Building High-functioning Teams
“We just heard from business that we cannot cut any of the requirements, but we still have to deliver all of these features by launch.” For some, hearing this during standup creates an instant sinking feeling and racing thoughts that start like, “there is no way…” or “how can we possibly…..” For a member of a high-functioning team, however, situations like this can be surprisingly easy to take in stride. For example, the team I am currently working on just recently beat our deadlines several times in a row while preparing for an important launch. We succeeded on this release even in the face of the usual scope-creep and surprise requests that seem to sneak up from nowhere during a high-pressure product cycle with short deadlines.
If you want to help build a team that can deliver high quality products in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, it is of the utmost importance to understand the difference between having a handful of strong engineers and a high-functioning team. The quality of work that these two different groups can produce is vastly different, and it takes a bit of thought and effort to move from the former group make-up to the later. High-functioning teams are not homogeneous, but rather are made up of a wide range of individuals whose strengths complement each other, and who can work together to create a collaborative environment of psychological safety and trust.
Generalists or specialists?
To put together a group of individuals who can work at a strong velocity while returning high quality results requires a clear understanding of your current team members, as well as the ability to suss out the strengths that a new potential member can bring. A team of all specialists will tend to be brittle in fast-changing technological landscapes, and a team of 99% generalists can be susceptible to a single point of failure when the one specialist is unavailable. Anyone who has worked on a team at either of these two extremes will heartily agree with this sentiment, but I think we do even better than just the right balance of teammate working styles.
Someone new, or someone like us?
Once you have grasped the right balance of generalists to specialists for your domain, the next step is to gather a range of perspectives and backgrounds. In many environments, having team members with diverse skill sets and perspectives can help an engineering organization cope with quickly changing circumstances and short timeframes. On the other hand, when team members can only think from the same point of view, even well-intentioned, intelligent individuals can find themselves distressingly far down the wrong path before someone notices. New and different perspectives are an investment in the future of a team, and one that is guaranteed to pay off in the fast paced world of technology.
Diversity requires action
To build this dream team we are after, it is not simply a matter of allowing for a diverse set of people to apply for roles on a team. Steps have to be taken to remove barriers and provide a safe environment for people of all backgrounds to contribute. This starts by recognizing that diverse perspectives are not just a “nice-to-have,” when hiring, they are a first-tier attribute that is worth selecting for its own sake.
Do not listen to the nay-sayers who point to longer ramp-up times as a reason not to follow this path. The resilience that one’s team will gain as a result of increased diversity will far outweigh any additional onboarding time it may take for people to get up to speed from different starting points.
While this is an investment in the long term health and strength of your team, it can also come with some immediate returns as well. Often, even during the onboarding process, fresh eyes can help point out inefficiencies or undocumented, important tribal knowledge that should be resolved or clarified as a priority. Do not miss these opportunities to grow!
Here is where we do great things
Once you have gathered a group of individuals with a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, skill sets, and work styles, there is one final piece to the puzzle. To empower a team to do their best work, it is necessary to be cognizant of the atmosphere that is being created in the workplace. I am not referring to exotic snacks and SF-scale office perks here, I am talking about something much more important: psychological safety.
Examining the language your team uses, the processes you put in place for determining what work gets done, and the ways you recognize success will help you take stock of your environment as it is today. From there, it is simply a matter of identifying your organization’s weaknesses and working on incremental plans to improve. Building a space where people can do their best work takes time and intentionality. It can be uncomfortable to examine and rectify unconscious bias, but it is worth the effort. When you have a diverse, widely skilled group of engineers who can communicate clearly and feel safe bringing their authentic selves to work every day, there is almost nothing you cannot achieve.
