Management team development

Do you get stuck in “urgent issues”? Many managers today are unclear about what the assignement should be. It is also common for special interests to take over and reduce the common responsibility for the wholeness. If the management group does not function fully, the governance does not function as intended. With Kontura’s management team development you can get help in creating a successful management team.

In a reality where we are greatly influenced by the signals from the outside, live with conditions that are constantly changing and must always be prepared for the work in management groups becomes very significant. The management group has a central role as a unifying force for management of the busniess. It must be a clear view of the outside world, create and seek a common ground on strategies based on an overall perspective, understand and develop the resources it has at its disposal, give it clear signals to the organization about what it wants to achieve with the buisness.

Work model

Our way of conducting management team development is in the form of workshops. Scope, direction and content are determined in consultation between the client and our consultants. According to our experience, at least 3 such workshops should be carried out, but it is the group’s needs and level of ambition that dominate.

WHAT LEADS TO SUCCESS?

Successful management teams are characterized by:

Have a clear assignment that is well anchored with everyone in the group
Have a common ground on the direction of the business and the added value that the management team creates for the organisation
Everyone starts from and protects the interest of the wholeness and not the particular interest
Runs the management of the organization, breaks down goals and plans the operations. The focus is on achieving the organization’s assignment
Are based on strategic issues
Clear well-grounded decisions is followed up
Has well-functioning forms and routines for conveying decisions and information in the organization
Developing and anchoring clear norms for the working process in the group
The members feel a high degree of participation in the group’s work, which increases the commitment
The communication in the group gives space for everyone to have their say and ecoruages different points of view, new thoughts and the ability to use personal differences as a strength
Gives room to review one’s own work process by; – observing and reflecting on the group’s efforts, results and working methods
-discussing improvements and changes in the group
-reflecting on their own behavior and how it contributes to the group’s mission and effectivness

Get the management team to become the unifying force needed to drive the businesses
Create a management team that can handle different types of challenges
Understand at what level your managers are performing
Get the organization moving towards set goals
Get better at managing and avoiding special interests
Get the managers to shoulder greater responsibility for a major change process

Contact us

Brochure on management team development

WHAT DOES CURRENT RESEARCH SAY?

Good intentions are not enough. Several interesting research studies have shown that recurring shortcomings in management teamwork (e.g. Bang & Midelfart 2012, Granberg & Wallenholm 2012, Wheelan 2013). It is particularly common for management teams to get stuck in “urgent issues” and are not able to raise their eyes towards the strategic issues. The group’s assignemnt and purpose are often unclear, which also leads to members feeling uncertain about their mandate. It is also common for special interests to take over and reduce the common responsibility for the wholeness. In a time study that was done it was found that 75% of the work concerned reporting in various forms,

15% short term decisions and 10% strategies. Against this background, the question must be asked: are the management teams working on the right things? A clear tendency is that all the focus is on the substantive issues and not on how the process in the group works. An interesting aspect is that homogeneous groups (birds of a feather stick together) seem to work better in stable and unchanging environments, while heterogeneous groups work best in complex and rabidly changing environments. The only question is which organizastions in the modern present live in a stable world?

HOW DO WE WORK WITH MANAGEMENT GROUP DEVELOPMENT?

Starting points

We belive that there is no predetermined way of working with management team development. The efforts must be based on the needs of the group and connected to the issues that are perceived as important and urgent to highlight. The guidline for the work is the success factors that we identified together. It is well known in both research and practice that groups need to manage:

WHAT needs to to be analyzed, prioritized, done and evaluated

HOW it should be done

WHAT the assignemnt and core business is based on

THE HOW is about the process in the group such as working methods, cooperation, commitment, communication and the ability to create a “we feeling”. In our work, we highlight both the WHAT and HOW in a way that promotes the group’s development.

HOW DO WE SUPPORT MANAGEMENT GROUP DEVELOPMENT?

We provide support in the process in many different ways. Here we summarize what we can contribute when it is appropriate and relevant based on the situation in the group:

Clarification of the assignment
LG’s role and what added value LG creates for the organization. Joint analyses that result in a common ground.
The strategic work
What it means.
How it is focused.
How it is communicated.
How to create space on the agenda for this work.
The shared responsibility
What does it mean to be a member of LG? Responsobility for the wholeness. Create links between the parts of the organization. Together, a platform is created that ensures joint responsibility and effective linking.
LG’s role as an engine in and ultimately responsible for changes in the organization initiate, decide on and make progression visible within projects . Create common grounds on strategies and methods in changes.
Effectiveness in teamwork
We make comments about the development of groups and highlight factors that are important in the dynamics and the development of groups. We use various measurement tools to gauge the group’s climate and working methods.
The people
In the development of management teams, it is often important to create a picture of the moral personal leadership roles and how they can interact. All management groups gain in strength when the managers also reflect on their personal leadership roles and how they together form a group profile. In this work we use well-proven measuring tools.

Roles and expectations
When the roles and expectations of each other in the group become clear to everyone, increased security and safety at work are often created.
We offer an educational method for this. Clarifying the roles should result in each member making a personal “program statement” on how she/he intends to participate in the best way to work in a group’s work with responsibility and commitment.
Cooperation
We analyze the communicative pattern in the group using one of our measurement tools. With the results of this analysis as a basis, what is required to develop and preserve safe and cooperative communication is discussed in detail. The work should result in a psychological “contract”, an agreement, about the norms that should apply to communication and cooperation in the group.
LG’s legitimacy A management team must be perceived as legitimate in order to be and remain a cohesive and governing force in the organization. The group must develop a plan to ensure lasting legitimacy.