Conjuring success for a new team

How the magic happened

A year of team development including 64 hours of training across five offsites, multiple exercises and reflections, plus a sprinkling of team coaching.

The challenge

Help the new DDX team identify the mindset, behaviours and skills to do great work together.

Results

Team performance enhanced across 10 (of 11) key metrics

Communication and conflict navigation skills improved most notably

100% of the team reported a positive impact on their collaboration

We have become aware of our strengths and weaknesses; additionally, trust has certainly improved.

Participant

Siemens DDX

Objectives

As a newly established team, DDX's leadership wanted to create a culture of high performance. To achieve this, we designed a team development programme to lead the team towards the mindset, behaviours and skills that would enable members to do great work together.

It was a learning journey to connect colleagues and help individual members understand the space they occupy in the team. We also wanted to empower the whole team to make DDX what they want it to be – avoiding a top-down management model.

The key programme aims:

Establish shared meaning and purpose in the team
Learn how to avoid working in silos
Build communication rituals that facilitate conflict management
Embrace the cultural complexity across the team / organisation
Develop trust between remote colleagues

Outcomes

Phase one was a year–long learning journey with both in person and remote offsites, plus exercises and coaching sessions. The programme is now moving into its second year, with a new journey for the next phase of the team’s development journey.

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At the end of phase one, the team’s ability to work together changed for the better, shifting closer to being a high performing team.

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Using data from pre and post–programme surveys, we observed significant behavioural shifts within the team, with improved scores in 10 of the 11 characteristics of high performing teams. Enhanced behaviours and skills enabled the team to work together more productively and effectively.

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In particular:

★ The team value their differences

★ They feel secure as a team

★ They created spaces of psychological safety

★ They take collective responsibility for the team

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As well as this, the team's communication and ability to navigate conflict showed the most notable improvement.

On the other hand, although dependability and trust had lower post–programme scores, we looked at the survey data deeper and concluded that this was a result of new members joining the team. This then demonstrates the importance of continuous team development when scaling, to incorporate new joiners.

The work to break silos, and enhance appreciation, communication and feedback has made a big impact on the team. As has the overall mindset shift, which has enhanced motivation and clarity.