Instant Teaming

We can’t talk about “teaming” without starting with our hero and worldwide expert in the topic - Prof. Dr Amy Edmondson. As usual, for anyone who has not read her brilliant books “The Fearless Organization” or “Teaming” - you must, but meanwhile, at the very least listen to her Ted talk about the ways in which you can transform a group of individuals into a team on the fly.

Amy explains clearly why sports teams are very different and how they have the luxury of being stable, having a strong goal and interdependence in achieving a common objective, so they have had the time to practice together and get better. The length of time that a team has operated together for, is indeed a great indicator for success with the components that make up a healthy team dynamic in the business world as well, and if we refer to the Lencioni’s observations on team building models, then we’ll see that “Performing” comes later in the evolution of the team dynamic after they have been together for a while and have gone through the initial phases.

Do we need a way to speed up “Forming”, “Norming” and “Storming” and form tight bonds, build trust and establish a foundation of comfortable and safe openness? Is “teaming” as defined as “the ability to form a strong team fast” needed? 

Of course, there are the evident examples in which yes, teaming is not only desirable but very necessary, ranging from the ad-hoc emergency situations where passers-by lend a hand in a roadside accident, (they don’t know each other but they manage to organise fast and assign roles and tasks on the fly to achieve a common goal)-, to the work environments that have an inbuilt operational need of teams that form on the spot and disassemble at the end of the engagement - such as a shift in the ER or an environment with temporary workers.

What about in most other industries, in particular in the tech industry that typically sees teams have some expectation of permanency? When do we need teaming there?

No one will tell you they don’t need to partner and co-create n today’s fast-paced business environment, and everyone bemoans how a culture of silos in lieu of collaboration and co-creation hurts our ability to grow as fast as we could, but what other specific situations need us to do teaming in today’s Agile world? 

New people in the team - Before the need for speed, we would typically take time to onboard, train and welcome new members of the team and introduce them gradually thus relying on time to create and solidify the emotional connection. With the breakneck speed, we are operating today that luxury has been lost and in lieu of trying to rush the above we can use teaming to reform around new members;

New collaborations - Partnerships, interdisciplinary requirements and in particular cross-departmental needs are more and more common and few teams can work in isolation if any;

Learning Instances - When we have to learn together as a new group instead of with our initial team, such as when we are coming together for a DOJO experience but even when we are attending an event or have to solve a complex task that requires research;

VUCA - Whether in its pre-2020 definition or the extreme redesign on the term, extraordinary events that call for flexibility, agility and teamwork on the fly abound 

So what do people need to achieve teaming?

• Openness - courage, curiosity, willingness to learn and fail which starts at the top - true inspirational leadership helps in particular if the team feels the energy of a brave and therefore vulnerable leader;
• Clear and fast purpose - if the team manages to express it clearly and authentically then it is instantly empowering;
• Common language - crystal clarity in terms is essential;
• Agreement on WoW - restating “HOW WE WORK” in particular for teams that are remote and distributed is paramount but it should also include sections on “HOW WE LEARN”, “HOW WE RELAX”, “HOW WE FIGHT”, etc;
• Instant empathy - being able to relate to those in this new team fast is make-or-break. This is, of course, dependent on high EQ but it is also, thankfully, trainable;
• Non-competitive/non-scarce mentality - as Amy astutely points out, we can not team on the fly if we feel it’s unsafe and we are disposable or there is a “me versus someone else” mentality. Restating the value and role of each team member early on and with clarity goes a long way to mitigate against this;
• Instant bonding/emotional connection - this is the crux of the issue - if teams were to establish workable convention through the steps above fast that would be good enough to make them functional, to make them instantly performing we also believe they need to immediately form bonds, that they are hugely engaged and in high spirits and feel close to each other and like it is safe to invest trust. That is the glue that makes for true and effective teaming and to achieve it there are some things teams can do such as the suggestions we offer for increasing Engagement in our Playbook.

In Amy’s story, this team had a lot of these adjectives. Chances are these people had some practice of Psychological Safety already in the teams they were coming from, so as a result they were better equipped to apply themselves to it.

We get asked all the time “A solution for Psychological Safety - surely you have to be a well-established team to use this?” and the answer is that yes you do, but you can achieve that by the intensity of connection that you create at speed, not only by virtue of time they have spent together as a team.

 This is why we recommend different courses of action and suggest different Plays in our Playbook for different teams starting out on our solution. For those teams that had operated together for a while, we suggest they do a “Courage Hackathon” or a “B!tch Fest” when they start on the software because they likely have baggage that needs resolving. For teams that are new to each other or have new members and therefore need teaming, we recommend two plays in particular. One, a specific “Instant Teaming Exercises” that we have created by combining the “Fast Team Start-up Briefing” and our own “Empathy Hackathon” tips - and a “Humour Workshop” because nothing offers greater emotional connection faster.

Both of these types of teams would be well served to do our ever-suggested play containing snippets of many other ones called a “Team Relaunch” - whether they were established by time or established by emotion, it will only give them space to the team and re-team if necessary and help them move forward with more Psychological Safety.

Whichever play you choose or create, teaming is possible, it’s desirable and it can be absolutely magical and with 2021 brimming with challenges ahead, we need it more than ever.

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Don't send your teams home with a laptop, a Jira and Slack account and a prayer!

Get in touch at www.psychologicalsafety.works or reach out at [email protected] and let's help your teams become Psychologically Safe, healthy, happy and highly performant.

May your Psychological Safety be high and your HumanDebt? be low!