Management 538:Teams and Projects

Session 4-1

X-Teams

X-Team Development

1) Select Members and Set the Stage 2) Begin Exploration 3) Engage in Exploitation 4) Follow through with Exploration

Iterative Cycles

Scouting Ambassadorship Task Coordination Extreme Execution

1. Select Members and Set the Stage

Select team members for what they know and who they know

Create a culture of success Build psychological safety Learn about what team members know (skills

and expertise)

2. Begin Exploration

Explore task, environment, the customer, technology and competition

Identify all who will be impacted by team Scouting: investigate organizational terrain Ambassadorship: Link team goals to

organization’s goals and get buy in When complete: will have good idea of who

are their supporters and sponsors

Task Coordination to identify dependencies (inside and outside the company) By the end of this phase: will have identified its

task as well as the people outside the team who will be needed to help the team meet its goals

Extreme Execution: develop strong internal team norms and practices By the end of the phase: members should trust

each other and work together well

3 Engage in Exploitation

Team ready to focus on implementation and execution

Scouting (organizational terrain) Ambassadorship (link to strategic objectives) Task coordination (work with other teams and

others in organization to manage dependencies)

Extreme execution: reset team norms and activities

4 Exportation

Exporting project to the rest of the organization Transfer the excitement, motivation, and tacit

knowledge from the team to those who take on the next phase (handoff)

Scouting (organizational terrain) Ambassadorship (communication & buy-in) Task Coordination (dependencies) Extreme Execution (team norms)

Details on X-Team Steps

Following slides provide a more detailed perspective on the 4 major steps

1) External Activity: Scouting

Team members must acquire the information that is critical for them to carry out their task. This is both inside and outside the organization.

Read and understand the context.

External Activity: Extensive Scouting

Too much of a good thing. May lead to analysis paralysis and impede

the ability to move from exploring an idea to implementing it.

A continuous search may lead to floundering and deadlines are missed.

But, with poor scouting, teams may be less creative and miss the mark.

External Activity: Three Types of Scouting

1) Investigating the organizational terrain (within the organization)

2) Investigating customers, competitors, current trends

3) Vicarious learning Teams learn by observing others outside the

team or talking to them about their experiences. Avoid making the same mistake as others

2) External Activity: Ambassadorship

Managing up the hierarchy Marketing the project to top management

Links the team with the key strategic initiatives of the organization

Links the team to higher levels in the organization and gets buy-in and support from people with influence.

Helps the team manage the power and politics that is a part of all organizations.

Cautions on Ambassador Behavior

A difficult and delicate dance Teams that do not do well are those that

market and promote their team and the team’s product, even when there is not much of a product to support. Excel at marketing, but poor at implementation.

3) External Activity: Task Coordination

Teams need to be able to coordinate, align, and motivate cooperation from all team members.

Identify dependencies (interdependent relationships) Obtain feedback from other groups/units/teams Convince and negotiate with other groups, inside

and outside the organization, to get the task done

4) X-team Principle 2: Extreme Execution

Execution requires smooth internal operations.

“Externally oriented teams need a climate of safety and reflection that enables them to hold together the team members who must deal with the pulls of external viewpoints and internal conflict.” (p. 88)

External information gathering creates the prime setting for conflict and the need to manage the conflict.

Extreme Execution

X-teams combine high levels of external activity outside the team with extreme execution inside the team.

A means to manage the stresses from divergent information from external sources.

Extreme Execution: Psychological Safety

Team members feel the team is safe and comfortable sharing their ideas interpersonally. Able to take risks Open discussions, good conflict, able to deal with

errors without blaming an individual, no hoarding of information, able to ask for help.

Relies on trust across team members.

Extreme Execution: Team Reflection

Reflect to learn as you proceed on the team. Debrief experiences at different points: end of

project, midpoint, at milestones Revisit the big picture of the team, its vision and

direction on a regular basis or as needed. Goes beyond what did we do well or not so well in

reflections.

Like trust, this is something that is best guided by a team leader

Extreme Execution: Knowing what Others Know

Sharing of information within and across expertise areas to make the team a sum that is greater than its parts.

Tools for Extreme Execution

Integrative meetings: frequent core meetings Participatory and transparent decision-making

procedures: fairness, invite all to share their ideas Heuristics: boundaries about the processes and

decision-making when circumstances are ambiguous; “customer comes first”

Shared timelines Information management systems: tracking and

planning

X-Teams: Flexible Phases

Teams change their core tasks over the team’s lifetime to diminish a team’s tendency to become ‘stuck’ in one mode of operating.

Three phases: 1) Exploration 2) Exploitation 3) Exportation

Scouting occurs in all three phases, but mostly in exploration.

Ambassadorship also occurs in all three phases, but is most evident in exploitation and exportation.

X-Team Phases

Tasks PhasesExplore Exploit Export

Discovery Design Diffusion

X-Team Leadership Sensmaking Visioning Relating

& Relating & Inventing

X-TeamActivities Scouting Ambassadorship Task Coord.

Ambassadorship Task Coordindation Ambassador.

Sensemaking: understanding the context in which a team and its members operate.

Relating: developing key relationships within and across the organization.

Visioning: creates a compelling vision of the future and inventing new ways of working together to realize the vision.

X-Teams: Flexible Phase – Exploration

Discovery Teams examine their external environment,

look into new directions, and consider multiple possible options.

At this phase, the team thoroughly understand the product, process, opportunity or task that the team has undertaken

X-Teams: Flexible Phases – Exploitation

Design Teams must select one direction and take

action towards it and implement their selection.

Use information from exploration to be creative and innovate; move from creative ideas to implementation.

Shift from divergent thinking to convergence and commitment to one.

X-Teams: Flexible Phases –Exportation

Export Teams then must ensure that their work fits in

with the larger organization. Transfer team member expertise and

enthusiasm to others who will continue the work of the team, bringing the team’s product into the organization and possibly the marketplace.