Holding periodic “All-Hands” conference calls or leaning on the executive leadership team to span silos will not solve this challenge. Rapidly changing environments require team members at all levels to assess situations quickly and take decisive action, but if barriers exist that hinder communication and obscure line of sight to the organization’s strategy, many of those decisions will be subpar because they did not have the full picture. It creates bottlenecks, redundancies, misallocation of resources, and disengagement. They are 30% less likely than other industries to agree that their leadership teams can make clearly defined, responsible decisions within established boundaries.Ī “need to know” culture is painful for everyone involved. Compared to other industries, tech employees are 27% less likely to indicate that they always or very often receive appropriate notice and lead time from managers to accomplish important projects.įurther, tech workers have a low opinion of their leaders’ ability to make wise decisions. For instance, the tech industry is notoriously bad at notice and lead time from organizational leadership. Our data show leaders in some industries struggle to prioritize, in turn leaving employees in the lurch. Good leaders determine what is essential and what is unnecessary, but great leaders then use their social capital and influence to resource those essential needs. At some point, it will inevitably become “do more, get less” as frustration and burnout set in for the team. ![]() Many leaders hide behind the common mantra of “do more with less,” but that only applies when there are inefficiencies in the system that can be removed. There is nothing more infuriating than knowing what needs to be done, but not having the time or resources to get it done. Gardeners routinely evaluate current operations and proactively make changes as needed. Leaders must constantly put existing behaviors, processes, and technology under the lens of the organization’s common purpose, asking themselves and others, “does this give us the best chance to accomplish our purpose?” Inevitably, tension, frustration, and even fear will accompany this intentional disruption of the status quo, but it will also drive energy, excitement, and a greater focus into the team. Leaders must courageously challenge conventional thinking and historical precedents. As time passes, the status quo only becomes more entrenched and harder to uproot. BREAK UP HARD SOILĮvery organization has habitual behaviors, outdated technology, irrelevant structures, and ineffective processes that may have once been useful but have now become barriers to innovation and creative problem-solving. We can, however, expand this metaphor beyond this fundamental truth to identify essential roles a leader has in leading a Team of Teams. Empowered Execution: teams must push decision authorities down as far as possible, enabling people closest to the challenge to take rapid action within the bounds of acceptable risk.Īt the most basic level, the concept of “Leading Like a Gardener” focuses on the imperative that leaders must set the conditions for others to successfully grow and produce fruit.Shared Consciousness: teams require a regular flow of relevant information to maintain a situational awareness of the environment, what other teams are trying to accomplish, and how they can support those efforts.Common Purpose: teams across an organization must have a clear "north star,” a collective understanding of where we are going, why we are going there, and how we are going to get there.Trust: teams must develop a culture rooted in trust, built by high levels of benevolence, competence, and reliability, and maintained through transparent communication.But what does it mean to be a Team of Teams, and more importantly, what does it take to lead one?Īt its core, Team of Teams is an operating model that increases adaptability through a strategic combination of select processes, behavior, and technology based on four key tenets: ![]() I’ve heard it from federal government agencies and elected city officials. We need to be a Team of Teams.” I have heard leaders utter that phrase in every industry, from healthcare and life sciences to finance, oil and gas, and technology.
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