On May 13, 1997, I sent out a call for people to assist on an expert panel over the MED list server. They were asked to rank ten steps in the order that they thought would lead to successful completion of a task. Rankings were received from eleven individuals, six in educational and five in other work settings. The average age of the group was 47 and two of the individuals were female.
Overall, the results did not vary statistically from the theoretical ranking derived from Clark Wilson*s Managerial Task Cycle Theory. Only one person had even limited knowlege of this theory. The results did not vary from the theoretical ranking when this person was excluded from the panel.
The theoretical ranking and reasons are listed below:
1. Making Goals Clear and Important
If the task force does not know what it is to do and why it is important from the beginning, the task force should be dissolved.
2. Upward Communication & Participation
All members must feel free from the start to both contribute their ideas and to object. Otherwise, the task force is a team in name only.
3. Orderly Work Planning & Problem Solving
Planning and problem solving in the early part of a task will decrease frustration and save the team countless hours and other resources when done early.
4. Work Facilitation
(Ensuring individuals have the skills and resources required.)
Ensuring that all members of the team have the skills and resources required to accomplish the task will also decrease frustration and save the team countless hours and other resources when done early.
5. Obtaining and Giving Feedback
As the task gets underway, the use of intermediate feedback, especially of a positive nature, is frequently overlooked. Asking before blasting can prevent disintegration and keep the team highly motivated.
6. Time Emphasis
In a competitive environment where speed to market is a deciding factor regarding product and organizational success, an emphasis on meeting deadlines is needed, but only after sufficient knowledge is available to set realistic goals or when a problem is evident.
7. Control of Details
Similarly, in a competitive world where quality is key (if you do not provide it, your competitor will) and where quality is a matter of details (the devil is in the details), exercising control of details is essential, but only when quality is slipping. This is not an excuse for anyone to be ignorant of details that impact them.
8. Goal Pressure
The use of goal pressure is effective only when used after all the prior steps have been accomplished and when used surgically.
9. Delegation
When to delegate is a tricky issue. Delegating before setting clear goals, planning for their accomplishment, establishing deadlines, and obtaining knowledge of critical details can lead to disaster.
10. Recognition for Good Performance
Recognizing individuals and teams for good performance is one of the best ways to keep a high level of motivation. What is reinforced tends to be repeated and what is not reinforced tends not to be repeated. Waiting for outstanding performance while failing to reinforce good performance is one way to ensure that outstanding performance does not occur.
This sequence of steps represents an ideal for tackling an assignment for a work unit, task force or autonomous team whose members are already familiar with each other. Effective, mature teams will usually stay within this model, but will go back to prior steps or jump forward as suggested by progress on the task.
Both individual and group exercises are available based on these results (The individual exercise is attached as a WordPerfect document). If you would like copies, please send me you snail mail address. If you would like to see additional exercises and research based on Managerial Task Cycle Theory, Leadership Practices Theory, and the use of 360 feedback, please check out my home page *http://perdue.ssu.edu/~fmshippe/*.
Frank Shipper Phone: (410) 543-6333
Perdue School of Business Fax: (410) 548-2908
Salisbury State University E-mail:
fmshipper@ssu.edu
Salisbury, MD 21801