Team norms
When we started Learning Services, we knew that our team is going to be very different from a regular team that we would see in Infosys - we would be different because we would do a different kind of work and we will have people with different and diverse skills with us- we will have instructional designers, creative designers, learning consultants in addition to our regular project management and technology streams. Some of these roles were not even heard in Infosys before! We started building the team by bringing in the right skills from other organizations and also from within. This meant having people with different working styles and organizational cultures coming together.
One of the challenges that we would face is to get this diverse group of people spread across various locations to work together as a single team towards a common goal.
How do we handle this? We need to have an environment which is open and which fosters team spirit- we decided to have a set of working norms that will guide us.
What creates openness and team spirit? “Appreciating fellow team members, even small gestures” would go a long way in building the trust. We chose that as our first team norm.
New people, new skills and new things to do – “Collaborative learning and sharing knowledge” became our second norm and we wanted to lead by example here!
Working in different time zones, against tough deadlines is definitely going to be a challenge for us- what can we do? We realized that mails are not the most effective way of communication- they can be interpreted in a completely different way if not written carefully and when written under stress! Talk more? “Encourage free flowing team communication- open feedback and clarification is acceptable” became the third and the most important team norm for us. We want our team members to be open in giving and receiving feedback and we want our people to over communicate!
What do you do when you are stuck with a problem? Especially when you are new in a new unit and do not know what to do! What are friends for? “Ask for help when you need it” – our fourth norm will help our team members to build a strong network of friends inside the unit and within the organization.
If you are not enjoying your work, you are not going to continue doing the same for a long period of time! We want our people to “Have fun @ work ” and be part of our team for years to come
The last, but an important norm that we chose was “Saying NO to work” – sounds strange, right? We want our people to do better time management and “Say NO to work when you can’t keep the commitment”. We would like people to say ‘NO’ when they are being assigned work and not a day before the deadline!! Sometimes work gets assigned the day before.
What do you think of our working norms? Are they apt? Should we have some other norms? Please let us know and help us grow better!!
Comments
Good Point & well said. But historically speaking these roles do exist in the Industry since long time. Having them in the team will actually help in collaborating with the concepts of learning services & education services. The real challenge is to show a good career path for these roles. Miles to go !! Best of Luck !!!
Posted by: Jitendra | January 21, 2009 9:48 AM
Manjula, you have hit some great points. I think one more thing that might be added is a sense of personalization. We all get caught up in the business and forget that we can also connect personally. This is a technique that works really well with clients. What do we know about each other (teams)? How could we work best together? What strengths do we have that we can leverage? What did we do over the weekend? These are examples of things we can find out about each other so we're not strangers.
There is a great book that discusses this topic called "Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Teams". The author identifies the Five Essential Issues:
1. Who Am I - Who Are You?
2. Who Are We Together?
3. What Are We Here to Do?
4. How Are We Going to Do It?
5. How Are We Doing/How Did We Do?
Understanding as many of these issues as possible makes for a smooth working relationship. So the next time you meet on the phone with your team, old or new, spend a few minutes to get to know them. There may be some surprising things to learn.
Posted by: Patti | January 22, 2009 10:12 PM