The Art of Team Building is a four part series that details my methodical approach to creating and building teams that operate at a high level.  This methodology uses Six Sigma at its foundation, and has served as a recipe for success to transcend all organizations regardless of business type or function.   I hope you enjoy the read as much as I’ve enjoyed documenting the process....

Part I - Precision Team Building Process - Identifying Your Key Players

Throughout my career as a technologist, I have developed and come to rely on a suite of processes that I execute in each new engagement with a company. The first of these processes, Precision Team Building (PTB), is key to the human capital component that helps to identify a team’s strengths and weaknesses.   While you can’t force chemistry, you can most assuredly foster an environment to increase the likelihood dramatically by using the Precision Team Building process.
Producing output similar to the Myers Briggs personality test,  the results of this process prove even more valuable to team leaders due to the specific tailoring to the task at hand. PTB involves asking team members to complete a two-part survey/questionnaire about their proficiencies and experiences across various functions of IT.  The first poll is fairly short, and takes approximately  15-30 minutes to complete.  The second version of the poll is longer, more granular and provides a holistic view into the core of your IT team.  This second series of questions can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.
The motive of the surveys is multi-faceted.  The results provide psychological and sociological data that help develop the blueprint that will be used to build the team. The sum of the whole of any department reveals a distinct personality as a whole unto itself. The blueprint also allows for the handling of low-hanging fruit during the development and execution of the long-term plan and vision for the team. The psychographics created will serve as a general predictor, which forecasts future performance, loyalty, and operating effectiveness.
The goal of the human resource phase of the survey is to analyze the data generated and gauges the “state of the union” as it relates to the technological strengths and weaknesses of the team.  By heat mapping the results, technical areas can be identified that need strengthening through cross training or by purchasing the necessary education for the team to align with the business’ needs.  Heat mapping also provides insight to employees who have  specialized areas of expertise that do not exist within the rest of the team.  These subject matter experts are an organization’s single point of failure.  If something happens to them, the knowledge contained in their brain could be lost.  While some may consider this job security, it can also be seen as an inherent risk to both the employee and the organization they work for.  For the employee, there is a risk of work-life imbalance, burnout, and inhibiting their ability to grow due to the need for constant focus on the specific area of expertise.  For the organization, there is the obvious single point of failure problem, but more important is the fact that because no other team members are cross-trained, the rest of the team suffers.
It is a leader’s responsibility to identify the “tribal knowledge” and ensure its documentation and dissemination across the rest of the IT organization through cross training and knowledge cube creation.  
The output generated by the question and answer exercise can glean significant psychosocial  data from the group that will assist not only in helping you understand the current state of the team, but will also help you identify your top performers.  When executing the survey, ask your leaders to gather 100% participation from their team.  There are obviously extenuating circumstances that could delay the completion of a survey that must be taken into account, but as a general rule, the longer it takes to get 100% participation, the more challenges you will have in assembling your team.
There are several data points to consider here during this phase of the analysis:

The “When” is as important as the “What”

Timely participation can provide you with great insight into your team as a whole, as well as the individual contributors.  As the delta of time increases to gather the results, the amount of time required to prepare the team for the next phase grows in parallel.  Whether a team member completes the survey or not, you will be able to gather information on the current leader and the team as a collective  Some of the data includes:
  • work ethic
  • work load
  • level of respect for their manager
  • morale of the individual
  • morale of the team

Participation will only be as strong as your leaders.

This phase of the process also allows one to observe their leaders in action.  As they work to get their teams to participate and focus on the action to complete the questionnaire, you have an opportunity to observe your leader’s ability to:
  • communicate, both orally as well as written, with their team
  • produce results from a simple task
  • rally the team towards a common goal
  • garner the support of other leaders in the IT organization
At the end of this phase of the process, the information you gathered will reap many benefits.  This phase naturally encourages the cream to rise to the top; your top performers with the best attitudes and drive for success will present themselves plainly to you.  You will have a detailed map of each team member’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as that of the organization as a whole.  Your natural leaders will rise as well; you will have an understanding of each leader’s span of influence and level of respect inside of the organization, and that influence will assist you in uniting the team under a common flag.
Now that you have your map, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get the team operating at maximum performance.

If the team understands the individual, the individual will also understand themselves as a team.
In future blog releases the following topics will be covered:
Part II - Collaboration, Trust, and Transparency
Part III - Knowledge Cubes & The Art of Foundational Process
Part IV - Autonomy - Fostering Self Determination - The Utopia of Team Building