Team Building Playbook

Team Building Medical Device Sales

For Medtronic

Jenny knudson, Michael Moreno & Erica Postell

Alliant International University; School of Professional Psychology

Course Project

ORG62020: Team Facilitation

Dr. Kasia Fuiks

August 14, 2022

mintmade

In 1979 the Medtronic Foundation was established, further accomplishing a commitment to corporate citizenship. Later that year the Bakken Society was founded, recognizing technical employees who make significant contributions to Medtronic, to the biomedical industry, and to customers and patients.

Medtronic has since made vital contributions to the biomedical industry.

Most recently, Medtronics has made advances in AI capabilities announcing the first patient procedure with a robotic-assisted surgery system.

(Medtronic, 2022)

History

Mission Statement, Values & Culture

Hope

The most powerful hopes can be simple, ordinary. A woman who hopes an irregular heartbeat is a sign of excitement, not a cause for concern. The father of a child with diabetes hopes his son’s blood sugar won’t spike at school. As a global leader in healthcare technology, the resolve to restore hope fuels our desire to strengthen, lengthen, and save lives. So, we reimagine the treatment of more than 70 complex and challenging conditions. Not for the one, but for the many. Not someday, but this day.

People at the center

"Personalized treatment means treatment for you. Technologies that understand that your disease is different than somebody else’s and warrants a specific treatment are transforming healthcare as we know it.”

–Brett Wall, Executive Vice President and President, Neuroscience Portfolio at Medtronic

(Medtronic, 2022)

"TEAMS"

In-Team Sales Collaboration

In the development stages of team building, group socialization allows for individuals to evaluate the team and decide on their level of commitment (Levi & Askay, 2021).

The foundation of team development is T-R-U-S-T.

Teams may experience new members as a threat or a catalyst for anxiety with respect to how the "pecking order" may be affected. Team leaders need to cultivate supportive relationships among their members through encouraging assistance, steps to create a shared vision, and coaching, which encourages the development of trust and social relations

(Levi & Askay, 2021). 

The importance of team collaboration not only produces new sales tactics like sharing unique strategies and crowd-sourcing solutions to road-blocks, it also encourages total teamwork rather than competition between teammates which Gartner studies show increases sales impacts from 22% to 49% (Primeeast, 2022).

Forbes Business Development Counsel describes how their sales teams work together to increase sales by primarily sharing information and real-time, verbal communication (Forbes, 2018). This means having conversations not on email or text, but actually speaking to each other on the phone, or in person.

Creating an environment where team members are happy to share details of their "secret sauce" and value information for performance improvement is a key factor in achieving superior results.

Building Trust

Setting Team Norms

The Power of Teamwork

Creating organizational methods for resolving and reducing conflict: 

If you hear from someone reporting to you that . .

“Everyone still insists on being a decision maker.”

The problem could be that . . .

The people your report is dealing with remain concerned that unless they have a formal voice in making the decision— or a key piece of the decision— their needs and interests won’t be taken into account.

And you could help your report by saying something like...

“You might want to explain why people are being consulted and how this information will be used.”

(Weiss & Hughes, 2005, p. 2).

What is Psychological Safety

Developing a Culture of Safety

Honesty and feedback are critical to employee development

• A radically candid culture will be quicker to bring issues to light, so they can be resolved 

(Levi & Askay, 2021; Scott, 2017).

Psychological Safety: Implementation Strategies

Importance of Leadership

"If you don't hold people accountable, your team won't do it either"

(Lencioni, 2014)

Leaders are responsible for fostering open environments where all members have a chance to speak up. Lencioni (2014) describes that when people feel their input is heard and valued, they will support a decision, even if they disagree.

Managers may practice openness to feedback by regularly soliciting feedback and confronting difficult issues.

Facilitation Strategies

Psychological Safety: Implementation Strategies

Radical Candor

The notion of radical candor can be an effective way to build a culture of feedback while prioritizing care for team members.

The foundation behind feedback should always start from a place of care and a desire to help employees become the best versions of themselves. Scott (2017) defines radical candor as a moral obligation. 

Psychological Safety: Implementation Strategies

Facilitation Strategies For Feedback

Psychological Safety: Implementation Strategies

Commitment To Sales Goals

Merely having goals is not enough to increase performance

(Levi & Askay, 2021)

So what can sales managers do to increase motivation and commitment within their teams, besides dangling a commission carrot? 

Giving salespeople a number to chase is part of the equation, however, creating real commitment (where an individual's goals are in alignment with the organization's) can increase motivation, performance, and ethical behavior. 

Coaching Style: You have a team member who's become demotivated (due to performance setbacks) and has adopted a negative attitude.

Try This: Keep clarifying the goal, but involve this individual in generating tactical solutions with you. Take on a Coaching Style of leadership, whereby you focus on giving encouragement and soliciting their input (Northouse, 2018).

Why: This individual understands what is required of them, but they have lost motivation to follow through. They are in need of high direction – high support leadership. Their performance and commitment have stalled because of recent setbacks, despite the manager's direction (Northouse, 2018).

Directing Style: A new sales rep is not meeting expectations and is forgetting important details, yet they're  enthusiastic about the new role and want to perform well.

• Try This: Spell out, draw out or map out (in detail) all the necessary steps to complete the task, and monitor this individual's performance frequently! Invest the time in communicating with this individual and focus on goal achievement. Take on a Directing Style of leadership, whereby you give instructions regarding what and how goals are to be achieved (Northouse, 2018). 
  
• Why: Efforts should be placed on goal achievement, rather than concentrating on supportive behaviors, because the individual lacks the experience to do the job even though they're highly motivated to succeed. 
  

Fair & Balanced Goals For Your Team

Are quotas allocated fairly so that opportunities are measurable, equitable and transparent for the whole team to understand?

Pursuing demanding goals can be destructive and produce unethical behaviors, as it encourages risk-taking behaviors; this can compromise the team and lead to misrepresenting performance and ultimately cheating (Levi & Askay, 2021). 

Fair Territories?

Behaviors that could indicate goals are too aggressive and are compromising the teams priorities:

• Over-promising/Under-delivering
  
• Becoming pushy with clients
  
• Focusing on numbers rather than the process
  
• Lying 
  

Obtain Input for Goals

Explicit consideration of territories and modeled potential of the assigned locations can level the playing field for sales teams

(Alexander Group, 2022).

An analytical approach to creating fair goals can impact morale, reduce turnover and increase performance across the team.

A collaborative approach to designing goals can:

• Increase morale
• Reduce turnover
• Increase performance across the team
• Achieve greater buy-in

The biggest mistake a sales manager can make is focusing solely on the numbers and not the overarching, long-term business goals of the company, which can have serious ramifications for your company’s reputation.

(Pipedrive, 2022)

• Clarify the level of empowerment the team will have at the start of discussion (management ultimately decides/team ultimately decides/ only informative/ etc.)

• Explain why the team is being consulted and how they will have input   in respect to  the final decision

• Overcome resistance by asking questions such as, "What support would make you feel more comfortable?"

• Remember to take notes and record comments and input

• Review conditions and identify together which are feasible or unrealistic 

(Bens, 2017):

Healthy Competition

Dangers of unhealthy competition

When success for individual sales reps means outperforming others, success means minimizing coworker outcomes, resulting in diminished returns for the team

(Levi & Askay, 2021).

In a competitive sales environment, team members view each other as adversaries instead of partners and trusted advisors. Individual and team goals conflict in overtly competitive environments, and trust and learning diminish. Further, "an emphasis on winning at any cost encourages deviant employee behaviors, such as manipulation, aggression, exploitation, cheating, and denigration"

(Levi & Askay, 2021, p. 93).

Competition is a concept that describes a situation where individuals or organizations vie for limited resources or rewards

(Wang et al., 2018)

Types of Competition

Mixed-Motive Scenarios: competition makes team members work against one another when their individual goals become more important than the team goal (Levi & Askay, 2021, p. 86). 

Intragroup Competition: competitive behavior among group members

Examples: 

• Dominating air time in meetings 
  
• Stealing other sales reps leads
  
• Poaching on the territory 
  
• Keeping best practices and wins secret from other members that could benefit from the knowledge
  

Fostering Healthy Competition

"Coopetition"

combining cooperation & competition

Cooperation encourages teamwork while competition encourages the individual tasks

(Levi & Askay, 2021)  

Although the idea of conflict within a team sounds negative and stressful, it could be a sign of growth and a necessary process for team building.

Conflicts have a positive effect on team problem solving and decision making because opposing views are heard and new solutions are developed; if a team has no conflict, it might be a sign of unhealthy agreement or a domineering leader who suppresses conflict and debate

(Levi & Askay, 2021).

Positive or Negative Conflict?

According to Levi and Askay's Group Dynamics for Teams, there are two dimensions of conflict:

• Productive and
  
• Unproductive
  

These conflicts are around ideas and tasks, or conflicts around emotions and personalities, with one side trying to dominate the other

(Levi & Askay, 2021).

"Let them work it out?" 

(Bens, 2017)

Selling in a Global, Multicultural Context

As organizations become more global, their workforce must be able to interact in diverse markets

(Levi & Askay, 2021, p. 258) 

The multicultural intelligence assessment is a valuable tool for managers to assess candidates' and team members' awareness of cultural differences, their motivations to adapt to cultural differences, and their ability to learn and enact different styles when appropriate (Levi & Askay, 2021).

Separately, sales managers should inherently understand that their sales representatives will have different motivations based on where they fall on various cultural dimensions such as power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation (Hohenberg & Honburg, 2016). 

Hofstede's Culture Dimensions

Tool to Compare Cultural Dimensions HERE

(Hofstede Insights, n.d.)

(Medtronic, 2022)

Diversity @ Medtronic:

"Zero Barriers"

Zero Barriers to Opportunity

Equitable Career Paths

Global Economic Impact

Partnering with HBCUs

Executive Compensation Tied to DEI initiatives & Goals

Shop now

Inclusive Leaders 

• Support their group members
• Ensure justice and equity
• Share decision-making encouraging diverse contributions
• Help members fully contribute 

How can the Organization foster DEI?

• Administer DEI training 
• Tie Executive compensation to DEI   

(Levi & Askay, 2021, p. 273)

Facilitation Practices

"Norms are a set of rules created by group members with which they mutually agree to govern themselves"

(Bens, 2017, p. 22) 

References

• Alexander Group. (2022). "Poor Sales Goals Setting: Start Effectively Setting Goals". https://www.alexandergroup.com/insights/do-you-account-for-the-impact-of-managed-care-when-you-set-sales-goals-for-your-pharma-reps/
• Bens, I. (2017). Facilitating with ease!: Core skills for facilitators, team leaders, and members, managers, consultants, and trainers. Wiley.
• Boyce, A. S.,  Nieminen, L. R. G.,  Gillespie, M. A.,  Ryan, A. M., & Denison, D. R. (2015). Which comes first, organizational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of causal priority with automobile dealerships. J. Organiz. Behav., 36,339– 359. doi: 10.1002/job.1985. 
  
• BrandVoice. (2017, Jan 17). Business: Want To Motivate Your Sales Team? Try Healthy Competition. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/salesforce/2017/01/04/want-to-motivate-your-sales-team-try-healthy-competition/?sh=3d29fa933d12
  
• Earley, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural intelligence. Harvard Business Review, 82(10), 139. 
  
• Forbes. “Council Post: Nine Collaboration Tactics To Make Your Sales Team Stronger.” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2018/01/16/nine-collaboration-tactics-to-make-your-sales-team-stronger/. August 10, 2022.
• Hofstede Insights. (n.d). Compare countries. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/fi/product/compare-countries/
  
• Hohenberg, S., Homburg, C. (2016). Motivating Sales Reps for Innovation Selling in Different Cultures. Journal of Marketing. 80(2), 101-120. doi:10.1509/jm.14.0398 
  
• Hubspot Marketing. (2017). Kim Scott "Radical Candor" INBOUND bold talks [Video]. YouTube. Kim Scott "Radical Candor" INBOUND Bold Talks
• Levi, D., & Askay, D. A. (2021). Group Dynamics for Teams. SAGE Publications.
  
• Lencioni, P. (2014). Five dysfunctions of a team Patrick Lencioni talk 2013 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EQW026alY
  
• Medtronic. (2022, June). Zero barriers to equity. https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/our-impact/inclusion-diversity-equity.html
  
• MedReps. “Why Medtronic Is a MedReps 2019 Best Place to Work.” Medical-Sales-Careers, https://www.medreps.com/medical-sales-careers/medtronic-best-place-to-work-2019. August 10, 2022.
• Monarth, H. (2020). Resolve conflict, restore harmony and strengthen interpersonal rapport. HCM Sales, Marketing & Alliance Excellence, Vol. 19 (Issue 9), p26-27. https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=c331d917-3f93-4067-8821-4ad33ca1aa64%40redis
• Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: theory and practice (9th Ed.).
• Pipedrive. (2022). "How to set smarter sales goals for you & your sales team". https://www.pipedrive.com/en/blog/setting-sales-goals
• Primeast. “Why Collaboration is The New Sales Guru, and How to Achieve It.” Forward Focus, https://www.forwardfocusinc.com/ignite-sales/why-collaboration-is-the-new-sales-guru-and-how-to-achieve-it/. August 10, 2022.
• Rieman, M. (2018, Jun 12). Leadership: Four ways to foster the right sales team culture. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2018/06/12/four-ways-to-foster-the-right-sales-team-culture/?sh=dffc658337fa  
  
• Tedx Talks. (2014). Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8
• Wang, H., Wang, L., Lui, C. (2018, Nov 21). Employee competitive attitude and competitive behavior promote job crafting and performance: A two-component dynamic model. Front Psychol. 9(2223). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02223