8 Signs You Have Chosen the Wrong Team

I was having coffee with senior co-leads of a large growth effort, and the question they had for me was, “how do we know if we’ve assembled the right team?”  When you get a question like that, you know the answer is yes, they have a problem.

I asked them some questions, and it led me to make some notes that might prove useful to you, as well.

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1. Your senior team is not supporting the effort.  One of the early signs that a team issue is present, is that the management team is pocket vetoing requests for resources and assistance from the team.  In addition to the usual suspects of sales and marketing, this also can include legal, finance and HR.
2. The schedule is slipping.  On important efforts like these, the proof is in the execution.  If the first milestone is missed, it sets a pattern of expectation, and something is wrong with the strategy, resourcing or time estimate for a given outcome.  Slippage is always the smoke of a greater underlying fire.
3. You are spending a lot of time sorting out details of cooperation.  If every request for resources ends up in your office, there is an issue.  While growth teams always face resistance, well-reasoned requests with a good business case should be able to be worked out peer to peer.
4. You have to seek out updates, and when you get the updates, you feel the need to ask for second opinions.  Well-run growth teams communicate proactively, not reactively.  When you have to run down an update, it means the stakeholder information function is broken.  Great teams know that they need to communicate very well upward and laterally to be effective, so if you need to seek them out, they are likely not doing a good job of interacting laterally either.
5. You have a hard time answering the town hall meeting questions of why are we doing this?  The first task of a good growth team is to establish an unimpeachable business case for their work.  They need to repeat this early and often, and you should feel well equipped to field Q&A.
6. You have not been asked to reach outside the firm for support.  Great growth efforts run on insight, and insight is found outside the four walls of your firm.  Good growth teams will push you to find good customer and supplier partner participants.  If you haven’t been asked to reach out to a peer in another firm, your group is likely working off intuition and not the rich contribution of the value chain.
7. There isn’t any “broken glass.”  Beware the team that doesn’t require forgiveness from time to time.  A group that doesn’t push the boundaries is not going to have the impact that a growth team should have on your firm.  
8. They haven’t taken time to visit the curmodgeon.  Every firm has the resident historian who knows things intrinsically that others only gain by accident.  You want to make sure that if the team is going to ignore their advice, at least it is in a knowing departure from the norm, not due to lack of due diligence.

So once you have talked with the group and gotten some insight, how do you begin, as the British say, “to get things sorted?”

1. Double check objective clarity.  The first and most overlooked step is to go back and look at the charter for the group.  Is it clear?  If needed, has there been sufficient investigation prior to kicking off the effort? Ambiguity at the outset will lead to all manner of strange outcomes.
2. Next look at sponsorship.  There needs to be a sponsor at the helm who has the scope and political influence to make sure the team is able to deliver.  Sponsors that are too junior can derail effective execution.
3. Team mix.  Each team needs a mix of vision, execution, subject matter expertise and glue.  If these are out of balance or an ingredient is missing, they will get bogged down.
4. Horsepower.  If the above three are in place, it’s time to look at the strategic use of additional resource to “sprint” the group forward.

Counter intuitive Pro tip: In large matrixed firms, a floundering team is typically under focused and over resourced.  Start a virtuous cycle of focus by reducing the team size by one third.

I hope these notes help you in your efforts to create growth teams that deliver.  If you’d like additional insights on team structure, I’d also encourage your to take a look here and here.

Are you ready to begin an initiative or have a team that is bogged down on the journey? Let’s talk – please call or email me at 847-651-1014.

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