There was a fascinating article in Saturday's New York Times by David Berri titled, "The NBA.'s Secret Superstars." Here's the lead.

"THE N.B.A. finals tipped off Thursday night, and while most reports of the Dallas Mavericks' victory over the Miami Heat focused on the stars — Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal of the Heat and Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry of the Mavericks — few mentioned two players who were arguably just as important to the result: Antoine Walker and Erick Dampier."

To understand why these two gentlemen mattered, one has to look beyond the standard focus on points scored and consider a new way of judging athletic performance: whether a player's actions — both scoring and non-scoring — help his team win or not."

Right now, the NBA finals and the World Cup are putting teamwork on display for all to see.  They give us an opportunity to reflect on what it takes to have a successful team.

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, "The team with the best players usually wins." That's true, but it's not the whole story. All-star teams can easily become ego-fests and bury productivity under an avalanche of "look-at-me's."

When you put a project team together, you want the players who will make the best and most productive team. You want all-stars, but you also want the kind of players described in Berri's article, who have the right skills and will work well together.  

Consider perspective, network, attitude and skills.  If the group is doing problem solving, they'll do better if they have different perspectives and access to different networks. Group members should want to and enjoy working with others.  Your group should have access to all the skills you need.

Size matters.  Since going to work meant joining a hunting party, the best teams have naturally maxed out at around twelve members.  One way to deal with this is to think differently about the make-up of your project teams.

Limit your core project team to six to eight members.  They should have complementary skills, perspectives and networks.  They should be good at working in teams.

Expand the group from time to time, as needed, with other people who have important skills, perspectives or networks.  Try to keep meetings no larger than twelve folks, though. 

Some of the folks you bring in from time to time will have a profile a lot like your team members.  The reason they're not on the core team is that you want to maintain an effective working group size. Bring them in for information and for perspective or network contacts when you need them.  The rest of the time, let them be productive without attending your meetings.

Sometimes people with the skills you need simply aren't team players. They have something you need but w can't or won't work well in teams. I call them "Karlas," named for an analyst I worked with years ago. 

If you left Karla alone she cranked out prodigious amounts of amazing work.  But in social situations, Karla was like a bull who carried her own china shop with her.

The best way to use Karlas is to give them a private place to work and, actually or virtually, pass work back and forth through a slot in the door.  If you need a Karla to meet with your group, make sure that you concentrate on work product and don't expect your Karla to be charming or even nice. 

Just because you need specific skills to accomplish your mission doesn't mean you have to have those skills on your team and present at every meeting.  Group size and group dynamics matter.

You also need three basic sets of skills. They are basic leadership skills, group facilitation skills, and political skills. 

Leadership skills involve clarifying the goal, setting clear and reasonable expectations, and providing feedback on individual and group performance.  If your group leader has group facilitation skills, great, but if not, bring in a trained facilitator who is not part of the group.

Political skills are important, too.  You have to go back to the larger group for resources and approval.  If the group leader doesn't have political clout in the organization, then there needs to be a patron, sponsor, or godfather to handle that part of the job.

Teams can produce great results, but that won't happen naturally.  You can't just take a bunch of talented people, throw them together, and wait for magic to happen.  Make sure your teams have the right mix of skills, networks, perspectives, resources and leadership.  Then you've got a shot at magic.

 

Wally Bock helps leaders at every level improve the performance and morale of the group they're responsible for. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless because it teaches through a story, the way human beings have always learned complex lessons best.

Performance Talk just got a rave review from Don Blohowiak. Read about it on his Leadership Now blog.