What team conditions? Unity and diversity
When analysing the team conditions, I would suggest trying to understand and measure three elements: diversity, unity and relationships.
- Team Diversity
Diversity refers to competences, attitudes (i.e. profiles and preferences), roles, cultures etc.
Team diversity is an enabler. It provides the conditions for each team player to add some value. It provides the ability to co-innovate, to co-create something new together. Something which cannot be attributed to one particular member of the team because everybody had the chance to contribute. Each of us has some attitudes and may fail to encompass the full variety of human behaviour. Team diversity may allow us to see opportunities and risks from various perspectives. To have a vision and to be able to implement it. To be capable of understanding the consequences of team decisions in personal but also in objective terms.
In terms of attitudes and preferences, it is worth considering psychometrics techniques such as the Myers and Briggs Type indicators, DISC or the Transactional analysis by Eric Berne.
- Team Unity
The main elements affecting Team Unity are: 1) institutional and governance aspects, 2) the sharing of a team charter and 3) the team competences of the team leader.
1. Institutional and governance. In simplistic terms, in an organization, a group could be classified based on the following forms, from the less formal to more formal: informal group, committee, project task force, team.
I do not want to draw your attention to the names but rather to the different level of institutional unity which each of the categories offers. It is often a matter of governance. When the mandate of the team is clearly defined, without time limitations, the level of team unity is higher. The same applies when the objectives and part of the performance are team-related. Regrettably, my experience shows that it is seldom that HR or senior management decides to adopt incentives to team performances rather than individual ones.
2. The sharing of a team Charter. The existence of a team Charter (values, vision and mission) is already something but it is definitely not enough. It must be shared by team members and the difficulty is in the term nd part of the performance are team-related. Regrettably, my experience showals and having them assessed (and possibly remunerated!) as joint achievements. Remuneration is a particularly difficult exercise because there are potentially moral hazard issues, for instance when the team is malfunctioning and members are not collaborating. An act of balancing is often required to pursue gender balance or multicultural equilibrium. Unity implies sharing a common mission and vision, as well as sharing the same goals. A high level of unity provides the pre-conditions for the motivation, the engagement to properly use the ability to co-innovate and co-create something new together.
3. Team competences of the Team leader. Team unity is also highly dependent on the Team Competences of the Team leader. These are interpersonal and intrapersonal competences. Examples of interpersonal competences are empathy, ability to lead, conflict management etc. As for intrapersonal competences, one could cite: self-awareness, discipline, resilience, adaptability etc.