{"id":69208,"date":"2022-06-14T15:03:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T19:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=69208"},"modified":"2022-06-24T15:25:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T19:25:44","slug":"what-makes-a-successful-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-makes-a-successful-team\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Successful Team: The 3 Traits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you wondering what makes a successful team<\/a>? In what ways do most businesses focus on the wrong achievements?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Sutherland, software developer and management expert, believes that too much emphasis is put on individual achievements when it comes to business teams. Sutherland thinks that team accomplishments should be celebrated instead, and team accomplishments depend on three traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s why ambition, freedom, and integrated purpose are what makes teams successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Building and Maintaining an Effective Team<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In modern businesses, Jeff Sutherland (the author of Scrum)<\/em> insists, too much emphasis is put on individual<\/em> achievements, rather than the team\u2019s accomplishments. But he argues that the team<\/em>, not individuals, is creating a product<\/a>, so it\u2019s important to focus on collective performance<\/em>. This holistic approach to management, emphasizing teamwork, is a pillar of the Scrum framework. Sutherland describes the three common characteristics of successful teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Traits of Successful Teams<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what makes a successful team, according to Jeff Sutherland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambition<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When creating a product, a team must aspire to be great. Without ambition, or what Sutherland calls transcendence<\/em>, it\u2019s impossible to achieve great things. Just the decision to strive toward a higher goal can be enough to rise above mediocrity. From a leadership perspective<\/a>, it’s vital to instill in your team a common objective and to explain why that objective is worth pursuing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sutherland says one way to inspire your team<\/a> is to challenge them. Set lofty goals, ones worth achieving, and the team will have a strong sense of purpose<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set Audacious Goals<\/strong>

In Built to Last<\/em><\/a>, Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras also argue that success follows ambition. To prove their case, they examine companies that set what they call \u201cbig, hairy, audacious goals,\u201d or BHAGs<\/a><\/em>. They argue that merely having a BHAG<\/a> sets a company up for success because it helps to motivate its workforce. 

They say that a BHAG should be clear, compelling, and challenging, and they should align with the philosophy of the company<\/a>. They suggest ways to ensure the success of your BHAGs<\/a>:

Fully commit to your goals<\/a><\/strong>: It\u2019s not enough to merely set an audacious goal, the entire organization must be willing to get behind it.
Think beyond the profits<\/strong>: Although companies are profit-driven, a visionary company<\/a> looks beyond the quarterly profits and aims to achieve something great. 
Continue setting audacious goals<\/strong>: If a company manages to meet one of their goals, they must not stop there. A company that continues setting ambitious goals<\/a> even after success are more likely to maintain that success.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Freedom<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Once an objective is set, Sutherland says, let the team figure out how to achieve<\/a> it. A team should organize and manage themselves and be empowered to make their own decisions. This freedom, or autonomy, leads to a happier and more effective team<\/a>. If people feel they\u2019re being constantly guided by management, it can be deflating. Not only does it rob them of their ambition, but it also stifles their creativity. Both of these can lead to a drastic reduction in productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, you shouldn\u2019t tell your team exactly what to do or how to do it. Rather, you should provide them with an objective and the necessary tools to complete it. Set expectations, then step back and let them work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: A results-only work environment<\/em> (ROWE) is a management strategy that allows for a great deal of freedom. In a ROWE, you measure and compensate employees by their output, or results, rather than the hours worked. Studies show that ROWEs can increase a company\u2019s productivity, retention rate, and employee happiness<\/a>. Best Buy, for example, implemented ROWEs in the early 2000s. Between 2005 and 2007, voluntary turnover dropped 90% while productivity increased 41%<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrated Purpose<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In a traditional business setting, one that uses the Waterfall model, there are usually separate teams assigned to each task. Once each task is completed, it’s then handed off to the next team. This \u201chandoff model\u201d is slow and tedious, doesn\u2019t allow for the quick correction of mistakes, and cultivates a culture in which communication between teams isn\u2019t valued. For example, you might have a design team, a marketing team, a sales team, and a production team, all meant to stick to their own specific assignment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sutherland argues that the handoff model isn\u2019t an effective way to work and that instead, your team should have integrated purpose, or what he calls cross-functionality<\/em>. Team members should have various specialties but not a strict separation of duties.<\/strong> The team should be constantly feeding off each other\u2019s skills. Collectively, the team should have all the tools and information necessary to complete the project, and they should be in a continual state of collaboration. This way, everyone on the team knows where they stand. If something changes, the whole team knows right away. If a problem occurs, the whole team works to fix it immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Experts caution that although teams should have some ability to take on each other\u2019s roles, you should still allow for some specialization: When building a creative workplace<\/a>, intellectual diversity is a key component. A team that is intellectually diverse has a wide range of experience, opinions, and perspectives<\/a>. Teams with different perspectives and life experiences are better able to come up with creative solutions than teams whose members all think alike. With different backgrounds comes different ideas, and thus a more well-rounded, nuanced, and comprehensive approach to problem-solving.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Product Development<\/strong>

Sutherland focuses on three fundamental characteristics of effective teams<\/a>, but in the essay he based many of his thinking on, \u201cThe New New Product Development Game<\/a>,\u201d Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka describe six<\/em> characteristics of effective teams:

1. Built-in instability<\/strong>: Management gives the development team a broad strategy or goal at the beginning of a project. This should challenge the team while allowing the freedom to meet the challenges.
2. Self-organizing project teams<\/strong>: Discussed in detail above, a self-organizing project team is more creative and independent.
3. Overlapping development phases<\/strong>: A team is more likely to work as a unit if they don\u2019t use the sequential approach of the Waterfall Method<\/a>.
4. Multilearning<\/strong>: People involved in the project are constantly learning at the individual, team, and company level. Also, they learn things outside of their areas of expertise, acquiring a diverse knowledge and skill set.
5. Subtle control<\/strong>: Management, while allowing freedom, has enough control over the project to avoid too much risk or ambiguity.
6. Transfer of Learning<\/strong>: Knowledge is not only shared amongst the development team, it makes its way into other projects and other parts of the organization.

Although Sutherland only specifically names three common traits of successful teams, Takeuchi and Nonaka\u2019s ideas are seen throughout the Scrum framework.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you wondering what makes a successful team? In what ways do most businesses focus on the wrong achievements? Jeff Sutherland, software developer and management expert, believes that too much emphasis is put on individual achievements when it comes to business teams. Sutherland thinks that team accomplishments should be celebrated instead, and team accomplishments depend on three traits. Here’s why ambition, freedom, and integrated purpose are what makes teams successful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":69253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,14,30],"tags":[647],"class_list":["post-69208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-management","category-work","tag-scrum","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Makes a Successful Team: The 3 Traits - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to management expert Jeff Sutherland, there are three traits that make a successful team. 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