by Rick Forbus, PhD
There has been a lot of writing and research given to the principles and practices of building organizational teams. When I first began transitioning into a vocational emphasis that included leadership development, team building and coaching, I gave some uninterrupted thought time to this science. Human capital is a very interesting, intriguing and sometimes an ignored resource.
The science of it goes back some distance. Human capital is a way of defining and classifying the skills, talents and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. Many early economic theories refer to it simply as labor, one of three factors of production, and consider it to be a commodity — homogeneous and easily interchangeable. Other conceptions of labor are more sophisticated.
The term human capital was first discussed by Arthur Cecil Pigou : “There is such a thing as investment in human capital as well as investment in material capital. So soon as this is recognized, the distinction between economy in consumption and economy in investment becomes blurred. For, up to a point, consumption is investment in personal productive capacity. (Pigou, 1928, A Study in Public Finance, Macmillan, London, p. 29).
The use of the term (human capital) in the modern neoclassical economic literature dates back to Jacob Mincer‘s pioneering article “Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution” in The Journal of Political Economy in 1958. The best-known application of the idea of “human capital” in economics is that of Mincer and Gary Becker of the Chicago school. Becker’s book entitled Human Capital, published in 1964, became a standard reference for many years. In this view, human capital is similar to “physical means of production“, e.g., factories and machines: one can invest in human capital (via education, training, medical treatment) and one’s outputs depend partly on the rate of return on the human capital one owns. Thus, human capital is a means of production, into which additional investment yields additional output. Human capital is substitutable, but not transferable like land, labor, or fixed capital. (Research from Wikpedia.)
That brings us to the discussion of human capital as it relates to working together as a team in an organization. If 20 individuals work on a project together and have no experience in building a synergistic team through (1) holding high-impact meetings to explore their diversity and leverage their talents, or, (2) knowing each other’s behaviors, personalities and stress points nor (3) establishing roles, boundaries and clarity of purpose, then building a team is almost impossible. Actually, the productivity will be at best simply the “additive results” of the 20 individuals working separately on the project. Team building requires some essentials that must be carefully applied to project groups. Leveraging the synergy of 20 team members is significantly more productive.
Here are 9 essentials to building a team based on my many years of experience coaching, training and strategizing with organizational teams.
1. Clarity of Purpose, Mission & Vision
2. Knowing the Roles of the Leaders and Team
3. Using Assessments to Benchmark Team Talent (Strengths & Weaknesses)
4. Leadership: Defining Attributes of Good & Bad Leadership
5. Establishing Effective Process, Scope & Strategy
6. Forecasting Change & Preferred Futuring
7. Solid Relationships & Corporate Citizenship
8. Effective Communication Inside & Outside the Organization
9. Coaching, Continuance Planning & Team Building
Carefully examining the definitions and applications of these essentials will revolutionize any group of people laboring together. The hard issues like product design and delivery, contract management, scope planning, risk management and return on investment (ROI) are all affected by the soft issue called human capital management. It is not just about “what” we are doing but “how” we are doing it “together” that leverages the results. Also, it is about “who” is doing it together at this particular time. Actuall,y four things come into play in any project: (1) the project, (2) the leaders and their behaviors and styles, (3) the team members or followers and their behaviors and styles and (4) the situation at hand. That adds up to a team or human capital issue, plus the project’s scope, budget and outcome. This quote and follow up comments will bring some additional clarity to this topic.
I think the Army would make a serious mistake if we made a distinction and said, “You are a manager, and you are a leader.” S,o my philosophy is that we are all leaders! We also must be responsible managers or stewards of resources entrusted to us. We would make a serious mistake to think that we could be one and not the other. – General John Wickham.
Leaders should not think of themselves as simply managers, supervisors, but rather as “team leaders.” Actuall,y leaders are managers of human capital! Thinking of yourself as a manager or supervisor places you in a position of traditional authority based solely on respect for the position, which places you in a position of power. By understanding the personal work preferences and motivations of your team members, you as an individual, rather than your position, will earn their real respect and trust. All the essentials listed so far in this article, such as assessments and relationship building provide the basic structure for developing a team. But to go from a group to a team requires a few extra steps which future articles will address. Just remember, this means that the people under you are not simply followers who blindly go where you go, but, rather, are a group of people who are supportive of collaboration in order to achieve a common goal through mutual knowledge, accountability and skill sharing.
Watch for Part 2 of this article series on the Essentials to Building a Team.
For coaching, training, off-site facilitation and keynotes contact: rforbus@troveinc.com
www.troveinc.com
www.drrickforbus.com
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