What Makes Teams Work?

We've had so many different types of people working together to build Habitat houses as part of one team or another. A company's CEO and janitor can be on the same team. And you know what? It's good for both of them.

Nobody works for nothing. Some people work for money, and some people work for recognition. But I'll tell you this: People will stick out an unpleasant assignment, but they won't do it again. We have a great record because it's a good experience. Everyone who works on a Habitat house gets something of value out of it. That's an important part of building a lasting team.

Millard Fuller (mdfuller@hfhi.org) founded Habitat for Humanity International 24 years ago. The organization is all about teams; it brings volunteers together every day all around the world to build housing for low-income families. Many are church-sponsored projects. Increasingly, though, companies are taking on the construction of Habitat houses as team-building exercises for their own organizations.

Jonathan Roberts

Managing director and partner
Ignition Corp.
Bellevue, Washington

Teams mostly come down to the classic "good guy" question: If everyone on the team is able to say "I can work with this person" about everyone else on the team, then you've got a good thing going.

Generally, a good fit starts with shared values. Are the team members passionate about the work that they're going to be doing together? Are they going to try to game one another in some way? Are they political animals? Or are they straight and true? Are they humble when it's appropriate to be humble? There's going to be contention on any team. That's to be expected. But at the end of the day, team members have to like one another -- and they have to like what they're doing.

When I'm assessing a team, I use my "three 'P' " test. The "P"s stand for people, process, and product. If everyone on the team isn't clear about the product (whatever it is that you're trying to create) and the process (how you're going to get where you need to be, who drives what, who is the ultimate decision maker), then there are going to be people problems. Whenever I go into a tumultuous situation, I always step back and ask, "What are we trying to build here?" Then I ask, "How are we trying to build it?" Usually, debugging those two issues will clarify what the people problem is all about. If not, you've got a fit problem.

Jonathan Roberts is managing director and partner at Ignition Corp., a holding company designed to fund, mentor, and build wireless-Internet startup companies. He works with the senior-management teams at the startups to solve management issues and to address business-development needs. Roberts is a 13-year Microsoft veteran, and he was recently a general manager for Windows CE for intelligent appliances.

Mike Maerz

Cofounder, chairman, and CEO
etrieve Inc.
Hillsboro, Oregon

Four things characterize a great team. One, the team members must be galvanized by a common goal. That's what spurs people on and drives them to excel. Two, the members need to be driven by the team's results, not by individual results. For that to happen, you have to deal with the whole compensation issue. People must be able to subordinate their own goals -- realistically -- in favor of team goals. Three, the team has to be diverse. The team should be made up of people who think differently too -- intuitive thinkers as well as logical thinkers. John F. Kennedy's cabinet comes to mind as a great example of a team made up of diverse thinkers. Four, on the best teams, no one hesitates to act out of a fear that what they're about to do isn't in their area of responsibility. Good team players take action. They don't stew about whether it's their job or about whether they're going to offend someone.

There are some common pitfalls in team building. But they're mostly the inverse of the characteristics that I just mentioned. The biggest one is not having a well-defined common goal. A lot of work environments are so fast-paced that people don't take the time that they should to agree on common goals. They get lost in the tactics before they figure out what they're trying to accomplish. Then the team runs like an engine that's totally out of whack. The pieces don't operate together the way that they should, and eventually -- usually pretty quickly -- the whole thing just breaks down.

Mike Maerz cofounded etrieve Inc. in October 1998 and now serves as its chairman and CEO. He is responsible for strategic planning, partnership development, market positioning, and team management. Before he started etrieve, Maerz founded and served as CEO of the Palace Inc. (a virtual-world online community where users can communicate, play, and attend events), and he was a vice president and general manager at Intel. Etrieve Inc. (www.etrieve.com) provides wireless email solutions that enable mobile-business professionals to manage email communications while away from the office.