Chapter 4
Teamwork vs. Socialwork
Here's yet another level in which
goals and needs get confused. This time it's about a category of goals we call
"socialwork." Socialwork is a perversion of the need to affiliate. In
it, affiliation breaks free from the team objective -- it is just affiliating
for the fun of affiliating.
In the Stone Age, socialwork was
when one caveman kept interrupting stalking the woolly mammoth to do the woolly
mammoth dance. This drove the other cavemen nuts, because everyone knows you
kill the mammoth first, then do your impression of it later, around the fire.
A hundred thousand years later,
teams are still afflicted, at every turn, with outbreaks of the mammoth dance.
All too often, the problem isn't
just one "class clown" who can't stick to the task -- it's a major
contingent of fun-lovers, who kill the work ethic deader than Raid. Two people
with lampshades on their heads are enough to doom a serious enterprise.
The stated purpose for a team is
to gather people together and collaborate to jointly accomplish agreed upon
team outcomes; i.e., get things done together. The purpose of socialwork, on
the other hand, is to get your personal needs for affiliation met by being
involved in a group.
One is work-related, and results
in dead mammoth. The other is a goof, and likely results in no mammoth, or
worse, a very undead one.
Here are examples of teamwork
attractions that distract members from the true team goal:
the
team has some super attractive members
the
team has a charismatic leader
the
team gets to travel
the
team has an incredible expense account
the
team was written up in Fortune
the
team gets a great workspace
the
team does no lifting
the
team goes to Vail every February
This is a mixed list, but what it
says is that there are more reasons for joining a team than just the human need
to interact or the validity of the stated team goal ("develop a manned
flight rocket to travel to the Sun"). Knowing these things about one
another, up front, can resolve anxieties and expectations before they drag the
team down.
Sometimes the line between
teamwork and socialwork gets a bit fuzzy. You can usually tell this is
happening when everyone on a team is pissed off. An example of the
teamwork/socialwork clash is when Team Member A is working on a task while Team
Members B, C and D are in the next cubicle chatting away about non-work related
things. While A is doing teamwork, B, C and D are doing socialwork.
It is a uniquely human conflict
-- work vs. play. While play is natural and normal, it quickly becomes
corrosive when play replaces work as the goal for one or more team members. It
will not take long for Team Member A to resent the fun the others are having,
and their unwillingness to pull their share of the load.
Conversely, Members B, C and D
will feel genuinely indignant and angry that their socializing is not perceived
as the vital glue that holds the team together. Hint: if glue isn't being
attached to every team member, it isn't vital glue.
A survey a few years back suggested
that during an average workday, at least one fourth of the time is occupied by
socialwork. The researchers also suggested that this mental break time is a
necessary component to staying sane at work (relieving stress). The problems
occur when some people on a team are teaming at the same time others on the
same team are socializing.
While both teamwork and
socialwork are essential to team success, getting the whole team in sync is
important.
Plus, some team members have
higher needs in one end of the spectrum than the other. Some people never seem
to need or want a break while others don't appear to be pulling their weight
since theyre usually schmoozing.
All work and no play makes you
dull. All play and no work makes you unemployed.
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