GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO BUILD AND OPERATE HEALTHY TEAMS AT SCALE
The guide will cover following topics:?
CONTEXT
This is an attempt to apply domain driven design and system architecture principles to build and operate teams. The intent is to advocate for clearly defined responsibilities to avoid ambiguity, develop a sense of community to allow the team to work as a unit, avoid conflicts, do one thing and do it right and scale the model.
These guidelines are written for and by an engineering manager. A few of the sections have a list of things to watch out for. If you are a team member, and your manager is showing some of the listed symptoms – the recommendation to address it would be a topic for another day.
WHY DO WE NEED A TEAM?
You need a team to execute a project. A project is an initiative to experiment or drive value within a fixed time and budget. A project allows organizations to evaluate existing processes, invent, expand and restructure with limited risk exposure.
WHAT DO WE NEED TO BUILD A TEAM?
We need four things to build a team:
THE OBJECTIVE
Obviously, the first thing you need is the objective?itself. Depending upon the methodology or context, people refer to it as a value, OKR (Objective and Key results), outcome, delivery, etc... The idea is to point out the?“worthy return”?in the simplest way possible.??
A SUITABLE PROCESS
Pick a process to orient the team. There are many development methodologies that exist. Some are more suitable than others depending on the project in hand. In case of software engineering, agile methodologies work pretty well and are quite popular for obvious reasons. Agile, at its heart, creates a fast loop of identifying requirements, building, testing and collecting feedback to add incremental value.
WATCH OUT
A PROCESS IS A DESIGN TO ORIENT PEOPLE. IT’S A TEMPLATE – PICK WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR TEAM.
DO NOT MIX PROCESSES. THAT WOULD CREATE CONFUSION IN THE TEAM. INVEST INTO ONBOARDING NEW TEAM MEMBERS TO AVOID DILUTION.
TALENT SELECTION
This is challenging. You have to consider multiple angles:?
LEADER
Lastly, identify a leader and entrust in him, or her. This is very important for the health, structure and moral of the team.
HOW DO WE RUN A TEAM?
It’s a five-step process:?
BUILDING THE MOMENTUM
First and foremost – start building the momentum for the objective and culture of the team. Each individual should have personal love for the objective and collective success. Root out any insecurities – share your own shortcomings with the team. Build trust and create a sense of community beyond the workplace.
WATCH OUT
IDEAS ARE NOT POURING IN, AND MEMBERS ARE NOT VOLUNTEERING FOR TEAM BUILDING LOGISTICS.
THE TEAM IS NOT ANTICIPATING THE EVENTS AS A CHILD COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS DAY.
PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE DELIVERY
Avoid both over and under promising. First, it will burn the team and second it will undermine their potential. You have to get it just right. It’s easier said than done, but the good news is that each project management methodology has recommended tools to calculate the teams’ velocity. Use it as a reference point for planning. In terms of time, I personally use the 60–30–10 rule where 60% is allocated for feature deliverables; 30% in tech debt, training, risk and regulation, vacation etc.; and the last 10% is for personal growth.?
There is a misconception that agile means going fast. That’s absolutely not true! Steady work, steady results and creating steady value is the goal. In most long running projects, 2 to 5 years, people start to rush towards the finish line. Don’t forget the original objectives and distort the agile cycle. Last minute rush is evil for any team.
WATCH OUT
CULTURE OF DELIVERING TO IMPRESS A SET OF INDIVIDUALS.
LAST MINUTE RUSH TO FINISH THE PLANNED INCREMENTAL VALUE.
CREATING WORK TO PUT NEW SHINY WRAPPERS AROUND OLD PROBLEMS.
SPEED AT THE EXPENSE OF STEADY VALUE.
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SHOW GRATITUDE AND CELEBRATE
If you have created the right culture and sense of community in your team, then half the battle is already won. You just have to spark and facilitate; the rest will fall in place automatically.?
A struggle to bring the team together is an indicator of its bad health. Time is an investment and your team members should not think that they have better alternatives to invest in than the people they work with.
WATCH OUT
DRIVING PEOPLE EITHER BY GREED OR CORPORATE PRESSURE TO SHOW GRATITUDE.
FAKE CELEBRATION WHICH WILL BE INDICATED BY LACK OF PARTICIPATION.
STRUGGLE IN PLANNING, EXECUTION, ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION IN TEAM ACTIVITIES.
INVEST AND CREATE A WELCOMING ONBOARDING PROCESS FOR NEW TEAM MEMBERS
Every team is bound to change either due to growth or attrition, and in my opinion, this continuous change is one of the biggest factors that impact productivity and put a dent into the investment made to create healthy and high performing teams. Don’t let it kill the culture, sense of community and most importantly create a knowledge gap in the team. Almost as important as developing a new feature, it is of the utmost importance to:
Remember, when you are doing everything else right – this is the biggest factor to degrade team’s health.
GET OUT OF THE WAY, LET THE TEAM DO AND THE LEADER LEAD
Tell your leader what needs to be done and not how to do it. Have trust, give them space, let them make controlled mistakes and recover. Set up a clear line for responsibility and accountability.
You shall create a safe but intense environment for your leader and the team. Challenge your leader and their team by giving them stretch assignments, ask provocative questions to drive introspection and change. Let them do their job; don’t do it for them; avoid creating proxy leaders. It may work for a small team but it won’t scale. You will end up making your leader obsolete, kill their confidence and you will become a bottleneck.
WATCH OUT
MICROMANAGEMENT: IS SIMPLY A TRUST ISSUE. IT’S AN UNEASY FEELING OF NOT KNOWING EACH AND EVERY DETAIL OF SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR. IT’S A CONTINUOUS STRUGGLE. THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH IT IS SELF-AWARENESS. ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
WHY DID I BUILD THIS TEAM??
WHY CAN’T I TRUST MY TEAM??
DID I FAIL IN TALENT SELECTION??
HAS THIS TEAM LET ME DOWN IN PAST?
IF ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, THEN TRUST YOUR INVESTMENT. LET THE TEAM RUN ITS OWN COURSE, LET THE TEAM BE RESPONSIBLE AND DO THE RIGHT THING. GIVE YOUR TEAM AND LEADER SPACE. IN CASE OF AN INCIDENT, WAIT FOR YOUR TEAM TO REACT, SEE HOW DO THEY HANDLE SAID INCIDENT AND COACH THEM IF REQUIRED, BUT NEVER SEND THE ENTIRE TEAM INTO TURMOIL. THE GOAL SHOULD BE TO MAKE THE TEAM SELF-SUFFICIENT SO IT CAN BE TREATED AS A BLACK BOX (OR WELL-DESIGNED COMPONENT IN AN ORGANIZATION) THAT CAN DELIVER, REACT AND SELF-HEAL WITHOUT EXTERNAL INTERVENTION. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SCALE.
SME/SUPERHERO CULTURE: SME OR COACHES BRING LOTS OF VALUE WHEN USED WITH THE RIGHT SET OF RELATIONSHIP AND ENVIRONMENT, BUT NEVER PUT ANYONE IN PLACE TO WATCH AND COACH SOMEONE WHILE THEY ARE PERFORMING THEIR DAY TO DAY JOB. IT SCREAMS AT YOUR TEAM THAT THEY ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB RIGHT AND THAT’S A DEATH OF AN INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM’S MORAL BY A MILLION CUTS. IT’S THE WORST THING THAT YOU AS MANAGER CAN DO TO A TEAM OR INDIVIDUAL. IF REQUIRED, SEND PEOPLE FOR EXTERNAL TRAINING, FACILITATE OPPORTUNITY FOR SELF-LEARNING, CREATE OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPERIMENTATION BUT NEVER IMPOSE ON ANYONE. IF PERFORMANCE IS IN QUESTION - YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS TO HELP THE TEAM OR INDIVIDUAL CONCLUDE IF THEY MAY NEED HELP, REITERATE THE EXPECTATIONS, BRING IN ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS, CHANGE ROLES ETC.
ALSO, IT CREATES THE TOLERANCE FOR NON-PERFORMERS IN THE TEAM. PEOPLE GET USED TO BEING RESCUED BY A SUPERHERO, AND SOME FOLKS WILL STOP PUTTING IN THEIR BEST EFFORT JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT BEEN IDENTIFIED AS SUPERHEROES.
AVOID CREATING A SITUATION OF UNHEALTHY CONFLICT?WHICH MEANS, NEVER ASK TWO PEOPLE TO DO THE SAME TASK WITHIN SAME TEAM. DO NOT GIVE THE SENSE OF OWNERSHIP TO MULTIPLE PEOPLE TO ADDRESS THE SAME CONCERN OR LEAD THE SAME INITIATIVE. NEVER ADDRESS AN EMAIL TO MORE THAN ONE ENTITY WHICH COULD BE AN INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM. BE A LIBERATOR, DEBATES ARE GOOD - ENGAGE ALL STAKEHOLDERS INTO A SINGLE MEETING TO AVOID REDUNDANCY OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS. YOU SHOULD CREATE A CLIMATE THAT IS BOTH COMFORTABLE AND INTENSE. REMOVE FEAR AND PROMOTE SAFETY.
Finally, protect the team from non-believers, and monitor its health and sustainable delivery.
HOW TO SCALE THE MODEL?
Building and operating a healthy team is hard but scaling it is monumental. The good news is that it’s not impossible either - there are multiple examples in almost every profitable (or functional) organization and that’s the reason they are still in business.
Once you have the template of a healthy team, in my opinion, there are two key factors to scale the model.
DOMAIN
A flat organization avoids lots of waste and non-playing actors but basic hierarchy is necessary to scale.
In my personal opinion, we need to use the above template to create a high-performance healthy team at every level with minimal hierarchy.
Each team should own a domain. A domain could be the whole organization; an LOB; a function in an LOB; or a project to drive change, add value or experiment. Domain doesn’t have to be either vertical or horizontal – it could be a mix. In most modern organizations, infrastructure could be a cross cutting domain and the rest could be based on verticals. Think of it as creating a safe home for other teams to play, produce and experiment. Invest into infrastructure and automation – close every loop, and avoid hard to create exception scenarios.
Associate a team with each domain, and as you grow, let the leader decide to replicate the model by creating multiple sub-domains with clearly defined contracts.?Avoid duplicating your domain due to other dimensions.?For example: If you have an accounting domain in the US and a team is running it, avoid duplicating this domain for other regions; instead challenge that same team to expand into other regions. It will create synergy and avoid redundancy.
The moto is to let the team do one thing and do it well.
TEAM AND ITS’ LEADER
Your leader is the key once you build and have started operating a healthy team! Make sure your leader does the same as they grow into their roles. Provide space and empower your leaders to lead the domain and its complexity of expansion, resourcing, coverage and escalation as necessary.?
We need to rely on teams not individual SMEs. Keep the team size to a level where you can get a warm and engaging conversation. You should create a safe but intense environment for your leader and the team. Challenge your leaders and their teams by stretch assignments, ask provocative questions and let them do their job. Don’t do it for them, avoid creating proxy leaders. It may work for a small team but you cannot scale it. You will end up making your leader obsolete, kill their confidence and become the bottleneck.
Every leader must define a matrix to track progress and compare their teams’ performance. Also, remember, slow and steady wins the race. Fix root problems; avoid wrapping up old problems with shiny new wrappers. Add steady work, drive steady value, collect feedback and reorient, avoid burn out and maintain the healthy culture.
CLOSING REMARKS
Leadership requires plenty of soft skills which are hard to learn and master. I have been, and still am, the culprit of many of the “watch out” mistakes listed above. In my opinion, every individual has a few defaults which are derived from culture, belief, experience, upbringing, environment and learning. Some of these defaults may deviate from the proven ways of act. Self-awareness, learning, training and experience can help close this gap.
Although, to turn these skills into habits, it requires continuous practice; otherwise, unconsciously, you will end up going back to your defaults.
Intent, practice and self-awareness are the most important tools in your arsenal to be better than what you were yesterday. Be kind, be humble and play your part to the best of your ability.