On November 5, 2009, weeks after a much-publicized merger, Claudia Haughn, Garry Chrenoff, and five other members of an award-winning creative team for a large television network learned that their department was being eliminated. Each member of this high-performing department (three art directors, one photo retoucher, one project manager, one prepress/production professional, and one photographer) was losing his or her job. They were all stunned and upset by this unexpected announcement.

As you can imagine, Claudia, Garry and the other team members were devastated because they were losing jobs they enjoyed and shocked because their accomplishments had helped make their company highly successful. The bad news of the job loss was exacerbated by the realization that their team was being split-up (some of them have been together for many years).

One month later they know they want to stay together and are taking an innovative step to achieve this (as should be expected from creative minds): they are job searching as a team in the hopes of being hired as an intact in-house creative department. They hope to find an organization that needs an in-house creative department and, ideally, will hire them as a group.

I, for one, hope they are successful. Frankly, with the amount of money firms spend on outsourcing their creative work, they have a good chance of being successful.

In addition to the business case, there is another reason to keep this department together. From a people management perspective, breaking-up this department would be a talent tragedy. Not only are they are individually-excellent creative professionals, they collectively possess a unique and highly-valuable attribute: the ability to achieve performance excellence as a team.

This gestalt value of a highly functioning team should not be undervalued and is a good selection approach for any employer seeking to hire multiple people for the same unit. Here are three great reasons for firms to adopt this hiring strategy:

1. Performance Excellence. The members of high-functioning teams know the tasks to be accomplished -- and by whom -- because they have a deeper knowledge of various members’ roles, strengths, skills, and abilities. They manage decision-making and conflict resolution well. They communicate and share information effectively. If you have every worked in a team, you probably know that achieve performance excellence in a team is oftentimes elusive.
2. Support and Cohesion. The members of high-functioning teams have positive relationships and want to see each other succeed. For the good of the team’s goals, members will help each other, encourage each other, and support each other to be successful. This willingness to collaborate for a common goal is fuel for the team’s success.
3. Trust and Respect. Members of great teams are proud to be affiliated and associated with the team. They respect each other and the professional accomplishments of the individual members (without jealousy). While these positive relationships within the team are great for team functioning, they also encourage retention; people like to work where they trust and respect their colleagues.

I wish Claudia, Garry, and the rest of the team luck in their collective job search. I hope they are successful. If they are I am certain their future employer will be very fortunate.

Are you a member of a high-performing team like Claudia and Garry's -- or do you wish you were?

Paula