A continuing discussion coming from 3 different conversations with 3 different pastors over the course of 3 different days, but all having the same question:

Q: How do you put together a team of leaders to guide a church through a new ministry initiative or project? 

Pat MacMillan, author of The Performance Factor, and Seth Godin, author of Tribes, have been a great resource for me in working with church teams. Here is the second of several posts on the topic.

The first characteristic was a common purpose.

High performance teams are also characterized by crystal clear roles.

Every team member is clear about his or her particular role, as well as those of other team members. Roles are about how we design, divide, and deploy the work of the team. While the concept is compellingly logical, many teams find it very challenging to implement in practice. When they get it right, though, team members discover that making their combination more effective and leveraging their collective efforts is an important part to synergistic results.

Broadly speaking, there are three types of team roles:

• Functional (technical) expertise team roles – qualities and knowledge each member brings to the team
• Formal team roles – skills needed for a specific role like team leader or facilitator
• General team roles – the expectations placed on any member of the team so that objectives are met

Role Design Criteria

• Clear – everyone must have role clarity or you will have role confusion
• Complete – cover the whole task – no gaps
• Compatible – match tasks to individual strengths and skills
• Complementary – configure roles so that one person’s accomplishment doesn’t hinder or block someone else from their task
• Consensual – agree on who is to do what and how

This is my part of our job and no one is done until everyone is done

A: Defining the common purpose of the team is the first step of creating a team; that common purpose is the reason for cooperation. Following that, the church must develop an appropriate division of labor and create clear roles for team members. This is the strategy for cooperation.