I’m a big believer in one-on-one meetings on manager-led teams. It’s a way to connect with people, stay in touch with progress, learn about problems early, coach, work on career goals, offer feedback, and more. But if you are the manager for a self-organizing team,...
Getting team communication to work may seem mysterious—something that just happens or grows through some unknowable process. The good news is there are concrete actions that tend to build strong team communication (and concrete actions that are almost guaranteed to...
Self-organizing teams don’t just organize their work. They make decisions. Not every situation requires facilitation, but when a team faces an important decision, applying facilitation practices saves time and yields better results. A Story… Jason was...
If you’re a hiring manager, you know that a typical hiring process emphasizes technical skills, functional skills, and industry knowledge. Interpersonal skills are near the bottom of the list, if they make the list at all. However, if you’re hiring for an...
This article first appeared on stickyminds.com. Not long ago, I received a call from someone who wanted to hold a retrospective. “Tell me about your goals for the retrospective,” I prompted. The requestor proceeded to describe what amounted to a mini-witch...
Building trust may seem mysterious… something that just happens, or grows through some unknowable process. Like many things, there are concrete actions that tend to build trust (and concrete actions that are almost guaranteed to break trust down).First, a...
Teams have gone in and out of fashion as a way to improve productivity for years. In my field, teams are essential. The work requires a broad mix of skills and collaboration. But, myths about how to establish and support productive teams abound. These three are...
Jim Sowers asked for more information on team renewal.Here are some reasons teams need renewal.Over time, work that was initially a challenging learning experience becomes routine. Life circumstances change and some team members need to focus their energy in a...
George Dinwiddie has posted his notes from one of my AYE 2008 sessions, Magic Chemistry of Teams.During the session, I asked people to draw a time line that represented their experiences working on teams, then, working in small groups, identify the factors that were...
I still hear about managers taking teams on ropes courses and splat ball courses for “trust building.”It doesn’t work. Trust always exists within a context and relates to a specific sphere of action and expertise.So if you want to build trust on a...
It’s a truism that trust is the foundation of teamwork.But trust is a big word. What do we really mean when we talk about trust?First, trust exists within a context. The sort of trust that you need for a productive working relationship is different from the trust you...
When I talk to teams about self-organizing, people worry about what to do when some one on the team isn’t working out. If we’re a team, they posit, we have to work things out so we can work together. Not necessarily so. Teams need to manage team membership...
My new article on Incorporating Part-Time Team Members is on Stickyminds.com.In one of my workshops I run a simulation on distibuted and part-time teams. The dynamics for the part-timers are almost always the same. People who work part time may want to fit into the...
Yesterday I talked to a friend of mine who was disenchanted with work…which is a new development for her. Up until now, she’s been very positive about her work environment. “What happened?” I asked. Turns out that the manager of her group looked at her team and...
Alicia Yanik has a great article on her experiences implementing Scrum over on stickyminds.We had the Scrum logistics in place, but I struggled with harnessing the team’s power… Then I took a closer look and noticed the team problem solving, self-organizing, and...
I was talking to a friend last week who works for an expert… in how to stifle teamwork. It’s simple, really: Establish two classes of membership on the team, then follow these steps to ensure that all are aware of the distinction. 1) Bring in donuts for the team every...
I came across this story on Roy Osherove’s blog (via Laurent Bossavit on the AYE Wiki).Roy describes his experience solving a technical problem that took longer than expected:After showing this to my team leader and getting a fairly lukewarm response I headed...
Johanna Rothman asks, in a comment on my last post on Collaboration and Teamwork, “How do we build these skills? These are the “soft” skills that many of us struggle to build.”I talk about what’s worked for me and what I’ve seen...
Laurent Bossavit quotes these instructions from a college exam for testers: Incipient.oO{}: Certifications, degrees, teamwork “It is essential that you work on this exam ALONE with no input or assistance from other people. You MAY NOT discuss your progress or...
How do you create an environment for great work? Where healthy self-organization happens? You notice and shape patterns. Patterns are meaningful events that repeat over time—actions and interactions, outcomes and results. That might be teams that flail and fail to...
