teamwork

I was approached to build out a department. A group was in place and consisted of three individuals that worked from a backlog. I met with all of them as part of my vetting in the role. I accepted the offer and was due to begin in three months.

In the lead time to my start date, two out of the three individuals had moved on to other opportunities. Two new folks had been hired to backfill those positions. So on my first day on the job, three out of the four people in our group, including myself, had been with the company for less than a month. This was very telling of the challenge up ahead: the churn was worrisome, the difficulties were implicit, yet the opportunity to spawn a culture within the group was prevalent.

What ensued afterwards was a lot of good timing, luck, sweat, tweaking and chance encounters. I was able to come across three additional individuals who were in search of a new challenge, that were seeking to leave their comfort zone, and that were willing to work with me. At that point, our entire group was in a sweet spot: nearly everyone was new to the company, everyone was new to each other, and the area we oversaw was in such bad shape that we were given the liberty to set it right.

We first aimed to build a working relationship with each other. We crafted a common project for all of us to contribute to. We timeboxed the initiative and we set an intended outcome that was to drive the output. We dropped the backlog and focused all our efforts onto the project. Categorically postponing requests that could not be tied back to our intended outcome.

We began having virtual daily standups - we wer spread coast-to-coast across Canada. Less so to prioritize work items and discuss blockers, but rather to interact with each other with the intention to spin off into pairing sessions. We shelved standups and synchronous work the moment we built a habit of writing everything down with enough generality to onboard someone into context, yet descriptive enough for anyone to gather the learnings.

After a few months, the team got into a phenomenal shape. We made us of instant messaging to exchange pleasantries and we built the habit of writing about our work through lengthier format in documents. The area we oversaw got an enormous lift. The trust between colleagues grew high enough for each one to openly give feedback on each other’s work. It was very rewarding to dap in the success.

I believe this team became good because the individuals that composed it gave a chance to a process they turned into a habit. They sought clarity of the outcome. And avoided getting caught in the output. They measured progress using tangible metrics. They wrote extensively to dissipate assumptions. They reduced noise by documenting the steps that led them to make decisions. The entire process was transparent and most importantly is was repeatable. The team became empowered to deliver on the intended outcome.