[Sigia-l] "Team work" not what's cracked up to be?

[prady]

Ziya Oz <listera at earthlink.net> wrote:
> As a Doctor of Design and would-be forensic pathologist :-) I get to do a
> lot interface/architecture surgery, after internal/external teams have
> failed. When I start a project I am given a bunch of documents, usability
> tests and what are essentially "consensus documents". My job is to slice
> through those to find discrepancies between goals and results: what was the
> goal, what went wrong, why and what can be done about it?

Discripency between goal and result can occur due to many reasons.
Dysfunctional teams, poor culture, egos of individuals, lack of
leadership, to be few. I am not sure if we can necessarily jump to
blame teamwork, brainstorming...

> For anybody outside the "team," it's extremely difficult to deconstruct the
> (consensus-making) process with fidelity. At most organizations, the urge to
> arrive at that compromise you refer to pretty much overwhelms all other
> considerations.

I agree with you. This is same as saying, some organizations are
dysfuctional and some teams fail to reach to the goal of teamwork...

> Surprise, surprise, a better solution can usually be found among the
> arguments of the dissenters, if you can unearth them.

I am failing to see any connection. Descent arrises from many reasons,
vested interests, lack of control, cluelessness, besides many other
things. I can accept that at times descenters have great points which
they are unable to express... But there are many best practices
arround how they can be usefull to the team :-)

Onus lies equally on descenters, as on the environment of teamwork.

> Unfortunately, people often don't want their dissenting opinion to be
> formally preserved as a record against the "team." The political cost of
> that in a "team-driven" organization is usually too high.

I won't disagree with your statement completely. But I won't
generalize it to be a rule. I think, how one opiniate his ideas, and
how one disagree/descent with others in team environment is as crucial
as his idea itself. Offcourse, professional environments have become
more team oriented, but it is misnomer to confuse teamwork with
politics.

There are many firms out there who are surviving only because they
have mastered the art of teamwork -- GE, McKinsey, Toyota/Honda, IDEO,
Apple, you name it. And there are many who are loosing streaks --
"Sony" is the shining star in loosers category.

Cheers,

Prady