SKILLS FOR THE NEW ENVIRONMENT
TEAMWORK: COLLABORATION DEMANDS PRACTICE AND PLANNING TO WIN SUCCESS
T
eamwork is made for rapidly changing times at workplaces—as many who had to put teams into play during the pandemic discovered. COVID-19 and the resulting workforce short-
age has changed many organization’s policies about teams and how well they work. The Mer-
cer Global Talent Report 2020 says that “as COVID-19 proved, rapidly adjusting capacity and redeploying resources is not only possible but critical to success.” As a result of the pandemic, it reports, more organizations are
prioritizing skills over roles. One in three organizations “made it easier to share talent internally” in 2020, and one in five say they plan to do that in 2021. Types of teams change, too. The types of teams have undergone
change from the classic definitions. For instance, in early 2020, arti- cles were still referring to “virtual teams” as a type of team in itself. With the rise in remote work, “virtual” isn’t a differentiator. Teams can be hybrids of remote and on-site employees, synchronous, where all work on the same screen at the same time, or asynchro- nous, where team members often work at different times toward the same goal. Some types of teams that have evolved include: • A relay-style team can help each other cope with overwork and keeping up with communication. Typically, in senior living, one caregiver can pass the baton, picking up where another left off at a change of shift, relaying the information about residents or workplace issues during the change. Trust and communica- tion skills help these teams succeed.
• A synchronous team, all going after the same goal, can have a big impact and save time. An example would be a sales team that makes memorable presentations together, or a group of associates who energize the room when they all lead an activity. This kind of team can develop a unique identity that unifies them. They need to be skilled in collaboration as well as to trust in each other’s competence and that all will share accountability for results.
• A “justice league” style team is one in which each member has a particular skill, and the skills fit together to tackle a problem. These are common in tech and product development. Members can be naturally supportive and uncompetitive because they can easily recognize each other’s roles and skills. But they also need to respect each other’s expertise and experience. For instance, the compliance hero may need to check in only occasionally to be sure that their part of the goal is staying between the rails. The communications hero, who must attend every meeting, needs to understand that compliance isn’t slacking.
10 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JULY/AUGUST 2021
Swim in your lane To do well as a work team, act like an athletic team, advises expert Craig Wortmann, executive director of the Kellogg Sales Institute. “In any athletic endeavor where there's a team, each team player
must have a very specific and disciplined understanding of their role,” says Wortmann. “There’s another metaphor I can mix in—stay in your own swim
lane,” Wortmann says. “It would be chaotic in a race if every- one was crossing into each other’s swim lanes.” But “chaotic” was often exactly the word for it, Wortmann saw,
when he observes teams in research or training. “They’re stepping on each other. They’re piling on. They don’t know quite how to hand off to each other, or when to say what, or who tells what story.”
Practice, practice What’s the solution? Wortmann teaches the “selling for impact” methodology, where sales team members identify their roles, tim- ing, responsibilities, and handoffs—they call these “the rules of engagement.” You don’t go into the room without knowing who is going to do what or answer which type of questions. And they practice. As Wortmann points out, athletic teams prac-
tice continually—and as a result, they’re fit and ready to face any number of different scenarios in a fast-changing environment. “If you and I are presenting to a room full of seniors about our
property, what part of the story are you going to tell? How am I going to introduce you? And how are we going to endorse each other?” he says. “When a sports team takes the field, they have covered all of this
stuff in minute detail, but when it comes to business arrangements, or business selling via teams, we often don’t do this planning and practice before, quote, taking the field.”
Learning together Teamwork can extend to many types of activities, such as innova- tion or training. In fact, in the McKinsey Global Survey on reskill- ing, respondents who said they used peer learning teams or expert coaching “are likelier to report successful transformations, which underlines the importance of the team-based learning that, in our experience, is a crucial ingredient in successful skilling strategies.” And for many, working together as a team is one of the best parts
of a job. About a third of senior living employees responding to OnShift’s recent Employee Perspectives survey said their strong relationships with co-workers was one of the most rewarding parts of their job.
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