members did not feel safe enough to express their true opinions.
• Member style and communication differences created frustration.
• Team members did not keep all stakeholders (up, lateral and down) updated.
• The team did not view it as their job to manage stakeholder communications.

We conducted three and six-month follow-up reviews, which showed significant team improvements. In the end, the team’s milestones were met on time and within budget. Moreover, project quality expectations were surpassed.

Case Study 2

Global Leadership Team: Enhancing Team Collaboration and Innovation

PROBLEM

The Sr. Vice President of a global chemical company contacted us because he recognized that, although his business was facing an unprecedented growth opportunity, his leadership team lacked the collaboration, teamwork, and trust to take advantage of the opportunity. Our discussions with him and others revealed that the innovative thinking necessary to meet this challenge required working across business lines to seek new solutions. Effective collaboration was critical and needed to occur quickly.

We worked with this team over a six-month period of time. Initially, we conducted in-depth interviews with all members of the team to identify the core reasons why team members and others were not collaborating. We also administered our Accelerating Team and Stakeholder diagnostic surveys. These data were shared initially with the team leader and subsequently with the team in an off-site team development meeting designed to discuss and identify actions for improvement.

This meeting resulted in the development of five team improvement projects. Below is a summary of the outcomes of these projects organized by the big three factors we use to assess a team’s strengths and weaknesses:

Leadership

• Our survey of senior leaders revealed a gap between this team and it’s senior leaders. The team’s leader needed to build stronger relationships with the senior leaders of the company and with other key stakeholders.

What We Do

• The team developed a review process that enabled members to surface, discuss and prioritize strategic issues and also develop specific plans and timelines to address them.
• The team fine-tuned its global and regional member roles and responsibilities.
• They developed standard processes for improving meeting efficiency and effectiveness, and for improving its operational and strategic decision-making.

How We Work Together

• The team increased alignment and collaboration by implementing a more transparent planning process that increased understanding of each member’s yearly performance targets and the support they needed from each other to achieve them.
• The team implemented a new process that increased stakeholder alignment… including senior management.

Three, six, and twelve-month follow-ups showed increased collaboration among team members and the implementation of innovative initiatives that increased its strategic growth.

Case Study 3

Developing the Team Leadership Skills of “High Potential” Leaders

Every year the organizational development unit of this global company designed and delivered a leadership-training program for leaders nominated as “high-potential” employees who could fill high-level leadership roles in the future. The program was considered successful in all areas (for example, improved interpersonal skills and leadership competencies) except one. There was clear evidence that participants were not learning how to build effective teams. We were asked to assess and re-design the team leadership module for their program.

We started by interviewing stakeholders to determine what participants most needed to learn. The feedback led us to design a more hands on experiential team leadership module through the use of our Team Emotional Intelligence Model. We developed these learning objectives: (1) Deepen knowledge about the expectations, norms and processes used by successful team leaders, (2) provide an opportunity to apply this learning in participants’ home teams, and (3) six months later, assess the effectiveness of their teams to provide feedback useful for future goal development. Our Module was designed as follows:

TEAM LEADERSHIP TRAINING MODULE

1. Prior to the Module each participant selected a “home” team in their department or functional area that they focused on developing. Members of these teams were asked to complete the on-line Team Emotional Intelligence Survey (Team EI Survey).
2. We scheduled a coaching session with each participant to discuss his or her team’s survey results and the challenges and opportunities the survey highlighted. We also began brainstorming actions the leader could take to develop their team.
3. Information obtained during the coaching sessions was used to develop a highly interactive, one-day training module that was targeted to the needs of the participant’s teams (as learned through the survey). The module used participants’ own Team EI Feedback Report to deepen understanding of the leadership actions and strategies that would help develop their teams into high functioning teams. The day included large and small group discussion, skill building practice, and mini-video case studies. Participants walked away from the day with a clear action plan for developing their teams.

RESULTS

Six months after completing the Team Leadership Training Module, the members of the participants’ teams completed a second iteration of the Team EI Survey. Results showed statistically significant improvements in five (of nine) areas of team functioning assessed. Improvements included:

• Improved meeting management.
• Team members more often addressed (rather than ignored) counterproductive behavior in their team.
• More frequent discussions of their team’s functioning and more frequent changes made to improve processes and performance.
• More frequent open discussions of critical issues and tensions in the team.
• Better understanding of stakeholder needs and wants.
• Better relationships with stakeholders.