Creating Team Identity

cross-posting from Medium:

Fortune has graced me with many an opportunity to create, shape, and transform teams on their journey to excellence. At times the team was but an idea; most often the team existed and was executing to some degree of success. The teams I have seen struggle most often, and in need of the most reformation, have one thing in common: the team is not a team, but a collection. In those teams I observed a common set of problems: different views on success, isolated groups, conflict, distrust, active subterfuge and in the extreme: sabotage. This was never the intent on bringing the individuals together; the intent was positive but execution flawed. To become an effective team, rather than a collection of individuals, the key is a single identity.

With identity you have clear purpose, intention, alignment, trust, discourse, debate…synergy. I believe that lasting, effective team identity is founded on three core ideas: the mission, the vision, and each individual’s trust in the leaders and each other.

Mission

Mission defines what the team is formed to accomplish (its objective) and why (its value)

A mission starts with what it is. What is the objective? What is the impetus to form the team? What is the outcome of the team’s endeavors?

What is a critical question to answer. What are you intending to accomplish? How do you define and measure success? Define the objective. But keep in mind, an objective-only mission is short-lived. Only the very short-lived teams will succeed with an objective-only mission. These transitory teams are rare. In defining objective-only, people are not granted the value of respect, they are treated as automata. Beyond the Kantian ethics of this treatment, behaving this way inspires no loyalty, no longevity, no care for quality, no emotional tie, no drive beyond earning a paycheck. For the rest, people need more than what.

Why does the objective matter? Why is the objective valuable? Why are you valuable to the objective? Why should you care about the objective? A mission takes root with why it exists.

This is where we link the mission’s to the organization’s objectives. While practical this can still be inspirational (e.g., save the company, disrupt the industry, create new innovations, et cetera). This why provides the practical purpose for the objective.

To create understanding and ensure alignment, it is important for the team to understand the practical why associated to the what. Understanding the logical context is vital, but it is rarely personal. By itself it will leave individuals with an idea of the context and its importance, but they will not feel a connection to it. That is where vision shines.

Vision

Vision is the conjunction of why (the greater value) and how (the roadmap) to achieve the mission

Vision provides a deeper sense of purpose: why it matters to the individual and how the team will achieve the mission.

Why is not the practical why we saw with the mission. Vision’s why is the inspirational why. This must breathe life to the soul by answering a single question: why is the mission greater than itself?

If you want to create a team that will last through the trench and the march, a team that will endeavor for continuous improvement, a team that takes pride in their work, you need a purpose greater than a business objective. This is the purpose of the inspirational why.

Expressing business objectives in emotional state is admittedly challenging. When you seek to identify and refine the inspirational why, ask yourself who, what, and why. Who are your stakeholders, who are your users, who are your direct and indirect customers, who do you serve, and what matters to them? What is the value you are delivering, not the fiscal return, but the personal value to your customers, the value you bring to society? Why is there an opportunity, why do the customers want you/your products, why do you consider your products valuable, why does your company even exist, why are you valuable (to the team, to the objective, to the company, and by extension to society)?

Why is visionary. Why gives purpose. Yet without how the why will fester with unrealized goals.

How is not the practical step-by-step, but the inspirational how. This must define the answers to two critical questions: where are we at and where are we going?

Where are we?

This is investigative reporting, deductive reasoning at its core. This requires visibility, objectivity, understanding, curiosity, experience, and sufficient ignorance. The inquirer must comprehend the organizational machinations of the past and present, who is on the team, how people do their work (processes, tools, interactions, etc.), who influences the team, who is invested in the objective, why the present is the present, what opportunities exist as well as what the limitations are to enact change, et cetera. A complete picture of the present is never achievable, but a good approximation is necessary to know what is the now.

Where are we going?

This is creativity empowered. Another paradox reigns: this is easier and harder than defining where we are. This is the emotive force that gives form to the what and why. In defining the destination, the leader must also give guidance for how to get there. What is the plan? What tools, technologies, and processes are part of the plan? Who is part of this plan? What is the roadmap that accomplishes the what and achieves the why?

How is inspiration that becomes inspirational.

Vision enables the team to feel why the mission matters to them personally and how to make the impossible, possible. The core of the team identity is formed by the mission and vision. The team is inspired but that will fade without trust that the mission is achievable. The team lacks the faith, belief, trust in the leaders and trust in each other to change the world.

Trust

Trust is what enables the team’s identity to become effective and persistent rather than ephemeral

Mission and vision alone will appear pretentious if there is no belief in the leaders and between the team members. Belief is only possible with trust. Trust is the connective tissue that holds the framework of mission and vision together in times of duress and throughout time.

There are temporary ways to emulate trust (e.g., our innate desire to trust others, a cult of personality, etc.), but for long-term trust we need a much deeper connection. Real connections take time to establish via shared history, communication, interactions, et cetera. In building a team we do not have years to build up real trust so we must find ways to accelerate.

In looking to accelerate trust I find it is most effective to rapidly iterate on the pillars of trust. There are multiple studies on the pillars of trust, I view these as most critical to create trust: integrity, competence, reliability, communication, vulnerability (mutual-compassion), and time (repetition). I will explore these pillars further in a subsequent post, but for now reflect upon them and consider the critical last pillar: time; rapid repetition is the best way to condense time.

These pillars do not just translate to trusting the leader. When applied within the team, the pillars support trust between the individuals. When the team trusts the leaders and each other, belief in the mission and vision persists and is strengthened under stress.

Persistence

Individuals collected will not spontaneously create an identity. Give them a purpose. Explain the mission. Impart the vision. Build relationships. Engender trust. Commit. Refresh the mission. Nurture the vision. Animate beliefs. Synergy. E pluribus unum.

How will you know you have succeeded? When the team’s vision transcends your own. When you are no longer necessary for the team to exist.

Mental exercise: what is your company’s mission and vision? What is your team’s mission and vision (extend this to non-work teams)? Does your feeling of mission and vision vary from that of your superiors (executives, etc.)? Do you see conflicts in department missions and visions versus the company’s mission and vision? Considering trust, why do you trust some people and not others?