Warriors Are Not Groupies

by Tom Heuerman, Ph.D. with Diane Olson, Ph.D.

The change process began in the summer of 1990. The publisher challenged us to save 4 million dollars within two years. We were to defeat simultaneously a serious Teamster-led union organizing effort in one department of the newspaper’s circulation division.

Within 15 months we created a 4,500 employee business unit, and we redesigned departments and jobs utilizing the wisdom of front-line employees before (thankfully) books like Re-engineering the Corporation were written. Job descriptions in one department were reduced from 25 to 12, and 30 self-managed work teams were established.

We redesigned reward systems, eliminated performance appraisals, and developed and carried-out a major customized training plan for teams, team leaders, and managers. Teams hired new employees, assigned work, assumed budget responsibilities, gave one another feedback, and took responsibility for scheduling their days and hours.

Many of us were more energized and creative than ever before. We found new meaning in our work. People and teams responded and worked with purpose; they put in long hours, made many difficult changes throughout the business unit, all under great pressure. We learned and adjusted as we went along. Despite the difficulty of such massive change, the employees did not want to return to the old culture, structure, or leadership style. I know because I asked them frequently.

The results were significant. Employees and teams improved industry leading customer service measures by as much as fifty percent. New products were created and sold. Our efforts saved more than 5 million dollars in less than two years. We reduced first-line supervision by seventy percent. Thirty percent of the positions in one department and twenty percent of the positions in another department were eliminated. Restructuring reduced several management levels including, eventually, my own. (we accomplished downsizing by early retirements, incented resignations, placement in other jobs within the company, and new positions created by the changes we made.)

The need for a new union went away (employee leaders of the organizing effort became leaders in the effort to transform the business unit). In the portion of the business unit already represented by a union, we began to work as partners (at least some of the time), and had no grievances for more than five years.

The CEO of the parent corporation held the people in this business unit up to the rest of the organization as models for living the corporate values and credited us with creating a vision and strategy for the newspaper. Other companies visited regularly, and we spoke at newspaper and employee involvement conferences around the country. People wrote articles about our work. Consultants brought in to evaluate the work of the business unit said they had never seen a group do so much in so short a time. The business unit was far out front of the rest of the organization in its transformation. Within the newspaper most managers responded to our changes as if nothing was different. This indifference was their loss and our problem.

Concurrent with this recognition I heard the criticism that I, the leader of the business unit, was not a team player. The criticism was a general statement with no specifics, but the statement was delivered by a couple of vice-presidents and a senior vice-president so I listened.

My boss and mentor died suddenly. His replacement, a mindless and incompetent man, told me angrily that it was his job to “burst your bubble” and refused to tell me why. He became my enemy. I was the leader in moving our company into employee involvement and self-managed teams, and I was being told that I was not “walking the talk.”

I thought a lot about the concept of team player. Being a team player was never talked about in the newspaper’s traditional environment; teamwork was not valued. Competition, on the other hand, was valued highly, talked about in many ways, and we were rewarded for defeating others. Were these senior managers disingenuous to criticize others for not being team players when they themselves perpetuated a culture of winners and losers? Were they feeling like losers?

I asked, “How do we define a good team player in the new environment we were creating?” No one offered a definition. The conversation felt inauthentic. What was the real message? Were we too successful? Were we getting too much recognition? Were we too far out in front of other departments? Were we challenging the existing order too much? Were the people in senior management, who were mired in indecision, threatened and embarrassed by the leadership this business unit exhibited? All of the above?

Executives told me that my future promotability depended on my ability to work collaboratively. They told me to fit in. When I asked for specific examples of my not being a team player, they could not provide them. I understood ultimately that when the term “team player” is utilized it only appears to imply a commitment to cooperation. “Team player” is really a demand for conformity. I learned that ideas that require people to transform their worldview generate hostility. I did not comply and began to plan my departure from the newspaper.

One day I talked to my friend and consultant John about this criticism. He felt irritated with me because he heard me talk about this feedback before. He said, “Quit beating yourself up over that. Warriors are not groupies.”

I believe a good team player is a person who strives authentically for excellence for the company, customers, themselves, and fellow employees. A good team player serves unselfishly the vision, values, and purpose of the organization. Good team players work cooperatively with others who share the same vision, values, and purpose and who are striving to be the best they can be. A good team player is not loyal to those who undercut these ideals. Good team players do not collude with mediocrity or dysfunctional groups.

I was on a great team once. When I was a special agent in the U.S. Secret Service stationed in Chicago, I was a member of the counterfeit squad--seven or eight men. We never had group process training, and we were not told that we had to be a team. We didn’t have a charter or verbalized team norms. We never worked with a consultant or needed a facilitator.

We shared a simple and powerful mission. We protected our nation’s currency: we caught, arrested, and convicted counterfeiters. We felt that our work mattered, we took responsibility, and we worked hard. At times we worked alone. On other occasions we worked as one team or in smaller groups as the situation required. Those with experience and wisdom led when required. Novices led when things were easier. The structure and leadership emerged from the circumstances of the moment. We carried guns, were after the bad guys, and often faced danger. Not working together was not an option.

We were principled and followed the rules (most of the time). We always told the truth. We didn’t suffer fools gladly. We respected and helped each other. We minded our own business. We partied together. We protected one another. We never talked about feelings but knew when to give a squad member space. We valued and respected each other. Our relationships felt right. We didn’t need to talk constantly about how we interacted. We trusted each another. We had a supervisor. We didn’t trust him and wouldn’t let him in the group. He stayed away from us.

We gave our time and talents to one another and utilized our skills and knowledge effectively. All were more than competent. Some worked undercover, others handled surveillance. One was an investigator who enjoyed laborious fact-finding. Others were good report writers or excelled at testifying in court. Each did everything and, at the same time, we played to our strengths and compensated for our weaknesses. Our diversity gave us the capabilities to handle any situation.

We were fast, flexible, and innovative and found what worked in any situation. We had no formulas for success. We created in real time as we carried out our mission. We were high performance and low maintenance. If you asked one of us if another member of the squad was a good team player, we would have looked at you like you were crazy. Great teams are made up of authentic people who cooperate to fulfill a great mission--not compliant conformists worried about their images.