The House of Teams
Understanding the fundamentals of kick-ass teams
Teams are messy. Many things influence the network of relationships — for instance, the team’s size, the team’s purpose or the areas of expertise represented in the team. And also the fact that Frederic and Simone can’t stand each other. Or that Sheila and Max once had a thing. As a result, the social fabric of a team is permanently shifting. Teams are complex, adaptive systems. In other words, teams cannot be controlled. Experienced team leaders, therefore, do not see themselves as puppeteers pulling all the strings, but rather as architects. Instead of micromanaging and trying to control every process and relationship in the team, they create foundations. In a certain sense, they build spaces where people can work together effectively.
A collaborative space
Imagine you could build a house for your team. You could create a space where the only thing that mattered was teamwork. And dedicate a separate room to each critical factor. Which rooms would you need to be really good?
The “House of Teams” provides an answer to exactly that question. The model highlights the fundamentals teams need to get things done. The house consists of at least five rooms, each representing a success factor. The team can imagine going into a specific room to focus on the respective critical factor.
In this way, the House of Teams makes abstract concepts tangible. It creates clear boundaries between topics that often get mixed up, turning a jungle of buzzwords into a pragmatic perspective on how people work together. It’s a playful approach that helps teams talk about how they work together and take tangible action.
The laboratory
Experiments are carried out in laboratories. People seek solutions to problems with systems, patience and the joy of discovery. Instead of getting bogged down in theories, they do tests. Which in itself is great. What is also really remarkable about lab work is how people deal with failure. It is simply the nature of experiments that they do not always lead to success. Imagine if your team dealt with failed projects in the same way! Failure would then be merely a test result. No need to justify oneself. No need to look for culprits. Instead, the team would ask itself what it can learn from the experiment.
Working in this way requires a high degree of psychological safety. Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson calls it “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking”. With a high level of psychological safety, team members are able to openly address problems or voice criticism.
According to Google, psychological safety is the most important factor that differentiates top teams from other teams in the company. Crazy, isn’t it? So it’s neither the team members’ expertise nor the team’s size or age that makes the biggest difference. It’s the belief that everyone can make mistakes and speak up.
The sun deck
The team goes to the sun deck to look outward and gain a broad vision. The team members check out where they want to go together. They get an overview of their surroundings and discuss the role of the team in the context of the bigger picture.
By discussing their role, the team members discover the team’s purpose. And this is not management gobbledygook — it is about the underlying purpose of the team. Which might not always sound terribly sexy. But it reminds the team of the value it creates for others. They can be customers and users or, equally, investors and colleagues.
A team that shares a common purpose can direct its energy in one direction. The team members are able to make decisions independently. They get the chance to be part of something wonderful and experience the feeling of belonging to something bigger.
The Mission Control Centre
The Mission Control Centre is at the heart of the House of Teams. It is where the team meets to manage day-to-day operations. It is where all threads come together. Team members share information and discuss facts. They develop tactics, allocate tasks and deliberate on incidents. They decide what to do.
One of the best-known rooms of this kind is the main control room at NASA. A team of specialists monitors all relevant flight data and sends instructions to space travellers. In the same way, NASA flight personnel has established procedures for space flights, powerful teams agree on clear rules of collaboration. They determine how planning takes place, how decisions are made and how information flows. They clarify questions such as “Which communication channel do we use for what?” or “How do we decide on new services?” This ensures a smooth workflow, even when things get hectic.
The Vault
The House of Teams also has a strongroom. It is virtually impossible to break into it. It is secured by cameras, retinal scanners and meter-thick steel. This is where the team comes to practice. Slipping into the role of a heist team, the team members work together to crack the safe.
A heist team comprises very different characters: the planner, the computer nerd, the safe-cracker and the muscle. Not everyone does everything. Instead, each team member does what he or she does best. The interaction between the individual specialists is what makes the heist feasible. Members of effective teams value diversity. They fulfil different roles. Yet their diversity is not solely related to their complementary skill sets. Demographic diversity (origin, gender, age, etc.), cognitive diversity (ways of thinking) and diversity of experience are also important. Each person brings a different perspective, experience or expertise to the table.
In particular, diversity is key in teams where innovation, flexibility and speed are crucial. A diverse team finds diverse solutions. Sounds quite logical, doesn’t it? Strangely enough, there are plenty of managers who always hire the same type of person and are then surprised that their employees fail to come up with out-of-the-box thinking.
The laundry room
All teams face conflicts. A functioning team is aware of that. The team members strive to address conflicts and find lasting solutions to them. They even use them as a catalyst for generating new ideas.
In the House of Teams, this happens in the laundromat. For instance, when Robin has yet again had enough of Sonia’s chaotic work style, the two of them come here. They sit down together and discuss their different interests, ideas and needs. They come clean.
Teams that maintain a healthy approach to conflict often exhibit the following behaviours:
- The team members give each other extensive feedback. They tell each other what they like and what they would like to be different. They are skilled at communicating clearly, on the one hand, but being kind to others, on the other.
- The team members listen to each other. Especially when someone raises issues or asks critical questions. They do not react defensively or counter-attack. Instead, they ask questions. They listen to understand.
- The team members hold each other accountable. They talk to each other about problems directly, instead of calling on the team leader. They talk to each other, not about each other.
Target and Actual — Your House of Teams
Your job as a leader is to create a suitable environment for your team. You build team houses. You …
- … promote psychological safety in the team.
- … help the team to fulfil its purpose.
- … ensure clear internal processes and rules of collaboration.
- … promote diversity within the team and help the team to leverage it.
- … support the team in finding lasting, fair solutions to conflicts.
This is how you can start working with the “House of Teams”: Do a target-actual comparison. Grab a pen and paper. Draw the rooms described above. The more important a factor is for your team, the larger you draw the respective room. Add rooms that are relevant to your team. For example, if you work in a fast-paced environment, you might add a library to represent continuous learning. Now rate each room on a scale from 1 (very low) to 5 (very good), depending on how well your team does with regard to the respective factor. Which room should you be working in?
This exercise is also suitable for team workshops. It enables the team to develop an awareness of favourable factors. And the team members can have a constructive conversation about their collaboration. That’s where good teamwork comes in. They can discuss which factors they want to focus on. And what concrete behaviours are supporting or hindering these factors?
But it does not end there. Your task as team leader is to keep on expanding the House of Teams. If you stick with it, a bare shell will eventually become your dream home — with all the bells and whistles. A home for your team which will never want to work anywhere else.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
