Effective and cohesive teams are the lifeblood of every successful company out there. If you want to stay competitive in today’s market, you will need to have teams that work well together so they can produce results.
This isn’t anything new— companies have been trying to figure out what is the best way for people to work together and produce the biggest results. Many different team effectiveness models came out of this question. And even though the models are quite good, they still miss one secret ingredient that would make the team perform even better.
How do team effectiveness models work
We will explore the three most common team effectiveness models. Most of the team effectiveness models were created organically, out of the company necessities and the patterns CEOs and leaders found out when it comes to successful teams.
Model 1- The GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness
The first model we will explore today is the GRPI model of team effectiveness. It was created back in 1972 by Dick Beckhard who was an organizational psychologist. This is one of the oldest team effectiveness models.
The GRPI stands for Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal Relationships.
Goals. This was about setting goals and direction for the team to head toward. Every team needs to have a goal that serves two functions: the first one is a measure of success— how the team will know they accomplished the goal— and the second one is that it serves as a direction for the team.
Roles. Everyone in the team needs to have their specific roles with which they contribute to the overall success of the team. Everyone knows who is responsible for what in the team.
Processes. There need to be clear decision-making frameworks for the team to follow, alongside problem-solving checklists and the way the team goes through challenges and hiccups.
Interpersonal Relationships. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Every team is composed out of individuals who need to have good, strong, and honest interpersonal relationships if the team is to succeed. So many all-star teams have been ruined by bad interpersonal relationships.
Model 2- “The Wisdom of Teams” model
The Wisdom of Teams is a book by Jon Katzenbach and in the book, Katzenback lays out the foundation for his team effectiveness model— The Katzenbach & Smith Team Effectiveness Model.
This model has a three-part foundation that consists of Commitment, Skills, and Accountability.
Commitment. Team members will work better and be more engaged if their personal beliefs are aligned with the direction of the company and the team. As in, team members will be more dedicated to the goals of the company if they personally share those goals. You can see a plethora of this today where millennials almost exclusively want to work for companies whose mission statement and vision for the world align with theirs.
Skills. It’s not enough for the people to be committed to the team— they also need a skillset with which they will contribute to that team. Every team member needs to pull their own weight (and more!) if they want the team to succeed. The team is only as strong as the weakest link.
Accountability. Everything that was set up in the planning phase needs to be executed later on. It’s not enough to just sit down and write the goals— team members need to be accountable and execute on those commitments.
Model 3- “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” model
And the last model is “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” model, popularised by Patrick Lencioni in his book. The previous models started with the question, “what makes a team effective?” This model starts with the question, “why makes teams dysfunctional/ineffective?”
Lencioni found out five things that make the team ineffective:
Absence of trust. There is no team if there’s no trust. Team members need to trust each other, the manager, and the team. Otherwise, people won’t do what’s best for the team, but they will try to “secure” their positions by ignoring the team’s needs and only focusing on saving face.
Fear of conflicts. Team members are afraid to have difficult conversations with one another because they’re afraid of what that might do to the team (and to their reputation in the team). So conflict slowly starts to simmer and soon enough, it blows the steam somewhere.
Lack of commitment. Team members aren’t willing to commit to the joint goal of the team and, therefore, the team fails the goals because not all team members give their 100% effort and focus.
Avoidance of accountability. This happens because team members don’t want to have clear and quantifiable goals toward which they can be held accountable. It’s hard to argue with the measure of success of a number— you either did it or you didn’t.
Inattention to results. This can happen when the team members don’t focus on the outcomes of their actions, but simply try to hit goals that don’t “move the needle.” This is the case of being efficient but not being effective.
What every model is missing— fair compensation
Every one of the models misses out on one thing that can really demotivate employees if not done well— fair compensation.
When setting out to create the best possible team effectiveness model, you need to take into account not only the things that motivate employees, but also those that can demotivate. Compensation can be both in this case and team effectiveness models miss out on it.
A fair compensation model, such as Team-Set Salaries (TSS) ensures that your team members receive the fair share of profits for the work they did.
TSS is:
Fair. Results of TSS are fair and the team also perceives them as fair.
Actionable. TSS produces a clear metric- a number- which the team leader can use to distribute fair compensation.
Collaborative. Team members rate each other so the process is collaborative.
Easy-to-use. It only takes a team member 15 minutes to fill in the sheet.
Conclusion
Team effectiveness models are a great way for you to understand the needs of your team members and make sure that they perform at their best. But the models miss out on one crucial ingredient— fair compensation.
Make sure that your teams don’t get demotivated by compensation by implementing Team-Set Salaries for your teams. If you need more details on how Team-Set Salaries work, we suggest you set up a demo session with Percival.live and start a fair compensation model with your teams.
Comments