Years ago I worked for a South African consulting company. In my first year I brought in just short of R1million, representing a greater than 100% return on their investment in me. I also built a team, with the help of the area manager, of cracker-jack facilitators. After I left to start my own business, I used to tell people that, but for a very small outlay on their part, I would still be working for this company, with great joy. And I still think this is true. I really enjoy the way I work now and have never looked back, but my stepping out was facilitated to a large degree by the organisational context within which I found myself.
In his five condition model, J Richard Hackman, author of Leading Teams, highlights the need for a Supportive Organisational Context focussing on three key systems:
The information system
Providing trustworthy, up-to-date data to members of teams, accessible how, when and where they need it.
The reward system
Leaders of effective teams provide recognition and reinforcement based on excellent team performance. The team is rewarded, not individuals. JRH comments on the research on kids and coloured pens and points out that extrinsic rewards are not necessarily de-motivating. And he points out that leaders should establish what the team would view as rewards.
The educational system
Leaders provide training and technical assistance for any aspects of the work where teams are not sufficiently knowledgeable or skilled. Again, training can have a positive effect on team skills if it is given to the team, as a team.
So how did it work in the consulting company in question?
The information systems in the company worked. Our monthly accounting figures were presented on time, in a format for monthly feedback sessions. We also had a system for collecting client feedback on work conducted.
But their rewards system focussed on creating internal competition between individuals. And as Steven Covey points out, when one person wins all, all the rest lose. So, at the end of the first year, while one person flew off to a conference in the USA, others had a trip to a game reserve, and the rest stayed at home. Designing rewards systems is not trivial. Especially in organisations where individuals are rewarded rather than teams. I am working with a client who has set a major team target for later in the year and designing the team rewards is taking a great deal of creativity. As JRH points out, eventually teams will figure out that they are bringing in a vast ROI and will start asking why more of this does not come to them.
They had a strong focus on education. Staff went through all of the company’s courses. I took part in a leadership development programme. However, specialised training was given only to an inner circle. My team of facilitators needed to understand the workshop process, developed in the company, for Strategy Development Facilitation. I flew the relevant director out to train my team. We spent a day wading through strategy sounding platitudes and when he left we were none the wiser. I was led to believe that the process was a closely guarded secret.
In the final analysis, the supportive context was demotivating for me and by the end of the second year I was ready to establish my own business. And within a year or two everyone else had left the team.
