Picture this, you grind day after day on a web application or website platform that very few people appreciate and that many complain about, yet it's critical to business operations. You bring a positive attitude to work despite having your ticket queue full each and every day. You and your team work hard to make improvements and squash bugs.
You've dealt with and suffered through a handful of "reorgs", reporting line changes and staff reductions which senior management don't intend to backfill. On top of all this, the business needs to implement additional "cost saving measures" in your area (i.e. pull more resources away from your team) and is considering replacing your software entirely. How do you feel? What do you do next?
The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized - never knowing.
- Jim Rohn
Self assessment: why is the team perceived poorly?
Before you can take action or make adjustments you need to identify why your team has it's current reputation. Be honest and unbiased and do this assessment with yourself, your individual team members and the team itself. Talk to people outside your group to understand their issues and concerns working with your team. Some things I've personally seen are:
- Toxic team members
On small teams of less than 10 people, 1 toxic team member can ruin the whole team dynamic or day to day operation. These folks can sabotage delivery and will negatively impact the team overall. Read this tale of caution about a top contributor who almost killed a flagship project.
- Legacy technology
I've discussed the burden of legacy technology on teams and their associated risk. Legacy systems make delivery more difficult and can impact your ability to respond to changing business needs and/or time to market which could upset stakeholders using your systems
- Unorganized processes
Lack of mature and simple to use process and flows for common requests and issues. You'd be surprised by how much time is wasted when you are unorganized. Ensure your priorities and focus are clear.
There are many other reasons why teams could be perceived poorly: corporate politics, rumors, personal bias, lack of knowledge of the team and their other responsibilities, etc. Regardless of the reason you need to understand in order to make adjustments to change those opinions.
Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.
- Rob Liano
External risks: the dreaded 3rd party
Everyone is selling something in business. In my experience, I've seen teams scared when groups move toward using 3rd party technology or groups outside the internal teams. Teams worry that maybe management is planning to outsource work to an offshore group or move permanently over to these 3rd party vendors. What you need to keep in mind is your unique advantage against these groups: internal knowledge of the business, your current skillset, ability to focus on key objectives and staying informed on critical functionality to support current initiatives.
Quite often these groups have a slick sales staff which promise the moon or guarantee a delivery date. When things don't quite work out what I call the "Honeymoon phase" quickly ends and the relationship can sour. These 3rd party vendors often have funding, functionality or other constraints which can impact their ability to scale up, especially for larger organizations.
Expectation setting is key and often missed by sales folks when working directly with non-technical groups. Or another scenario, once the project is completed you can witness the unmaintainable nature of the work produced by these 3rd party vendors. In one recent example, everything was great until finalizing the hosting costs. The cost structure was such that a 40 page brochure site cost the same as a 40,000 page website. For an organization with hundreds of small sites that was a pretty huge miss internally by the non-technical group and externally by the 3rd party vendor. Whoops, they should have consulted with the internal teams before committing to this vendor and contract. Lesson learned... the hard way.
When things go wrong, don't go with them.
- Elvis Presley
Make drastic changes in a controlled manner
You need to position your team in a way to take advantage of any potential opportunity that comes by. Remember chance favors the prepared. For example, a missed deadline by a 3rd party vendor is a chance for your internal team to step in and support the business during a time of need. In order to capitalize on these opportunities you must be ready. You need to take a few steps in a particular order to become ready:
- Reconnect with your team
The most of effective way to obtain "new" output or capacity is to think differently about the problem. To do this you need to ensure you understand your current team and the team dynamic. Meet with the team to understand what drives the team.
- Renew the motivation of individual team members
Do you know what motivates each individual? Is it a new title, team recognition, salary, time off, flexible working hours? If you are hoping to gain additional capacity and output you'll have to push each person outside of their comfort zone which means knowing how to reward them first.
- Cross train your team
To be an effective team each person needs to know roughly each others job. To upskill the entire team have them: pair on tickets and projects especially senior developers with more junior ones. Additionally, force anyone specialized in a particular area to train a secondary, tertiary expert or preferably the entire team. Collaboration is the focus. Working together on difficult problems pushes everyone to learn and become a stronger team
- Force uncomfortable discussions if necessary
As you change the team, you'll quickly see people stepping up and others happy to stay the same. Some people won't adjust or be able to effectively deliver outside their current expertise. Use their strengths and reallocate "regular" work to them so that others can spend time learning and upskilling. As a last resort, you might have to replace, remove or transition someone from your existing team.
Keep in mind this process will NOT happen overnight. You need to be committed and consistent with your team in order to give them time and room to grow into the next level, or into better versions of themselves. By upskilling your team it will increase their individual skills and confidence which in turns manifests as increased faith in the team as a whole and what they are capable of, i.e. greater than the sum of its parts. If things don't work out, you've given your team a parting gift of additional skills and new found confidence as they explore other opportunities.
I've witnessed and been part of turning around many individuals and many development teams and it's a thing of beauty when it happens. To watch someone become a better version of theirself. It's what keeps me going day in and day out.
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
- Elbert Hubbard
Take on new challenges and responsibilities
During this cross training and team upskill you should be clearly communicating your intentions. Be honest with your intent and goals so the team understand why they are doing this work and what the end result of all the work will be. There needs to be a collective agreement about the team output and then a plan to implement those changes. At this point if the team have been putting in the work they will be a stronger team with more confidence with themselves and as a group. Now it's time to put them to the test.
Find a project to help show management what your team is capable of. Ideally it should be a hard project or one with a very short timeline where the pressure is high. If there isn't an existing project, create one . Fix something that you've been avoiding or build something that someone's been asking for? If you aren't sure or ready for that you can start by revamping an internal process or system. This little win could help in turn provide more momentum and confidence to do something more difficult and build on past success. Your job here is to promote the team and prove how essential they are to delivery of these new projects or enhancement. Show their worth to the management leadership.
When we can't dream any longer we die
- Emma Goldman
Ultimately everything changes
Despite your best efforts your team could still be made redundant or released. Or maybe some people are removed as the team make up changes or parts of your application are moved to other groups. Best case your team remains intact and you start to convince people that your team deserves respect. Whatever happens feel good that you helped improve the team as a whole, built up their confidence and ultimately prepared them for their next role.