Peter Scholtes 10 Ingredients for a Successful Team

Peter Scholtes listed 10 ingredients for a successful team. Describe the 10 ingredients and give examples of each.

Clarity in team goals.

The first ingredient goes farther than simply agreeing on a mission, purpose, and goals. The mission, purpose, and goals of the team must be clearly understood by each member of the team and be easily understandable to those not on the team as well in order to monitor and track progress. An example would be a team that is unable to agree on exactly what it is they want to accomplish not being able to reach its final goals because of a lack of understanding or confusion of what the mission and purpose of the team are.

An improvement plan.

An improvement plan guides the team in in determining schedules and milestones by helping the team understand what resources it needs. An example of an improvement plan would be a written document of how the team plans to achieve its goals by listing the goals in chronological order. This would help the team understand what resources are needed whether it be advice, assistance, training, or other materials needed to accomplish each goal. As each goal is reached the team can measure their performance against each milestone listed.

Clearly defined roles.

This lets the team members know what each member’s duties are and who is responsible for what issues and tasks. I would exemplify this by the creation of a written document which outlines each team member’s role and responsibilities and distribute it among the members.

Clear communications.

Team members should always utilize clear speech, active listening, and share information. Personally, I can think of several examples of poor communication being the downfall of many things but in a team environment poor communication can be disastrous. One member of a team who is unwilling or unable to communicate clearly or share information can destroy the goals of the entire team.

Beneficial team behaviors.

Team members should be encouraged to utilize behaviors and characteristics as well as skill and practices which are beneficial to the team in order to facilitate discussions and meetings. Poor or uncooperative behavior or the lack of skill or practices necessary to be a beneficial member of the team can also result in a failure to reach the objectives since the team may end up being unwilling to work with the person exhibiting the negative behaviors or lack of skills. I once worked on a team where one of the team members was placed on the team as a favor to another manager. This person had no clue as to how the work was to be performed and had no abilities at all concerning any of the things we discussed. Eventually he had to be removed from the team in order to meet organizational