Leading Teams with Care - Lesson 12

Dr. Rick Sessoms Leading Teams with Care MC611-12 Team "Z" Process Lesson Transcript [00:00:02] Well, let's take another step then about the process and talk about what is called the Team Z process. In your team dimensions profile you. You probably saw this referred to. I can't remember what page it's on, but the ideal team process, particularly as the team dimensions are concerned, is called the Team Z process. And the reason it's called the Z process is quite simple. It moves from one to another and generally speaking, the process is from creator to advance or advance or to refiner and refiner to executor. Now you notice that there are arrows that go both directions. So this doesn't mean it just goes one way and that's the end of it. And this thing can really bounce back and forth between those dimensions. And the key. This is important. The key to the team is the process. Is the hand off the quality of the handles from one to another. In other words, if during the team process, when the creation of the ideas are concerned, the creator is in a quote, leadership role. When that time is done, the handoff to the advance or and then the handoff to the refiner and the handoff to the executor is absolutely crucial. The most effective handoffs happen when we're able to capitalize on the strengths of the rest of the team. And the typical team, again, would tend to go forward or backward, depending on how mature the decisions are that are made. Sometimes if a decision is refined, then it's going to have to go back to the advance or, if you will, in order to be interpreted in champion again and so forth. So there are there are always that dynamic of going backwards and forwards on this. [00:02:06] The process, as I said, the key is the hand off. One great example of the power of hand-offs is what we've experienced in the Olympics. The Americans have experienced in the Olympics and in recent days and the 400-meter dash. The world record that was set by Johnson was 43.1 8 seconds. And I believe that that still stands. If I'm not mistaken, the 400-meter relay, however, is run by at least three people that aren't as fast as Johnson. The world record was 37.04. The quality, the ability to win. However, in the end, the 400-meter dash, of course, is the quality of the handoffs. If you drop the baton, the game is over. And we've seen that among the American Olympians in in recent times. And so the role of the leader, the role of the person that is is responsible for leadership of the team is to make sure that those handoffs are done and done properly and in the right time. Often, sometimes I've been on teams where somebody says, no, I'm going to run the whole race and or two of us is going to run the race and we're going to leave the rest to just watch. And in those cases the team suffers. And of course, the key here is communication as we think about these team dimensions functioning. And in the best case within a team context. What can be dangerous, however, is when one or more of the dimensions is left out of the team process. What would happen if the advancers, the creators and the executors carry on and sort of leave the refining process out of the team process? What happens in that in that case? What do we have? What do we end up with? Unrefined decision. [00:04:17] That's a safe answer. So what do we end up with? Maybe we saw the wrong problem. We just don't have a good. We may not have a really good quality thing product at the end of the day, because we're working off some assumptions that whatever the creators inventors came up with is the way to go. Or if you're in the process of doing what you're doing, other variables change then that refiners not there. You know, you see on Twitter, you write eventually become kind of obsolete. Yeah, well, I wasn't there in the first place to play the devil's advocate to caution your loved ones. So what about this one? What about when the executor is left out of the out of the mix, out of the Z? Not much gets done. A lot of good talk. A lot of good talk. Yeah. What happens if the creator is not there? What did you. Okay, so we keep polishing the same apple right over and over and over. So how about if there's not an advance or. It's interesting that that I was associated with a senior leadership team in recent past where the major executives, all of them were either creators or executives. There was not an advance or refiner in the bunch. And what do you suppose was happening within that team and within people that were affected by the decisions being made? You tell me you're implementing a whole bunch of bad decisions that no one was on board with. Exactly or not. Not even bad decisions, Bad ideas. They don't have legs on them that you're trying to. The executive is trying to figure out how to do it. And by the time he checks back with greater and greater, he's got a different idea. [00:06:44] So there was a lot of creating of ideas. But no interpretation to the wider group as to what those ideas were about or how to apply them and no real refinement of ideas. And it it became very, very difficult within the organization. So obviously what we really need is team balance. We need creators who will develop the new concepts. We have answers who will move things forward. We need refiners, who will examine the details and executors who will follow through on implementation, and the flexors who can monitor the process and step in to fill the gaps on the team. That's what Team Balance is really all about. So how do you feel about this whole process thus far? Curious is your thoughts. It looks beautiful on paper, doesn't it? Not many marriages have four people in it. I think I'm just family personalities, though. I think the important thing to take away from it is that, you know, a lot of times we'll have to assume all these different roles. Right. You know, to be a real effective leader because, you know, the scenario isn't always perfectly change itself, though. But just knowing the process that is so important, what you're saying that is I'm so glad you said that, because that is what the essence of this is about, is not so much about our natural inclinations, but understanding what is needed in the team process and as a leader, ensuring that that process carries on so that we have adequate creation of of ideas, advancement, refinement and execution. What we're saying is that without those four elements, the team is going to suffer. And to say it positively, when those four elements are applied appropriately, the team prospers and the team will be much more effective. [00:08:53] So as a leader, it's key to make sure that these four, four dimensions are appropriately applied and in the team that you lead. Regardless of the natural dimensions of the natural inclinations. So what about when we've made a decision? How do we implement it? I want to just go through these very, very quickly because this gets into strategic planning and we won't spend a lot of time here. But the truth is that many, many decisions that teams make fall apart at this point after the team has made a decision. It's an important step to communicate that decision and implement that decision, and it's often a complex process that involves coordination of activities among many people. And so there's what they call the PERT process, which is program evaluation and review technique. And I'll just give you these very, very quickly. First of all, deciding what the solution should look like. Secondly, list everything that must occur. To make this happen. Thirdly, list the activities in chronological order. This is basically project management list resources needed for every activity. Estimated time needed for each activity and decide which team members will be responsible for each task. Many of you have probably been on project teams or you've led project teams, so this is quite familiar to you. But without this step, it's difficult to implement and execute. So what this says is just because somebody has a team to mention of being an executor doesn't mean that the executors supposed to do it all. There is a process that that needs to happen within each team where these things need to be addressed very clearly. So let's look at a case study, shall we? This is called the ZE Process Case study. And I believe there's two pages each here, so take as it goes around. [00:11:20] Please take both pages one and two so you don't miss the set of questions I think that are on page two. What we're going to do here is to examine a team situation that demonstrates the way in which various stages of the ZE process can be bypassed. And so I'd like you to take about ten or 12 minutes in your group. After we've read, I'm going to split you up into two groups, and I'd like you to take about 12 minutes in your groups to answer the four questions that are on page two.