Organisation Design and Development

High Performing Global Teams – Keeping it Simple

Alistair Russell · August 8, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Prompted by experiences of different cultures through vacation travel this month we have been reflecting on how best to create and lead high performing teams that work across different contexts and cultures. Looking to build on the tried and tested models and patterns that you have and to offer one key questions as you focus and initiate the next cycle of development for the teams you are part of – what are you doing to keep things simple?

We have found that the particular challenges of teams working across different locations, time-zones, boundaries within and between organisations all compound the established challenges of effective and efficient collaboration by groups of humans.

The challenge of establishing high performing global teams could be characterised as – How to deliver on the potential benefits offered by the diversity of the team without the “differences” getting in the way? How to deliver on benefits that many are reporting for teams with higher levels of contextual diversity. Benefits that include: higher levels of idea generation, increased creativity, improved quality of decision-making quality and ability to solve problem-solving.

The foundations of tried and tested models and patterns remain critical. Foundations might include a team charter to make explicit the key features of the team e.g. the shared, clear statement of direction and purpose for the team; the structure; the team processes that empower team members; the key external relationships and who is responsible for managing those relationship; the metrics that matter to key stakeholders that the team uses to demonstrate progress and inform performance improvement etc..

Building on these foundations and focusing what makes the difference when addressing the specific challenges of diverse, global teams we invite you consider what else you could do to simplify the way the team works, to make it easier for the team to work effectively. To kick start your thinking, we find that when a global team really benefits when you make it as simple for the team to:

Communicate – making it simple for the team to communicate and share information, setting and holding the team to standards on the tools that team use for workflow, managing documents, collaborating, accessing and adding to team knowledge banks, alongside the basics of contact information, group calendaring, setting norms for availability etc.
Build relationships –in the past face:face kick off meetings might have been the norm, building on recent years, teams are much more comfortable and effective at finding simple ways of building and sustaining informal relationship using specific MS Teams channels, WhatsApp or similar to broaden and deepen interactions to provide the foundation for the trust that enables team performance, as ever the key is to make time for relationship building.
Make Decisions – designing team process and practice for decision making has always been key, with global teams the need for clear, simple, well understood processes and guidelines for making decision are critical for success, knowing when and how something should be handled is key.
Raise and resolve sensitive issues –a challenge in any team, but a particular challenge when working across a diverse global team, is having a clear, simple way for the team to raise and work through what we have often refer to as the “undiscussables” is a critical success factor for global teams. Where “undiscussables” can include those things that team members think but don’t feel able to say, or say but don’t mean, or feelings that cannot be said or do things where they don’t realise the impact on the team.

Career ABC – Always be Curious

Alistair Russell · July 25, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Career ABC – Always be Curious

Encouraged by our marketing colleague to use this month’s insight post to reflect on career. We landed on this riff off of that famous speech of Alec Baldwin’s character in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. And rather than “always be closing” we would say with your career always be curious.

The first thing that struck us was that none of us at Laing Russell were in those senior exec. roles in major global enterprises that we set out for when we were in our early twenties. Whilst that fact is unsurprising given how much has changed through the last few decades and how limited and perhaps naïve our worldview was at that stage of our careers. Yet, it is noticeable how comprehensively successful we are. Comprehensively in the sense that we are doing some of the most interesting work, we are economically valued and perhaps or because of that we are really, really enjoying our work these days. So, not where we thought we would be at the start , yet a set of successful careers.

And as we say in the title for this piece, the insight we offer is to always be curious. Curious in a way that is comprehensive. Comprehensive curiosity that builds on the foundational seeking of knowledge and understanding from traditional, formal learning perhaps guided by an established body of knowledge in areas of professional and executive leadership. Comprehensive curiosity that is beyond how to perform at your best against a set of behavioural competencies that many large scale enterprises use to frame our development.

Curiosity with respect to yourself and your career that is both “outside-in” and “inside-out”. Curiosity that pays attention to the environment, the context, what’s changing, what’s new – the “outside”. And curiosity about the value you deliver, the way that you deliver that value, fundamentally what you do and how you feel about what you do – the “inside”.

Based on this insight we recommend four things:

Review – establish a review cycle for yourself to do that “outside-in” and “inside out” check and stick to it, use a mentor or coach to make sure you do review regularly, make sure you are delivering recognised value in a way that works for you and develop that action plan to learn more about what you could do and where you might do it, a frequency of anything from quarterly through to every couple of years seems to work for most.
Seek new input – make sure you include diverse inputs in your review and planning process, challenge yourself with new sources of feedback from new perspectives.
Experiment – try stuff, it builds capability and confidence, work hard at evolving your practice continuously, take measured risks, if it doesn’t work out in quite the way you planned, you can recover and you will have learnt – it’s a win-win.
Perform and prepare – balance your investment in addressing your curiosity between action to both perform and prepare, taking action to improve how you perform in your current context and investigating and preparing for potential futures.

Delivering client value through focused, yet carefree talk

Alistair Russell · February 2, 2023 · Leave a Comment

A team conversation this week prompted the reflection that fresh perspectives and new productive actions result through focused, yet carefree talk. Noting carefree might not be quite the right term, it’s certainly not care-less. By focused yet carefree, we mean that uninhibited talk that is based on trust. Talk that is not wedded to any specific decision and is focused on meeting the agreed objectives, delivering agreed outputs and outcomes.

One way to describe how our work as facilitators of strategic decision taking and planning delivers value is through the clarity and commitment we prompt through focusing their “talk”. The new insight for us was that we deliver more value if we facilitate more carefree talk.

In our experience talk with other people is always productive. The requirement to be clearer, more specific and less abstract to communicate effectively one’s thoughts and feelings often produces new perspectives. The questions from others help. The challenge from colleagues, the questions from a supportive and perhaps even an antagonistic perspective do provide breakthroughs, they can illuminate an issue not previously seen, can show potential new paths. Talk helps.

Focused talk adds a further dimension which is about being disciplined in your talk. Often as a facilitator we add value simply by keeping the team focused on the agreed question or issue at hand. Being clear about both what and how we are talking. Focused talk invites all parties to be clear with each other. To contract with each other on purpose, objectives, outputs and outcomes.

The new insight for us was how much being carefree adds. Entering the “talk” free of cares about what the specific decisions and actions of session may be. Starting the workshop or the meeting letting go of any pre-considered analysis and not being wedded to any particular path or solution, yet being focused on the purpose and desired outcome can produce a better outcome. We find that being carefree opens the mind, encourages better listening and can deliver more value. Value through a way ahead that everyone is committed to and more likely to deliver. Value delivery through focused yet carefree talk.

Client First and Clear: Thoughts on being a coach and a consultant

Alistair Russell · March 9, 2022 · Leave a Comment

So, what did you do at work today, dad? Whilst its getting on for 30 years since our son first asked me that question, it remains a powerful and useful question for us all at Laing Russell. What did you do? What difference did it make? What did you learn? What will you do next? The team at Laing Russell have for many years worked along the full spectrum of consulting approaches. Delivering team and individual development as “pure play” process consultants and coaches. Working collaboratively with clients to deliver critical capabilities and products. Through to responding directly with our advice and guidance based on the evidence – termed “doctor-patient” in Ed Schein’s seminal work “Process Consultation: Its role in Organisation Development.”

Laing Russell has always recognised there are many approaches to delivering value to our clients. And to that end we offer coaching, mentoring and consulting services. Recently, another member of our team has taken time to accredit and develop their capability as a coach. This has prompted us to reflect on what we do and how we do it – what are we going to do at work, today?

Our key conclusions are to affirm our client first focus and to be clear. The beginning and the end of how we deliver value is what our client wants and needs. What our clients want and need in terms of outcomes and deliverables and what they want and need in terms of the most effective way for us to work together. Working as coach, as mentor or as executive consultant across the full range of consulting styles. Client first.

An insight from the coaching development programme is the importance of being explicitly clear and indeed keeping under active review the contract with the client. Here we mean contract in its widest sense. Contract in the classical, commercial sense with proposals etc. and perhaps more importantly contract in the sense of how we work collaboratively as organisations, as teams and as individuals.

A strong idea from one of the coaching models, Co-active Coaching, is the concept of coaching being a “designed alliance” that is in service of the client’s needs. Our insight is that this idea of a purposeful, designed alliance focused on delivering for the client should be applied to all our consulting work. Taking time to pay attention to the contract at start, throughout and on conclusion of an engagement. Making sure that the client is getting what they want, as work progress making sure that agreed outputs deliver the anticipated value and that we are working together in the right way. Flexing our approach as required, as we progress through an engagement whether as coach, mentor or consultant.

We are re-doubling our efforts to be clear and client first in our practice. To deliver on a “designed alliance” in all our work with clients. We are finding that clear contracting on the way we work either as coach, mentor or consultant is helping us build more positive, more productive partnerships.

References:

Process Consultation: Its Role in Organizational Development (1988); Schein, E, Prentice Hall

Co-active Coaching (2018); Kimsey-House, H; Kimsey-House, K; Sandahl, P and Whitworth, L; Nicholas Brierley

Show don’t Tell: A new (to me) perspective on change leadership

Alistair Russell · January 12, 2021 · Leave a Comment

As an experienced consultant with a professional heritage in engineering, I have absolutely no academic credentials in literature or any other media. However, with children that studied film and literature at first degree level and also as someone that enjoys films, I have come to understand the idea of ‘show don’t tell’ as used in the criticism of films and all story telling media. As I’ve explored the idea, I’ve come to realise its value as a new perspective on what we do as leaders. The value of leadership that does much more, leadership that shows how rather than just telling you how. And building on our recent insight piece ‘stories matter’, consider how much more powerful you and your team could be in leading change if you did more showing how things are and could be different and less telling.

Taking the ‘show don’t tell’ perspective into our work in the design, delivery and leadership of change enabled through digital technology, it’s clear that its more powerful to demonstrate change in practice rather than just communicate about the change. Both demonstration and communication are important, but I notice that perhaps because it’s easier there is still too much telling. Reflecting on my own experience, a showing approach is more sustainable because of the more active engagement of the other party, in the same way that the audience is more engaged in a story if the author shows you what is happening, the approach invites the audience to work harder at understanding what is going on, rather than just telling you as reader or viewer. For me this a new perspective on the power of such things as agile development where we have seen the benefits in quality of development as well as pace though such things as the minimum viable product (mvp), the sprint etc. I think we can do more if we bring the idea to our work on leading change.

So, what does “show, don’t tell” mean? In storytelling, it is considered vital to master the art of showing. When you tell rather than show, you simply inform your reader of information rather than allowing them to deduce anything. You’re supplying information by simply stating it. For example, getting a character to describe how someone is feeling. You might report that a character is “tall,” or “angry,” or “cold,” or “tired.” That’s telling.

Showing paints a picture for the reader to develop in their mind’s eye. Rather than telling that your character is angry, show it by describing his face flushing, his throat tightening, his voice rising, his slamming a fist on the table. When you show, you don’t have to tell. Cold? Don’t tell us; show us. Your character pulls her collar up, tightens her scarf, shoves her hands deep into her pockets, turns her face away from the biting wind. Tired? He can yawn, groan, stretch. His eyes can look puffy. His shoulders could slump. Another character might say, “Didn’t you sleep last night? You look shot.” When you show rather than tell, you make the reader part of the experience. Rather than having everything simply imparted to him, he sees it in his mind and comes to the conclusions you want. More importantly they are the reader’s conclusions. What could be better than engaging your reader, giving him an active role in the storytelling, or should we say the story-showing? Clearly, it is a mistake to take show, don’t tell as inviolable. The theatre of the reader or viewers’ mind is more powerful than anything Hollywood can put on the screen. Well-written books and films trigger the theatre of the mind and allow readers to create their own visual, to be active rather than passive participants.

Our insight that if you take this maxim of ‘show don’t tell’ into your leadership you will lead more powerful change, you will lead more sustainable change, it will be everybody’s change not just yours. Looking ahead, think about:

designing the process of change to have much more time allocated to activities where colleagues learn how to change rather than are just told;
changing your behaviour to show new leadership approaches in action; and as we’ve said before,
shifting the balance of your change comms to stories that show the change in action.