Forming Storming Norming Performing

Whenever a team changes it’s new team:

• If someone leaves, it’s a new team.
• If someone joins, it’s a new team.
• If someone rejoins, it’s new team.

Excellent managers understand the process of team building, accept that a new team means there will be some conflict and a drop in performance and manage the team to shorten the time between the new team formation and high performance.

The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forming-storming-norming-performing accessed January 2009

Forming

Someone leaves, someone joins – team productivity will drop below the previous level.

Storming

 Team members will have to adapt to each other, find out who is good at what and decide how they will interact. Team productivity will drop as conflicts emerge and suspicion may grow.

Norming

The team works out who will be taking on which roles, who is good at what and how they will work together. Team performance stops dropping and starts to improve.

Performing

The team now know each other and are performing as expected.

Managers can intervene to shorten the time between forming and performing - often by organising a team building event, especially if the team have to work together to achieve something.

Managers may also need to intervene to move a team along to the next stage. For more information – just contact me and ask.

Yesterday I launched the upd8 hints ( a very quiet launch!). A new way to deliver information – which starts with a series of short messages:

                   upd8 hints   help    inspiration    news    tips
It’s a difficult job management and as anyone who’s been on one my management courses or worked with me will know, I’m all for sharing my knowledge to help make management easier. Managers are also busy people, so management hints are very short messages, gentle reminders to help keep focused.
Sign up – and tell me what you think.

If you work from home or if you manage someone who works from home, what have you done to make it work?

I was talking to a client recently who was struggling to manage a team member who worked from home. It turned out that the arrangement had ‘just sort of happened’, no rules or way or working had been agreed … 

I spoke to both the employee and the manager - and it turned out both were equally dissatisfied with the arrangement.

Why don’t people talk to each other? Well, because the manager has to make the time and be open to listen to what the team member is really saying and the team member has to feel able to raise issues with the manager.

This is all related to feedback skills. If the manager in this situation had explained his frustration (in terms of the impact on performance) and then listened to the team member’s point of view, then this could have been resolved months ago.

If you have an unresolved issue, then deal with it. If you need help with feedback skills, then why not send me an email for help - or ask a coach to talk it through with you.

Motivation is like the petrol in a car. Your car will roll along the road just fine – but not uphill unless it has some fuel. It’s the same with people – people will roll along just fine, until they hit a hill, but fuelled with motivation they’ll move along faster, enjoy the journey more and no obstacle will stop them.

No-one can motivate someone else. Motivation comes from inside – it’s internal and individual. You can affect someone’s motivation by the environment you provide. So understand what motivates each individual and then provide the right environment for them.

Agree a SMART objective with each team member – one that will move them towards one of their own goals (one of their great big outrageous exciting goals) and watch their motivation soar and the smart objective be achieved. It’s the job of  a manager to match the organisation’s purpose, the managers objectives and the person’s individual goals into SMART exciting objectives for the team member.

New Year New Start – It’s one month into the new year, so do something different and keep motivation high.

Want a quick tip on how to keep motivation high in your team (or even your life)? Here it is – ready for it – it’s really simple, so bear with me - just do something different.

It can be something very simple or is can be something bigger, need some examples? Here you go then:

•  
  • Change your standard team meeting agenda
    • Ask someone else to chair the meting – or take the minutes
    • Add a new topic to the agenda
    • Take a topic off this time
    • Change the usual running order
    • Move it outside. Yep – sit on a park bench or go to the local cafe
  • Next time someone asks you a ‘how do I’ question’, instead of telling them the answer – ask them a good strong coaching question. Don’t know what a coaching question is? Then send me an email and I’ll help you
  • Give someone a different job to do for the day
  • Book the whole team into an all day meeting – and then on the day, buy them all a coffee and tell them there is no meeting and they can now spend all day catching up with whatever they like (you’ve just granted them an interruption free day!) think about it
  • Try a different route to work (yawn – heard that before – well give it a try) – include a coffee stop on the way, go earlier or later, catch the bus (hey, they’re not like they used to be!)
  • Book yourself on a training course (away from the office)
  • Invite a speaker/trainer to your next team meeting for a 1-hour training session (you’d be amazed at how well this works – just make sure the trainer is used to packing useful and practical tips into one hour of fun) (contact me for more details on this one)
  • Buy a new outfit… and wear it to work
  • Buy something new and unusual for you to use (pen, bag, notebook in a different design for example) and start using it at work

Why does this work? Well, it helps prevent sleepwalking – you know what I mean, you’ve seen it… when each day is the same and everything is as expected we can cruise through without really trying – and without using our brains very much and without enjoying ourselves.

Try something different. Give it a go – let me know what happens.  Happy New and Motivational Year to you all.

January 21

One of my favourite days of the year. Why? Well, if you think back to one month ago it was the shortest day of the year – not much daylight –but within 4 weeks (from 21 December to 21 January) it’s all changed. In fact this morning I can see blue skies and even some sunshine. Great!

Why does this matter? Well if all that can change in 1 month, then what could you change in 1 month?

If you’re a manager you could improve your performance as a manager in less than 1 month – Here’s How! – and let’s face it, in these perceived tough times wouldn’t you like to be a manager who’s exceeding performance?

Everyone could make a big change in one month – it’s all about picking the right change to make and then focusing your effort on that change. Not sure what to change? Try the free wheel of life exercise and if you’re still struggling, then email me for inspiration – just say you read this post and need some help.

Do you know what a portfolio career is? And if you’re a manager, how do you manage someone who has one?

A portfolio career is one where a person has more than one career at the same time. Take me for example:

Career 1
I work for the Open University as an Associate Lecturer on three different courses:
- Understanding Management (Y159)
- Data, Computing and Information (M150)
- Business Organisations and their Environments (B201)

That means I’m actually an employee of the Open University – PAYE, part time work.

Career 2
I’m also employed by my own company. I’m a Director of upd8 technology ltd. That company publishes websites (like this one amongst others) and provides coaching and training services as well as technology advice.

Career 3 and 4 and …
And that’s not all – I build websites, I write (like in this blog for example, as well as elsewhere) and I’m also an authorised distributor for utilities. And more!

If I came to work for you and you had to manage me, what difference would it make that I have a portfolio career rather than one, more traditional career?

Well, speaking personally … I won’t depend on you for my livelihood, so if you don’t treat me the way I want, I’ll walk … I love what I do, so I’ll always be enthusiastic and energetic about what I do … I’ll meet deadlines, because I’m good at juggling (I have to be) … but also, when I say I’m not available, then I’m not, because I really do have to be somewhere else.

If you’re managing someone who has a portfolio career, then are things really any different from managing someone who doesn’t have one? It’s still about understanding your employee and working out how to bring about the best possible performance, together.

I was talking to someone who’s just returned from holiday and he told me about a conversation he had whilst stood in the queue at the local Fish and Chip shop. The owner was talking about the different deep fat fryers available (apparently the Dutch ones look after themselves, but the UK ones need more skill to use well) and the difficulty of taking time off as no-one could be trusted to use the fryer in his business properly - not uncommon in small businesses - not uncommon in teams either.

Does this sound familiar? It’s yet another way to say ‘I’m better off doing this myself’ – ever find yourself saying:

• ‘it’ll be quicker if I do it myself’
• ‘he always does it wrong – I’ll just do it now’
• ‘this is really complicated – as the expert, I need to do it’
• ‘she never produces the right quality’
• … or similar.

I’m sure we’ve all done it at times but is that good management? Of course not and tempting though it is – and yes we can give all the best ‘reasons’ for it – it’s bad management and if you find yourself saying or even thinking any of these little phrases, then you need to consider what you can do differently. That way, you’ll free up more time to manage – rather than do.

So, what’s the answer – well, it has to be a two-pronged approach – one won’t work without the other:

• you need to do some work on yourself - No more excuses, no more saying or thinking the phrases above
• you need to do some work with your team member. Training isn’t only done through training courses –there are lots of ways for people to learn new skills or to improve existing ones.

What will work best for the team member and you right now?

Hmmm – I wonder if there’s such a thing as an NVQ in fish-frying?

I’ve been asked about time management quite a lot recently – and some suggestions I’ve made have been met with a ‘that won’t work here’ attitude.

Maybe it’s just those people, or maybe it’s a general feeling that we have less control than we did – or (and this is what I think) it’s actually business as usual:

• there’s a lot to do

• lots of things to achieve quickly

• lots of pressure

• changing deadlines and priorities

• the most recent crisis

• the next looming crisis

• …

That’s not anything new - and good managers have to learn how to cope with it. One thing’s for sure – if you carry on doing what you do now, then nothing will change – and if ‘that wont work here’ then I challenge you to tell me ‘what will work there then’.

The key to good time management is raise yourself above the detail – be like a meerkat and get up on those back legs to have a really good look around at what’s coming over the horizon next, rather than reacting to whatever’s dropped into your rut of workload.

If you know what your goals and objectives are then it’s easier to see when they’ll need to be changed, it’s easier to assess impacts and, crucially for time management, it’s easier (and defendable) when you have to say ‘no I don’t have time to do that… unless we also drop this’. 

If you’ve been on a time management course, or if you’ve read a time management book, then why not make the time (put it in your diary or schedule right now) to review it and see what actions you can take to improve your life.

If time management is something you have no formal training in – and not really much knowledge either – then why not book on a course or read a book. What do I recommend? Learning Tree’s Time Management course takes a whole brain approach (tell them I sent you) and Steven Covey’s book First Things First.

It’ll be time well spent – I promise.

It’s done! The latest upd8 booklet Be a Better Manager in 5 Days shows you how to achieve more as a manager and it’s available now - from here.

I’ve been talking to a few people recently about how to improve team performance and I’ve also been listening to how terrible their teams are - how they need lots of guidance, how they don’t do what they should be doing … and lots more things besides.

It’s a wonder anything gets done at all!

So, I thought I’d distil my wisdom (hmmm - well my suggestions anyway) into a short - as I know how busy all you mangers are - booklet on how to be a better manager in just five days.

Imagine - this time next week, you could be on your way to solving your problems. If you take any of these actions then you’ll be well on the way to a better performing team - if you do all of them, consistently, then you’ll soon reap the benefits - not only will your team be performing, but you will too as your time is freed up to manage rather than do.

Do let me know what you think - is this is good idea? Do you like it?  

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