When things don't go to plan
contuining the blog series with the methodology and technology...
As an organisation, team or individual it doesnt feel good whe things dont go to plan.
Productivity and Efficiency drop, while Innovation is stifled. When the team fails, everyone loses. The employees, managers, and the company lose both financially and in well-being. With these possible consequences, we can see that teamwork is more than a nice idea; it’s essential. in the worse case we lose top talent.
Frederik laloux author of Reinventing Organizations when interviewed said; "One of the big causes of team failure in our modern culture is the traditional organizational pyramid. It doesn't represent how people actually do work. It just organizes them into neat groups and silos that gives our organisation a sense of control. We've created a redundant structure that gets in the way of work and makes the "system" much slower and more fragile."
As a remote scrum master and agile coach im sensative to the impact of silos, they are dangerous and deceiving for productive teams and can quickly derail weeks of positive team work and energy. A silo occurs when separate teams or individuals lose or choose not to collaborate with the team. Forbes define silos as "when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company"
For remote teams being cut off there is a greater impact. Motivation, productivity, quality and collaboration quickly suffer as a result. In the same article forbes continues: Most employees become frustrated with their department and the organization as a whole when they have identified the problems, but can’t do anything about it. It is the responsibility of the leadership team to recognize this and rise above to create effective, long-term solutions that are scalable, executable, and realistic.
One classic example of the silo effect is when two departments are contributing to the same thing, but neither of them is aware of what the other is doing:
1,2,3 Shake it up - break it up!
Here are my recommended action points for leaders to bring the team back on course.
1. "Bend" the pyramid, agree on a framework to promote collaboration and productivity to bring value back.
Good leaders will bring things back with positive energy and find ways to put one foot in front of the other to rebuild with courage and empathy. You may need to challenge (with your seniors permission) the organisation structure if it means bringing the right people together. Place the right people in the right job, the aim is a cross functional, self organised team of committed individuals - ready to put a shift in. Each recognised for their talent (not their title) and all have equal freedom to communicate, collaborate, question and enjoy conflict (healthily) with amazing results. Let the team choose a collaborative framework to align and connect with each other. If training is required, train them.. thats a small cost to correct production and put the organisation back on ttrack.
OKR, SCRUM, or KANBAN are just a few methods of framework that can help productivity, drive value, alignment and ultimately bring results. Let the team try one, a combination or even all of them depending on the length and complexitiy of the project or product.
2. Get the senior sponsor involved.
Align the mission to the vision. Why are the team important, why are they going to work, support each other, hold themselves accountable and get this job done well. Find an outcome to believe in thats not only profit driven, how will your service make a difference in the world ?
The senior sponsor is going to help motivate while providing a sense of accountability. The sponsor or exec will back them up with a regular check for results, support and purpose.
3. The team make an agreement and find tools for the job
Last month i wrote about the team agreement, the foundation for high performing teams. Support your teams in creating the scene to get the job done. Encourage tools to help, what tool best supports their production framework and collaboration.
Finally , get excited, share success stories, demonstrate how agility and collaboration of teams can help improve organisation maturity.
"When teams from varying sectors collaborate effectively, it can have a profound impact on decision making, innovation and even profitability. Workplaces that foster a culture which values team cooperation can perform better. It enables them to be more responsive and accomplish better outcomes." - Prince2
In summary
Agile methodologies stress the benefits of working with cross-functional teams to encourage strong communication between business owners through to the technical teams that produces the product and members of the technical team. Rather than working in functional silos, Agile methodologies promote frequent and face-to-face communication between all team members.
The technology: The 16th State of Agile Report details notable trends and issues in Agile adoption and practice for organizations as they scale Agile beyond software development teams to the entire organization. They report the trending tools to manage and collaborate on agile projects in 2022 are :
1. Jira by Atlassian
2. Miro (look out for around by miro the new video collaboration software!)
About the author : Andy Smith is an Agile Coach, Product Owner (CSPO) Scrum Master (CSM).