• Concepts are Not Words
• Understanding is Metaphorical
• Eliminate Waste
• One Bite at a Time
• Models are Not Literal
• Let the Product Lead
• Make it Visible
• Pay Attention and Adapt
• Leverage Social Intelligence
• Validation Centricity
• Don’t Solve a Problem You Don’t Have

Abstract

In the agile space the notion of the “well formed team” has been discussed. We are taking the time in this paper to deepen what is meant by a “Well Formed Team” (WFT). The purpose of a WFT is to thrive in a direction ideally set by business vision.  Unfortunately, many teams are forced into survival by organizations that push work through the team matrix, forcing teams to establish themselves as dependencies.  The purpose of this article is to firmly establish the notion of WFT so that guidance patterns for their creation can help organizations to “thrive” instead of “survive”.  We establish this by shifting focus away from the notion of principles, values and other heavy language commonly found in the talked about agile arena. Our desire is to elevate the notion of a “WFT” as being the purpose of these agile pathways and the result of these pathways when applied with care. What you focus on matters. Real value from WFT can be rapidly achieved with proper focus.

When people consider what got them to their current market or look closely at how their competitors are succeeding they see smart, sharp, fast hyper-productive teams. They find that some organizations possess a knack for rapidly configuring themselves into a shape and deploying their hyper-productive teams to rapidly build new product capabilities. Some competitive organizations can do this within days or a few months not years. By the time a competitive analysis is completed of what the competition is doing the market is already changing and moving on. What we see is a need for continuous analysis, consumption of that analysis and a rapid deployment of new capabilities.

If we peer closely you will find at the heart of competitive success is a team or teams of people who are a businesses secret sauce. The nimble behavior and how these teams move as a unit to solve problems is simply the key ingredient to innovation, and rapid product development. We call these teams WFT because of the unique behavior and environments that they live in. Many organizations have had these teams in their lifetimes but, have failed to conserve the essence of what formed them in the first place. What is interesting is that setting up and stimulating the formation of a WFT can be done quickly when people are trained in what to look for. For example, an agile process like Scrum, when applied properly can result in a WFT. WFT are rapidly responding innovation engines of extraordinary value.

Here are some common processes and enablers that we have seen result in a WFT. From the agile variety come Scrum, Lean and XP. From the more traditional processes come RUP, PMBOK and Classic SDLC methodologies. Enablers are assessment instruments for the organization and individual as well as classic environmental enablers. All of these process and enablers have good qualities, tools and ideas in them. However, what we find is that these same processes regularly get over complicated.  People are often loaded down with “competency devastating amounts of information” that cripples their ability to think clearly. We can easily become burdened by frameworks, esoteric language, principles or practices that clutter our minds.

What you focus on matters. All too often process, principles and practices become a crippling focus. What we hope to achieve in this paper is to help people consider process and enablers in a different light. That light is that when processes and enablers are applied appropriately they can result in a group of people working very cohesively together (WFT). Our goal becomes WFTs that are deployed to businesses needs. WFT are how businesses can realize opportunities to thrive.

To help shift our focus and bring forth some clarity we will now present a slightly deeper view of WFTs.

3 + 2

There is some common language that we have found and like to use to help teams think collectively. We call these critical thinking skills “Attractors for Effective Thinking”. Our goal with these attractors is to help WFT behave more instinctively as they make decisions. The name of the game is to “avoid and eliminate confusion”. Our goal is to bring a team’s collective intellect to bear on business problems.

We have broken things down into “3+2” as an easy way to remind ourselves. It is not necessarily right or wrong as a model; it is just that we have found it very useful.

3

Let the product lead

This reminds us to pay attention to the needs of the product. As we considering adopting a new practice or idea from our process we constantly ask ourselves if this serves the needs of the product. Or said empirically, the product is your best source of reality to give you feedback if you are making the right decisions and having the right conversations. 

One bite at a time

Each item of work should be broken up into small enough pieces to eat. Most teams and individuals as well will bite off far more than they can chew. We are constantly working with teams to break the work down into manageable pieces that can get done in short time boxed chunks. 

Keep it visible

If our work is not visible then we are confused on where to apply effort next. When we make our work visible we reduce the risk of disappearing for long periods of time and not producing anything. We visible work efforts we improve the chances that our efforts and dialog will be the right ones. We also, improve our unification of effort and can make a stronger push as a team in a given direction. 

+ 2

Conversation & StructureThese are used by the team to learn and achieve balance within the three attractors for effective thinking. “I need enough structure to run rampant in”. The conversation requires enough of an established protocol to provide a critical amount of structure so that we can communicate. The conversation is necessary for humans to create, contribute and share deep meaningful understanding. With conversation we can help each other detect if understanding is there. With structure we have an idea of what the next most important conversation is.

So, what does a WFT look like? To help answer this question we have listed some of the more common characteristics found in a WFT.

Characteristics

-       Most WFT are found to emerge easiest from a  collocated environment

o      We suspect that the reason this is that “Critical mass is difficult with technologies currently implemented to achieve a WFT in a distributed manner.” We simply cannot achieve adequate high-bandwidth communication necessary to form the deep state of rapport that a WFT will exhibit when in members are in close proximity for a face to face conversation.

-       WFT members show a high state of rapport with and an ability to achieve that rapport rapidly. For example, they fluidly stop are start sentences with each other.

-       Members will actively contribute thoughts and share ideas to the group and they do not egotistically claim ownership for those ideas.

-       Members of a WFT personally feel safe when the team is safe.

-       Team members self organize frequently in 2s and 3s as the work is broken down and pulled in by the team.

-       Team members will often brainstorm as a group.

-       Members self assign work and pull new work assignments.

-       Have good line of sight to business objectives and work in a business value added priority.

-       WFTs create a personal identity. They do this spontaneously.

-       Members will put the good of the team over their own personally outcome.

-       The team behaves as a “market place of ideas” by actively contributing ideas. As ideas are contributed the team will actively grow, polish, augment or kill the best ideas and the individuals who initiated the ideas do not feel slighted. They feel not only accountable, but empowered to use their creative intellect to move the end product forward.

-       Members pickup and fluidly acquire new skills and help each other learn.

-       WFT are learning engines and tenaciously seek to acquire the knowledge they need to succeed in their objectives.

-       Members do not seek to make themselves a dependency and actively help each other avoid it.

-       Demonstrate productivity rates that are four or more times greater than industry averages, also called “Hyper-productive” by Jeff Sutherland

-       Members leverage each others diversity to create innovative outcomes.

-       Members challenge each other to bring their best.

-       Energy, excitement and passion have an almost palpable feel in the team environment.

-       WFT move with a single purpose to focus their energy and burn holes through complex business problems.

Conclusion

Many of today’s business opportunities are in complex product development landscapes, in other words much of the low hanging fruit has been picked. Businesses are increasingly challenged with rapidly changing market landscapes. What we need are rapidly adapting product development services. We see WFT as a key provider of that service.

There are many agile pathways (Scrum, Lean and XP). We see the purpose of those pathways is to result in a WFT. None is necessarily right or wrong, we just see process as a way to get and sustain a WFT. WFT are assets that individuals, businesses and organizations need to help them thrive.

Look for our next paper on “Starting at Scale” and how it applies to transforming the enterprise to a WFT model.

[1] Guy’s paper (http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/59-perfect-planning)

[2] Team Capital definition of WFT (http://www.teamcapital.org/articles/team-capital-vocabulary/)

We engaged this client as two people on site. Previously I had done many of these types of assignments alone or once in a while with someone. However, this was the first time that I was doing this with a business partner with whom I had previously established a solid working report. We engaged the client as a teamlet (2-3) and we ourselves were a Well-Formed-Team and operating at a fairly high level of synergy.

The effect compared to previous engagements was nothing short of remarkable. While one of us was heads down capturing observations, areas for improvement or preparing our next question, the other was engaged actively listening and working with the client. What we created was a duet of synchrony with each of us playing off the rhythm and beat of the conversation that provided tremendous value and insight for the client from the word “Hi”. We rarely got lost, the energy was good, and the value added was powerful. By working together we always seemed to know what to do next.

After this experience I would always recommend that those engaging organizations on transitional level topics of change, do so as a Well-Formed-Team and not as an individual. It really takes a team to help an organization start to transition effectively. The amount of energy, dynamicism and responsiveness are just not possible for one individual to maintain and even if they did then they would not have enough bandwidth to capture where to go next. Again we loose the power of the social intelligence that comes from 2 or more people forming a duet as a Well-Formed-Team.

Is physically collocation necessary for well-formed-teams or can we do this virtually if we pay attention?

We can achieve the same benefit of collocated teams if we only train the remote team members to pay attention to the team’s communication protocol. Learning to work remotely might take longer for a team to reach a hyper-product state but, these states are possible if the team learns to collaborate appropriately, use tools well and keeps paying attention.

All the best

- TC Team

It seems that WE (all of us in our society) are starting to realize that cooperative learning is essential for building of new ideas. It has shown up in the professional training circles repeatedly because it is such an effective way for us to learn. The gist of the idea is that we learn much better when we actively learn in small groups. As we bounce ideas back and forth with each other we build up energy in our conversation and easily find the words to express and explore more sophisticated concepts. In essence we wire our heads together and become collectively smarter than when we are alone.