Team Work Leadership And Knowledge Management
Is It All The Same Game?
By: Tony Frost is CEO, Sirocco Strategy Management

INTRODUCTION

During the 20th century organisations became increasingly aware of the power of the effective combination of leadership, teamwork and knowledge management. Although a lot of research has been conducted about these elements, very few organisations really get it right so that teams and the individuals within teams perform at their optimum levels. This article will primarily explore effective leadership and teamwork and will use analogies from Africa to explain these organisational elements.

The quest to find what makes the magic of great leaders has been unceasing and will no doubt continue for many years to come. The debate around the genetic versus the environmental production of leaders and leadership has by no means come to an end. Quite a lot is known about the characteristics of great leaders or at least some of the characteristics of great leaders. The question remains as to what causes these characteristics to appear in certain people at certain times and why others who apparently have the same characteristics appear not to be able to reach complete performance of their potential. There is growing awareness that the aggregate of all the skills, competencies and knowledge that resides within the individuals of an organisation does not necessary translate into a collective organisational knowledge and wisdom. There is also an appreciation that in this modern and fast changing world of ours those companies that learn to learn fastest are probably going to be the companies that survive and grow into the new era economy. What is not widely known is how to identify, harness and harvest the knowledge that exists in abundance in all organisations. What is well known is that knowledge and wisdom have the capacity to walk. And often very fast!

THE MAGIC OF TEAMWORK

There can be few experiences more gratifying for one interested in organisational growth and development than to watch a team come together and begin to weave its magical web of success into everything the team does. I suppose it is possible for this to happen by accident but generally this success is the result of a desire of all of the participants to work together to achieve a clear and common goal. It often includes an infusion of ideas and energy from interested stakeholders. It certainly involves a great deal of networking and sharing between the important team stakeholders and indeed amongst the team members themselves.

In the African bush the Lion's entire survival is predicated on his capacity to work as a member of a team. Without teamwork Lions have very little chance of survival. This applies particularly to the male Lion that has less than 50% chance of survival at birth. If he can survive to adulthood, the moment he becomes a threat to the dominant male in the group he will either be killed by the dominant male or leave the group to avoid being killed by the dominant male. On his own out in the wilderness he has less than 50% chance of survival. Often he will team up with another young Lion that has been expelled from his group. Together they will work out a "modus operandus" that will ensure their survival up to the day they decide to find a group to challenge for the leadership and thereby gain a brand-new ready-made family. Only the fittest and toughest male Lions survive the exigencies of life and are able to play their role as a dominant male in the group. This process also ensures that the gene pool is constantly reenergised and revitalised with genes from only the best males. How do we make sure in our teams that our selection process is such that we take only the very best for the team?

The other thing that the Lion teaches us is the importance of role clarity within the team, not only for the individual concerned, but also clarity about the roles of other members of the team by all team members. Without this clarity, fleet-footed and nimble young male Lions and Lionesses will attempt to pull down a Buffalo Bull and the lazy heavily-muscled male Lion may even attempt the impossible - to kill an Impala.

From the very earliest age, Lions are engaged in a constant quest to learn more about what they do best and that is, ensuring their survival. They are born with the equipment; they have to learn the skills. Lion cubs start their hunting activity practising on grasshoppers, tortoises and chameleons, they graduate to bigger things as their competence and skill progresses. During this process they learn that learning does not come cost free: that it does require taking some risks and involves all the team members. Since members’ activities can vary, they practice team activities from the very beginning. Mentoring and coaching play a very important part of this lifelong learning process.

Another wild animal that has a great deal to teach us about the power of teamwork and in particular how important multi-skilling is in a team is the Wild Dog. The Wild Dogs hunt in packs and kill by attrition. In other words they chase their prey until they basically drop from exhaustion. The problem with this approach is that none of the Wild Dogs knows when the prey will drop. So, in the process of their relay running, every dog has to be fully prepared to apply the coup d'grace. This means each dog has to have developed all of the skills required for hunting. This is different than those required by each Lion focused on the skills he/she needs for his/her particular job in the hunt.

All the herding animals like Buffalo, Duiker, Zebra, Wildebeest and Elephant have a great deal to teach us about the power of synergy and the, as yet untapped, resource of intuition. Great teams have these in abundance. When you watch great teams working there is a great deal of overt communication but there is also substantial subliminal and intuitive communication between the members of the team. This is not something that can easily be taught and certainly not something that happens quickly. It is a faculty that develops over time and requires focus and hard work to achieve and inculcate into each member of the team and the team as a whole.

There are two other really important elements of excellent teamwork displayed by the great teams; the first is an attitude or culture of inclusion. Great teams work hard to make sure that all team members and key stakeholders feel included in the team. Look at what some of the world's great sporting teams have done and how hard they have worked to create a sense of inclusion amongst their fans. If you watch a rugby football game in South Africa involving the Natal Sharks and particularly at their home ground, all the fans arrive donned in black from head to toe. Even their faces get painted pitch black. The sense of inclusion is an important part of building a culture around the key focus of the team.

Another important element is that great teams build strategic alliances. We see this all over but no less in the wild where the red-billed Oxpecker cleans the Buffalo, Eland, Rhino and Giraffe and other bigger antelopes of the lice and ticks that plague them in the bush. They also provide an early warning system because their listening and seeing faculties are so sharply developed. They make a terrific noise at the approach of any form of danger. The big antelope tolerate some of the less pleasant aspects of the alliance because of these benefits. For example, the black Rhino develops painful lifetime wounds as a result of the pecking of the Oxpecker. They tolerate the pain and discomfort for the benefits that the little Oxpeckers bring to their relationship.

THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF LEADERSHIP

Leaders are the stuff legends are made of. If one reads through the world’s history and storybooks they abound with vivid images of leaders that have achieved both great and terrible things. Attila Hun, Mahatma Ghandi, Adolph Hitler and Nelson Mandela all widely recognised as being inspirational leaders. All recognised as having achieved hugely although not always wonderfully through their capacity to engage the power of people. It is this essence namely the ability to harness the power of people for worthwhile purposes that we strive to achieve in organisations today. Let us just look at some of the key characteristics widely recognised as being important in the achievement of energising leadership.

Vision

Of all the animals, the Eagle epitomises the best type of vision that great leaders bring to the organisation. They are able to see both the big picture and each element of that big picture with great clarity and perspective. It is crucial that the team understands the big picture clearly but in order for members to give that vision their whole-hearted commitment and support. It is equally important for them to understand in some detail their particular role within that big picture.

Followership

One of the major misconceptions about leadership is that it is about the leader. If one examines the behaviour and activities of the great leaders that have succeeded beyond all dreams and against all possible odds, it is clear that leadership is much more about followership. The simple fact of the matter is that without followers, leaders have no role. Great leaders therefore understand this dynamic fundamentally and have learnt to tap in, to be part of, and live, actively and energetically, amongst those who follow them.

Structure

In Africa, the Buffalo teaches us more than most other animals about followership than leadership. Notwithstanding the awesome power, strength, virility of the Bull Buffalo that leads the herd, he understands full well that without the herd his chances of survival are limited to probably no more than 24 hours-- unless he manages to find some other Buffalo bachelors with whom he can live out his remaining days. He realises that his power comes from all of the ears, all of the eyes, all of the noses, all of the hooves and all the intuition of the entire herd of sometimes as many as 300 or 400 or 500. He understands full well that power is mostly about giving it away and not trying to exercise control over it.

Great leaders have learnt the importance of avoiding, like the plague, the corrosion of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Like the ant and the bee that place themselves at the middle of the organisation and not on the sharp point at the top of the pyramid, great leaders know that in the middle they are most accessible, most visible, most available, best protected and most nurtured. Most importantly, they are in a better position to be most able to communicate with the greatest number of their followers at the same time. It has always been interesting to me that, particularly in the early days of mass-based unionism in South Africa, the trade union leaders were always seen in the middle of the crowd, not at the periphery.

Focus and Dominance

There is a misconception I believe in these days of participation and inclusivity that the leader must not stamp his / her authority on his/ her domain. This is a complete fallacy. In fact, when one looks at great leaders of the modern age like Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and others, I am sure one of the things that is abundantly clear, is not only were they tough but they were pre-eminently dominant. This dominance came in part from a very clear focus on the future and what was needed to be achieved but also on their capacity to give power away and to trust people.

Territory Knowledge

Unfortunately, we often make assumptions about how well we know the territory in which we operate. Another analogy may help to illustrate this point. The Rhino is almost completely blind. It does not have eyesight capable of seeing much more than movement. And yet the Rhino, all three tons of pure passion, can charge across the African savannah at 30 kilometers an hour without falling or running into a tree.

IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge management has a number of characteristics: it is data organised into an understandable and clear framework, information that can be applied and knowledge that has been shaped by experience/life. Wisdom is when knowledge has been tested and shaped by experience and by the success and failures in the University of Life.

The management of knowledge is largely still in its infancy. As the experiential wheel of information technology and management winds itself up to greater and greater speeds our capacity to manage knowledge is going to be stretched more and more and certainly way beyond what we can imagine even today. It is important to emphasise that most of the emphasis on knowledge management thus far has been based on information technology. However organisations are not driven by technology. Sensible organisations use technology to facilitate communication and the flow of information. Knowledge growth depends almost entirely on human beings having the willingness and keenness to develop amongst themselves an openness, which allows the information and knowledge to flow freely for continued and ongoing personal, team and organisational learning and growth.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

We know that the world's best businesses have learnt that the route not only to survival but to growth and development in the new era economy will certainly include learning faster than the competition. Excellent teams are characterised by a culture of trust, openness and sharing, and a shared common vision. The important thing to remember here is that one can not just focus on teamwork, or leadership, or knowledge management. The model that one builds for the business should be one that takes all three of these into account and builds an interconnected and synergistic plan. It must ensure that the three components are also part of every activity engaged in by the business and in particularly training and developing activities.

To give one example of this, a client of ours found that after years of investing in skills training, productivity remained flat. After in-depth discussion and diagnosis, we recommended that they should step up their adult education initiative to ensure a much higher level of literacy and numeracy; they should take natural work teams and teach these teams thinking skills adapted from the De Bono model and introduce these natural work teams to the important components of teamworking. The focus of their training was on work and safety but also on building relationships, networks and leadership. These teams were taught about the importance of creating a shared common vision, building a common value base, creating a definite sense of direction and providing advice and support to each other. The organisational profits that flowed from this programme started 4 years ago and still running was five times the costs. This is a real return on investment!

Tony Frost is CEO, Sirocco Strategy Management, South Africa. He is author of “After the Rain’ published by Knowledge Resources, South Africa. For further information, contact: sirocco@icon.co.za