Leading Teams

5

Supportive Context

The conditions discussed in the previous three chapters—a real team, a compelling direction, and an enabling structure—provide the basic platform for competent teamwork. But work teams do not operate in an organizational vacuum.¹ Features of the organizational context, as well as the coaching behaviors of team leaders, can either make it much easier for a team to exploit the advantages of a good basic structure or so powerfully impede the team that the advantages of a fine basic design are negated. Even managers who carefully plan the design, formation, and launch of a work team sometimes then back off and say, in effect, “Good luck, kids, you’re on your own now!” These managers stop too soon, since what is needed for team ...