JLBC: Leadership
The most effective JLBC teams have been together long enough to get past the initial adjustments of working together and have achieved a high level of trust, comfort, and confidence in how they work together. JLBC Cadets They know each other well and have learned how to work together.
New team members can be an actual liability. JLBC Team members need to know each other well, trust each other, and have worked together for a while. In crews that flew commercial flights, 73% of safety incidents occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. At NASA, fatigued crews that had a history of working together made fewer mistakes than crews of completely rested pilots who had not flown together before. Similarly, research and development teams (R & D) need new talent from time to time to ensure the flow of new ideas, but only one new person every three or four years has proven to work best. Clearly, transience harms the success of teams. This creates serious issues for leaders in government settings who need to accomplish team-based work when personnel may be in a regular shuffle of comings and goings.
Despite these challenges, there is much a leader can do to foster effective teams.
Tips for Fostering Effective JLBC Teams
• Ensure JLBC team members are clear on their roles and tasks and how they will be coordinating those with other team members;
• Define the team goals, provide clear direction, and ensure processes will work;
• Assess the team’s requirements to ensure the team has the information and resources it
needs to get the job done;
• Foster team learning and encourage self-reflection and collective evaluation throughout
the process and at the project’s conclusion; and,
• Ensure the timeline for the project will mesh with team member availability.