Teamwork Holds Key to Organization Success

Imagine our Olympic basketball or volleyball teams, if every player had tried to score as many points as possible. Or imagine our water polo or soccer teams, if each player had only thought about his or her own performance.

We would not have expected these teams to achieve any kind of success under these conditions. Yet we find departments in many organizations so busy with their own day-to-day challenges that they lose sight of organizational goals and success.

Teamwork--as simple as the sharing of resources, information or customers--is critical to achieve the potential of a business. But how often do we observe territorial behavior getting in the way of organizational success? Unfortunately whether this behavior is based on selfishness, naive focus or un-channeled internal competition, the results are the same: missed opportunities. Departmental or individual success does not necessarily translate into organizational success.

Lack of teamwork can reflect a lack of understanding that hurts trust and the desire to work together. For example, accounting firms in Ventura County and throughout the nation have large opportunities to help their audit clients by providing them with a variety of tax or consulting services. Yet because of a lack of understanding of a client service--for instance cross-functional coordination or the abilities of a fellow employee--these services are much too often provided to their clients by competitors.

Less obvious and perhaps more harmful to the achievement of organizational potential is a naive and myopic focus of employees on departmental or functional success that is not balanced with organizational goals. As a consequence, coordination and collaboration suffer.

Have you ever gone to a store in response to an advertisement for a product and been told that the shipment of that product had yet to arrive? Although a number of factors can contribute to this problem, focusing on one’s own activities and the resulting lack of communication across departments--for instance among marketing, manufacturing and distribution--is a major contributor to that syndrome known as the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

The employees might be pure in their desire to achieve objectives that optimize results for a department or functional team. Unfortunately, optimizing results of a department or portion of the organization can inhibit the success of the entire enterprise. One illustration of this problem is the finance department’s concern over risk and implementation of adequate controls for an innovative and growing company. When this concern is not balanced with other organizational needs, decision making is impaired and the innovative spirit that has been a key to the organization’s success can wither.

Senior management’s attention can be distracted from other critical areas of the organization when a department is single-minded and driven to achieving its own objectives. For example the manufacturing function of a Camarillo metal fabrications company has gotten the entire organization focused on building a state-of-the-art factory of the future. However, business suffers because the company loses sight of fundamental customer needs. Products and service are no longer as competitive in meeting customer requirements.

It is easy to get wrapped up in one’s own challenges, particularly with the demands on our time. In addition, good communication is difficult and gets even more complicated when crossing department or functional lines. Yet it is the success of the organization that counts. And teamwork is key to organization success.

Let us not forget the link between organizational success and personal success. With organizational failure, in part or whole, we lose jobs and opportunities. Team success, personal success and fulfillment of organizational potential go hand in hand. Team success sustains the organization and enables employees to be rewarded, continue to grow and to deepen skills. Clearly teamwork goes beyond the Olympics.

Gary Izumo is an instructor in the Moorpark College business department and has managed his own consulting practice. He is a former McKinsey & Company consultant and practice leader for the Strategic Management Consulting Practice of Price Waterhouse.