Team Trotters

Let's explore some of the good qualities of and bad qualities of a well formed team, by debriefing a video of the team in action.

The team in question have been working together for many years. Have a look at the video, a few times if you need to. Then take 5 minutes to think about what the team does well? Now take 5 minutes to think about what they do badly?

Video

While the resulting work of the team turns out to be a funny disaster, this team demonstrates some good and bad attributes of a well formed and performing team

Good team attributes

1. Knowledgable
2. Obvious leader
3. Had enough people to do the job
4. Delegation
5. Defined roles
6. Stronger men in the "right" place
7. Confidence
8. Right tools for the job
9. Succeeded in getting the job in the first place
10. Displayed expertise
11. Trusted each other
12. "good" communication
13. Motivated - money, prestige
14. Courage to take on the job
15. One, very clear goal

Bad team attributes

1. All planning was in dels head
2. Del's assumptions
3. other team members reliance on Del's thinking
4. Del's leadership style, Del was dismissive, belittling of butler
5. Hadn't actually done it before
6. No real energy
7. Hierarchical team
8. members didn't share leaders motivations
9. no continuous improvements
10. Del always compensated for others lack of competence
11. Del didn't realise his own limitations
12. Poor Communication - All talk, very little listening.
13. Complacency - Members are overly familiar with each other
14. Poor result - they break the chandelier

Reflect

Can you recognise any of these attributes in your team? What are you doing well? What aspects of your team could you improve?