"A team should have a goal, it should not be a goal in itself"
Mark van der Meijde, head of ITC's Applied Earth Sciences (AES) department
Shaping2030 is the University of Twente's mission, vision and strategy for 2020-2030. It is geared toward contributing to the development of a fair, sustainable and digital society between now and 2030. Effective teamwork is considered an important condition for achieving this goal. Mark van der Meijde's team is among the first three that were selected to get started with the Shaping2030 principles regarding team development.
As a representative of a new generation of leaders, how do you view team development?
"Well... I don't know about belonging to a new generation in that sense. I simply think there are different types of managers, regardless of age. There are those whose leadership is mainly about direction and control. They tend to focus on what they personally think should be achieved. As for myself, I prefer a management style in which you start from the talents of your team members and try to let them shine in such a way that their entire environment also benefits. This approach can lead to a wonderful multiplier effect in terms of ideas, proposals to be written and interactions between people."
What are the characteristics of a well-functioning team?
"A diverse composition, multidisciplinarity, inclusiveness, care and attention for each other and an eye for the greater goal. If there are only like-minded spirits in a team, everyone will try to do the same thing and there will be too much competition. People should have the will to achieve something together that they could not achieve on their own; a goal to which each team member can make a meaningful, unique and clearly recognizable contribution."
What motivates you to engage in team development?
"My main motivation is the ambition to deliver better output with the people I have around me. It is a process that starts with recognizing and rewarding individuals. If someone does not feel recognized and rewarded, they will not function well, even in a team. Everyone must feel that they contribute something, have a unique role, and can make a difference. When people see that their unique qualities are recognized, they are more likely to identify what other team members can bring as well. If this is your starting point for collaboration you can let people excel in a narrow field and thus create broad impact together."
How, in your view, does personal development relate to team development?
"I think that personal development should always come first, as a basis for determining what one's role in a team could be. The quality of a group is always a derivative of the individual qualities involved. If a person's personal development ceases, they can no longer contribute to the development of their group. As far as I'm concerned, true job satisfaction lies primarily in personal development. That's why as a manager I constantly try to trigger people's intrinsic motivations. My biggest challenge, however, is to then make sure that they don't deliver on their own, but always with the people around them."
Does support staff have a role to play in academic multidisciplinary teams?
"I would even say that support staff contributions are essential. Unfortunately, in my experience there is no proper connection between science and support at ITC. The academic departments are doing their thing, as are the support departments, and there is surprisingly little coordination. As a result, we often do not understand what the other aims to implement, and that causes quite a bit of frustration. This subject is too rarely discussed, if only because there is no natural formal setting for science and support to meet. We should spend more time together looking at the processes we are going through and the associated objectives. We should also clearly assign mutual responsibilities, and recognize people for fulfilling such responsibilities."
Any advice for fellow team leaders who want to get started with team development?
"First of all, a team should have a goal, it should not be a goal in itself. A team being an end in itself is too holistic a starting point, since you won't be able to connect to the experience of those who are supposed to make up the team. You should define your team's goal and be willing to adjust your team composition as objectives change. You should also properly define the role of all team members so that each member's unique contribution can be recognized and rewarded."
Final question: team development, useful or necessary?
"The term necessary would suggest that somewhere something is wrong that needs to be fixed. As I said, a team should have a goal. Therefore team development can only be defined from usefulness."
