How can you take your team through so much change? Safely

Although the dynamics of how people work together may have changed, the purpose of highly effective change initiatives has often stayed the same: delivering quality solutions, within constraints, mitigating risks, enhancing value and, for some, safeguarding the wellbeing of all those involved.

Change inside out.

The tendency is to think that effective change initiatives build functional solutions, like bricks in a house, which, once assembled, can single-handedly transform a business. Although functionality is necessary it may not be sufficient in systematically evolving a business and realising the benefits of an initiative.

As a result of this 'way of thinking' decision can be made, based solely on functional assumptions, by hiring specialists that slice and dice our projects and give us steps to ensure our objectives are met: the business is on board, the solution meets our exact requirements, everyone is excited about the change.

This can be misleading.

We all love a good shortcut, a tool, a plan, a framework, a methodology, the promise of peace of mind. Often the experience of partaking in a major project can be very stressful for many participants, and the results reflect that.

There is a pulsating need to update our human ability to collaborate, synergise, empathise, understand, listen, commit.

Culture is always by design

I'm fascinated by the concept of compounded interest and I tend to, intuitively, apply it to team dynamics, primarily when I think about the habits and routines leaders demonstrate in defining team sub-cultures.

Some ideas to reshape team culture:

a) Leadership / sponsorship. What better behaviour would I wish others in my team to model? Openness, vulnerability, empathy, clarity?

b) Intentionality. When many are struggling for time, between a Zoom invite and another, It's even more useful now to clearly describe expectations, objectives prior to the meeting, in the invite.

c) Shared Narrative. Tasks and activities are one part of the story. During challenging times people also benefit from seeing how the light and the end of the tunnel looks like.

d) Behavioural metrics. There is flooding abundance of functional and project metrics. Projects would also benefit by using metrics that encourage collaboration, decision making, clarity of communication, ownership.

e) Soft Skills. Is there a problem or team dynamic you keep on stumbling upon? Resistance to change, escalations, lack of commitment? Can you think of a skill that can address the problem from the root?

I've developed a visual that can help you keep track:

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