Written by Sarah Oates, Client Director at Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?.
In today’s dynamic work environment, we increasingly see the emergence of teams who need to come together swiftly and hit the ground running. Whether it’s a project team, a cross-functional group, or an emergency response team, the pressure to perform at pace can be extremely high.
So what actually happens when teams form quickly and are they really equipped to tackle the challenges that lie ahead? I sat down with Co-founder and Olympic Gold medallist Ben Hunt-Davis to delve into the complexities and strategies for success we see in our client work.
The Quick Formation Conundrum
1) A common goal
Experience tells us that in the absence of a shared sense of purpose or a common goal with defined interdependencies, there may be little motivation for individuals to work together as a team. It’s not uncommon for individuals to have varying views on the team’s purpose and individual responsibilities within the team. Therefore, when those goals aren’t explicitly stated and translated into objectives for each team member, it can lead to issues further down the line.
2) Trust and Psychological Safety
When teams assemble rapidly, trust building becomes a sprint rather than a marathon. Colleagues need to quickly establish trust in each other’s abilities, intentions, and reliability, as without a solid foundation of trust, team dynamics can suffer. The reality is that trust takes time to build and forms on a foundation of behaviours demonstrated. We also know that there are ways to move through the “trust equation” more rapidly as described by former Harvard Business School Professor David Maister and his co-authors, Charles Green and Robert Galford (Maister, Green and Galford, 2012). The trust equation says an individual’s trustworthiness is equal to their credibility, reliability and intimacy, all divided by the level of self-orientation. People can use this model to reflect on how they can more deliberately build trustworthiness by purposefully demonstrating their alignment with these traits.
3) Clear Ways of Working /Processes
Effective teams have clear and agreed ways of working and processes to enable them. These often include protocols for meetings, information sharing, decision making and feedback. All of which may sound simple in concept but are often hard to do when teams are in their early stages of formation. Decision making in particular is a common area of weakness as teams can struggle to make and stick to important and difficult decisions when it is unclear who is responsible for making the decision and who has the right to contribute to or veto the decision. In other cases, decisions are perpetually re-debated and challenged, which can destroy the morale of the team.
We’ve been working with a Senior Manager in HSBC who is known for turning around regional areas within the bank. He’s taken areas that are the worst performers and helped them get into the top five in the country. One of the first things he does is to get all the managers together and get them to agree what they want to achieve and how they are going to do it together. If they want to achieve it, he starts by agreeing their team’s ‘rules of engagement’ to take them there. Are your team rules conscious or unconscious? Do they enable easy boat speed?
4) Performance Review
Reviewing team performance can be overlooked when teams come together quickly as they’re often thrown headfirst into a project. Taking time to reflect on their shared goals, what’s working, and what’s not allows teams to learn from their experiences and refine how they do things. Try using our performance review questions with your team to help you refine the key ingredients in your recipe for success:
Matt Smith, Managing Director for Rail at Octavius shared with us how collaboration with their delivery partners sits at the heart of their approach:
Strategies for Success:
1) Well-Planned Interventions
Invest in your team from the onset with dedicated time for team building activities and goal-setting sessions. This will provide a structured approach to team development that you simply won’t get during your day to day.
“In 1998 we were a rubbish team, by 2000 we were a good team. You’ve got to work on your team as much as you work on the goal. What intentional, planned interventions do you have to make sure your team has the fundamentals established from the start?”
2) Clear Roles and Expectations
Define roles and responsibilities early on. Clarity prevents confusion, minimizes role overlap and means that individuals can be held accountable. When team members understand their contribution, it allows them to focus on execution. It’s also important to have regular check ins so that the team stays aligned on progress, reinforce expectations, and adjusts as needed.
3) Purposeful Leadership
Leaders play a pivotal role in fast-forming teams. A Leader that provides guidance, direction, and facilitation tends to be effective. They may need to actively listen, address conflicts promptly, and create an inclusive environment. Their guidance will help to ensure that the team stays on track despite the speed of formation.
4) Celebrate Small Wins
Acknowledge achievements, even minor ones. Celebrating small wins helps to build belief and reinforces the team’s sense of progress. Recognition of progress can help to fuel motivation and keep the team on track.
Quickly formed teams face unique challenges, but with deliberate effort and strategic approaches, they can thrive. By prioritising alignment, trust, clear ways of working and performance reviews, teams can overcome initial hurdles and rapidly emerge as high-performing units.
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