Understanding the Three Types of Work

“Every once in a while we discover a question that turns out to be particularly powerful in terms of the benefits that come from a team grappling with it. And so the question is this: ‘In order for this team to deliver on our business objectives this year, what is the high value, highly interdependent work that we must do together? ” - Peter Axelson

In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the concept of "Joint Work" as a critical building block for developing effective teams. They emphasize the importance of identifying the shared work that a team must do together, which is distinct from individual or subgroup work. 

Episode Highlights:

Pizza Story

Peter shares the origin story of this concept of Joint Work. When working with a group of managers to help them understand the importance of understanding their shared work as a team, he uses a pizza analogy. He distinguishes between the "crust work" (individual work) and the "points work" (work requiring collaboration across the whole team).

Three Categories of Work

Winnie and Peter introduce the three categories of work that effective teams must define: individual work, subgroup work, and joint work. These categories help teams understand the different levels of interdependence in their work and then build the appropriate collaboration mechanisms.

Joint Work Continuum

Joint work varies greatly in quantity across teams, forming a continuum. Some teams may have a small portion of joint work (like small points on a pizza), while others have a significant portion (like large points). In general, as the size of a team increases, and as the functional diversity of a team increases, the amount of joint work in the team decreases. Some teams will end up having a small amount of joint work and some teams will end up having a large amount of joint work. Having more joint work is not “better” than having less - what’s important is that the team has clearly defined that work which entails a high level of interdependence.

Powerful Question

Peter highlights a powerful question for teams: "In order for this team to deliver on our business objectives, what is the high-value, highly-interdependent work that we must do TOGETHER?" This question encourages teams to reevaluate and redefine their work. Peter notes that across the hundreds of teams with which he has worked, every team has, to some degree, changed how they define the work of their team.

Joint Work Discovery Process

Winnie and Peter describe how they help teams discover their joint work. This process includes a workshop setting where the team reviews their business objectives and defines their joint work. They use seven categories of joint work to help the team think broadly about what their joint work should be.

Work Process Alignment

Winnie and Peter stress the importance of aligning work processes with the team's joint work. They explain that team meetings and other processes should be reflective of the type and amount of joint work.

Benefits of Defining Joint Work

Peter highlights two key benefits. First, teams that invest in defining their joint work often realize they have been doing the wrong work together. Second, these teams become more focused, experience less tension, have more productive meetings, use time efficiently, and collaborate more effectively. 

Winnie and Peter acknowledge that defining joint work is, at first, a challenging and messy process, but one that produces huge benefits for teams. They offer their assistance to teams interested in delving deeper into this concept.



Resources

Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn 

Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com



Mining Group Gold by Thomas A. Kayser