Foundations for thriving teams
Foundations for thriving teams sounds good in theory, but let’s face it, kicking off as a new team (or having newness reset your team like new members, new direction, etc.) is both exciting and frustrating. Fresh starts and opportunities to reset can give a boost, but the newness itself means the learning curve is steeper and it's harder to get traction. As a team coach I really enjoy helping new teams connect, learn and align on key foundational focus areas, with the goal of accelerating their ability to collaborate and achieve big things. Here are the four areas teams for thriving teams I focus on.
Sponsorship & Purpose. Thriving teams feel leadership’s commitment to their success, and their work has compelling goals and impact. Start where you are in terms of sharing goals and outcomes for the team, company and/or product. Make sure to share these goals to show how the customer is a part of that vision. I say start where you are because sometimes people provide corporate speak, aka acronym-filled bullets which aren't exactly inspiring yo your teams. Have your teams play back what they see as the focus and purpose for their work. With 2 small exercises you are able to galvanize everyone to focus on impact, not activity. Trello has a handy blog post which might be useful and simply for your team to try. I encourage teams to create an elevator pitch for their work.
Roles & Accountability. When teams are mature, they have a process in place to welcome change & shifting priorities to ensure they are focused on the right outcomes. The first step in this is to be clear on the roles, skills & responsibilities needed to deliver the work. A simple skills matrix exercise with your team is an excellent starting point. I even go so far as to ask people what they want to learn as motivation is a key ingredient to team learning & improvement.
Trust & Belonging. More than any other pillar, this one is truly the most foundational. So when starting your team, create opportunities for teammates to get to know each other, each get an equal turn to share their insights and feel listened to with an eye towards creating deep psychological safety where diverse individuals can bring their whole selves to their work and thrive. Setting up team norms or working agreements is an important step, but also making sure ALL of the activities and conversations have a tone of openness, curiosity, and even fun helps set the stage.
Learning & Improvement. The source of all team learning should be a continued quest for deeper understanding and empathy for the customer being served, and even stakeholders and ecosystem. A self-managed team is focused on outcomes, feels they have the right roles and skills with accountability to get the job done, and prioritizes trust and belonging for their team culture. And also importantly, they assume they are not perfect and therefore focus on progress and learning over perfection. Team retrospectives are an easy and excellent way to engage in learning and improvement. Start having these conversations during your team kick off, and prioritize reflection and learning as a part of how your team works (I do mine every other week.)
I remember when I was working with a team who had roles from different parts of the organization—where they were used to waiting for their manager to tell them not only what work to do, but direct exactly how to do it. Problem was managers weren’t as close to the day-to-day, so work would come to a standstill while they waited for directions. I was brought in to help the team in a transformation to self-organization or self-management. And the team couldn’t do that without true understanding of the what and the why of the work. So I went through about 8 short (60-90 minute) sessions with the team over the space of 2 weeks going through the pillars for thriving teams. This way they could keep working, while carving out time to set up the foundations so they could self-organize and ultimately thrive to deliver exceptional outcomes. You, too can set up your teams for success!
