Does your team have the five factors of team effectiveness?
Library → Models and frameworks → Hackman’s Five Factors of Team Effectiveness
Richard Hackman was a renowned psychologist who specialised in organisational behavior and theory. He developed a model that explained what makes a team successful – known, oddly enough, as Hackman's ‘Five Factors of Team Effectiveness’ Model. Get all five aspects right, and the sky’s the limit. Let’s get into the five factors, shall we?
When all five aspects come together, superlative team performance can follow. Just like the Power Rangers!
1) A real team
The group is a real team, rather than a team ‘in name only.’ This means it should be:
bounded: it’s clear who’s in it, and who isn’t
stable: the membership of the team is not constantly in flux
interdependent: they rely on each other to accomplish their overall work.
They count on each other and work together as a unit.
Take note: if your ‘team’ do not share responsibilities, rely on each other to get things done, and have a common goal, then you might be managing a group of people or functional department, but not an actual team. And that’s OK!
2) A compelling direction
The team has a clear direction, and it is a direction that energizes and orients and engages the members. This includes understanding the team's mission and goals.
Set clear, ambitious, but achievable goals for your team that align with the company's broader mission and objectives. These should be goals that motivate and engage your team. Make sure that these goals are communicated clearly and frequently.
“Leaders often err either by giving teams too much direction (for example, telling them not only what they are to accomplish but all the details about how they are to go about accomplishing it) or too little (for example, giving merely a vague description of the team's purposes and leaving it to the team to "work out the details"). Setting good direction for a team means being authoritative and insistent about desired end states, but being equally insistent about not specifying how the team should go about achieving those end-states. This requires some skill.”
Richard Hackman, in an interview with HBS (2002)
3) An enabling structure
The team is designed and managed to facilitate rather than impede teamwork. The work design, team composition, and core norms of conduct foster competent team performance.
Ensure that the team's composition and structure support its goals. This can involve considering the mix of skills and personalities within the team, and adjusting as necessary. Also, establish norms of conduct that promote positive and productive behavior, such as mutual respect, open communication, and constructive feedback.
4) A supportive context
The organization provides resources, information, and rewards to support the team's work. There is an organizational context that supports teamwork, including a reward system that reinforces good team behavior, an educational system that develops necessary skills, and a supportive and responsive leadership.
Advocate for your team within the broader organization to ensure they have the resources and support they need to do their work effectively. This might involve negotiating with other departments for resources, or lobbying senior management for greater support. Also, ensure that good team performance is recognized and rewarded.
5) Expert coaching
When team members need help with task strategies, teamwork, and group dynamics, they can get it. The team leadership and coaching from the manager is aimed at helping the team to grow and develop, to overcome obstacles and to achieve its goals.
Provide coaching and feedback to your team members to help them improve both their individual skills and their ability to work as a team. This might involve regular one-on-one meetings, group training sessions, or bringing in an external coach or trainer. Be open to receiving feedback as well, and show a willingness to improve your own skills and behaviours as a manager.
More helpful frameworks to build & lead great teams
The five dysfunctions of a team: understand and overcome the root causes of teams-gone-wild
Forming, norming, storming and performing: the four stages teams commonly go through as they ‘gel’
Belbin team roles: nine kinds of ‘roles’ people subconsciously play within a team, and how to manage them
The Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum: consider how much power to delegate to your team as it develops
