Welcome to the second post in my series on team dynamics. Last time I talked about communication and how it’s the best bang for your buck when it comes to solving issues that crop up in your app based start up. 

I talked about how teams at any given time have a set level of competency which is not quickly changed. And I went on to cover how trying to motivate your team with pep talks, or worse brow beating doesn’t get to the root of actual problems.

In the previous lecture, I presented the triangle model showing that motivation and competence have a role to play in the throughput of the team, but it’s communication that is the base of that triangle, and it often winds up being the limiting factor.

So motivation and competence are important, when managed at the right time. It's just that when an issue arises is usually the wrong time.

An Anti-Pattern in Team Dynamics

In this session, I want to look at an anti-pattern. This is a tech team dynamics misstep that  nearly always will derail high-performance teams on a project.

When someone new has leadership responsibilities in an app start up team at the start they wind up flying by the seat of their pants. I don’t want to discount the importance of being authentic or of going with the gut.

But it’s good to train those instincts. Get ahead of the game by learning effective strategies for communication so that when the pressure is on, we find ourselves responding in a solution focused way.

The Flaming Limousine

Imagine you are riding down the highway in the back-seat of a luxury limousine. 

But it seems out of control, it’s slamming into the guard rails and flames are pouring out from under the hood. So you call out:

“Hey, it’s on fire!”

But instead of listening to what you’re saying, the driver says:“What’s your problem! You’re in a luxury limousine!”

You say “Watch out, we’re slamming into the guard rails!”

But the driver says: “Stop complaining and have another drink from the mini bar.”

As a team member, you know your team has become a flaming limousine when your accurate observations about actionable issues are written off by referring to company perks, or workplace culture. 

When is it a Flaming Limousine?

Remember the celebration we just had for the last milestone - I can’t believe you’re complaining already.

We are a huge supporter of that idea here at Company X - what’s your problem? 

In a flaming limousine team serious concerns are - by implication - dismissed as being self-serving complaints. 

Signals from the team about important information are missed, and the project is impacted by risks that could have been avoided.

For a new app startup, it's difficult to manage input from the team when it challenges traditional lines of communication. It's even more difficult for folks new to leadership, or at least new to app startup decision making, when problems are pointed out at a time the team is not ready or not resourced to deal with them.

What to do Instead?

So how do you manage this input effectively?

Do you treat the information as a brush fire that you need to hose down, or as a challenge to team structures that need to be realigned?

Those are flaming limousine responses.

Do you have more beer on Friday night, and buy your team a foosball table or basketball hoop?

Sure it's nice to do those things, but it’s not addressing the burning issue the team member is raising. Do those things to celebrate real fixes.

The most important skills to avoid becoming a flaming limousine are active listening, note taking, team dynamics and prioritisation.

Active Listening

First employ active listening to make sure you reflect back to the team members with the information what you are hearing. Always do this, even if you feel it risks derailing the current team ritual, meeting or cadence.

When listening, make sure that everyone in the team who wants to speak is heard without anyone interrupting. That includes you.

However they must be succinct. And once someone has spoken, the chance to speak moves on. When employing active listening to reflect back what you have heard, as a leader, summarise fairly, get in their shoes, and try to understand what they are saying the stakes are. Why is it important? What is the priority?

Note-taking

All this can be done quickly. It does not need to derail the current meeting. Use your notetaking to ensure you capture what you understand. 

If this current meeting or ritual is the correct place for the issue to be resolved, then do that right away. Otherwise, you can ask the person who bought the issue up to create a meeting at the earliest opportunity that matches the priority. The person should also check in with the participants in a written form, prior to the new meeting with a 1-pager on the background.

Team Dynamics

Sometimes drawing up the 1-pager helps resolve the issue before the meeting takes place. In fact a useful approach here is to have the person calendarise the meeting, but if the matter can be resolved before then, the meeting can be called off. 

However the meeting date serves as a forcing factor to ensure it's dealt with - and your team will build trust that you’re actioning the issue.

If the team members respect each other’s contribution that approach should avoid the issue derailing the current meeting. In a later session I plan to cover respecting team members' knowledge.

But if it's necessary - maybe canceling the current meeting and dealing with the issue straight away is the right thing to do.

Prioritisation 

A very useful document to deal with the kinds of issues I’m talking about here is RAIDS - the risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies log. This is usually a wiki page for the project, where emerging problems can be tracked, and all the team members can see what resolutions were. Each line item should show a short normative name, description, date, who it was raised by, and what the final resolution was. 

If a line item in the RAIDS document is too complex to be properly described, create a Solutions Options document, or a High Level Design document, and link to it from the RAIDS line item.

Whatever is actually done with issues raised by the team members, the vital first step is listening in the appropriate way, and capturing enough information to determine the priority. Then you can take steps to make the right forum, and right time to handle it correctly. 

Sometimes listening and recording is enough. Especially when you have the trust of the team.

TLDR

But whatever you do, avoid falling into the trap of thinking team members' concerns are just a complaint to be dismissed. 

Company culture or office perks are not a replacement for ethical behaviour, and sound team dynamics.

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