3 Learnings from an Effective Team
60 minutes left until client presentation, one of our team members is late and we haven’t even finished the presentation yet or done a proper practice run, I’m trying to be Mr relax but deep inside me, I’m having a bit of a panic attack. I go to the bathroom to do my breathing technique to calm myself down. I take a deep breath just before realizing that someone before me took a reeking dump. I’m stressed and now also annoyed.
I’m close to losing it but something inside of me is telling me that I should just embrace this feeling of not being in control. I hate this feeling so much.
I come back, the entire team is here now, and we jump right into finishing up the presentation. It’s completed and we did it quick and dirty, looking more like a first draft, but right now my focus is to have a finish presentation. 30 minutes left.
We do a dry run of the presentation, I have a hard time finding words for me to speak casual and with confidence in what I’m presenting. The panic inside me is growing again. 5 minutes left.
No more time, I go out of the room to get some coffee for some extra boost just before the presentation. The client shows up, and I feel how the adrenaline is starting to rush through my veins, time to present.
These first 4 weeks have been a tough team experience. And I was just relieved that it was over. My thoughts towards working with this team again were skeptical. I felt just wrapping up and moving on to a new team and a new project.
To my surprise, like a reality show, Hyper Island dropped the news by telling us that we will NOT change teams. We will have the same team yet AGAIN.
What did we learn from the first project?
Luckily the presentation went well and our client was happy with the results. I was relieved that we delivered something of value to our client, but wasn’t happy on how we did it. Especially my contribution and my actions against the team.
When wrapping up our first project, the team were very mature and honest to admit our mistakes as a team. We discussed the pitfalls and what we could have done better together.
Focusing on our second project, we didn’t want to do the same mistakes as we did last time. Honestly, I felt that we never reached our full potential as a team and the main issues we had was:
- Lack of trust.
- Unclear communication
- No sense of direction on the brief.
Three things we changed for the next project
In order to not do the same mistake, we did three changes that made us go from a group to an actual team.
1) Have a clear team vision
The first stage of the project felt a bit like walking in the dark. We lacked direction and needed something to move towards.
Our project was for a big E-commerce fashion brand, one day we decided to write down our vision in one sentence.
The vision was “How might we give value to our clients customer?”
It didn’t contain the answer nor should it, and it wasn’t too narrow that made our ideas limiting. It was enough for us to give us a sense of direction.
This gave us a common vision to work towards together, a Northen Star that we can rely on every time we felt lost. In order to be aligned, you need to set this early in the project.
Again, It doesn’t have to be specific but enough to give the team a direction. The earlier you are in the project the harder this might be. And that’s why it’s important to revisit this in different stages in your project.
“We started every morning by writing our vision on the whiteboard.”
Every time we ended up in a discussion or needed to make a decision, we pointed at the whiteboard to remind ourselves that we were still staying true to our vision.
2) Establish the same Page
I have a better sense of empathy now realizing that we all have our own meaning of a certain task or process. Is it clear? Do we understand each other? Are we aligned? Are we on the same page? With the risk of sounding a bit philosophical, what does it mean to be on the same page? We tend to assume that people know what you are talking about. But how does your page look like? This realization made me understand that we all have our own definition of a certain task or process.
An example from our team was when we were going to do some research. I knew exactly what research is for ME. But research can have different meanings. Are we talking about looking for trends? About interviewing target users? Are we supposed to gather statistic & data? And not only this, everybody has their own way of gathering research.
This confusion leads to different expectations and assumptions on how much work we had ahead of us. Some felt like we needed more time while some felt overly optimistic on time.
3) Fun and Focus equals amazing results.
I got to be part of a three-day Hackathon event in which my role was to facilitate and create a healthy team environment. We were in total 5 team members and one of the first questions I asked them was: If you had to pick, focus on winning the competition or have as much fun as possible?
The reason I asked this was because I wanted to see what they prioritize the most IF they had to choose. As mentioned in the previous point, everybody has their own definition of fun. As for me, fun is to have an as playful and less serious approach to what you’re doing.
We had international student in our team and without thinking and hesitating she answered with a big smile: “I have fun when I complete my tasks on my Todo list”. This made me burst into laugh but also feel connected to her way of fun.
I’ve always been result-oriented in the way I work, focus on a goal in mind. I was raised in a way that if you want something you have to put in hard work, there was no mentioning of fun. It almost felt that you’re supposed to suffer through this time and once you reach your goal, that’s when you can celebrate and start having fun.
Adding some playfulness into the mix can really enhance the team performance to the better, but don’t forget to keep the focus. Fun creates a playful relaxed environment for us to thrive in while focus keeps us on track. Don’t underestimate the power of a good laugh or joke.
How has this team experience been during this second project? The feeling and look of my team members when I asked this question was a mix between smiles and pride in their expressions. This was our final check-in question just before our last day together as a team. It took us eight weeks together to the point where I can proudly say that we are an effective team.
It’s been a memorable time for me. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and the team’s willingness to lean in and commit themselves to the project. I’ve realized that for me, commitment, trust, and vulnerability are the three fundamental ingredients that I need for a successful team. And this team had all three of them.
Thank you, Lu, Joel, Sophia, Robin & Fran!
