How to Build Teams that Row Together
I asked top leaders, “What three problems hinder great teamwork?” Many responses centered on alignment.
- Not understanding the team’s mission.
- Lack of a clear mission.
- Lack of clarity about roles and expectations.
- Misalignment on mission or purpose.
- Lack of clarity.
I asked the same leaders, “What three things do great teams habitually do?” Many responses centered on the broad topic of alignment.
- Row in unison.
- Have clear measurable goals.
- Reemphasize objectives/clarify goals.
- Stay on mission.
- Constantly reinforce the team’s mission.
Shared pain motivates people to row together:
A hole in the boat brings people together.
People row together when solving the problem is useful to everyone in the boat. Connect self-interest and organizational-interest if you want people to row together.
What’s in it for ME connects with what’s in it for US on teams that row together.
Compelling mission is the answer to a painful problem.
Discussion topics:
- What problem are we solving?
- What pain-point are we answering in the world?
- How will we fill the gap between what should be and what is?
- How does our solution make the world better?
People row together when the hole in the boat matters to them.
If you can achieve your goal alone, team work is a frustrating inconvenience.
Find the right hole:
The hole is out there.
Great teams go beyond fixing the hole in their own boat. Great teams fix the hole in someone else’s boat.
A team that’s focused on it’s own pain can’t bring value to the world. Work on teamwork so your team can bring value to people who aren’t on the team.
Tips for building teams that row together:
- Get in one boat.
- Clarify the destination. (Mission/goal)
- Row in the same direction.
- Respect the rower beside you. No one rows with vitality when they feel disrespected.
What prevents teams from rowing together?
How might leaders build teams that row together?
Bonus material:
Team effectiveness discussion guide. (reWork)
Conquering team dysfunction. (Table Group)
Sometimes too many people are calling the strokes or beating the drum when we just need one caller and the rest rowing.
Thanks Duane. So true. After determining the destination, one person keeps their eye on the goal. Everyone else concentrates on rowing.
Some has to persistently talk about the destination so we don’t loose sight of where we’re going.
Dan,
I think alignment is a very important topic not only at the team level but also at the department and organizational levels as well.
I recently created a video on “Organizational Alignment. See what you think.
https://youtu.be/DrIJww-079Q?list=PLlXnjBRyZk7ZzQtmriT7I14DHUtubMm7e
Good post Dan. Sometimes with servant leadership we end up training to many leaders. We can find our self trying to hold someone back a little till there is a position for them to lead. It is confusing to tell someone you are a leader but right now I need you to shut up and row.
Your post connected to a favorite book of mine – The Boys in the Boat – it’s an inspiring read with great parallels to leadership. Teamwork and understanding how to give up self – and row for the others in the boat – powerful stuff!
Still trying to get to that book. Just so much to do. If its that good I will get back to the book.
And when you’re the one beating the drum. Make sure you do it consistently and clearly. And then let the people row. Don’t get mad about bad rowing if your direction was unclear. And don’t tell everyone to stop rowing because they aren’t doing it the way you wanted, and say “I’ll just do it myself” because that isn’t going to get you where you want to go either.
Hard lesson to learn, after all when I was rowing I did it so much better…
Great discussion topics Dan. A simple way to remember the questions is ASBP – As-Is – Should Be – Barriers – Pay Out. What is happening right now? (A) What should be happening? (S) What are the barriers causing the problem? (B) What is the pay-out if we overcome the barriers? (P)
Most of my teams that failed to achieve any sort of teamwork whatsoever, all failed because of poor leadership. I have seen teams destroy themselves from the inside-out. If it was visible to me, surely it was visible to the leader of the team as well. I can’t figure out why anyone in a place of authority would allow their ship to sink when all they had to do was fix the hole in it. Likewise, my successful teams worked in unison like ants or bees. Everyone had a clear and defined role and our leader made sure that we all had common goals.
I think people lose trust in the organization and/or leadership. If they lose that trust but believe in the objective, the course will be difficult to navigate. I believe this is where division conquers unity – we may all agree to disagree on certain issues and maybe even the approach but if you believe in leadership, you will follow through to the mission.
On the flip side, leadership must balance organizational mission with their human capital, their most valuable asset.
A hole in a *small* boat brings people together. In big boats, sometimes it leads to, “Not my fault.” Organizing a big boat so it feels small (and not like a Roman trireme with galley slaves) is difficult. Maybe it’s like a fleet of small boats.
The picture of a rowing crew is an excellent visual for how a successful team must work and be aligned. If one of the row crew members is not correctly aligned, then the entire crew is affected. I played sports up through college, but I was never on a row crew, so I had to look for more information. I found an article titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Rowing Crew” from Rowingreview.com which has information about the rowing crew’s positions and the purpose that each crew member has within the boat. The the leader of the boat called the coxswain while the coxswain does not physical row, the purpose of the position is to the lead the crew. This is accomplished by communicating with the row crew and steering the boat. The coxswain is also the motivator of the boat ensuring each crew member puts out maximum effort. Leaders of organizations have the same responsibilities. They must communicate with team members and have the role of steering the mission to the finish line. The other position in a row crew team is the rowers which physical move the boat. Each boat has multiple rowers, but only one coxswain. If there are two coxswains in the boat at the same time, this would lead to confusion among the rowers. This scenario also translates to the business world. Having multiple managers can give team members different information which can lead to confusion on many levels. The row crew are the work horses of the boat. The article mentions that the rowers face towards the coxswain with their back to the front of boat. So, the rowers do not actually see where they are going, they must trust in the coxswain that the boat is going in the correct direction. The crew members must work as one unit to successfully move the boat. While the rowers can’t see the finish line, they have a clear understanding of the team’s mission and what must be done to complete the mission.
Rowingreview.com. (n.d.). A Beginner’s Guide to Rowing Crew. Retrieved from https://www.rowingreviews.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-rowing-crew/
What a great post. I was sitting here at working reading this one during the tail end of an endless conference call that was discussing the efficiency of one of our peer review systems for getting a final product to the client. And you know what, dysfunction was present everywhere throughout the meeting. Normally, there’s no problem with collaboration among peers but there was a lack of a defined mission or purpose of this meeting and the result seemed to be a non-stop influx of unregulated chatter and opinions. The result was disagreements between people on topics not even relative to the matter at hand and, as a result, very little was accomplished. It almost felt as if we ended up further back than we started, and the issue was that there were no defined roles or leadership headed into this thing. The group was not rowing in unison and we had no guide to get us to that pace.
Teamwork and collaboration are inevitable in the business and/or professional world, and clarifying roles, goals, and leadership heading into an objective is a must. The idea to share the pain of a problem and clearly define a destination here really stick out to me since I think that’s what we lacked the most. So many meetings seem to just be there to kill time with no real end game ever defined. Additionally, I can name a number of times where a task is simply handed down by an authority to a team who is expected to solve it on their own, there is often times no shared burden between levels or departments. The advice you provide here on how to approach these issues really helps in initially identifying the problems. I think that defining a leadership role and sharing the burden are what I am going to keep in mind when headed into the next one tomorrow.
Hello Dan! This post directly relates to a recent lecture about “Motivational and Organizational Behaviors” in my Health Systems, Policy, and Management course. Motivation comes for an individual’s needs or interests that compel them to achieve a goal. As a leader, it is imperative to cultivate motivation within a team to maintain high productivity. Your point about connecting individual interests and aligning them to the organizational interest is important in building effective teams. This is why employers often ask about potential hires’ thoughts on organizational values or goals to gauge why that individual is interested in joining the organization. Work that feels self-fulfilling and meaningful helps drive motivation and increases productivity. In building and maintaining a team’s motivational levels, it is important to use both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. An example of successful intrinsic motivators is organizational funding for staff professional development opportunities. If others support an individual teammate’s personal goals, the individual feels a deeper sense of belonging to the organization and motivation to maintain their productivity levels. Recently, my job provided funding for me to attend the American Public Health Association conference as my professional development opportunity to expand my maternal health knowledge. This was a wonderful experience because I got to focus on my passion and later shared my insights with the team. Extrinsic motivators can be rewards, such as a promotion or bonus. I appreciated your analogy of comparing rowing a boat to establishing clear communication within a team. I agree that sharing one boat with a clear collective understanding of the final destination and the direction of how to reach that location are foundational components to a team’s communication. I find that routine check-ins are a great way to track how everyone is feeling about the team’s direction and maintain transparency to avoid miscommunication in the future. Furthermore, this topic is important when discussing the sustainability of interdisciplinary public health teams. When designing, implementing, and evaluating initiatives, the team’s plans can shift as they engage in the community. I believe that open-mindedness and flexibility are crucial when maintaining motivation and productivity as the team evolves to meet the needs of their population.
Hi Dan,
As a rower myself, I enjoyed this analogy you gave. In terms of rowing, a boat that doesn’t row in unison will move forwards in an incredibly unproductive way. It will feel uncomfortable, be misaligned, and move very slowly. If it is out of unison enough it may even flip. Likewise, it is easier for a boat of lets say two or four people to get in unison than a boat of eight. We can probably say the same for work teams. I could imagine it being more difficult to get eight team members on board for great team work for a shared mission than it would be to get two or four people.
I think right now, in the time of zoom, good team work can be especially difficult. Referring back to one of your older posts, there are definitely more distractions when working from home making it more difficult to focus on one thing at a time. I’m sure for many this is reflected in the work they bring to their team. I think the best way leaders can build teams that row together is to find those who have similar work styles. Some people may work better independently and others more collaboratively. I think matching people on their working styles can be a useful technique for setting teams up for success.
Being on a well-functioning team feels natural and often goes unnoticed. But when the team isn’t working well the dysfunction is glaring. During my brief time working in a summer camp, getting the campers to and from activities was chaotic and disorganized. Ioften lost track of where campers were and would be late to several events. When answering the question, “what prevents teams from rowing together?” in the case of summer camp it was a lack of a clearly defined procedure. Some strategies I enacted to get the team to “row together” was to create subordinate roles as helpers. I made these “helpers” accountable for several campers. Accountability acted as the “glue” to the team. Additionally, I asked them for their input on strategies about how to maintain an accurate count of each camper. The helpers suggested a count off by numbers system which became routine and very accurate. When everyone was able to “row together” i.e. have a voice or job within the herd, things went much more smooth. By recruiting other campers and having them develop a system I made the individuals invest in the process. The mission and goal became a collaborate process. Added bonus points if you can still keep it fun and build upon team members’ strengths.
Rowing a boat is a great visual of a team working in perfect coordination towards a specific goal. Some leaders find it easy to assess their employees finding the appropriate motivation that pushes them to work at one-hundred and ten percent efficiency. Even when employees are fully motivated, you may find them wasting time on useless or unnecessary work.
Keeping a group focused is more than motivation. Clearly defined goals that can be measured are important. Employees can get frustrated and discouraged when their hard work is not recognized. While having one goal is at least required, having checkpoints along the way can be helpful. This is especially true if the goal may take months or years to accomplish.
Checkpoints, breakdowns, or milestones should also be measurable in one form or another. They could be as simple as: create one object, done, create the second object, done, create the third and last object, done. When one thing is created, the completion of that item is a definitive point that can be measured. When the milestones are not as clear as creation or deletion, a well defined milestone should be created. These milestones can be broad if need be. If a team reaches a percentage of completion between twenty and thirty percent by a specific date, a milestone is reached. A milestone can be designed in almost any conceivable way. As long as the milestone is defined, communicated to the employees doing the work, and actually feasible, every employee that contributes to that milestone will feel satisfaction in the completion of that milestone.
It can not be stressed enough that the milestones be easily defined and actually attainable. While completing a milestone is moral boosting, failing a milestone, especially if the milestone is completely unreachable, is devastating to moral. When an unreachable milestone is issued, an employees faith in the manager that set the milestone is broken. If a company backs that managers decision, the faith that employee has in the company is damaged. Either way, that employee will lose efficiency in his or her work, job dependability, and may possibly turn into an employee who actively seeks to undermine the companies ability to work efficiently.
Awesome blog. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!