ORK TEAMS SEEM TO BE THE LATEST fad in today's business environment, but what works in Japan may not necessarily be the best answer for the United States. We have teams for quality improvement, teams for customer service, performance management teams, work improvement teams—and the list goes on.

The Japanese are widely hailed as the gurus of team building. Do the Japanese have a natural edge over American workplace teams? To answer that question, let's first explore the concept of cultural values and the impact those values play on creating effective teams. Empirical research shows that five values dominate the Japanese culture:

1. Belonging
2. Group harmony
3. Collectiveness
4. Age/seniority
5. Group consensus

Not belonging to a team in Japan would be unheard of, based on these cultural values. In addition, the team leader-would be an obvious choice-the person most senior in an organization or the oldest person on the team. These team values work well in a culture geared to harmony and group consensus.

A common axiom in Japan is, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." This value would automatically eliminate much of the natural conflict that occurs when a group of people meets to accomplish an objective.

Now let's look at the same empirical data for American's top five values:

1. Freedom
2. Independence
3. Self-reliance
4. Equality
5. Individualism

These values stress individualism rather than team-mindedness. Most of us grew up with the axiom, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." This very axiom points to our natural desire to make waves, to challenge, to be noted as an individual, to be self-expressive.

Most problems on teams occur because of individual behavior. We want to be recognized for our individual contributions as team members. And many reward systems are based on individual rewards rather than team rewards, making team cohesiveness even more difficult.

The American way

None of this means that organizational teams cannot be effective in the United States. We can find numerous examples of effective teams throughout the country. But to copy a concept of team building from the Japanese just doesn't work with the American value system.

The key to effective teams is to know WHY and for WHAT purpose we are called together to be "associated." The most common problem for teams is a lack of unified commitment. Effective teams must put team goals above individual goals. Our American values of independence, self-reliance and individualism don't remake this a natural occurrence. This takes work, individually and organizationally.

Individual ideas

Let's first look at what you can do individually to be an effective team member.

1. Recognize and respect the differences of your team members. Not everyone will see a problem or solution the way you do. In the past few months, this column has explored personality differences and how we view the world based on our personality type. These differences make for richer and more effective teams.

2. be a good listener. One of the problems teams can face is one or two members tending to dominate, making other members less comfortable with contributing their ideas. Learn to be an active listener, and be alert to whether all members ire verbally contributing to conversations. Ask for the opinions of those members not in the vocal majority.

3. Be positive! Being negative is easy—being positive takes effort. Be willing to listen and try the "new" Idea.

4. Fulfill your team commitments. If you do not carry out tile tasks assigned to you, you may jeopardize tile Success Of tile entire Learn. We will all make mistakes as team members—be willing to admit those mistakes and move on.

The organization's role

Now let's look at what the organization can do to contribute to more effective work teams.

1. Ensure that the role and accountability of teams is clear-and that everyone is accountable. Many times teams are created, given a charge and revved up with fanfare for the task, only to find that their decisions are reversed by management up the ladder. When this happens, TRUST—the mainstay of any effective team—vanishes.

2. An effective two-way communication system must be in place up, down and throughout the organization. Effective communication not only provides team members with the information they need to accomplish the team goals, but also allows team members to raise issues that arise within the team.

3. A performance system must be in place to recognize not only individual but team performance, with a heavy emphasis on team accomplishment.

Two Wall Street Journal headlines in 1994—"Clashing Executives Tear a Company Apart" and "Two Mismatched Men Compete for One Big Job"—demonstrate the need for effective teams. Both point to the fact that American teams by nature are going to be more individually focused than those revered teams from Japan. What American companies need to do is acknowledge this fact, and build their own successful teams based on their own culture.