With the holidays just around the corner, I look forward every year to making cookies with my children. I am normally responsible for the chocolate chip cookies while my wife and her siblings handled the sugar cookie creations.
If you know me and have spent time with me, especially working with me, you will know that my mind flows in a million different directions at any given time. It is no different when doing things around the house including baking cookies. When making cookies last year, I noticed the various ingredients spread across the kitchen counter, ready to be mixed for the next batch of batter when I literally thought, “is the team of people I work with like a cookie?” In that moment, I began to want the team I work on to be a cookie.
Consider this…
Think about it. I have rarely met a chocolate chip cookie that I didn’t like! The combination of the crunch with sugar supplemented by chunks of chocolate – blending perfectly across your tastebuds and leaving you wanting more – amazing, right?
A cookie is a combination of specific quantities of particular ingredients. My favorite chocolate chip cookies include:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Nothing on this list is out of the ordinary and is pretty standard for chocolate chip cookie recipes. What actually started me down this road of thought was the specific quantities of ingredients. As my kids “helped” me organize, measure, and combine ingredients, I cautiously made sure they counted with me and that we actually followed the recipe because I know that if deviated too much, the quality will deteriorate rapidly.
Consider a successful team – is this team exclusively made up of a single personality or single basis of knowledge? It would be fair to say that the team is a combination of many personalities and skills?
Team Roles
In 1969, Dr. Meredith Belbin began a study of team behavior. In his 1981 book, Management Teams, he describes eight specific team roles which eventually became nine different specific and important roles. They can be generally described as:
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Shaper | Challenges the team to improve |
| Implementer | Puts ideas into action |
| Completer Finisher | Ensures thorough, timely completion |
| Coordinator | Acts a team-leader |
| Team Worker | Encourages cooperation |
| Resource Investigator | Explores outside opportunities |
| Plant | Presents new ideas and approaches |
| Monitor-Evaluator | Analyzes to the options (quality) |
| Specialist | Provides specialized skills |
Each ingredient has a different and specific purpose for which it contributes to the total cookie. In fact, when considered team members, many of these ingredients could play multiple roles depending on your interpretation. This is no different than team members who fulfill multiple roles when needed to assist the overall team success. Too much or too little of any one ingredient will change the cookie as it will the team.
| Ingredient | Purpose | Team Role |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | Foundation | Implementor |
| Baking Soda | Paired with an acidic ingredient like chocolate, it’s a leavening agent causing the batter to rise. | Monitor-Evaluator |
| Salt | Preservative and adds flavor. | Completer Finisher |
| Butter | Adds flavor and moisture to the batter. | Shaper |
| Granulated Sugar | Contributes to the texture and adds flavor. | Resource Investigator |
| Brown Sugar | Contributes to the texture and adds a unique sweet flavor. | Plant |
| Vanilla Extract | A sweetness and often enhances other flavors too. | Team Worker |
| Eggs | Typically a binder to hold things together. | Coordinator |
| Chocolate Chips | Predominate character and specific flavor. | Specialist |
From Batter to Cookies
Contemplate the transition the freshly mixed batter takes to become an amazing cookie. A freshly compiled team, a combination of people formed for a specific purpose will probably look amazing on paper, just like the batter tastes. I literally had to smack away the fingers of my kids who both wanted to keep eating straight batter throughout the afternoon of cooking – because after all, it was good!
The batter is moved from a bowl to the cookie sheet and into the oven where it is baked for a period of TIME before it comes out a cookie. A transition for success takes TIME! A newly formed team may hit the ground running but it still takes time to find the true success it wants to achieve. Roles are organized, shared, reconfigured, and distributed to accomplish a common goal. Leaders emerge with the influence and support of others and the team cycles through intermediate processes to ultimately reach an end product.
Enjoy the diversity of your team and what each team member brings to the table, just like you enjoy those warm cookies straight from the oven!
This concept is commonly included in my speaking topics. Learn more.
