We have described Team Management as a set of high-commitment, high-capability management practices.

Does your organization practice Team Management? Take this self check to find out.

Team Management Self Check

Think about your organization’s management practices and rate each item on a scale of 1 (Rare in the Organization) to 5 (True Everywhere in the Organization):

Teams as a System

____ 1. Throughout the organization, there is a consistent set of management practices and routines that everyone expects and knows how to do.

____ 2. Teams exist throughout the organization and everyone is on at least one team.

____ 3. All of the teams are formed around the work so that each team owns a meaningful workflow.

____ 4. Each team has asked itself: what is our mission, what outputs are we expected to produce?

____ 5. Teams are interconnected vertically; teams at each level have translated strategy and goals into the unique work that they must do.

____ 6. Teams are interconnected horizontally; each team receives exactly what it needs and produces exactly what the next team needs.

____ 7. Each team has regular, frequent team meetings that are interactive discussions about managing the team’s work.

____ 8. The frequency of management routines, such as team meetings, matches the rhythm of the business so that teams can act in time to influence results.

____ 9. Each team captures and reviews its action items to maintain accountability for action.

Continuous Improvement

____ 10. The management culture is proactive and preventive, rather than reactive and crisis-to-crisis.

____ 11. Most problems are addressed and solved by teams at the levels at which the problems occur.

____ 12. Teams follow problem-solving methods so that discussion is both rigorous and creative.

____ 13. Each team uses tools and techniques to ensure that problem solving is data-based.

____ 14. Each team uses tools and techniques to identify and address the root causes of problems.

____ 15. Each team maps its workflows to identify opportunities for streamlining.

____ 16. Each team documents its learnings to avoid facing the same problems over and over.

____ 17. Teams interact easily with other teams about problems and workflows because they have common language and approaches.

Balanced Scorecards

____ 18. There is a mindset of using forward-looking data to take early action to influence results.

____ 19. Each team has a set of performance indicators that reflect all of its results expectations.

____ 20. Each team’s performance indicators include measures of behaviors and interim outputs that ultimately link to key results.

____ 21. Each team uses graphical displays to visualize performance trends.

Leader as Coach

____ 22. Team leaders at all levels see their role as developing the capability of team members.

____ 23. Team leaders build time for coaching into their schedules.

____ 24. Team leaders work with people in the moment; giving frequent, on-the-spot feedback is the norm.

____ 25. Team leaders catch people doing things right, not just when they make mistakes.

Items scored 3 or below are opportunities for improving the organization’s basic, foundational management practices.

For more information, download a free sample of our book Team Management: Achieving Business Results Through Teams.

Team Management is both a philosophy and a set of high-commitment, high-capability management practices.

The philosophy of Team Management is that an interlocking system of high-functioning teams is essential for achieving optimal results. The practices of Team Management include clear team definition, effective team meetings, root-cause problem solving, horizontal workflow improvement, future-facing measures, pinpointed coaching, and positive reinforcement.

Team Management is based on four core ideas:

Teams as a System.
Continuous Improvement.
Balanced Scorecards.
Leader as Coach.

Teams as a System. In Team Management teams are connected vertically and horizontally, producing a coordinated system of teams. The leader of a team is a member of the team above, ensuring vertical connection. Teams are connected horizontally by what they receive from and deliver to each other. Each team is confident that its outputs are the required inputs of the next team in the workstream.

Continuous Improvement. In Team Management each team is united around a mission, owning a flow of work and a set of outputs. Each team pursues continuous improvement by monitoring performance, solving problems, improving workflows, and managing action. The approach is data-based, interactive, anticipatory, and action-oriented. Teams run their own businesses, identifying and addressing issues at their level.

Balanced Scorecards. In Team Management each team monitors a dashboard of indicators that measure its performance against results expectations. The indicators are balanced between end results and “leading indicators” that give early warning about likely final results so that corrective action can taken before the fact. Teams look at indicators that reflect their own work in real time.

Leader as Coach. In Team Management each team leader embraces the role of improving the skills of team members through coaching. Team leaders observe team members in action and give them feedback in the moment to strengthen the behaviors that produce the team’s results. Team leaders create an environment of learning and improvement.

Team Management is the essential set of management practices and routines for organizational excellence.