The current pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of teaming and collaboration in a fluid environment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. conducted a survey in February and early March 2020 to investigate how employees and employers are responding to the dynamic nature of teams in the workplace. Based on the responses of 20,000+ employees from individual contributors to C-suite executives across a wide range of industries, they found that teams suffer from a critical interpersonal skills gap that impedes their potential to achieve. Here are some highlights of their results:
People are on several teams (76% of respondents) and the higher up one goes in an organization, the more teams they are on (Directors and Execs reported 5+ teams).
People are working on more types of teams. (73% of respondents). These types include departmental, project, cross-functional, management and matrix.
Teams are more dispersed. (28% of people reported working on a team with someone based in another country and 51% reported working on a team where at least 1 member collaborated virtually).
Individuals are often unaware or unable to consistently practice the behaviors that will ensure team success. 99% of people agreed with the statement “I am a good team member” BUT..
79% reported that their teammates don’t acknowledge their weaknesses to each other, lowering trust.
55% leave meetings without collective commitment to agreed-upon decisions, lowering the collective commitment level.
59% say their team members don’t take personal responsibility to improve team performance moving forward, bringing down accountability.
Time and money are wasted dealing with ineffective teamwork. Employees reported spending 7 hours/week with the effects of poor teamwork which equates to 2 months a year and in financial terms, that’s $1 Trillion dollars per year in the US.
High stress leads to high turnover. 42% have left jobs due to bad team experiences.
Nearly everyone agreed that it would be worth their time to develop and improve their teamwork skills. 98% of managers, directors and executives believed skill development is absolutely worth their team’s time and 86% said effective teamwork is more important to their organization’s success now than it was 5 years ago.
And the repercussions of COVID-19 make teamwork more important. 22% stated they were not confident that their teams could maintain the same performance levels virtually and 29% said they are not confident that they will feel personally connected as they work remotely. As many more teams have now become physically separated, the need for a strong foundation of teamwork and communication among colleagues is more important than ever before.
We have tools to help you make the most of your virtual teamwork during this time of change. Look on this website for more on the Five Behaviors products and call me at 704-372-9842 to learn how to put them in place on your teams.
