Issue Resolution and Prevention Specialists
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6 Common Symptoms of an Underperforming Team
Recognizing when teams are underperforming is critical to business success. If a team is not hitting the mark, the likely outcomes include unsatisfied customers, disgruntled employees, delayed growth, reduced profit, and excessive time to market – overall lagging business results. There are tell-tail signs of a team in trouble – once you know how to identify them, it is possible to make needed adjustments and accelerate overall performance of the team and your company. Below are a few of the signs to watch for, ordered from team formation to project execution.
1. The team leader is not clearly identified. Teams are established in many ways, sometimes via management’s advance planning but other times spontaneously, such as when a big issue suddenly arises. When these spontaneous project teams form, there is a propensity for people to start working without naming a leader to coordinate the team, actions, and communication. This often results in chaos. Have you seen a customer emergency situation without a clear leader defined? It happens far too often. It’s much more effective to briefly pause and structure the team properly with all needed functions and sites represented, and of course to name the leader. The leader could come from any of a variety of functional groups in these situations. Don’t chose the leader based on the function they happen to perform; select the team leader based on the talents required to maximize the chances of success. Determine, for example, whether customer communication, technical knowledge, or organizational skills are the priority and select accordingly. Note that team leadership can (and should) be formally handed off as the issue evolves and different skill needs come to the fore.
2. Roles within the team are not defined or not clear. Roles within a team can develop based on many factors, including the type of team (e.g., problem solving, corrective action, new product development, continuous improvement, change management, etc.), its goals, the progress along the project plan, and the specific functions and activities involved. Best practice is establishment of a RASCI chart describing the default standard for each functional role. RASCI stands for Responsible (owner of a task or activity), Accountable (owner of overall project, control over allocating relevant resources), Supporting (providing assistance), Consulting (providing advice/guidance), Informed (need to be kept in the loop). RASCI’s help ensure everyone understands what’s expected of themselves and others when teams form. Having such a structure will allow all employees to follow a standard protocol, moving faster and reducing churn. However, please note that RASCI’s are just a starting guide. It is perfectly acceptable to team members to agree to blur or cross the lines on the RASCI when it makes sense to do so.
3. Action items and milestones are unclear. We frequently see team leader’s action lists that are unfocused, too long, or not sufficiently well-defined to drive action. Action lists should show the overarching plan for an entire project but individual actions should be very crisply defined. It’s critically important to include periodic milestone checkpoints to drive progress for each team member (we find weekly works best for most projects, but sometimes daily is required for very urgent issues). Action item lists that have targets set too far in the future often result in missed deadlines – people lose track without the reminder of an imminent deliverable. A balance must be struck: The team leader should be managing the critical upcoming deliverables and holding the team members accountable to deliver on time and with adequate quality, but they mustn’t fall into the trap of trying to micromanage everyone. There are several steps to improving team and project management execution (part of a specific CAEDENCE workshop, reach out for more details).
4. Team members stepping backwards instead of jumping in to tackle tough actions or assignments. We’ve all worked on a school project with that one person who doesn’t help at all; it stinks being one of the team members who actually cares. Guess what? Unfortunately, the same thing sometimes happens in almost all businesses. Poorly performing teams frequently have ‘passengers’, team members quietly listening without participating, not offering many inputs or actions. This can be highly de-motivating for the other colleagues. Teams like these can drift into stagnation, with people backing away from critical actions, not ‘jumping into the fire’ to tackle tough assignments, speak up, or lead. There are many reasons why someone might not help on the team. They might be afraid of the challenge itself, not recognize the tasks as their job, they might not have the necessary skills, or they might have competing priorities. Step one is communication – talk to the person one-on-one to clarify expectations, understand their concerns, and rearrange priorities if needed. If the issue persists, one of the best strategies is to make it more apparent: have team members present their updates at team meetings, set visible milestones for them to hit, have them present to management (or even customers) versus hiding behind others. If you still don’t see improvement, involve the passenger’s manager to support or coach them, or directly coach up their leadership skills yourself. If the situation persists, escalating the complaint to their management may be necessary.
5. Best practices not being followed (or unclear, or nonexistent). I recently saw this quote from American author Brandon Mull, “Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.” Strong teams don’t reinvent the wheel, they take advantage of the known best ways of doing things. If you see repeat issues in the same areas, “solving” the same problems again and again, these are signs that the team is not following a set of best practices. Is this a gap in company structure and training, or are individuals not seeking out the current practices? Without a systems-thinking culture, this problem will arise very quickly. Codifying the learning of various teams (both inside and outside your business/industry) and effectively deploying that learning pays off handsomely. Instituting things like structured problem-solving, standardized change management protocols, stage gate new product development, defined customer communication methods, and many other kinds of tools and templates can save huge amounts of time, effort, and resources. (CAEDENCE can lead your systems deployment or updates using years of documented best practices, see here for more info).
6. Results are falling short. Are milestones slipping on key projects? Do you see customers upset or lacking confidence in the team? Are the team’s KPIs (Key Process Indicators) behind typical performance for the broader business? Monitor outcomes and start digging into why the results are lagging. Managers should regularly monitor performance and step in to change the outcome if the team is headed ‘off the rails’. First, look for evidence of the other 5 symptoms to pinpoint the problem. Next, help the team overcome the gap through coaching or training, or investigate other ways to address the problem. Finally, continue to monitor performance by either attending some of the team meetings or asking for periodic reviews. (CAEDENCE can help you establish KPIs and dashboards well as defining remedial actions.)
In summary, it is vital to periodically assess team performance. Use the 6 symptoms of an underperforming team to recognize how a team is functioning. Take needed actions to close the gaps. Are you recognizing these symptoms and taking necessary actions to address them? If you need help to spot team disfunctions, actively coach a struggling team, or provide training to avoid or overcome these pitfalls, reach out to CAEDENCE – we can help!
Danger is lurking around every corner in a new product development / new product introduction project. Avoidable risks wind up blindsiding teams, always at the worst possible moment. Risks blow up into problems because teams misjudge their nature and origin, and lack the right tools and processes to effectively identify, assess, and mitigate them. Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction
There are dozens of tools for reducing risk in new product development and introduction. We know because we've used them to successfully launch dozens of new products in highly demanding industries like automotive and aerospace. Let CAEDENCE show you a few of our favorite tools that you can use immediately to dramatically reduce the chances of disaster on your next NPD/NPI project.
Risk is inherent in new product development and introduction. Regardless of your personal risk tolerance, it's critical to understand that unmanaged risk could ruin your business. We're not saying "don't take risks". We're saying "take risks with your eyes open". Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction.
Many risks in NPD & NPI are visible. New process steps that must be implemented with caution and back-up plans. Unique product features that are challenging to accomplish. But there are other risks lurking. Things that can derail your project before you even realize. A bit nervous now? You should be! But, don't worry. Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction.
Successful new product development and introduction projects require carefully balancing dozens of critical parameters, any one of which could sink the ship. At the end of the day, each of those dozens of NPD/NPI success measures relates to an aspect of just 4 main stakeholder care-abouts: Launch timing, Project budget, Product margin performance, Quality / delivery (customer experience). Learn the systematic method to reduce risks in your new product developments.
CAEDENCE has decoded decades of business experience to reveal the intuition and practices of top performing teams and individuals to radically accelerate people and teams toward excellence. We know the theory, but we've also lived everything we teach and honed best practices for decades. This arms us with tons of real-world examples to engage students and clarify techniques. We often help clients out of crisis situations, but our passion is preventing crises from occurring in the first place. This means (a) establishing robust systems, (b) empowering leaders, and (c) upskilling teams.
We challenge our problem solving classes to play “20 questions” – can we guess a randomly selected word using just 20 yes/no questions? Engineers often say it’s impossible. But, 99 out of 100 times, we find the word! How? There’s no magic: what’s on display is the power of binary decision making, what we call “splitting the dictionary”. And you can apply it to all sorts of real-world problem-solving scenarios. “Splitting the dictionary” is a problem scoping technique of asking the right questions to eliminate as many incorrect possibilities as you can, thus focusing your root cause search in the right area. Effective scoping is key to efficient problem-solving. Once the problem is clearly defined, think of the root cause as a needle in a haystack. Before you start examining hay, first ask “Am I on the right farm?”, then, “Which haystack should I search?”, then “Which portion of the chosen haystack is most likely to contain the needle?” Scoping out the possibilities with a simple tool or test can radically acc
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“The people we nominate to help in this situation are either going to be the chicken or the pig.” The room went silent. The “chicken or pig” comment came specifically in response to resistance someone had to sending some people to the remote site. After a pause, the executive went on to explain “when you are making breakfast, the chicken contributes, but the pig is committed”. We weren’t going to resolve this problem with remote and part-time help. To get the job done, we would have to send people truly committed to working hands-on and to staying abroad for weeks until the job was done. “chicken or pig” became team shorthand for level of commitment. Next time your team is faced with a big challenge, I strongly encourage you to reflect - are you and your team sufficiently committed for the team to succeed? Are you going to be chickens or pigs?
When trying to improve or optimize a business or manufacturing process, there is one main rule: your actual process is never what you think it is. You need to "walk the process" (literally follow and watch every step of the process) to understand every step and detail. This will reveal steps and activities that are non-value added or causing significant pain. In addition, when working with teams, if people see that you’re really listening to them, they will be open to listening to you.
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