Learning Teams: Growth Through Competency Enhancement

The Star Performing Team framework is designed to aid organisations and management teams in their quest for learning, growth and performance improvement. This second of three articles on 'Adaptive' will, therefore, consider how best to foster learning teams by helping them grow through becoming more competent.

Competence in this context is intended to imply a need to be effective in areas of skill and knowledge that will deliver the team's goals and ultimately the strategy of the organisation. Figure 1 illustrates the flow from Vision and Values via strategy through to a potential competency intervention programme.

Figure 1

Competence Improvement

It is only in the last 10 years or so that the field of team and individual competency development has received wider recognition as an effective vehicle for organisation capability and performance improvement. Apart from the TLS work on individual competencies other contributions that have had a major impact in the field include: Boyatzis, Hay-McBer, Saville and Holdsworth, DDI (Development Dimensions International) and Lominger. This incomplete yet composite list of work in this area, it is argued, whilst containing much duplication covers very effectively the broad spectrum and conventional wisdom on relevant competencies for management and leadership teams.

Essentially an organisation has three critical questions to ask when faced with the task of improving its overall capability:

• what internal capability is strategically important?
• which competencies are the most important for us to improve?
• how will we go about implementing competency enhancement?

Firstly, an organisation needs to clearly understand its internal 'strategic' needs. Which areas need to be enhanced in order that it is enabled to achieve its vision? These critical success factors will include the acquisition and/or enhancement of competencies in the various (functional and cross/functional) management teams that drive change. This requirement becomes an output of the planning processes.

For a brief overview explanation of how this might be achieved click here.

The second challenge, however, is the need for a workable competency implementation process.

The Star model at the heart of these In-Touch articles is itself an overall integrative model that enables potential users to select and map the most appropriate competencies for development.

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The Star Performing Team Model

TLS has undertaken a comprehensive content analysis of the public domain information and research about competencies in order to map an easy to understand application list of managerial competencies. Since utility, clarity and conciseness is the goal, duplication, jargon and unnecessary add-ons and complication are avoided. There are in fact around 100 competencies covering the ten factors of the Star Model. However, it is argued that most organisations that pursue team and individual competency enhancement will already be effective in many areas. Perfection is not the goal but rather, in line with the 80-20 rule, focus on those 20 competencies that will clearly differentiate an organisation from its competitors. As an illustration only for each of the ten Star Factors one example competency is reported here.

Led

The team is appropriately and effectively led in terms of people, processes and goals

Example: Values Champion: Behaving in ways that are consistent with and which promote the values of the organisation.

Aligned

The team is aligned internally and with other key stakeholder groups in the pursuit of clear goals and values

Example: Holding People Accountable: Ensuring others behave in ways consistent with the interests of the organisation through firmness and appropriate use of authority.

Effective

The team is effective at decision-making, problem-solving and recognising opportunities

Example: Situational Decision-Making: The ability to use a variety of decision-making approaches depending upon the situation and the maturity of those involved.

Focused

The team is customer focused and regularly reviews the meaning of success

Example: Customer Service Orientation: A desire to help or serve others, to meet their needs. It means focusing effort on discovering and meeting client needs.

Stretched

The team is high output, high quality focused

Example: Achievement Orientation: A concern to work well or to compete against a target or a standard of excellence.

Adaptive

Team members are quick learners and change responsive

Example: Developing Others: Beyond formal training, requires a genuine effort to understand the development needs of others and to plan their learning and development.

Empowered

People in the team take responsibility for their functional area

Example: Initiative: Being resourceful, proactively doing things and not simply reacting to problems.

Harmonious

The team is open, co-operative, supportive, understanding and trusting

Example: Interpersonal Understanding: A genuine desire to understand other people. It is the ability to identify and understand the thoughts, behaviours, feelings and concerns of others.

Balanced

The team is balanced in skills, work styles, activities and processes

Example: Team Linking: Co-ordinating work and people to achieve a coherent and effective unit.

Informed

The team communicates well

Example: Information Seeking: A desire to know more about things, people or issues by 'digging' or pressing for more detailed information.

Implementation Process

Appropriate recording and integration systems with the organisation's existing appraisal and development processes will also need to be achieved. Thereafter, (with a further 3 months troubleshooting and advisory process) the organisation will be mainly self sufficient and able to cascade the process by using the TLS 360 Instruments.

The distinctive features of the TLS competency implementation process are:

• cost effective with no ongoing license fees and hidden costs
• client focused through tailoring and flexibility
• relatively easy to follow and understand
• supported by measurement at team as well as at individual manager level
• 20+ years experience in implementing strategy, team and leadership 360 feedback processes

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  Step One - Organisation Development Consulting Project

• working on the presupposition that the organisation has the will, commitment and a team culture ready to embrace competency improvement.
• pulling together a steering committee (three internal, and two external consultants).
• clarifying the overall purpose and strategy links to the 360 competency map for the organisation.
• defining the competency list using the Star Performing Team model and the number of questionnaire/profile variations.
• planning the overall 360.
• guiding the internal committee on how to get 'buy in' from other key organisational stakeholders.

Step One should take about 1 month assuming the strategy phase is complete.

  Step Two - Instrument Development

• questionnaire/s design, iteration, testing and refinement after pilot testing and statistics.

Parallel process

• profile report/s design and creation.

Step Two should take around 3 months depending on the outcome/scope of Step One above.

  Step Three - Technology Platform Creation

• web site questionnaire creation as a stand alone 360 facility for use only by client organisation which will contain secure questionnaires and data collection processes.
• a web database for the monitoring of questionnaires received.
• ability for designated access to monitor questionnaire progress.
• TLS 360 report production in PDF format, for transmitting to client.

This step will take approximately 3 months in parallel with Step Two.

  Step Four - Training and Support (HR and Technical)

• key stakeholder training (for those who will drive this) i.e. train the trainer.
• pilot workshop and coaching (taking a group through the whole process).
• 3 months (from completion of pilot) ongoing advice and troubleshooting.

Steps one through four, once completed, should enable an organisation to translate its capability strategic imperatives into a manageable competency enhancement programme that delivers its aims.

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Case Study

An International Food Manufacturing and Marketing Company (Company 'X') springs to mind as a case study example. Company 'X' comprised a typical executive team of seven executives across the usual functional areas. Their CEO, a demanding but extremely effective leader was able to 'Align' his organisation and team and 'Stretch' them (Issue13.htm) through a series of development experiences including team development and strategic formulation sessions.

The executive team's appetite for personal, team and organisation development grew demonstratively over an initial 12 month period to the point of wanting the next growth spurt. Through a combination of 'strategy', 'team', and 'leadership' initiatives they had become a learning team and resolved to cascade their experiences to the dozen or so management teams in the wider organisation. A notable Strategic Planning workshop in year two involved over 100 managers and technical/professional executives over several days.

Whilst the usual goals, strategies, initiatives and projects became outputs from this comprehensive strategy process, what was unusual was the energy and enthusiasm that the process created to deliver the strategy. The very people needed to deliver the strategic projects designed the project charter's in the workshop sessions. It became an embedded process that drove product development, domestic and international growth projects (Opportunity Thrusts) as well as internal improvement through competency enhancement (Capability Thrusts) see Figure 1. In subsequent workshops these projects were reviewed and rated against a progress chart.

Company 'X' was able to double its profit over a five year period and at the same time have predominantly dedicated, satisfied employees. In that time key teams, functions and cross-functional project teams, like their executive leaders, developed a learning and growth team culture. This company was as good as it gets. It performed well as a series of interlocking teams for a sustained period of years.

This example, and others like it, have thrown up some key insights about how to create and sustain learning teams that grow and deliver their goals. Some critical success factors include:

• stable and committed senior management who set the team learning example
• robust, inclusive, and year round strategic management processes
• identification of, and competency improvement in, team and individual performance.
  

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Summary

The simple but powerfully visual Star Performing Team Model helps an organisation, team or individual view the competency options.

The aim of a user would be to determine the strategic importance, the appropriateness and the number of competencies that provides a competitive advantage. Then key teams and individuals can be measured to determine current status and competency development priorities. By reaching agreement on the relative importance of different Star factors the best fit competencies can then more easily be determined.

In practice this would be done by a focus group of managers, human resource professionals and advisors post an organisation setting its strategic direction and capability enhancement imperatives.

To achieve the organisation's strategy the Star factors will not necessarily have equal importance. For example, an organisation in a stable market with a long standing successful business model may want to focus more on continued successful delivery (Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making) rather than on 'Adaptive' since its market is already established. Organisation life cycle, industry, size, scope and target markets will all impact which 'Star' factors and therefore which competencies are important.

The way in which the Star elements are matched for importance against the strategy by the focus group, is to agree an appropriate percentage for each of the ten factors of the model. This is achieved through facilitated discussion and via a structured diagnostic questionnaire.

The foregoing strategic planning, team and individual development processes are services provided by TLS and can be viewed at www.tls360.com. For more information contact paul@tls360.com

If you would like to know more about translating strategy into competency enhancement or competency 360^o development and implementation please click here to contact Dr Paul Robinson.

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Dr Paul Robinson
Managing Director
Team Leadership Services

P.O. Box 21-194, Henderson, Waitakere 0650, New Zealand
Tel: +64-9-836-5317 Fax +64-9-836-5318
email: paul@tls360.com
Website: www.tls360.com

© 2008 Team Leadership Services