Saturday, May 20, 2017
Making teams tick 5 things even I can tell you
Making teams tick 5 things even I can tell you
ThoughtWorks is a company of really smart people - we base our business on it. As part of my job at this company, I am privileged to work with the smartest of the smarts. Some of our best consultants come to ThoughtWorks University and thats what makes the program as good as it is today. On the side, Ive become a bit of repeat practitioner in putting teams together in a high intensity performance environment. Over the last few years in this firm, Ive put together over 20 teams and fortunately each team has made the company proud with its performance. You could say that I know a thing or two about making teams tick. While that may only a be a conjecture, Id like to share with you what Ive learned while working alongside some really smart individuals.Set Context
At ThoughtWorks, my favourite word is context. Context is what we need to perform effectively. Context provides the background for why we do the things the way we do them. Context often illuminates the very meaning of what we do. To set context is perhaps the most important part of building a new team. My colleague Patrick Kua is an absolute hero with setting context. I use a lot of his onboarding patterns to get new teams up to speed with the rationale, background and mechanics of our work.Give them Freedom
I strongly believe that when you put a group of smart people together and they agree on the goal they wish to achieve, they will find effective ways to get there. ThoughtWorks University v2 is a great example of this - even rookies prove this hypothesis. In my time at ThoughtWorks, Ive noticed that its usually enough for me to set context, share some broad guidelines with my new team and then just let them do their thing. Sure, theyll make mistakes. If we can plan some slack to allow people to learn, we can easily mitigate that risk. Sure, theyll need guidance. Thats where my experience comes in.Avoid the postman pattern
One of my previous bosses was a nightmare to work with. All she ever did was pass on work via email. We never caught up, she never worked alongside me or my colleagues. She sat in her ivory tower, while her minions slogged away. I call this the postman pattern. I try to consciously avoid this kind of aloof behaviour. This to some extent has been my Achilles heel as well, but I believe the only way to have influence in a team, is to work within it. For as much as I can, I work with my teams on a daily basis. When I cant work alongside them, I try to step away and remove blockers instead. Theres no point trying to operate by remote control. Either earn your right by working with the team, or be ready to relinquish it.Shorten the feedback loop
Play the facilitator
My colleage at ThoughtWorks, Angela Ferguson often used to speak of her role as a project manager being more like that of a facilitator. I think shes quite right. If we truly want to make our teams succeed then our biggest responsibility is to remove blockers from the way. Quite often its also about absorbing external pressures so the team can perform effectively. Often it also means connecting people to people. This in my view is crucial. There are several problems to which a team may not have solutions. This is where connecting to people outside the strongly knit team helps -- tapping into the power of weak ties. Ive been around for a while. My job gets me to know a lot of people and connect with them on social networks as well. I use this strong network to get my immediate team connected to other ThoughtWorkers when the need comes by.Im obviously no leadership or team building expert. Im sure theres heaps more one could do when setting up and working with new teams. All Ive added here is from my own experience - do you have any ideas you want to add? Feel free to drop them in the comments section of this blogpost. Next week, well be back to my musings on social business.
Photo credit: Éole
Available link for download
