Getting Team Members on the Same Page in the Midst of Change

At the broadest level, teams exist to provide value to their stakeholders. But, even when you know what your stakeholders expect, there’s one thing that can stand in the way of delivering it: the need to change.

It’s often said that “people don’t like change.” However, that’s not entirely accurate. What tends to make people uncomfortable about change is not knowing what’s in it for them. When the benefits are unclear, resistance increases, and the odds of success drop.

Getting all the members of a team on the same page about their purpose is never easy, but it becomes considerably harder in the midst of today’s ever-present change. That’s what makes the discipline of “clarifying” so critical and timely, and why many organizations turn to Systemic Team Coaching to help their teams gain the clarity to succeed.

We Know Our Purpose – Now What?

High Value-Creating Teams understand the importance of defining a purpose. Through the discipline of “commissioning,” they all align on their purpose by developing a shared understanding of what the entire ecosystem of stakeholders needs and expects.

Establishing a clear purpose is a great start, but it doesn’t mean everyone shares the same vision about how to achieve it. To get everyone on the same page about how to move forward, it’s necessary to clarify a vision and a mandate.

A key element in Peter Hawkins’ Five Disciplines of High Value-Creating Teams, the process of clarifying helps teams align on a vision for success and define what the group is willing to do to achieve it. The need to clarify a vision at the team level can’t be overstated, particularly for teams that bring together leaders from different functions, with their own objectives. It’s common for these professionals to think they’re saying and agreeing to the same thing—only to find out they each mean something entirely different.

Let’s say the executive team agrees on a goal of increasing profitability by 5 percent next quarter. If the VP of sales believes the best way to hit the target is to sign new customers at a higher gross margin, and the VP of operations thinks the best approach is to reduce head count—and they never articulate those differences to each other—what will happen when the company signs a lot more business but doesn’t have the resources to fulfill those contracts? What looks like alignment on the surface could be a gross misalignment that has people working at cross purposes.

This example may sound simplistic, but it’s not far off the mark, especially at a time when leaders are challenged with running the business today while planning for an increasingly uncertain tomorrow.

How Will We Get Where We’re Going?

Developing a team charter is a great way to gain the clarity that High Value-Creating Teams need to succeed in a volatile, ambiguous world. The charter is a living document that articulates where the team is headed and how it will work as a unit to get there, achieving more than they could if they worked in parallel.

While there are various versions of what a team charter looks like, the most common elements include:

• The team’s mandate and purpose
• Its vision for success
• Its strategic focus
• Team-level goals and objectives
• Key performance indicators
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• Working agreements about processes, protocols, and norms

What a Lack of Clarity Looks Like 

In these fast-changing times, the discipline of clarifying has never been more critical. Without clarity, it becomes more challenging to keep the business running effectively and profitably while pivoting in anticipation or response to change. Dysfunction quickly manifests, from siloed thinking to ambiguity about what the team is trying to achieve. Sometimes, an entire segment of the organization begins to feel undervalued or underappreciated.

A global distribution company experienced the pain points that result from a lack of clarity when it attempted to transition to a new account management approach. The executive team mandated a shift from managing accounts at the individual account rep level toward an integrated approach, with shared responsibility for managing customer relationships across various functional groups. But, the team never clarified its vision or articulated a team charter to guide its work. Because the sales leader didn’t buy into the new direction and wasn’t motivated to rally his own team around it, the initiative failed.

Another global company also experienced the dangers of ignoring the clarifying discipline. Executive leaders charged the IT group with leading a digital transformation, without ensuring the leaders of every functional group shared a collective vision. As a result, the IT group operated in its own silo and focused on its own priorities, without a clear view of how it should support the organization’s strategy or how its work impacted other stakeholders. In one of the most visible examples of this lack of alignment, IT implemented measures that inadvertently shut off several mission-critical operations temporarily. If the heads of IT and operations were on the same page, with a shared vision, this crisis could have been averted.

To avoid risks like these, many organizations turn to Systemic Team Coaching to help their teams clarify their vision and define a team charter. During a strategic session, coaches ask the team members to reflect on their processes and behaviors, identifying what’s working and what could be improved. They guide discussions and activities to identify the trends impacting stakeholders today and forecast how those trends could change in the future. And, they ultimately help the team develop a charter that represents what they’re willing to do to meet stakeholders’ current and anticipated needs.

The Leadership Advisory Practice at Odgers Berndtson helps organizations discover and develop leaders, strengthen value-creating teams, and prepare for what’s next. Learn how our highly experienced team of assessors and coaches uses a holistic approach to help your organization achieve more.