What are the benefits of merging two separate teams?

The Team Doc Says…

There may not be any benefit at all to merging two teams. On the other hand, there may be a lot of benefit. I would start by looking at the mission of both teams.

• Are they similar?
• Do they serve the same stakeholder group?
• Are their goals in alignment?

If you answered yes to those questions, there could be some benefit in work reduction and streamlining processes to serve the stakeholder group. Not to mention consolidation of roles and less opportunities for miscommunication.

That said, it’s not easy to merge two teams. Each team has its own culture and you’ll need to rebuild the foundation for success, just like you would if you were starting a new team. In this day and age when companies are trying to squeeze every dime they can out of operations, it’s certainly worth a look. Just don’t do it for the sake of doing it. Have a good business reason.

What do you think?

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There’s never been a time in history like today where four generations have worked together alongside each other. As a team leader, that can present you with many challenges since your team could be comprised of older Traditional and Baby Boomer generation members right alongside Generation X and Y team members. If you don’t manage the relationships properly, the generation gap between your team members could seem as large as the Grand Canyon.

Here’s the problem. Younger team members often think the older ones are way too stodgy, rigid and stuck in their way of doing things. Older team members think the “new kids on the block” should pay their dues, hunker down and work hard, and quit expecting to be thanked just for showing up at work.

How do you find a happy medium and use the strengths of your team members to accomplish your team goals? Understanding what they want will go a long way in helping you make everyone a star.

For Traditionalist and Baby Boomers that means:

* Feeling important — they are the “stars” of the organization
* Being treated fairly
* Seeing that their knowledge is valued
* Allowing them to talk about and show you what they know

Gen X and Gen Y are looking for:

* Constant learning and growth
* Flexibility to try new things
* Access to information and people
* Ways to link what they do to the bigger goals of the company

So here are some suggestions for you.

* Pair up older team members who can be mentors to the younger crowd. The generations can learn a lot from each other. Carefully connect team members together — allowing older workers to share and younger members to learn.
* Listen with an open mind. Provide the young people on your team with a method for sharing their ideas. Give them the freedom — with loose boundaries — to try out their ideas in a safe environment.
* Help them understand the value. Have regular group discussions about how the team, and individual contributions have helped the organization achieve its goals. Make sure and celebrate small and large successes along the way.

What tips would you add for ensuring that the convergence of four generations in the workplace taps the strengths of all team members? Let’s talk about it.

I work with a boss that I really like and she is fairly new to our department. When she came in she looked at our job duties and confirmed them for each of us. However, I have noticed that she regularly performs one of my tasks. I believe that my tasks are really meant to make her life easier and I am very conscious of covering my tasks to the best of my ability. Recently, I talked to her about how it makes me feel when she performs one of my job duties. I told her that I could not help but wonder if my boss thinks I am doing a good job or that she trusts me. She jumped right in and began explaining and defending herself and then told me that she is a “doer.” I was left with the perception that she was not listening and feels justified jumping in at any time. I have found that she does this to other members of the department too.

The Team Doc Says…

Hmmm. Doer or not, she is wasting the company’s time and money by doing your work. They hired her to be your supervisor, not to do your work. Since it’s happening to everyone, I wouldn’t worry too much about her not trusting you to do your job. But the listening issue is definitely a concern.

Since she’s your boss, and you’ve already gone the discussion route, I’m not seeing much additional action you can take unless you can get the entire team together and talk about team roles. This could help you get agreement from everyone on who does what when but she still may not have a clue how much it bugs you and your team members. It may just be something you’ll have to live with as long as you stay at this company.

Sorry, not the best advice as frankly, this one has me a bit stumped. Readers, can you add your thoughts to the mix and give us some help here by leaving a comment? Thank you.

I have 10 nurse techs who all work together in the same department. They really are pretty much friends and friendly, but they all want to know who is doing what when so that no one has to do more than anyone else. They get very irritable with each other if they one feels she is having to work harder or do more than the others. What do you suggest?

The Team Doc Says…

This is easy. Just have a daily meeting with your team to discuss who is doing what that day. Talk about who can help the person with the heaviest load. Then put it into action.

This process will help reinforce the bond within your team and may help with some knowledge transfer among the team members.