How to build a highly efficient team?

transcript

How to build and be a part of an efficient team

Kjell Ljøstad

Who am I?

The Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions

over processes and tools

Working software

over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration

over contract negotiation

Responding to change

over following a plan

The core values of agile

• Focus• Courage• Openness• Commitment• Respect

Kanban

• Understanding• Agreement• Respect• Leadership• Flow• Customer Focus• Transparency• Balance• Collaboration

do you

build an

efficient team?

The findings of William Muir

-A study on productivity:

He selected just an average flock, and he let

it alone for six generations.

Then he created a flockof the most productive

chickens, and eachgeneration, only themost productive was

allowed to breed.

SIX GENERATIONS PASSED

WHAT DID HE FIND?

The first group were all plump and fullyfeathered and egg production hadincreased dramatically.

In the second group, all but three were dead. They'd pecked the rest to death.

The individually productive chickens had only achieved their success by

suppressing the productivity of the rest.

What does science say?

Simulating

anti-terror group.

• Harvard

• 51 teams of 4 people each

• Mission:

• Search through available information and findout who is planning to do what and where.

• In advance:

• Did tests to find out who had special talents at recognising faces or remembering writteninformation.

• Some teams had two experts and two non-experts.

• The rest had four non-experts.

The groups with two expertsthat shared information, and that let everybody activelytake part, did best.

The groups with two expertsthat did not shareinformation, and did not collaborate, did worst.

Even worse than the groupswith no experts!!

• University of Illinois

• 760 students

• Groups of 1-5 participants

• 10 tries to guess the right order of ten encoded envelopes.

• There HAD TO be consensus within the group before each guess.

• Result

• The worst group of at least three participants did better than the best individual.

Why do some teams deliver high performance

while other teams struggle?

From a broad variety ofprojects and industriesthey collected data with

electronic sensors ontheir social behavior.

The data showed thatthe most importantpredictor of a team’s

success was itscommunication

patterns.

MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory

The Comunication Patterns

What impacts the performace?

The team’s energy level

Can be measured by the amount

and type of exchanges;

The level of engagement

Defined by the energy

distribution amongst

members;

The willingness to explore new possibilities,

solutions and ideas.

The communications

betweenmembers and

with otherindividuals, within and outside the

organization.

Does size matter?

The effect per added memberis not linear as the size of a group increases.

For softwaredevelopment it seems that 6 is an optimal sizeof a group.

Oh, YES

Why isn´t bigger better?

A phenomenon thatoccurs in a group as its size increases.

• The individual effortgoes down.

• The need for coordination goes up.

The Ringelmann-

effect:

The Bystander Effect:

When more than one person cantake responsibility, the chance of

anyone taking responsibilitydecreases dramatically.

It is not my job

Someone else must be more qualified

I don´t want to make a fool of myself

I don´t want to get in trouble

Increased need for coordination

A study from Quantitative Software Management

A study from 2005:

More that 4000 projects in their database.

Included 564 projects from 2002 – 2005.

Looked at small teams (less than five) and big

teams (more than twenty)

On average in a project with

around 100.000 lines of code:

Big team: 8,92 calendar months

Small team: 9,12 calendar months

What about thecost?

$1.800.000 and 178 man months for the big teams.

$245.000 and 24,5 man months for the small

teams.

It seems that the best way to solve complex problems is

through a small and diverse group of people where everybody

contributes actively.

Relational Skills

What are Relational Skills?

relationsbetweenpeople.

establish, maintain

and develop

A set ofskills thathelps you

What is a relation?

Dangerous

Exhausting

Respect

Friendly

Friendship

What is the foundation?

A positive view onhumanity

A quest to find thegood in other

people

To get the best outof every colleague

Cultivate thepositive

Tone down the badTo actively seek

information aboutthe other persons

life and history

What builds a relation?

RelationalInitiative

The abilityto show positive

emotions.

To understand the whole of

the otherperson.

To understand

whatmotivatesthe other

person

24-hour human

The Pillars of a Great Team

Willingnessto show

weakness

Passion and Honesty

Ability to engage

whole team in

dicussions

Commitment

Ability to extecutewhat is agreed

Accountability

Holdingeach other

accountable

Attention to results

The teams results

before ego

Willingnessto show

weakness

Passion and Honesty

Ability to engage

whole team in

dicussions

Commitment

Accountability

Holdingeach other

accountable

The teams results

before ego

What is trust?

5 dimensionsIntegrity

• Consistentlydemonstratinghonesty and truthfulness

Competence

• Possessingtechnicalexpertise, knowledge and stronginterpersonal skills

Consistency

• Having strongcredibility, exercising goodjudgement in handling situations and operating with a degree ofpredictability

Loyalty

• Demonstrating a willingness to protect and positivelyrepresent teams and individuals

Openness

• Showing a genuine willingness to share ideas and information freely and openly

How do you create trust?

Get everyonein the team to

know eachother

Dare to be openabout your own

weaknesses, lack ofcompetence or

doubts.

Behaveaccording to

the fivedimensions

Willingnessto show

weakness

Passion and Honesty

Ability to engage

whole team in

dicussions

Commitment

Accountability

Holdingeach other

accountable

The teams results

before ego

The Alternative: Collective stupidity

How do you create an engaged

dialogue?

3 forms of conversation:Dialog

• Equality, win-win, questions

Discussion

• Verbal fight, few questions.

Debate

• Verbal dog fight. Only claims.

How do we listen?

Intention listening

• Intention• Message• Wisdom

Correctionlistening

• Details• Formulations• Imperfection

How about a structured dialogue?

Eduard

de Bono

Information known or

needed.

Feelings, hunches and

intuition.

Judgment -- the devil's

advocate, why something

may not work. Brightness and

optimism

Possibilities,

alternatives and new

ideas.

Used to manage the

thinking process

Willingnessto show

weakness

Passion and Honesty

Ability to engage

whole team in

dicussions

Commitment

Accountability

Holdingeach other

accountable

The teams results

before ego

Are we too nice?

We toleratecounterproductive

behavior

We let people make mistakes insteadof speaking up

It is OK with delays in theproject

Counterproductivebehavior createsirritation and discourages the wholegroup

This may lead to the best peoplechanging jobs

Who is responsible?

It is everyone'sresponsibility to

ensure thatwork is carried

It is everyone'sresponsibilityto fix things

that does not work

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

- Patrick Lencioni

For feedback to have the right effect, you

need a positive relation

Summary

Assemble a group with

complementaryprofiles.

Take time to make the group

know eachother.

Workconsciously onhow the groupcommunicates,

listens and motivates each

other.

Make decisionsbased on

consensus and commitment.

Build a culturefor direct and

honestfeedback

How to take things forward?

On your own:

Draw your own relational map

Who are you dependingon to do your job?

Which relations do youneed to work on to

improve?

With your team

Sit down and spend some time telling each other about your 24-hour-human

QUESTIONS?

E-mail: kjell@webstep.no

Twitter: @kljostad

Blog: spedespirer.com

How to build a highly efficient team?

Leadership & Management