Work is done by people and we don’t all get along.
Whether you’re putting together a project group for short, intense work or building a department for ongoing work getting the right composition for your team is essential for high performance. You need to make sure that they will work well together, that you have a diverse range of outlooks, experience and characteristics to both avoiding costly mistakes and completing the job that needs to be done.
There are a multitude of areas where we can help organisations better understand their existing workforce in order to increase the probability of a team member adding to the overall effectiveness of a group.
Team composition starts with an understanding of who each team member is, what skills and experience they bring to the table, their interpersonal skills, approach to project management and leadership traits. Harrison Assessments allows Forsee to accurately predict how teams will work together. Will they get bogged down in detail and not finish the task? Will they get it done quickly but disregard the quality of their work? Are they likely to collaborate well? Is the manager likely to get the best out of these individuals? A balance of different approaches and characteristics is the best way to maximise the likelihood of a successful team.
An example of team composition in practise is a solid manager who is a particularly direct and frank communicator and a new employee who is a high performer but does not like being spoken to in that way (low tolerance for frankness). This match is highly unlikely to work well. Alternatively this new employee could excel if simply placed in another team with a manager who was more diplomatic in their communication style. A simple example to be sure but also near impossible to predict without behavioural assessments to provide an understanding of the core workplace preferences of these two individuals. One of these approaches results in a personality clash, lower productivity and ultimately having to repeat the hiring process as the new high performer will likely leave the organisation. The other boosts the performance of both teams and the business overall.
Business in the 21st century is about getting the best out of your people. Let us show you how.