Transformational Initiative teams that get things done.

OK, a quick review for those Building Business Value neophytes.  A Transformational Initiative culminates the value building process and if these initiatives are aligned with the value drivers for your industry and are completed in a timely manner, they will certainly lead to an increase in enterprise value.

Of course, Transformational Initiatives, or TI’s, require resources. The intellectual resources that make up TI teams are generally your first and second generation of leaders.  Moreover, these leaders don’t always fit nicely into a TI team that is assembled for a strategic endeavor like the execution of a Transformational Initiative.

So how can you build a productive TI team that will produce great results in a compressed schedule?  You take that team to the Next Level.  Building effective TI teams takes some thought.  The sponsor of the TI is going to have to hold the team accountable and the TI lead is going to have to have the ability to establish a direction, keep the team aligned on the target and continually motivate and inspire the team.  The latter is especially important for TI teams that are under resourced (let’s face it … that would be most of them).

My friend Alan Randolph is a real thought leader on building high performing teams and he and his colleagues Ken Blanchard and Peter Grazier call them Next Level Teams.  In their 2005 book “Go Team … Take Your Team to the Next Level … 3 Steps to Great Results“, Randolph and his co-authors suggest the methods and techniques to use all the team members ideas and motivations, make better use of the team members’ and team leaders’ time and find ways to increase productivity and satisfaction for you, your team and your organization.

Since we can’t due justice to building high performing teams in one blog, let me suggest leafing through “Go Team” before you take on the assignment of TI team leader.  It may save you a lot of heartache!