With the impetus of ITIL v3 challenging every organization to break out of the departmental silos and fuse IT services with the day-to-day business operations, collaboration and synergy—not just ordinary teamwork—will be needed. Greg talks about some common dysfunctions of a team, suggests alternate ways of thinking about teamwork, and how to break through into peak performance.

Daly. How do you define teamwork?

Cortopassi. At the most basic level, teamwork is the often cited motto: 'together everyone achieves more.' When we put teams together—whether in defined corporate departments or ad hoc to address a particular project initiative—the underlying intention is that when we come together and are aligned toward a common goal, we get more done than by acting individually. Whether the motto plays out every time is something else entirely.

Daly. Good team leaders work hard at building team spirit and fostering a team culture that keeps the team focused and energized. So often, however, these team building activities lose their luster. Why do you think that is?

Cortopassi. Three main factors sit beneath the surface. The first is that we have an unrealistic assessment of the power of our social conditioning. In this culture, most of us were raised, rewarded, and reinforced to be winners, to be number one, coached into believing 'if you want it to be done right, do it yourself.' The American entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture, as a rule, doesn't foster solid conditioning around community and teams. There's a core conditioning, imprinting if you will, of a very individualistic, powerful, self-willed culture. What's in it for me? When we go into an organization and get on a team with a group of other individuals, we bring that conditioning with us. So, the reality is that this conditioning has a huge impact on the short- and long-term success of our team building efforts.

Daly. How are teams most challenged?

Cortopassi. They're most challenged by diversity, the ability to deal with different viewpoints and different ways of doing things. Rarely do we have a problem with others who agree with us and our way of doing things. If the purpose of a team is to expand its services and abilities and leverage its resources, it requires a diversity of viewpoints, experience, competencies, levels of responsibility, and power. When these components are not harnessed, the team can become a tremendous vehicle for conflict and dysfunction. When these team components are harnessed, it can be an incredibly powerful vehicle to leverage the team's collective resources and achieve extraordinary results.

Daly. How do we address the conflict that arises from this challenge of diversity?

Cortopassi. Group dynamic research has defined four stages of teams: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Idealistically, when we form a team around an initiative, we believe that we will naturally align with the goals when we come together. However, when we bring in people that are not like us and are diverse in how they approach the world or solve problems, it is inevitable that storming will occur. The research has clearly identified that this is when teams fall apart because they are not mature enough to recognize the value of conflict and mold it into an organizing force. However, it's through the storming that we form the roles, how the team will work, and where the power sits. If teams can work through the conflict, the storm, they will "norm"—agree on how they will play—and then they will perform.

Daly. Let's get back to the three factors that undermine teams. You talked about diversity. What are the other factors?

Cortopassi. The second factor is that we underestimate what it takes to change old behaviors into new ones. All too often team building is a single event or it becomes the flavor of the month with an expectation to motivate people out of behaviors that they have spent twenty, thirty, or forty years getting into. People are just supposed to hop up and change a lifestyle in a day, a week. It's like being overweight and going on a fad diet to lose it. Research is now showing that most fad diets do not work in the long run because people are not realistically addressing the lifestyle changes that need to take place to not just lose weight, but keep it off.

The third factor is that the team building efforts are not integrated and reinforced. Managers talk teams, but act individually. Companies talk teams, but reward people individually. We talk teams, but lead in favor of the people who are winning over the people who are losing.

One of my first team building initiatives was working with a real estate sales team. We developed extensive, fancy vision, mission, and operating principles, but the company didn't change the compensation. Consequently, there was no reason to work together when it came down to the bottom line. 'If I'm being rewarded for individual results, why invest my time and energy to work with someone who is in competition with that?'

Leaders must continue to nourish the team to keep momentum and reinforce the desired outcomes of the team initiative with systems, process, technology, and compensation. Until every member of the team can find the core meaning in the initiative for themselves and commit to the process of changing old habits, it's just a great short-lived strategy.

Daly. One of the primary calls to action in the new version of the IT Infrastructure Library is to integrate IT strategy and operations with the core business. It's no longer enough to work side-by-side. Disparate teams have to completely blend their efforts to achieve the shared goal. It may be calling for an order of teamwork that many may not be ready for.

 Cortopassi. What I know for sure is that the mind is not separated from the heart, and we hope they work together. And in business, organizations are not made up of separate parts, and we hope they work together. If we are going to stay competitive in an ever-changing economy that demands agility and responsiveness, we have to become more integrated in the way we service our customers.

Teamwork isn't just the latest strategy where 'I'll go work with those people over there.’ Integration is a new way of participation in business, a new way of living and working. It starts with integrating the perspectives, personalities, values, and assets of each of the individuals. This is how you create the value for integrating the various functions.

The idea of integration is first to build our own capacity for what we're good at in our personal and professional lives—exploring, developing, maturing, and growing beyond the way we have done business in the past. Most IT people are excellent at technology and not necessarily at interpersonal skills. It's important for IT to build that muscle, and for customer service to build the muscle for understanding technology. The greater our capacity, the greater is our ability to serve the larger whole. Like anyone who has ever worked out knows, you don't get buff by going to the gym for just two weeks. And, even if you do stick with it longer, rarely will you stay buff if you do not improve your diet, exercise, stress management, and overall lifestyle. Organizations, just like the human body, are made up of integrated systems taking into consideration all aspects of the individual's and team's capacity to achieve those shared goals.

Daly. You characterize your program, Synergy Circles, as the teambuilding structure for the twenty-first century. How do you define collaboration within this context?

Cortopassi. There are three major stages of collaboration. Stage one is the scenario where the people at the top see the need to collaborate and understand the downstream value. So, they put people together, rally them for the cause, and send them on their way. Many corporations get stuck at this first stage because they view it as another task to be accomplished ASAP and don't build the value for why they are together or get buy-in from the team members.

In my experience, people who are forced to be a part of a team don't actually work better together. At this stage people often feel obligated to work together and see the task as something they have to do to keep their job. As soon as the team project is over, individuals go back to their separate ways behaving in the same old ways until the next mandate.

Daly. You have described a rather dysfunctional scenario at the first stage of collaboration. What's next?

Cortopassi. I wouldn't call it dysfunctional, but, rather unrealistic. People don't buy-in when they feel left out. If the implementers are not a part of the new directive, they have no ownership. So, the second stage emerges when we put people together and spend time establishing the shared and individual value for why they are coming together. Time is invested to identify and upgrade the current behaviors, processes, and systems that do not support the goal of teaming. When you have goal clarity and team alignment and every member knows the value of coming together, teams can achieve true collaboration.

Daly. Do second stage teams define themselves differently—in other words, are there different roles to play? Is there a power structure?

Cortopassi. Collaborative teams are like other teams—they have a power structure and defined roles. However, collaborative teams invest time and resources to know what those roles are, clearly understand the assets and liabilities of each one of its members, and define how they play together. I've never seen a high performing team without trust. I've never seen a high performing team without an effective exchange of information, good communication. I've never seen an effective team that hasn't found a way to leverage diversity.

Daly. What is the third stage of collaboration?

Cortopassi. Synergy.This highly sought-after stage is made up of a series of ten core competencies that must be developed before a team can experience it. There is a strong foundation of ownership, personal responsibility, dependability, trust, integrity, effective communication, etc. There is an ongoing process of leveraging individual core competencies within a team while continuously upgrading everyone's level of performance and leadership. Each person grows and improves to a point where the group itself goes beyond project and task management. It becomes a creative, dynamic life force. It's not just a strategy. It transcends strategy.

Daly. Have you ever seen anyone reach that level of synergy?

Cortopassi. Absolutely. No question about it. Although uncommon, the teams I've worked with that have achieved this level of performance do so as a result of an agreed upon set of practices designed to develop a deep root system, a maturity within the team members. They are involved heart-and-mind in the process and understand that it is one thing to want high performance and another thing to create it.

Daly. Let's explore your comment that you've never seen a high performing team without an effective exchange of information.

Cortopassi. We call this transparent communication, one of the core competencies of synergistic teams. The sharing of information is the primary organizing force in any organization. One of the principles of synergy circles is 'clarity and alignment = effectiveness.'

Everyone has expectations, projections, and opinions on the best way to do something. Since we are all unique, it is critical to share this information to create a common alignment. Without it we waste a tremendous amount of time and energy making inaccurate assumptions, managing hidden expectations, and subtly manipulating others to meet one's desired outcomes. It is common for people who get frustrated in environments where there is little transparent communication to complain, talk behind people's back, make excuses, blame, and backstab, and then wonder why they're not playing at a high level of performance.

Daly. What other core competencies need to be in place to build the foundation for synergy?

Cortopassi. The first core competency is becoming aware of the responsibility we have to own our choices, understand the repercussions of our choices, and be able to shift our choices as needed. We will not change what we are not aware of. If we continue to do what we've always done, we will continue to get what we've always gotten.

Transformation is another core competency, the ability to transform outdated practices, excuses, and limited thinking into opportunities, possibilities, and a whole new level of play. One of the muscles teams need to develop is the ability to transform—face the same situation, but make a different choice in how you handle it.

Peak performance doesn't show up out of everything being good and positive all the time. Mistakes and conflict are part of being human. Pain and conflict are fertilizer for peak performance. We need to learn to transform conflict into organization, transform problems into opportunities, transform doubts and fears into solutions, and turn those challenges into a higher level of play. The question is how are we playing, and is this the best we can do? Are we allowing our process to help us grow as a company, a team, an individual? Are we learning from our challenges? Or, are we just using the problems and conflicts as an excuse for why we can't get to that next level?

Daly. When do you know that you have achieved synergy?

Cortopassi. Synergy is a by-product of a mature team. No one can control when synergy happens or not. The creative process doesn't work that way. Synergistic teams have a foundation that they all believe in. For example, any team that has made it to the Super Bowl has good teamwork; they wouldn't be in contention if they weren't good. So, what makes one set of people that has practiced just as hard, has just as strong athletes, and good playbooks become the Super Bowl Champion, or not? Synergy.

When synergy appears, something occurs beyond what the team knew, something beyond the plan. There's no play for it, no perfect leader that led that one situation. We know we have a greater capacity—but how do we tap into it? When mature people connect at a level beyond what they are used to doing or what they think they know or have plans for, something incredible shows up.

Daly. What are synergy circles, and how do they work?

Cortopassi. Synergy circles are an approach to develop the foundation and maturity needed to build and sustain high performing teams. It uses a very practical strategy, birthed out of twenty-eight years and 3,000 programs integrating people, process, and technology toward a common, organizational vision. It's a choreographed dance between the individual, the group, and the leader—an integrated process where we leverage individual competencies and team performance to build individual and organizational capacity and catalyze the potential that resides within. The process blends individual and group development initiatives, drawing upon the benefits of group dynamics, to foster a creative environment where innovation and synergy can emerge.

Greg Cortopassi is featured in the pre-conference workshop, "Synergy Circles: Team Building for the 21st Century," an interactive workshop designed for groups and/or established teams of five or more from the same company.
http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2008/session.aspx?SessionID=1135

This unique opportunity will introduce your organization to the vital components of Synergy Circles and help you transform ordinary team work into collaborative, breakthrough performance. Learn more about Greg's programs at http://www.launchyourdreams.com.