My Weblog

Team Performance Challenges Faced by Fast-Moving Silicon Valley Companies (Part Two)

Part One of this two-part series illustrated two common challenges faced by Silicon Valley firms. In Part Two, we explore additional challenges and solutions to the building high-performing teams.

Challenge #3: A Sense of Disconnect

When a team’s common vision and purpose are diluted, team members have difficulty sustaining a connection to the team.  This sense of disconnect is compounded when teams are virtual. 

Silicon Valley has fostered one of the most competitive markets of our time.  Teams often move so fast that it is considered “bad form” to slow down to consider where the team has been and where it needs to go next. Instead, what often takes place is a very abbreviated and “on the fly” form of delegation and information dissemination deemed necessary by the Project Leads. 

This unspoken culture of “need-to-know basis” thinking results in overall team member disconnect. When team members begin to show lack of commitment, evidenced by a waning sense of urgency, and project tasks increasingly slipping lower on the priority list, it becomes evident that team member disconnect has taken hold.

When addressed early enough, the damaging effects of team member disconnect can be mitigated and quite often reversed. However, the structure of virtual teams does not always lend itself to identifying the signs and symptoms of a disconnected team member.  As a result, if allowed to remain in that place for an extended period, a team member can be tempted to find ways to justify and cope with the uncomfortable and counterproductive state of isolation from the rest of the team.

Challenge #4: Deteriorating Loyalty

When people cannot change their conditions, it is human nature to tap coping mechanisms that allow them to accept the status quo and survive.

However, surviving and thriving are very different experiential states of being.  When team members thrive, and their basic organizational needs are met, they are more likely to look beyond their own immediate concerns, focusing instead on the larger team and organization with which they identify. When our emotional needs are met, it is easier to connect with our sense of “place” in the grand scheme of things, and to quantify the value we bring to the process.  We thrive when others recognize and validate our contributions. 

Surviving, on the other hand, involves focusing energy inward to overcome a present threat or danger.  Some might consider this a very “self-serving” act, and they would be correct. There is no room for altruism when all of one’s energies are going into the simple act of survival – it is our innate defense mechanism at work. 

When a team member is in a state of survival, their team’s chances for success decreases substantially and can result in heavy attrition and/or turnover among members.  This only perpetuates the unhealthy cycle, and compounds its impact each time the team goes through the process. Still not convinced that any of these challenges are relevant to you and your team?  Well, then consider this sobering fact: according to an April 15, 2002, article in the Gallup Management Journal, actively disengaged workers cost the American economy up to an estimated $350 billion per year.

But not all is doom and gloom.  There are ways to avoid the damaging effects of these challenges.

What are Proactive Companies Doing? Some Possible Solutions

Prevention requires far less energy and resources than treating symptoms. Before an organization embarks on the process of building a virtual collaborative team, it should be very clear on the purpose of that team’s existence - its mission, values, end goals, and possible timelines.  Once the team’s purpose and mission are tightly defined, then the search for members should intrinsically include an assessment of whether or not they are in direct alignment with the candidates’ own personal values. 

In the end, it is more valuable to have a team member two oceans away already aligned with the greater team mission than a team member in the next cubicle who must be “sold” on the ideas.

The concept of virtual teams, although common in Silicon Valley, still has areas of ambiguity.  One challenge is the tendency for some companies to doubt that a team can truly be a team if its members are separated by an ocean, a time zone, or a single building.  To assuage this concern, team leaders must make every effort to include regular human interaction among members.  Even video conferencing once in a while will have a markedly positive impact. 

Whenever possible, pull team members together in one space, if for no other reason than to focus on relationships between them.  We are continually amazed at the positive residual effects client companies experience after conducting simple annual gatherings for virtual teams at the corporate offices.   

If you want to periodically give your virtual teams a routine “check-up”, refer to our Team Performance Center Baker’s Dozen: The Characteristics of High Performance Teams. Each one if these characteristics can be addressed individually and integrated back into the culture of any team, be it on a single playing field or dispersed over five continents.    

Team Performance Challenges Faced by Fast-Moving Silicon Valley Companies (Part One)

When high-tech Silicon Valley giants set about the business of creating project teams, they face a formidable challenge no longer considered unique or uncommon.  For example, San Jose-based Cisco Systems, with more than 60,000 employees worldwide, frequently gathers its individuals for project teams from internal sources.  One major hurdle to this process is the fact that “internal” for Cisco Systems can still encompass a geographic swath that stretches across five of the seven continents. 

When Cisco assembles project teams, the appointed lead engineers and managers are expected to quickly pull groups together that function as high performance teams.  With up to 10,000 miles and multiple time zones separating individual members, this can be a formidable challenge. 

Welcome to the world of the “Virtual Team.”  In just a few years’ time, virtual teams have emerged from a theoretical and esoteric concept to a ubiquitous reality in Silicon Valley and beyond.  Although virtual teams can deliver many benefits, they face predictable obstacles that, if not addressed, can negatively impact the overall health and performance of the team. 

At The Team Performance Center, we’ve identified a recurring pattern of potential roadblocks faced by companies that utilize virtual teams. By their very nature, virtual teams employ members scattered over vast geographic areas that the burden of managing tasks and leading people is seemingly impossible at times. This team dispersal often fosters a breakdown in common purpose and shared vision that, once compromised, can engender disconnect amongst individual team members; which, in turn, can result in a deteriorating sense of loyalty and loss of collective mission.  Let’s look at these four challenges, and consider possible solutions to counteract their effects on teams.

Challenge #1: The Team Dispersal

Thanks to today’s communication technology it is no longer essential for employees collaborating on projects to be housed under the same roof to achieve maximum productivity.  Organizations increasingly select the best and most appropriate talent from a pool of candidates scattered across the globe, without requiring that they uproot and relocate to a common site for the duration of the project. 

Unfortunately, the rise in dispersed company teams is resulting in a new form of social fragmentation due to the increasing dependence on virtual technology. This stifles social skill development, which leads to increased workplace misunderstandings, confusion, and employee frustration …all of which significantly impact work progress, budgets, and overall success rates of projects.  Ironically, when buffered from one another, something as obvious as an eight-hour time zone difference can be overlooked by team members caught up in their oft-times frenzied and numbing virtual work environments.    

Although virtual teams offer distinct benefits, including convenience and increased resource maximization, there is the risk that team members will rely too heavily on communication through email, webinars, conference calls and text messages.

Direct human interaction helps teams develop a keen awareness of fellow team members   including exposure to diverse work styles, enhanced interpersonal relationships, improved conflict resolution skills, and a greater appreciation of other individuals within the team.  Respect for fundamental cultural differences between team members is also stronger in the presence of direct human contact.

Challenge #2: A breakdown in Common Vision and Unity of Purpose

Embracing a common mission is crucial for successful teams.  Without an understanding of and commitment to overall team goals, or how those goals align with the organization as a whole, individual members may begin to “contrive” their own objectives and fill in the gaps based on their limited interpretations of the big picture.

Although no team is immune to the above pitfall, virtual team members possess a heightened risk of losing perspective. Virtual teams often lack the traditional organizational compass reminding them of the company’s mission and vision. Because they are scattered across the globe and isolated from direct contact with each other, virtual teams often develop a solid perspective, in which team members are left to their own devices and perceptions.  Reminiscent of the assembly line process, they diligently complete their piece of the project and pass it on to the next in line. But without a commonly held purpose, each completed stage in the process becomes slightly more distant from the original vision.

WELCOME

Well, we’re happy to announce that we’ve caught up with the 21st century, and have created a City Beach Team Performance Center blog.  We’d like to welcome you to its first official entry. 

Through our programs and workshops each year, we have the privilege of interacting with a broad representation of successful corporations, academic institutions, professional firms, and community-based groups from throughout Northern California.  Many of these organizations have grown and developed into entities with a truly global influence. 

As a result, the Team Performance Center (TPC)  has a very unique opportunity to constantly expand our own perspectives and sense of expertise in the field of Team and Leadership Development. 

Rather than being limited to recycling someone else’s facts and research as the basis for what we do, we are fortunate to consider ourselves somewhat of a dynamic laboratory and testing ground for best practices in team performance.  Through our ongoing client-TPC encounters, we generate first-hand empirical data that become cornerstones for designing new and innovative programs, curricula, workshops, and research articles. It only seems fitting, then, that we embrace the responsibility to openly share some of the insights gained with our community. 

We are honored that you’ve taken the time to refer to our Team Performance Center blog and its associated resources.  We understand that your time is valuable and limited.  So, whether or not you ever take part in one of our programs, workshops, or trainings, our hope is that the simple act of accessing our website will add measurable value to you and your organization.

Many of the future blog entries you’ll read here will be authored by either Jeff Costello or Wendy Lim (the Executive Director and Associate Director of the Team Performance Center, respectively).  Between the two of them, Jeff and Wendy have logged nearly 30 years of direct experience in Team and Leadership Development, Organizational Development, and Professional Training. 

Their vast array of diverse delivery modalities - from the boardroom, to the classroom, to the workshop setting, to the challenge ropes course - are all grounded in the principle of Experiential Learning, which holds that learning though active participation is the most effective method for passing on information and having it “stick” with the recipient.   

On occasion, we may also post cutting-edge articles authored by fellow thought leaders in the field of Team and Leadership Development.  Perhaps we’ll discover a few gems of professional advice, emerging thoughts on best practices, or a set of facts that seem so insightful as to offer unquestionable value to our readers.  When this is the case, we may also post that information here.  Whenever appropriate, we’ll try to “mix things up” and keep our presentation style fresh and lively.  As always, we welcome your feedback and questions any time.  Have fun, and happy reading!  Now, let’s get started…

Cheers,
Jeff, Wendy, and the rest of the TPC Team