Episode 14: Full Circle: Unveiling the Art of Team Culture and Dynamic Success

Embark on a transformative journey with us, Shawn, as we uncover the secrets to cultivating a dynamic team culture that's essential for the triumph of any business. If you're seeking the blueprint for a cohesive unit that defies the limits of individual achievement, this episode is your guiding light. We tear down the misbeliefs surrounding teamwork and culture, going beyond the facade of office perks to truly comprehend what makes a team click. From the alchemy of diverse skills to the necessity of cultural fit, our conversation is a treasure trove for anyone ready to steer their team towards a collective summit.

This time around, we're not just talking theory; we're sharing the gritty details of how regular stand-up meetings and tools like Jira can synchronize a team like clockwork. Dive into our narrative at UAM, where sprint planning sessions and savvy leadership training combat engagement woes and conflict with finesse. Whether you're a budding leader or a team player, the strategies discussed here are ammunition against the evils of burnout and stalemate. So gear up for an episode that celebrates the grandeur of team wins and sets the stage for a culture that's the very heartbeat of our success—at work, as in life. Join the circle, tune in, and let's transform your team's story together on Full Circle.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Full Circle with Sean. I'm Sean and I'll be your host today. Today we're talking about teams and culture. So what is a team? Well, not just a football team or a basketball team, but a team in business. And teams are groups of individuals who work together toward a common goal or common objectives. Teams have specific roles and responsibilities that contribute to the overall success of that team, and teams prioritize collaboration, sharing ideas, skills and efforts to achieve their objectives. They are diverse, so teams often consist of members with different backgrounds, different skills, different perspectives, which helps to enhance the creativity and the problem solving of said team. And teams offer clear and open communication, which is absolutely crucial for maintaining alignment and smooth operations within the teams.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Now let's define culture. So culture in a team or organization encompasses the shared values, beliefs and norms that guide their behavior, that guide the individual's behavior. It sets the expectations for how individuals should behave and interact within the group, often expressed through symbols, rituals and traditions that reinforce the shared value and norms. This would be considered the symbolic elements of culture. Effective cultures adapt to change in an environment while maintaining their absolute core values and inclusivity. A strong culture promotes inclusivity, ensuring all members feel valued and, of course, part of the team. So what are some of the concepts of teams and culture? So we basically have four, right. We have synergy, so that's the concept that the collective output of the team is greater than the sum of the individual contributions. We have cohesion, which is a key concept. Where team members are united, they work seamlessly toward their shared goals. Where team members are united, they work seamlessly toward their shared goals. We have cultural fit, the alignment between an individual's values and the broader organizational culture. And we have empowerment, so teams that empower members to make decisions tend to have higher satisfaction and productivity.

Speaker 1: 2:19

And now let's go through some misconceptions. So there's a misconception that teams with similar types of members perform better, and that ignores the benefits of diversity. You have the culture equals perks, right. So misinterpreting culture is merely company perks, like free lunches or a game room, rather than the values and behaviors that are underlying the team or the organization. You have conflict-free teams are effective, and that's the false belief that effective teams are free of conflict, and in reality conflict solves problems and conflict ends up leading to better solutions. And then you have culture is static, assuming that once culture is set, it doesn't need to evolve and that can really stop growth and adaptation.

Speaker 1: 3:09

So how do you start a team? Let's say you're new to business, you're hiring your first employee or your first two employees, and how do you start a team? So I'll give you an example of how we started our team at UAM. So we started with a team member, a senior engineer, and then we had a few senior engineers until we found the right fit. And once we had the right fit, we brought in somebody underneath them, so another employee that they could manage, and that led to another, to another, to another and not the whole that we didn't keep everybody right. So we moved through people until we had the right fit, the right team, and then we matured that team. And now if you're somebody new and you come into their team, then they know within a week if you're a fit or not, if your culture aligns with their culture. And of course there could be mentoring and stuff like that. But if you're too far out, then they know. And they also know you can't hide skill sets. So smaller teams make it harder for somebody to come into the team and not have the skill set that they said they had. You can't hide from that.

Speaker 1: 4:23

So we're going to start a team. We're going to start a brand new team from scratch. The first thing we need to do as leaders is define the objectives. So what goals do we want for this team? And as we bring in the team members, we need to make sure that they understand these goals and their role in achieving them. And then we need to select the skill sets that we need on the team and skill sets that complement each other. So how are we going to get this done? How long is this team going to be around? Like with UAM, forever, because I was building a R&D team. But how do we do that so that we have a good balance of technical expertise, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills and everything that's required within the team that we're setting up? And then diversity how do we foster diversity in teams, of skills, experiences, backgrounds, to really enhance creativity? And then we have to establish our roles and responsibilities. And then we have to establish our roles and responsibilities. So we need to ensure that each team member's roles and responsibilities are clearly stated, are written down, to avoid overlaps and gaps in the coverage of what we're trying to achieve Right, so there's nothing worse than overlapping responsibilities. Now you have two bosses maybe, or there's a gap and nobody thinks that they should be doing something or responsible for something. Right? You promote strong leadership, so you choose leaders who not only have the right expertise but also the interpersonal skills to manage and motivate a team, because there's motivation within the team can be difficult, especially if you're starting something new.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Encourage collaboration, so you use team building activities. Collaborate on projects to try to enhance the unity within the teamwork that you're trying to achieve. Provide resources and training. Now, this is a big step that really shouldn't be undervalued. This is a big step that really shouldn't be undervalued. Okay, so resources and training.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Everybody that walks in might have the aptitude, might not have the skill set, yet If you're a high functioning team or you're building brand new technology, then they're not going to be where your team is, especially if your team starts to become established. So you need to have some kind of way to bring them in, some kind of resources to help them get up to speed. Right, you can't expect everybody to hit the ground running, but what I have found with the right team member, though, they will start running with certain aspects of what you've brought them in for right, and then you need to set very good performance matrix, so very clear performance matrix, and they should be aligned with the team's objectives and the individual roles. And then you monitor and adjust right. So you regularly assess the team's dynamics and performance. You need to be prepared to make adjustments to the roles that people have, the processes that are going on or even the objectives, based on how everything's going, and then you should really cultivate the positive culture. So you need to develop a team that values respect, inclusiveness and mutual support, and that should be a no-brainer.

Speaker 1: 7:39

If you have people on your team that don't have the same values or step outside the box when it comes to being respectful or anything like that, you need to call it out straight away. It's instantaneous call out, and that's the only way that you can either fix it or move them on, because what can happen is you end up with a toxic team member, and that's very dangerous, especially when you spend a lot of time. You have a great team, they're doing outstanding work. You bring in a new team member and all of a sudden you realize they're toxic. So let's talk a little bit about toxic behavior in teams, identifying toxic traits.

Speaker 1: 8:26

So constant negativity, that's a big one. So, oh, we're never going to make this time frame. Oh, I don't think we can do this. Constant, absolute negativity, undermining colleagues well, they can't do that because they were never trained on that or they just don't know. So, constantly undermining colleagues, refusal to collaborate I can do it, I don't need anybody's help and you'll get it when it's done. Or any form of harassment to anybody for any reason on the team or even outside the team. I mean we, we, we are who we are, um, in public as a general. So, uh, the impact on the team. So so these behaviors can demoralize the team, they can stop collaboration, they can destroy productivity and, at the end of the day, they can create a hostile work environment.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So what do you? What do you do? So a new team member comes in and you realize, uh, junk, they're toxic, right? So immediate response. So you address it immediately as soon as it's recognized. Delaying can destroy your team and your team will know that you're addressing it. Now you grab that person, not physically, but you say can I have a chat with you in my office? Because it's important to have private conversations, because it respects the dignity of that person, because maybe they don't know, maybe they're not real. We had somebody for a while that was very, constantly negative and we had talks about that and he got much, much better and actually blended right in with the team. He became part of the furniture, right.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So it's not always that it's on purpose. It's sometimes, you know, they've been at different workplaces and they thought differently, or it's happened to them and they thought this is just the way it is and that's their mindset, and it's changing their mindset. And if you can't, well, we'll talk about that in a minute. And it's changing their mindset. And if you can't, well, we'll talk about that in a minute. So you bring them in for private discussion and then you clearly communicate that the behaviors that have been observed, how they affect the team and the expectations for change. It needs to be specific and it needs to be factual. And then you set up the expectations and you clearly articulate what changes are expected and you set a reasonable but very firm timeline for these improvements. Again, we're not mucking around. Then you provide support so you can offer resources and support that might help the individual improve, such as training, counseling, mentoring, more feedback sessions with you. And then you monitor the progress so you keep an eye on if the behavior improves, and it's important for the team leader to be actively involved in this monitoring process. Now, if there is no significant improvement, then it's time to take decisive action and this could be, you know, changing the person to a different team if you're a big company or a decently large company which limit their influence, or, in other cases, you could move them on, and then you communicate with the team without talking the confidential details. You just say that, inform the team that the issue has been addressed according to the company policy. This reassures the team members that their well-being is a priority and it will maintain the trust in the leadership.

Speaker 1: 11:58

I've always found that open door policy is the best way to prevent a lot of toxic behavior from happening. And just completely open, like just come in and talk. You know there's no judgment if you've got a problem with something, because at the end of the day, while there's somebody, means to be negative or change your mentality. If you feel it's happened, it's happened to you so, but that doesn't mean you need to beat the person up. You need to understand. Come talk to somebody and then make sure that person understands and everything can be good. You know it doesn't have to be a whole, you know, big fight. It's sometimes people don't understand what other people are feeling, and that comes to our whole backgrounds and home life and and we, when we leave, I mean heck, who knows what's going on in our home life, right?

Speaker 1: 12:53

So what also I found is, you know, when, when you promote leaders, leaders within the organization or within the team you, you help to shape them. You help to shape them in a way that that you mentor them on how to respond to toxic behaviors. Because it's always better, before it gets up to say me, who's the founder, it's better that it stays within the team, within the team leadership, so whoever's running that team can pull them aside and say, yeah, is there something going on? I know you're constantly negative about things. How can we sort this? And then, when that leader isn't comfortable with that, or that leader has tried that, that's when it should go to the CEO or myself or whatever, because the leaders need to be the ones that are vigilant and proactive and proactive. So it's okay for them to push people over and say, can you help me with this, but we should be mentoring our leaders.

Speaker 1: 14:01

And then the importance of a healthy work environment and the responsibility of everyone to contribute positively to the team's culture. And that's what you stress with everybody is. It's important that everybody understands that they have a part to keep it a healthy work environment. And that's the end of the story, right? It's everybody's responsibility. So let's talk a little bit about some challenges, right?

Speaker 1: 14:26

So, communication breakdownsings, missed deadlines, conflicts due to poor information flow, so so what do you do with that? So you implement regular check-ins, you encourage the use of clear and concise communication tools and you provide training in effective communication skills. So so what do we do? So we, we do a stand-up every morning. So and I know stand-up is a developer thing, but we, we do a stand up every morning. So I know, stand up is a developer thing, but we do a stand up every morning and, and for five minutes, they go around to everybody for you know what, 20, 30 seconds and they say what did they do today or what did they do yesterday? So, what did you do yesterday and did you? What are you doing today? And did you have any blockers, anything that blocked you from doing a task? Are you waiting on anybody?

Speaker 1: 15:15

And now everybody within that team knows exactly what's going on with everybody. Oh no, I thought you needed something else. Cool, all right, stop, take that offline. Now we've identified a miscommunication, or we've identified a misunderstanding, and great, let's take it offline. The whole team doesn't have to be part of that, because it's something that could be fixed easily and then sort it. So that's how you find all of those little problems and then sort it. So that's how you find all of those little problems.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Another problem that team dynamics has is unclear job responsibilities, right, and that leads to overlaps or neglected tasks. So that's why it's really important to clearly define roles and responsibilities and document them and ensure they're communicated to all team members. So, on top of the stand-up, we use Jira, right, and Jira is again more like a developer system, but we use it as a tool. So everybody creates the tasks that they do. You have higher-level stuff and then you have individual tasks broken down, and it just gives everybody that complete understanding. In fact, if I don't know what's going on with something, I can just jump into Jira and see what everybody's doing today. It's what they do yesterday. How are they doing on a task? They write their notes in there as well, so it makes communication a lot easier.

Speaker 1: 16:45

Another challenge can be lack of commitment, right so team members are disengaged or not fully involved in tasks or decision making. So that's where you need to bring in your teams and get them engaged in the goal setting so and recognize the contributions that they have done. So how do we do that? Well, we have a sprint planning. So, again, developer thing, and we do some development, but these are mostly engineers and project managers and stuff. So we set a sprint planning session every two weeks and what they do is they sit around and they see all the things that are coming at us for two weeks and they already know them. And they break those down and they say I can do this in this amount of time, Cool, and a little buffer always put a little buffer and I can do this in this amount of time. And then they organize okay, well, I can't do this because I'm already doing this, so can you do that? And and they work it out between themselves. So they're setting their own tasks based on things that need to get done within within the team, things that need to get done within the team.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Another problem could be conflict among team members, right so? Disputes, personal clashes, inability to reach consensus. So you establish a conflict resolution protocol, something that that everybody can agree on, right, and then or provide conflict management training and make sure that as soon as a dispute arises, you intervene. But this is something that is easily mitigated by proper leadership, so they should see it coming. And then a lot of times this happens because, in the job side of it as well, is because you didn't do the sprint planning or there was miscommunication. And if you have a lot of conflict among team members and you have everything else right, then it's very possible that you have a toxic member.

Speaker 1: 18:40

Another problem can be poor leadership, right Directionless teams, lack of motivation, ineffective management. So the first thing we want to do is we want to reflect on our leaders anyways. So it's we we have to be careful about. Somebody did a really good job and let's promote them. Let's promote them straight away. They did such a good job, but but is that person ready for that promotion? Have they been, uh, mentored to to take it with the, with the extra stuff that would come to it? And yeah, sometimes if we promote too quick, we're not doing just a dissatisfaction to the company because they shouldn't be in that position yet, we're doing a dissatisfaction to the employee and it's not fair to put them in that, in that place. Yet However we can, we can provide leadership training. We um, we should be setting clear expectations for our leaders and we should be ensuring that they're accountable. So we should be having constant meetings with our leaders to make sure that they understand what they're accountable for.

Speaker 1: 19:39

And another problem sometimes, or at least challenge in team dynamics, is resistance to change. Right so pushback against new ideas, new processes, new technologies that say leadership wants to implement to improve outcomes. So the solution to that is pretty simple. So you communicate the benefits, you make sure there's a lot of advanced notice. You can even bring them along the journey of the decision making for what you're going to be implementing. And then you have, say, inadequate skills right so tasks to perform poorly or incompletely due to a skills gap. So when we bring members onto the team, we shouldn't be throwing them into the most complex thing. We should be building their skill set, learning what they can do and then where their aptitude sits, to ensure that you get what is needed and where it's needed with that specific person.

Speaker 1: 20:39

And then burnout right. Burnout's a big thing, especially for high-functioning teams. They have high stress. It reduces their productivity and increases how often they call in sick. So we need to monitor workloads, encourage lots of breaks and promote a work-life balance. In fact, what we do sometimes when we know we've just gone through a big period of big push for a client or something like that, we take a four-day weekend and tell them go de-stress. Or if we can't afford a four-day weekend because we're super busy, but some people have just done some big hours to get us ahead, then we might let those people go for a three-day weekend or just a day off in between. Or how many times I've got plenty of people where they go take leave and I'm like Matt, you can go take leave, but you're not getting charged leave because you've, you've just overachieved, you've, you've put in too many hours, you're you're not going to take leave and and and all of our guys are salary based. So they do, they do their normal hours and they do sometimes a little bit over time. But if they really push, then we make sure that they're taken care of and that's effective leadership.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Though you should be able to walk into your team in the morning. People are talking and go, that person is tired and that person over there is just how long has he been working? You know, cause he's? Is he burned out? Is he stressed? Is he, um, he or her, right? I mean, there's something going on and there's something not in character of that person. And then dig into that and figure out what you need to do to help that person, because they are your team member and they are your responsibility. Now, I know this one's getting a little bit long, but I'm not done yet.

Speaker 1: 22:39

So let's say that you are new to a company and you're the leader, so you've been brought into a company. New to a company and you're the leader, so you've been brought into a company, you're the leader, and you need to assess the culture right. Is the culture? Is the culture good? It really comes to how big's the team. You know how open's the team. You don't know yet, right. So you might do surveys, you might do individual interviews, you might have feedback sessions to really understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team and then you can identify areas that either need to change to better align with the organization, or what that team needs to be, or areas that need reinforcement, people that need training, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 23:25

You should look to see if the culture is clearly defined. You know what's the vision for the culture? Is there some? Does everybody know? I mean, how many times you go into a company and you're like, what's your culture? Do you have a statement for your company that says you know our vision and our culture and everything, or no? And if you don't, then you need to start there and then you get the oh need to start there and then you get the oh, this person is new, coming in, changing everything right, which, if it's a functioning team, you should not be changing it if everything's right. So you can't just jump in and change. You shouldn't just jump in and change. You're going to destroy, you'll destroy the team. But let's say, you get in and you realize that there are problems. There are problems with the culture, there are problems with the team. The first thing you need to do is just openly communicate the reasons that you're going to start changing and the benefits that everybody will have by the change that you want to implement. And then you be transparent to help gain the buy-ins and reduce resistance to change.

Speaker 1: 24:30

It's funny we had a client back in the day that they did a big change, so they brought in somebody a new MD and managing director for those who don't know and they decided they were going to rip apart the structure and change everything. But what they didn't do is they didn't tell anybody how they were doing it. They weren't transparent at all. People were waiting for months to see if they still had their job and that is ridiculous. That is stress on people. That shouldn't happen. That just destroys everything. And nobody wanted to do anything and everybody was worried and in fact, a whole lot of people jumped ship and just said you know what, not good enough, I'm going to leave. And they left and I don't blame them. And that's poor leadership is what that is.

Speaker 1: 25:25

And then you know you need to train so as you adjust and everything. You need to make sure that you provide training and development programs. It's you know, so that everybody understands the cultural values, or you know the skill sets and how to collaborate as a team. So if you're going to introduce JIRA, believe me JIRA was high resistance when we first introduced it, high resistance, and that was years ago. And now Jira is a part of the furniture. We would never consider working without Jira.

Speaker 1: 25:59

So it's time. It's all that substance and I constantly say in a lot of my podcasts that things always get better in time. Or all you have to do in a bad day is give it time. But time does heal most things. And then, really, as your culture gets better or as things are getting better, or if you made a mistake and you've got to pivot again, as we talked about in the last episode, you celebrate the wins that people did have, you celebrate the behaviors, you celebrate the achievements and you reinforce the desired culture and motivate others to embrace the change.

Speaker 1: 26:41

And while I could go on and on about teams, I think teams, when you get a team right, it is so amazing.

Speaker 1: 26:49

When I walk into UAM and I see how the team works, it blows my mind. I mean, I have no doubt that they are capable of just about anything, which is something that you should reflect on. Sometimes it's not just about the day-to-day after that, it's about the dynamics that you've helped create or foster or mentor, and some of the people that you'll end up working with or within these teams will do great things within the team and go on to do great things elsewhere as well, and you should celebrate that. So enough for this episode. The next episode will be on innovation and creativity and problem solving, and so we'll be discussing the role of creativity in solving life's complex problems. So thanks for joining me again today, and if you like this episode, please give it a like and even comment so others can find this podcast. And again, thank you for joining me on Full Circle with Sean. I look forward to chatting with you in the next one.