Team process for startups
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Transcript of Team process for startups
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© 2015 ConceptSpring
Elaine Chen
2015
Team Process for Startups
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“A group of people working together does not automatically equal a team.”
– Linda Hill, Harvard Business School
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6 Ingredients that makes an effective team
1. Clear roles and responsibilities2. Clear working approach3. Effective decision making process4. Equitable participation from all members5. Managing influence6. Working through conflict
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1. Clear roles and responsibilities
Hustler
Hacker Hipster
=> Who’s Who on the team?
Balancing the team by role Balancing the team by orientation
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A True Founder’s Dilemma Story• There was once an MIT startup team with two
passionate co-founders.• The team was crushing it, but the energy was
going downhill.• Turns out they had a Founder’s Agreement from
a year ago with a 50-50 equity split – and no clarity on who is the CEO.
• They found it extremely awkward to have the difficult conversation.
• Eventually, they got over the reluctance and talked about it frankly. They worked on this situation with a facilitator they both trusted. Eventually, they resolved the situation and were able to decide who was going to be the CEO.
• The sun came out that day and it was great weather from that point onward.
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There can be only one CEO.
• Decide how you will handle leadership. Appointed? Elected? Rotating?
• Decide who does what from the get-go• Each person can write their own “job spec” and share
it• You can always evolve it over time (even to the point
of switching CEOs) – but you need a starting point
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2. Clear working approach
• Logistics: Who will work when for what hours? How will each person prepare for their own participation?
• Project plan: How will you break up the company’s deliverables into smaller chunks with smaller deliverables?
• Who does what when: How will you divide and conquer the actual tasks?
• “Budget versus Actuals”: How will you measure and manage progress?
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3. Effective decision making process
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An example of how not to handle things: Read “Henry Tam and the MGI Case” (HBR)
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Dysfunctional team process => Dead company
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Be purposeful about decision making
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Identify and understand the
problem
Ideate solutions
Iterate and refine
Implement chosen solution
Start with defining the problem – not with creating the solution
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3. Equitable participation
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Questions to pose
• Who participates a lot? Why? To what effect?• Who doesn’t participate? Why not? To what effect?• Did anyone suddenly withdraw from participation? Why?• How do you treat the silent people? • Are the interactions excluding people?
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=> Someone needs to run / facilitate each working session
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Sidebar on meeting hygiene
• Purpose of meeting should be made clear before the meeting
• At the start of the meeting, clearly state goals / success criteria for this meeting
• Someone should run the meeting and facilitate discussion / keep time– This person is responsible for managing
participation• At the end of the meeting, summarize takeaways and
clarify next steps / action items with clear persons in charge
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4. Managing Influence
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Questions to pose
• Who has influence? Why?• Who is ignored? Why?• Is the influence shifting? Why?• Is there a division within the team? Why?• Who interrupts whom and is this tolerated? Why?• How does your team treat minority views?
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=> Someone needs to run / facilitate each working session
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5. Working through conflict
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Task conflict is good!
• People who agree all the time:– May be struck with hero-worship of 1 person– May be cowed by the personality of 1 person– May have succumbed to group-think– May be too lazy to care
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A diversity of viewpoints leads to a more complete understanding of the problem and a more well rounded solution
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Failing to manage interpersonal conflict is not good!
• Interpersonal conflict shows up under stress• How to fail:
– Evasive tactics: Run away from difficult conversations
– Passive Aggressive tactics: Pretend to go along and secretly sabotage
– Outright aggression: Verbally abuse each other with no constructive intent
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Questions to pose
• Are you agreeing all the time? Not at all? • What do you do if people disagree?• How do you arrive at an agreement? (Majority vote?
Consensus? No opposition interpreted as agreement?)
• Are people listening to each other, or pushing their views all the time?
• How do people feel about their participation?• Are people too nice? Too competitive?
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=> Someone needs to watch for red flags and tweak the dynamics as needed
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Some ideas to help manage conflict
• Define the rules of engagement. What behaviors are OK and what’s not OK?
• Agree to disagree – then move on• Have a mechanism to discuss issues privately• Ground discussions on data, not opinions• Consider multiple alternatives• Be fair – empower members to contribute equally
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Troubleshooting
• “We are chasing our tail in every meeting and nothing gets done”
• “We are jumping from conclusion to conclusion without thought”
• “I have a Hermione in the team”• “I am the Hermione in the team”• …
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Resources
• Note on team process by Linda Hill and Maria Farkas - Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/product/note-on-team-process/402032-PDF-ENG
• Henry Tam and the MGI Team – Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/product/henry-tam-and-the-mgi-team/404068-PDF-ENG
• Effective Meetings: A Checklist for Success https://hbr.org/product/effective-meeting-a-checklist-for-success/C0103A-PDF-ENG
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@chenelaine blog.conceptspring.com
Thank you