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3 Team Lessons from Biking

I like to bicycle.  I enjoy riding either my mountain bike or road bike.  Since I recently bought a new road bike, I’ve been riding it as much as I can – and as fast as I can!

But I have a few pet peeves about cycling that have analogies in the work world.  Specifically, I observe that what bugs me when I’m cycling are traits and characteristics that drive people away from effective teamwork.  Watch the video for the 30-second solution or read on.

Use Your Indicator

A lot of people driving cars fail to use their indicators.  This is bad enough when you’re in another car, but it can truly be dangerous when you’re on a bicycle.  It takes a little longer for a cyclist to accelerate, so we use a car’s turn signal (or lack of) to help us judge when to enter or cross traffic.

On teams, you also need to use your indicator.  Other team members might know you well and hold expectations about your part of the project, but they can’t read your mind.  On top of that, each of us has a preferred work style and we project certain images and personalities to others.  One way to ensure proper communication on a team is to raise your self-awareness of your own behaviors and of your teammates’ behaviors.

In Step 1 of Building Effective Cross-Functional Teams, we will describe how the DiSC® work style assessment helps to raise self-awareness.  Once you understand your own preferred working style and those of your teammates, you can change work patterns and vocabularies to improve intra-team communications.

Keep Your Dog Leashed

I’m not afraid of dogs generally, but the other day, two large dogs chased me on my bike for two or three blocks.  I knew I could win on endurance (and probably speed), yet it still raised my blood pressure to have loud barking dogs pursuing me.  And just yesterday, a small dog ran into the road, dragging his leash behind him as his owner made no attempt to control him.  In both situations, the dogs and I could have been hurt badly.  Their humans were not managing them.

Teams need management and leadership.  For successful innovation, team leaders need to integrate different functional viewpoints as well as different work styles.  Marketing uses one jargon and R&D another set of terms.  Teams must overcome these biases to work together effectively.  Instead of using different perspectives as constraints, innovation succeeds when using varied viewpoints as strengths.

In our complimentary webinar on 31 July, you’ll learn Step 2 – team management – of Building an Effective Cross-Functional Team.  Team management starts with trust and healthy conflict.  When teams assemble tools and strategies for trust and conflict, they can commit to actions and hold each other mutually accountable for project goals.  This yields results.  Effective cross-functional teams understand and appreciate different work styles, different functional perspectives, and different approaches.  Ultimately, these teams outperform in innovation by producing more creative and customer-focused products and services.

Kamikaze Squirrels

When I was growing up, my dad constantly complained about the squirrels in our yard.  They stole the walnuts off the giant tree in our backyard and buried them in the grass, the garden, and the flower beds.  At the time, I didn’t care because I didn’t much care for my after-school chores of picking up and cleaning the walnuts anyway.

But, as a cyclist, I join my dad in disliking squirrels.  The little devils run right in front of your path, dance around, and turn back to cross your path again.  It seems like they have a death wish, and I have nearly wrecked my bike more than a few times trying to avoid these kamikaze squirrels.

Some teams have kamikaze team members.  They will never be happy and often refuse to do their assigned work.  The reasons vary.  They don’t agree with the approach, their idea is better, they are stubborn, and so on.  Effective teams, just like cyclists must watch out for these people who have self-destructive behaviors that can contaminate the team culture. 

In Step 3 of Building Effective, Cross-Functional Teams, we learn processes for working through the life cycle of a project.  The Team Dimensions Profile helps team members and leaders to understand strengths of different work styles during different phases of a project.  Creatives, for example, are great at generating ideas during the initiation phase of a project, and executors are needed to efficiently conduct the work of the project.  An individual who has a work style tendency to plan and schedule detailed tasks may identify the creatives as kamikazes trying to interrupt the workflow.

However, just as the kamikaze squirrels are trying to get back to their “home” tree, different team personalities are focusing on their “home” strengths.  We move from identifying team processes in Step 3 of Building Effective, Cross-Functional Teams to Step 4 which involves setting up team processes, like the team charter.  Finally, in Step 5, we address how to work with dispersed or virtual teams.  You will learn Steps 3 through 5 in Part 2 of our complimentary webinar and will be automatically registered for Part 2 (28 August) when you register for Part 1 (31 July) covering Steps 1 and 2.

Team Lessons from Cycling

Effective innovation teams need guidance and guardrails, just like we do on the road as cyclists.  Riding a bike means you must watch out for cars without indicators, dogs without leashes, and squirrels without direction.  Effective teams use indicators starting with work style preferences, managing their team relationships, and are wary of kamikaze behaviors. 

You can learn more about building and managing successful team behaviors at our complimentary, one-hour webinar on Wednesday, 31 July 2019 at noon CDT.  Everyone who attends Building Effective Cross-Functional Teams will receive a free work style assessment ($75 value) and you’ll be automatically registered for Part 2 on Wednesday, 28 August 2019 at noon CDT.  Space is limited!  Register now!

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Managing Team Skills

Every team leader is challenged to balance productivity and growth.  We can increase a team’s output by increasing the skills of each team member and we can ensure growth through learning.  Many believe that a team composed of workers with only the highest capabilities will be able to produce at the highest levels.

In reality, teams need to have a diverse set of experiences and competencies to achieve the highest levels of growth.  When some team members are learning the basics and others are sharing their mastery of skills, both growth and productivity accelerate.

Learning S-Curves

In her book, Build an A-Team, Whitney Johnson describes the learning curves as “S-Curves” in which a person’s competency is low as they first begin learning something new.  Over time, s/he accumulates knowledge and practice so that capabilities are enhanced.  After a few months on the job, rapid growth and learning take place so that the individual builds expertise.

This building of knowledge and expertise occurs in the steep part of the S-curve.  Johnson indicates the learning and growth period lasts about 3-4 years in a typical job.  When a person has mastered the tasks and developed deep, instinctional insight about the job, s/he has mastered the task set.  Learning slows as shown by the flat part of the S-curve.

Challenging and Individual

Individuals need constant challenges to grow and learn.  New challenges create opportunities for people to build new capabilities and competencies.  Depending on how near or far the news skills are from their currently assigned tasks, a person may climb a new S-curve every few years.

It is incumbent upon managers and team leaders to ensure that each direct report is being adequately challenged to learn and grow.  For individuals new to the team, a leader will work with them to ensure fundamental concepts are developed at the low end of the S-curve.  For people that have served an intermediate term on the team, a leader will continue to offer new skills and learning opportunities.  These individuals, on the steep parts of the S-curve, are hungry for more information and they energetically tackle task and activities that give them the chance to learn and demonstrate new skills and capabilities.

Leaders also must recognize the team members who have achieved mastery and expertise.  These folks at the upper end of the learning curve are ready to transfer job tasks to others because they are getting bored with their routine assignments.  The predictability of tasks and lack of new challenges can actually affect productivity in a negative way.  Leaders must be careful to encourage new learning for the experts on the team so that these people don’t’ get “burned out” by doing the same thing over and over again.

Team Composition

Regardless of whether you team is co-located, virtual, or dispersed, you want to maximize productivity and growth.  Growth of the team often depends on the growth of the individuals.  Productivity of the team depends on the interactions of the whole team.

In her book, Whitney Johnson recommends composing the team of 15% or less newbies, 5-15% experts, and the balance in the growth stage.  You should be able to assess and plot the skills development stage and competencies of your team members to show a composite S-curve for the team.

The benefits of this team structure are numerous, especially for innovation.  First, creativity is often stifled by expertise.  The jaded, old players think they’ve seen every problem and know every answer.  The new team members bring a fresh perspective to problem-solving whether this is a youthful viewpoint or from experiences in other industries and companies.  Balancing the newbies at the low end of the S-curve with the experts at the high end of the curve can increase and speed creativity.

Second, having a balance of experts and capable team members can increase productivity.  Successful new product development (NPD) requires a lot of concept testing and validation with customers.  When the bulk of the team members are on the growth part of the S-curve, they are anxious to learn and incorporate real-world feedback.  Unlike the newbies, these individuals only need coaching form the experts and can handle task implementation independently.

Next, many experts view their legacy as teaching the next generation. This is a perfect fit for the masters on a team who are few in number but can spread and share their talents to hep both the novices and intermediates learn.  Storytelling helps to transform the organization’s tacit knowledge through the experts, further spurring growth on the team.

Finally, team leaders can fully delegate portions of the NPD project to the experts.  This frees the team leader from administrative tasks and offers new challenges to the masters.  Such new opportunities in management and leadership can put the expert on a new learning curve so that s/he remains engaged and productive.

Applying Team Learning Curves

My husband is a really smart electrical engineer.  He ahs just wrapped dup his second major project in 10 years, designing, installing, testing, and commissioning high voltage substations for petrochemical plants.  Doing these types of projects has led to recognition of his expertise and skills at his company.  Sometimes, though he shows signs of being bored, telling me that he has to explain all the project steps to his manager who is less technically skilled.

Luckily, some of his mentors have also recognized his position on the learning S-curve as a master.  They have assigned him to a new project with many of the same tasks but with different players and different project constraints in a new environment (greenfield construction vs. existing plant facilities).  This gives him an opportunity to start a new learning S-curve, transfer tacit knowledge to newer engineers, and remain a productive growing team member.

Moreover, the team has some novices and some individuals with intermediate skills.  Those with intermediate skills have competencies and capabilities in tangential areas (medium voltage) so are highly product as they aspire toward new learning too.

Team Productivity and Growth

All teams need to balance productivity and growth.  Deadlines always are looming, so the team’s output is important, especially for innovation and NPD work.  Individual growth is also crucial, so people can learn and acquire new skills.  Yet, individual growth is close-coupled with the team’s maturity and growth on a learning S-curve.

To learn more, we discuss and diagnose your team’s capabilities and professional growth along the learning S-curve in Virtual Team Training.  This training is built on the Virtual Team Model as featured in PDMA Essentials Volume 3 (published October 2018).  We also incorporate elements of Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model to help you accelerate your team’s productivity and growth.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Note that VTM self-study is included in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) membership.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  We also offer independent coaching and consulting to new leaders or teams anywhere on the S-curve!

 

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A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Organizational Culture vs. Team Climate

Brian is a smart guy.  He works in a product development group as a technical expert.  With over 20 years of experience, Brian also has worked in operations and in customer-facing roles, such as sales and marketing.  He is passionate about the product and wants to make is successful both to satisfy customer needs and to help the company make money.  He takes pride in his contributions to the product.

Samantha is Brian’s direct supervisor. She believes in team empowerment.  She trusts her team members to make the right decisions based on appropriate data and she gives them the responsibility to plan and execute project work.  Samantha has created a good working culture, right?

Wrong!  Samantha’s team is working within a climate that is conducive to innovation.  Culture is reflected less by behaviors and more by unspoken norms.  Let’s take a look at the differences between organizational culture and team climate.

Organizational Culture

Culture is defined as a “set of shared beliefs, values, assumptions, and expectations.”  An organization’s culture reflects its values and can be observed in the customs, norms, and rites of the group.  The fact that Brian wears a tie to work every day and never questions the unwritten dress code is an element of organizational culture.  A tie is an indication of a more formal environment, ad the policies and procedures at the company are also quite formal and detailed.

Newcomers to an organization are quick to sense both the culture ad the climate.  The culture, however, is underlying the surface and is often difficult for employees to articulate.  Culture can be inferred in how work gets accomplished.  Brian, for instance, must complete several forms to submit an idea for prototype investigation, and then the forms must be approved by both Samantha and Samantha’s boss, Bill.  He also must track a specific budget for the project and report project status weekly on a prescribed template.

Ricardo used to work with Brian and Samantha.  But, he liked to wear jeans to work and preferred trying things out to see if there was a potential in a solution before delving deeper into the problem.  Ricardo hated bureaucracy and felt like filling out forms was a waste of time that he could otherwise dedicate to testing features and functions for the new product.  He like to talk to customers to understand their real need for the product.  Ricardo’s personality did not match the company culture and he eventually found a job at another company with a different set of values and norms, and where he could maximize his talents in technical product development.

Team Climate

Samantha works hard to ensure her team members all get a chance to contribute.  She was sorry to see Ricardo go but understood his personal and professional growth needs.  Samantha communicates with her team regularly, either in person or by phone for the team members that are in different geographical locations.  She is quick to publicly name someone who has made a significant contribution to the project and she uses the word “Thanks” a lot.

Because many of her teammates are part of dual-career families, Samantha is understanding about time off for school events.  Honestly, she doesn’t care if someone works 8 to 5 or 5 to 8 as long as they get their work done and they are actively involved in accomplishing the team goals to deliver the best new product possible.

Samantha has created a certain climate for her team.  Climate is defined as “a set of properties of a work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by employees, that has a significant impact on employee behavior.”  Team climate includes elements of leadership, communication, trust, responsibility, recognition, and employee participation.

Truth be told, Brian doesn’t like wearing a tie, but he loves his work and he finds great opportunities to pursue his technical passions working for someone like Samantha.  Daisy is co-worker of Brian’s.  She has just transferred to the new product development (NPD) group from operations.  She understands that forms and procedures are often required for audit tracking and to file patents on new inventions.  While she’d prefer to be building a new prototype, Daisy acknowledges that the corporate culture and government regulations require forms and templates.  She is really excited about working for Samantha in an open climate with a chance to have greater responsibility in product design.  She wants to be recognized for her direct contributions to the team.

Culture vs. Climate

Most of us mistake team climate for organizational culture.  As leaders, we strive to make changes in our style and in the work environment to positively influence employee behaviors.  Leadership, responsibility, and trust are visible at the surface.  Employees can quickly point out the positive and negative elements of their working environment – elements of the team climate.

Culture is not as readily identified because it is a set of organizational values, often rooted in long corporate histories, that lie under the surface of the working environment.  Organizational culture defines how work gets done and is passed on informally through legends and stories.  Corporate “heroes” are emulated as new employees adopt customs, patterns, and values of the organization.  The culture drives the underlying work processes, relationships, and leadership styles of executive management.

Our confusion between culture and climate arises because, as leaders, we have the levers at our control to quickly change team climate.  A new leader can bring fresh perspectives to a team.  Yet, a new leader cannot fundamentally or rapidly change the intrinsic values and norms of a company.  Even when the senior leadership undergoes a full-scale transformation (such as in an acquisition or buy-out), the corporate culture is slow to change – maybe even taking years to do so.  Habits and customs of employees are the deeply ingrained fundamentals that determine the culture.

Brian, Samantha, Ricardo, and Daisy are all fictional characters.  Yet, each of us can recognize a bit of ourselves and a bit of our fellow team members in their stories and behaviors.  Our job as product development and engineering leaders is to manage the team climate for productivity and efficiency within the bounds and values of the greater organizational culture.

To learn more about teams and organizational structures to successfully launch new products, please join us in a self-study or other NPDP Workshop.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

 

Reading Recommendation

A classic book on organizational structure is Structure in Fives:  Designing Effective Organizations by Henry Mintzberg (affiliate link).  I have a chapter on NPD teams in NPDP Certification Prep:  A 24-Hour Study Guide and additional references at https://globalnpsolutions.com/services/npd-resources/.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC