The power of openness, trust and team working
I’m coaching a senior cross-functional team in a Cirrus client organisation. Today we had a review meeting. They are working towards a
major deadline in a month’s time and are under considerable time pressure,
especially as they all have demanding day jobs to do as well. The team
has been a case study in agility, as they were thrown together a couple of
months ago to work on a key business project which needed a truly cross-functional
approach. In the meeting they explored what had gone well and less well, and
agreed some priorities for improving their performance over the last few weeks
before the deadline.
I have been very impressed with the way this team has pulled
together, shared insight, helped each other in very practical ways and taken
shared responsibly for the deliverables. They have left their egos at the
door, mostly, and when someone has brought theirs into the room they have
quickly been encouraged to place it outside. The pace at which they have
made progress is down to three key ways of working: they have been open about
strengths and weaknesses so that they could play to strengths rather than rely
on functional roles alone; individuals have trusted the others to make
good decisions when they have not been able to attend meetings; and they have
worked in smaller teams to achieve particular objectives such as research,
planning, analysis and design. In this way they have enabled each other
to deliver great contributions to the overall team effort without it becoming a
major burden.
As they motor towards their final report and presentation,
they are motivated by progress and by the sense that they can achieve something
really significant for the business. It is an exciting team with which to
be involved.