Simplifying Complexity for Team Growth

Workshop Description

The workshop will bring to life an approach repeatedly and successfully used to work with senior leaders, executives and boards to understand and engage in the process of developing teams that ultimately perform well. The workshop aims to get participants excited about developing their own use of principles and reframing sometimes overly complicated Organisation Development Practices into simple, easy to use business language and to start to reframe how they would explain how they work to their clients.

Facilitator: Paul West

My Takeaways

Paul West shared with us his formula for growth and success (see image above), and within this workshop he focused on the last element of "Developing team norms and principles". The basic message was that we must be aware as a team or organisation (team of teams) that when norms and principles are not spoken of two characters can emerge:

1. Villains: When we assume unspoken ideas that affect our team dynamic.
2. Heroes: When principles and norms are clear and shared in the team.

In self-managed teams "working agreements" (governance) are key for the success of a group of individuals collaborating on something without a manager. The management function and responsibilities must be spread out into different roles (and their responsibilities or accountabilities) and assigned, elected or chosen by the members of the team. Leaving these agreements unspoken creates the conditions for "villains" (assumptions) to creep in and destroy the working relationship.

At Konsileo , self-management is framed under two main concepts: (1) Virtual Team Contracting (VTC), where Client Directors (brokers) collaborate around a client; and (2) Agile Project Management, where Central Team members work together around a project. In both cases, Working Team Agreements (WTA) become paramount in the short term (or medium term at the latest) to ensure the successful functioning of the team.

We have seen how "villains" appear when these WTA are not defined by the members of the team.

If we want our teams (in any type of company) to thrive, let's have an open conversation about our expectations of the work we are doing together and lets move from assuming things to giving clarity on why and how we do things as we collaborate.

Collaboration is the labour (preparing the soil) together with others (co-llaborate) of our common culture (the way we do things around here).

"The way we do things around here" can me simplified (according to Paul and other authors) on describing the underlying principles in which our culture and ways of working are based on. Curiously, this was the basis of a recent conversation I had with my colleague and friend ????Lucy HG ???? (aka Lucy Herreras-Griffiths) . Although, I agree theoretically with this idea, I belief the time has to be right in the team (and company) to have that deeper conversation regarding principles and values that were foundational at the start (and present) of the initiative. What do you think?

#ODConference 2024 at Roffey Park Institute

This post in a very short summary and reflection of my main takeaways while attending the Annual OD Conference "Thinking Global, Acting Local" on the 24th and 25th of October 2024 at Roffey Park Institute as Head of Organisational Development at Konsileo. View more of my posts by visiting my profile: Allan Rhodes.