Hidden Agendas

Team goals provide a number of valuable functions, but they also can be a source of problems. Problems arise from hidden agendas, which are unspoken individual goals that conflict with overall team goals (Johnson & Johnson, 1997).

The most basic type of hidden agenda relates to the motivational aspect of goals. Although the team may decide to commit itself 100% to doing a high-quality job on a project, some team members may not perceive the team’s activities as important.

They might decide to slack off and spend more time and effort on other activities. Their goal is to help the team succeed with the least amount of effort on their part.

A second type of hidden agenda relates to the directional aspect of goals. Some team members may not agree with the goals of the team, or they may have individual goals that are incompatible with the team goals. For example, in an organization budget committee, team members must deal with the potentially conflicting goals of doing what is best for the organization versus doing what is best for the departments they represent.

Within a team, hidden agendas can create conflict that is difficult to resolve. For example, a low motivated team member will create excuses rather than tell the team he or she is unwilling to work hard on the project. A team member with conflicting loyalties will hide this conflict, leading other team members to distrust what the team member says. The overall effect of hidden agendas is to damage trust within the team, which reduces communication and makes conflicts more difficult to resolve.

Directly confronting people about hidden agendas often does not work, because it simply forces defensiveness and denial. Rather than directly confronting a team member about a hidden agenda, the team can strengthen its processes to reduce the impacts of hidden agendas. The team can reevaluate its goals so they are acceptable to all team members. Team members’ roles can be renegotiated so that expectations are clear. Teams can build trust through better documenting and monitoring of work commitments. Team leaders can help create a safe and open communication climate so that conflicts are more easily addressed.

Team Norms

Team norms are the ground rules that define appropriate and inappropriate behavior in a team. They establish expectations about the behavior of team members. These rules may be explicit (e.g., use consensus decision making) or implicit (e.g., team members take turns when talking). Although most teams do not formally state their norms, members typically are aware of the rules and follow them.

There are four main functions of team norms (Feldman, 1984). First, team norms express the team’s central values, which help give members a sense of who they are as a team. Second, norms help coordinate the activities of team members by establishing common ground and making behavior more predictable. Third, norms help define appropriate behavior for team members, allowing members to avoid embarrassing or difficult situations, thereby encouraging active participation in the team. Fourth, norms help the team survive by creating a distinctive identity; this identity helps team members understand how they are different from others and provides criteria for evaluating deviant behavior within the team.

A number of factors affect the power of team norms to control the behavior of team members (Shaw, 1981). The clearer and more specific a norm is delineated, the more members will conform to it. If most team members accept and conform to the norms, others are more likely to conform. The more cohesive a team becomes, the more conformity there will be to team norms. Teams are more tolerant of deviance from peripheral norms than from norms that are central to their operations (Schein, 1988). For example, technical experts who are valuable contributors to the team may be allowed to violate peripheral norms concerning dress codes or rules of social etiquette.

How Norms Are Formed

Team norms often develop unconsciously and gradually over time. They are created by mutual influence and develop through the interactions of team members. Even though people obey these norms, they may be unable to articulate them. In addition, team members typically obey norms even when there is no external pressure to comply, such as the threat of punishment. This example shows that team members have accepted the norms and are using them to guide their own behavior.

Team norms come from a variety of sources. Teams can develop norms based on those from other teams they previously joined. Norms can be based on outside

standards, such as those outlined by other social or organizational teams. Norms also are strongly influenced by what happens early in the team’s existence, and they are most likely to develop in situations where members are unsure of correct or acceptable behaviors. For example, when a team is having problems with members showing up late for meetings, the team is likely to develop explicit norms for attendance.

Many teams simply ignore the notion of team norms. They assume that everyone knows how to behave in a team and that there is no need to take the time to articulate norms. It is not until a team starts to have problems that it becomes apparent that different members are operating under different norms. Teams benefit from discussing and establishing explicit team norms, which prevents the development of inappropriate norms (e.g., it is acceptable to be late in submitting one’s part of the project) and makes everyone aware of the behaviors that are expected. Table 3.3 presents some issues to consider when establishing team norms for team meetings. When new teams are created, it is useful for the team leader to discuss and obtain agreement about norms. This can be done as part of the process of creating the team’s contract. (See Appendix for an example.)

Because teams often rely on information and communications technology, it is important to develop norms about the use of technology (Duarte & Snyder, 2006). Teams need to decide which technologies to use for task and social communication and how electronic documents are shared and managed. For example, technology norms may address issues, such as the expected speed of response to messages, when the entire team is included in a message, who is allowed to edit shared documents, and what is the appropriate size of email and text messages. Finally, teams need to decide when face-to-face communication is necessary. (See Appendix for activity related to establishing technology norms.)

SOURCE: Adapted from Scholtes, P. (1988). The team handbook: How to use teams to improve quality. Madison, WI: Joiner Associates.

Impact of Team Norms

Team norms have positive and negative aspects. Because they control the team’s interactions, norms allow fairer communication, maintain respect among members, and distribute power to weaker members of the team. For example, decision norms like using consensus can limit the power of the leader; equal participation norms can prevent team meetings from being overwhelmed by talkative people; and courtesy norms can prevent bullying and intimidation. These are a benefit to the internal workings of the team. However, norms enforce conformity, which can be a problem from the organization’s perspective.

The Hawthorne studies of teamwork showed the benefits of and problems with team norms. In a factory setting, team norms controlled the amount of work people performed. When the team had high performance norms, norms were a benefit because they kept laggards in line and encouraged workers to help one another. When the team had low performance norms, however, the ability of management to change the team’s behavior was limited because group norms were resistant to outside influence.

Application: Jump-Starting Project Teams

Organizing people into teams to complete projects often leads to initial drops in performance because it takes time for teams to develop their internal social processes and approaches to the task (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). When new teams are formed, techniques can be used to help speed their development. Improving teamwork requires effort at the beginning of the project. Teams that start off well often perform better over time (Hackman, 1990a). This statistic validates why spending time designing and launching a new team is important. The aim is to improve social relations, better define projects and plan a team strategy, and create a team contract that articulates goals, roles, and norms. These starting activities are important predictors of long-term team success (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009).

Team Warm-Ups

One of the problems with teams is the tendency to focus almost exclusively on tasks. It is equally important to recognize the value of developing a team’s social relations. Most stage theories of group development state that social relations precede the team’s performance stage. Developing social relations among team members aids in socializing new team members. For that reason, it is important to focus on developing social relations early in the team’s existence.

Team warm-ups are social “icebreakers” conducted at the start of team meetings (Scholtes, 1988). They are crucial to first team meetings and should be used at meetings during the early stages of team formation to develop social relations within the team. Warm-ups are social activities designed to help team members get to know one another and improve communication during the team project. Warm- ups can be as simple as spending five minutes sharing favorite jokes or chatting about what team members did over the weekend. Common team warm-up exercises that are useful during the early stages of a team’s life are included in the Appendix.

Project Definitions and Planning

Teams often jump into projects and then have to back up to earlier stages when problems arise. In the rush toward task completion, a team may spend too little time understanding the assignment (Pokras, 1995). Everyone on the team should have the same understanding of the assignment, and this understanding should conform to the organization’s intention. Many professional teams find the project definition stage to be the most difficult and important stage.

There are many reasons why teams try to skip over the project definition stage. Team members may feel socially uncomfortable at the beginning, so they want to quickly focus on performing the task. Task assignments are often ambiguous, and this ambiguity causes discomfort. Making quick decisions to clear up a problem is emotionally satisfying. Such actions may help address the emotional aspects of a problem, but they often result in a team heading off in the wrong direction, leading to conflict and delays later in the project.

Teams can use several techniques to improve their ability to define a problem and understand its underlying causes. These are discussed in Chapter 11. A team should use these techniques at the beginning of the project to better understand their assignment.

Once the team agrees on the definition of the project, it should spend time developing a performance strategy or plan about how team members will work together. Task-related team planning at the beginning of a team’s existence helps promote team effectiveness (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009). Formalized plans provide guidance for the work of team members. Developing performance strategies that outline performance objectives and tactics help direct the team’s actions and create a shared mental model of how the team should operate.

Team Contract

A proper team launch includes developing common team goals and objectives, clarifying roles, creating appropriate team norms, and defining performance expectations. An effective way to do this is to develop a team contract or charter (Herrenkohl, 2004). A team contract is a plan for how the team will manage its teamwork activities (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009). It helps clarify role expectations and work norms that support collaborative work. Because contracts help outline members’ roles and work processes, they facilitate team members focusing more easily on the task.

The contract explicitly states the agreements the team has reached on how to operate. The act of developing a contract helps the team identify and resolve conflicts and misunderstandings. It is a valuable technique for getting started in the right direction. A more complete description of the components and uses of team contracts and a sample outline of a team contract are presented in the Appendix.

Leading Virtual Teams: Starting A Virtual Team Problem: Face-to-face communication is a process everyone has been using and practicing since infancy. Virtual communication and collaboration mediated by technology is less familiar to some participants and natural to many others. This presents both a problem and opportunity when starting a virtual team.