U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

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Getting Started

Delayering, reengineering, downsizing. These are all reasons why so many Federal agencies are looking at teams as a more effective means of accomplishing work. But how do you get started working in teams?

• Analyze the Work
• Building Blocks
• References

Analyze the Work. First, you need to analyze the work of your organizational unit in order to decide which types of teams would be best. If your work is simple, requires high levels of supervision, or if it can be done independently by individuals, you may want to use parallel, temporary teams for solving problems or for generating suggestions. If your work tends to flow as a series of one-time projects, project teams would be appropriate. If, however, the work is complex, interdependent, and requires innovation or coordination among many people or functions, permanent work teams such as self-directed and/or cross-functional teams may be the answer.

Allan Cox, author of Straight Talk for Monday Morning, describes teams as being a little bit like buildings: "Each one is unique, distinctive, and serves a different purpose. Yet all buildings share one thing if they are to have lasting strength, they must apply basic building blocks and respect certain principles."

Building Blocks. No matter which type of team you decide to use, team members will need specific skills in order to work together successfully. People will need training in how to run meetings, how to listen effectively, how to give and take feedback, how to manage conflict, and how to solve problems.

Along with training, teams also need goals. They must have a clear reason why they're together and know what they are to accomplish. Without clear, driving goals, team efforts can wander off course, lose momentum, or simply dissipate because of lack of interest.

Teams also need to establish ground rules right up front. Ground rules are the guiding principles under which team members work. For instance, starting meetings on time, making decisions by consensus, and never interrupting each other during meetings are common ground rules.

Project teams and work teams should also establish a measurement system that balances results measures with process measures. (It may not be cost-beneficial to design a good measurement system for a parallel, temporary team.) The measurement system will provide team members with feedback on their performance so they can pinpoint problems and improve performance.

Self-directed teams require a great deal more planning and preparation than do parallel or project teams. Agencies need to design the planning and implementation of self-directed teams carefully. Because team members take on duties previously done by supervisors, they will need extensive training in administrative duties such as planning work, budgeting, ordering supplies, approving and planning leave, appraising performance, and interviewing prospective employees. Supervisors will need training in their changing roles, whether they become team leaders, facilitators, mentors, coaches, or team members.

References. Current literature abounds that gives excellent advice for starting teams. OPM's Performance Management and Incentive Awards Division can make recommendations on especially good books and articles for you and provide you with an annotated bibliography. We can also help you network with other agencies using teams. In addition, we can give you ideas or help you adapt your performance management system to support your team efforts.

As Allan Cox observes: "Teams can be powerful and efficient, but they require special handling and careful attention to how they are constructed. Teams don't get to be teams by accident: teams get to be teams by learning to be teams."

Originally published on December 1994.