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Tuesday, 16 August 2011 10:21

Be a Good Team Player

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Kupe1I have written before about how critical it is to be a good team player.  Regardless of your skills, you limit your growth and potential if you don’t play nice with others. We are taught from an early age to share, listen, use our magic words (yes and please), and never, ever bite.  These basic principles are not just for 3 year olds.  They should stay with you for a lifetime.  I know there are some people who are just bad team players and others that only play nice with people of influence, like a boss or someone signing their paycheck.  Although this post is a good reminder for them, it also relates to everyone. For most of us our intention is to be a good team player, but work stress and life in general get us out of our team player mode.

I teach a one day workshop, Improving Communication through Improvisation, where I facilitate an exercise to highlight the common traps we fall into during projects which make us not-so-good team players.  The exercise is called group juggle.  The group gets in a circle. One ball is tossed around the group with each person catching and throwing the ball to someone else just once.  The ball makes it around to each person crisscrossing the circle depending on where each individual wants to throw the ball. Next, I introduce 2 balls, with each ball going in the same order.  Then a third, fourth and fifth ball is added in. As the balls are flying in the air I encourage the group to move fast because there is not a lot of time for the exercise.  Without fail balls are hitting people in the head, flying way out of reach, or being thrown to the wrong person.  Sometimes a ball gets dropped and just lies at someone’s feet.

Once the exercise is complete the group discusses how the exercise relates to projects. Here are the common points discussed.

  • You may have guessed that the ball represents an activity or task, and my encouragement to move faster is the equivalent to a manager, business stakeholder, or a project manager pushing to get the project completed as fast as possible.
  • The cause for the balls hitting others in the head or flying past them is caused by others just wanting to get a task off their plate.  The person passing the ball (task) was not making sure the receiver was ready for that ball (task). 
  • Balls being left on the ground are like tasks that get forgotten by one teammate or one teammate having too much to do.  No other team member stepped in to pick the ball up.  Being a good team player means you will jump in when necessary to help out a team mate.   

In life and especially on projects we do not accomplish overall objectives in isolation.  With the help of others we come together utilizing each individual’s strengths to achieve the best results.  You need to slow down and make sure your teammates are ready for the hand-off of tasks. You need to make sure your transition of a task is done in a way that works for your teammate.  And when a teammate needs help be there for them.  When you need help they will be there for you. 

Do it for the team,

Kupe

Read 2606 times Last modified on Monday, 02 April 2012 16:32
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Kupe Kupersmith

Kupe Kupersmith, President, B2T Training, possesses over 14 years of experience in the business analysis profession. He has served as the lead Business Analyst and Project Manager on projects in the utility, television and sports management and marketing industries. Kupe is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) through the IIBA. Kupe is a trained improvisational actor and performed for years in clubs around Atlanta.  He is a big believer that we can work and learn while having fun. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone!

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0 # Vicki James 2011-08-16 06:07
Sounds like I great exercise I will have to try with a group some time. I would like to add the necessity of communication. You alluded to it with acknowledging that the thrower needed to make sure the receiver was ready. Sometimes it may mean verbalizing the ball is coming, asking for help to get the dropped ball (even if it wasn't yours), finding out what you can do to help, and asking for status "are you ready" of someone you are not sure can receive. The second part is understanding that the purpose of the communication is to give the team full information to increase the chance of success. I've seen where receivers of communication have wrongly assumed the point was to question their ability or intentions. Thanks Kupe!
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0 # Dennis Nelson 2011-08-17 02:47
Most people would love to be team players. Each team has its own jargon, culture, framework and methodology (to mention a few distinctions). Too often forgotten is the need for the training of project staff in what it means to be a team player. Too many specialists worked in silos in their pasts. They've yet to be taught project communications, owning (not necessarily doing) a task 'til it's complete, ensuring their input into the inputs, outputs and schedules for deliverables for which they are to complete parts, even in general, let alone the specifics for the current project team.
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0 # Holly Martin 2011-08-17 04:25
Where I struggle sometimes is deciding whether or not to pick up the ball after someone has dropped it. Recently a coworker came to me directly to say he had a lot on his plate, and so would not be able to get to some of my tasks immediately. While I appreciated his coming to me to say so, I was also frustrated because I saw the importance of the task and wanted it to get done. I could do it myself, but while that would help in the short term, it's not the best thing to do in the long term (for various reasons). It's in my nature to be the team player, and pick up the ball when it's dropped so the game can keep going. But knowing when to not do so, or holding back from doing so, is twice as hard.
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0 # Kupe 2011-08-17 04:49
Good point Holly. Agreement on priorities is always a challenge on a team. We never really have enough time to do everything. Teams need to agree what tasks are highest priority and work towards those. In the situation you described it appears there is a disconnect between what you believed to be high priority vs your coworkers view.
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0 # Barbara 2011-08-17 06:46
I used to do that same exercise with process improvement classes I taught. (My version ended with blindfolds and eggs though...- And Vicky yes, communication was key in getting to these stages of the game) It was quite the eye opening exercise for many people to get a different perspective on what is happening and how minor modifications, and communicating with each other, can help any process/project .
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0 # Kupe 2011-08-17 06:55
@Barbara - that's brutal. Did you have to pay for anyone's dry cleaning bills? I do end with a twist by having one ball go the opposite direction, but no eggs.
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0 # Business Analyst Online Training 2011-08-17 21:23
Wow.. It's good to see this post. Very Innovative post. Thanks Sharing valuable information to all.
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0 # Barbara 2011-08-18 03:48
@kupe- no dry cleaning bills :-) one stain on a rug, if you want details I will email them to you. It really helped complete the picture
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0 # Kupe 2011-08-18 03:55
@Barbara -Please do. my email is in my bio above. Thanks!
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0 # Pete K-Star 2011-08-19 02:17
Just sent this blog round my team to share with them, maybe stimulate some discussion on how to improve. @Barb ara, nice idea! One thing that i have noticed with these types of workshops etc, is that once the participants leave at the end of the day, rarely does it get implemented and maintained after that. At least with the eggs, the stains will be a daily reminder.
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0 # Donna Jarvis-Miller 2011-08-19 13:09
Great post. I have participated in activities similar to this (no eggs were involved). @Pete, I agree many times the energy from such work does not get translated to the workplace. In order for for it to implemented is that the buy-in and leadership for team playing needs to come from the top down. I currently work with a firm where the president leads by example when it comes to teamwork. It is amazing and we never feel like a ball is going to be dropped - we are encouraged to 'raise' our hand to get help on projects so the clients end up with the absolute best product in the end.
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0 # Abe R 2011-08-24 01:29
Great article. Commu nication is, quite often, the "make it or break it" for our projects. I work at a company that always has dozens of projects floating around. We also have several managers, each with their own set of projects they are tasked with. Obviously, each manager believes that his/her project is the highest priority - this lead to a lot of confusion, frustration (and, at times, resentment/ange r) in the workplace. Our managers have a weekly meeting to discuss their priorities and to sort out "who will be working with whom." It seemed nice, but once they left the meeting they were back to arguing over who's priority is really the biggest priority. Finally, us "worker bees" asked (okay, demanded) that the managers e-mail the list of priorities to us after every meeting. Now we get a typed list with all our names on it, followed by the projects in order of priority (along with deadlines). Pr iorities can still shift during the week, but at least this list provides us some sort of stability with where we should focus our efforts - it is also a good visual for all of us to see the "cause and effect" if asked to bump-up another priority.
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