I miss my team. They were a high performing team with a lot of creativity and willingness to step out and invent. The team was formed mostly in 2013 but some of the folks were carry-overs from our Personal Book team of 2010-2012.
As the team assembled in 2013 there were a few issues. We were still new to each other, I didn’t have a grasp on the skillset and the Business Analysts/Product Owners were not part of the team, just assigned to us with their own manager. Through early 2013 this changed, the BAs/POs reported to me and later in the year we were able to move them to the tenth floor so we were all co-located.
So through mid 2013 a transformation occurred. We got to know each other, we were sitting together and these were a talented bunch of folks. Some important characteristics of highly effective teams came into play. The team was focused on a goal (Canada). The team was mostly autonomous because they had all the skills required across a breadth of technical stacks. The team was right sized, bigger than most, but actually a bunch of small teams taking on many tracks. The team was super talented. We had a great technical PM Dibs who knew how to poach the best from Infosys. And he did. Now the team was together and had become established. Also we did not have a lot of team members switching in and out so we were stable. And as mentioned above we were together – co-located in the same corner of the tenth floor.
I was recently reading about agile processes and came across a blog by Kelly Waters, a UK agile evangelist (citation below). He basically described my team in his blog and he has an acronym FASTEST to describe fast teams.
Focused & Flexible
Autonomous
Small
Talented
Established
Stable
Together
Here’s a Kelly’s explanation of each one…
Focused & Flexible. By focused, I mean 100% dedicated to a single, common purpose, i.e. one team, one goal. By flexible, I mean not too hung up on job titles and job descriptions and roles are not over-specialised. I might specialise in X so I’d rather be doing that most of the time, but I am happy to do anything that helps my team to achieve its goal.
Autonomous. By autonomous, I mean that the team ideally has control of their own destiny, from idea to value, with minimum or no reliance on other teams. The team is complete and truly empowered. This is hard to achieve in a larger organisation, but it is worth striving for, as it may be the single biggest factor in creating high performance teams.
Small. Research suggests that the optimum team size for interdependent work is 5-12 people. I would agree with this, but I would go for the smaller end whenever possible. Minimising specialists helps to keep teams, and the overhead of each team, small.
Talented. Over the years, I have seen many managers speak about recruitment, retention and performance management as a chore. But we are in the people business, so this is not a chore, it is one of the most fundamental aspects of creating a high performance team. Give recruitment the energy it deserves and be very selective. Actively focus on how to retain your best talent. And actively manage the weaknesses in your teams – either through more support and training, finding a more suitable role, or ultimately by managing them out. Give your teams the opportunity to develop their skills and help them to master their chosen discipline.
Established. There is no team like an established team. I believe there is immense value in creating persistent teams that are long-lasting. In a project environment, this means feeding work or projects to established teams, rather than forming new teams around projects as they start up. The key benefits of established teams are that they’ve already been through their storming phase and learnt how to work effectively together, they’ve optimised their processes, and they know their capacity.
Stable. It’s related to the point above, but once a team is established, try to keep it stable, instead of chopping and changing and the constant resource contention and delays that come from ever-changing team members or unpredictable availability. Ramping up and ramping down are disruptive.
Together. This is the simplest principle of all, but often it’s not simple in an existing organisation where functional teams have sprung up in different locations. Now reorganising the teams isn’t just about the structure of reporting lines and seating arrangements, it’s also about relocating people and that’s not easy. There may be economic or other reasons for not co-locating people, but if at all possible, sit people close together.
So wow, that describes the reasons this team was so productive, fun and successful. I feel lucky to have had such a great team. I think it is difficult and quite rare for all 7 of these principles to come into play. But at least now I have a very good understanding of what to work towards. But I think the core part of this is assembling the right team first. They must be talented above all else because an established stable team of second rate talent is not going to be a winning team.
As a team leader there are a few important things to keep the team at top performance. Here are my insights from the past 30 years:
Communication – what is the team mission, what is the project goal? Explain it in business terms. How does it benefit the organization? When the team knows it’s mission and has bought into the value of their work they will be jazzed to come to work each day.
Listening – during regular 1:1 meetings listen to what is being said. Are they in a good place? What’s going on with their home life? You don’t need to ask prying personal questions as these may be viewed as a overstepping. I have found that if I ask things based on observed behavior most folks will freely express both work and personal life. It helps to know the emotional health of the team. Show empathy and thoughtfulness but know the boundaries.
Presence – Be there. Sit in the same pod with them. Don’t move over to a manager’s area or behind a door. Attend all standups and as many whiteboarding sessions and grooming sessions as possible. This is a great way to not only make sure the team is moving down the tracks but also an opportunity to read them. Are they struggling with something? Are they not in agreement with the architecture or the direction? Only by being there can you assemble all the little bits of team health. The worst thing is to be blindsided at a later date.
Fun – My teams know how to have fun. Make sure fun is part of the agenda. Recognize when it is time to head out to happy hour or another function. Also, be totally open if it is within budget to do activities the team suggests.
Citation: Kelly Waters January,18, 2016 [http://www.allaboutagile.com/how-to-create-the-fastest-teams] (http://www.allaboutagile.com/how-to-create-the-fastest-teams)