Charles Margerison and Dick McCann developed Team Management Systems (TMS) - an integrated system of feedback instruments designed to improve the way people work together in any organisation and, thereby assist in the development of high performance teams.
The Team Management Index (TMI) is a computer-scored measure of key work preferences. Responses are analysed to produce the Team Management Profile, which provides valuable feedback on the respondent's approach to work. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
The TMI measures preferences people have for different aspects of managerial work, based on four key areas:
- How people prefer to relate with others.
- How people prefer to gather and use information.
- How people prefer to make decisions.
- How people prefer to organise themselves and others.
In relation to these four areas, the TMI measures individuals’ work preferences in each of the following domains:
| Advising: | obtaining and disseminating information |
| Innovating: | creating and experimenting with new ideas |
| Promoting: | searching for and persuading others to seek new opportunities |
| Developing: | assessing and testing the applicability of new approaches |
| Organising: | establishing and implementing ways and means of making things work |
| Inspecting: | checking and auditing that systems are working |
| Maintaining: | ensuring that standards and processes are upheld. |
When the work preference scales are combined with the types of work functions they describe role preferences which give an indication of how people like to work and the behaviours they display when working within a team. These can be represented on the Team Management Wheel, a simple visual model that illustrates the role preference of an individual. The resulting Team Management Profile discusses individual work preferences in the areas of decision-making style, leadership strengths, team-building issues, information management & organisation, and interpersonal skills.
Although the Team Management Index measures a person's preferences for types of work and not the person's skills in the preferred types of work, there is a correlation between work preferences and skills in the preferred areas since people tend to practice what they prefer and become more proficient in their preferred areas or work.
In family businesses, different family members will have different work preferences. Understanding the types of work each family member likes and the differences between family members are vital aspects of working in and creating an effective team. By using the Team Management Index family members can increase their awareness of their respective work preferences and can increase their performance by focusing on their preferred activities and strengthening identified weak factors in their team.
TMI assists in the enhancement of individual, team and organisational performance and adds to the bottom line of any organisation.
The above text has been excerpted, with modifications and additions, from Smyrnios, K. Romano. C. & Dana, L. Family Business Succession Planning: A 10 Step Guide. 2000 Centre for Professional Development to which readers are referred for references and acknowledgments.