The Critical Success Factor of Team and Team Dynamics in Delivering Digital Innovation

23 Jan The Critical Success Factor of Team and Team Dynamics in Delivering Digital Innovation

Posted at 09:00h in IMPLEMENTATION by Mark Nicholls

The fourth item of my critical success factors is about the Team. I did say these criteria are not listed in any particular order. I lied. There is a reason for having this one fourth. Before this article on Team, I covered culture, risk management, and mission clarity. The reason why? Because your team, and especially the Leadership Team (LT) needs to:

Work successfully within the organizational culture.
Understand the risks and apply effective risk management.
Understand and be able to deliver the mission.

Some of you will be thinking that any decent Program or Project Manager (PM) can do that, and you’d be right, these skills are the minimum mandatory for any PM. But that doesn’t mean they are the right fit for you. Let’s break these down.

Culture: Beyond Mere Adaptation

Firstly, culture. You don’t want your LT to just fit into your culture and do as everyone else does. That won’t work for most organisations. Most organisations have a pattern of cultural expectations (or cultural norms) that apply, and implementing change means that some of these norms will need to be challenged. Challenging them means, firstly understanding them, and challenging those that need to be challenged, and working within the rest to get things done without having to challenge everything.

Challenging everything will often mean that your LT or PM isn’t tolerated for long, or team members themselves won’t tolerate the environment they are in for long. So, the LT need to pick those areas that require change and leverage from those that don’t.

This is what defines the best leaders. The uncontrollable variable is the culture that exists in that organisation. That is what your team will need to understand, work within, adapt to and at times, challenge. Some LT members are highly adaptable to make these cultural reads and adjust accordingly. But some are not. This can be hard to judge, although track record can be a guide. However, in some cases you may not need team members that are highly adaptable, especially if they have proven themselves in yours or a similar culture. But remember, you won’t want team members that will just fit in, especially the LT. They will need to fit in AND be willing and able to challenge organisational norms to lift organisational standards where required.

For instance, a culture that accepts deadlines being missed, that is poor at recording and closing actions, or starts meetings late and often runs over time, is likely going to make it hard to achieve success if that culture is adopted. Your LT needs to set a new standard here.

I have seen some leaders that fit in too comfortably and challenge little. They rarely deliver any significant change agenda and struggle to have much success, even if they get on with plenty of people.

I have seen some challenge too much, creating fights where they don’t need to, and effectively sending a signal of disrespect to the organisation they are working within. They tend not to last too long or if they do, only because they have a strong sponsor, who can take some blame for causing the disruption. If that much disruption is necessary, then fair enough. That is a judgement call but doesn’t come without risk if there is collateral damage.

And I have seen some leaders who rather than challenge, try to inspire, and get so far down the road carrying the torch of a new world order that most are unable to understand or implement that vision. That person’s torch disappears over the hill and out-of-site, never to be seen again. That person often leaves, blaming the organization for not getting it, and achieving little.

Of course, all these things are nuanced, there is rarely a black and white choice, and no choice is perfect. However, the choice of LT that can work effectively within your culture, either due to experience and/or the ability to adapt and make good judgements about how to stretch that culture to achieve the required change, is a critical factor in every transformation team.

Managing Risks: From Theory to Practice

When we discussed risks, we discussed risk management and effective risk management. When we say effective risk management, we move from the theoretical to the practical. And to be practical means considering the types of risks to be managed.

This is where your LT is crucial. You may have major technology risks of a specific kind, major supplier or systems integrations risks, major stakeholder risks, major change delta to achieve, or some other risks ahead that you know will form the biggest challenges. Or it could be any combination of these.

You want your LT to have some experience or at least sufficient familiarity with these types of risks and their mitigation and avoidance options. Or perhaps they can be resourceful or adaptable enough to understand and address these risks.

You also want to consider risk management across the conscious/unconscious competence/incompetence dimensions. The Dunning Kruger effect comes into play here. You may think you have someone who says they know about how to deal with those risks, or says they have dealt with these risks before, but have they got the full view and context required or are they misguided or over-optimistic about what needs to be managed. You don’t need your whole LT to be experienced experts, that could cause other issues, but you will need some true and trusted experience around the room to avoid creating the conditions for group think or a lack of critical thinking.

Managing risks also happens in the context of the culture that exists for an organization too, as we discussed previously in this article series. So, considering the culture and risk management match across the LT is important.

Mission Clarity: Clear Strategy Aligned to Action

Finally, mission delivery capabilities must feature. Is this a complex technology change, business model and/or business process driven transformation, introducing brand new technologies or capabilities. Think of risk management as the ability to manage the downside exposure, while mission capabilities are about achieving the upside or mission. They are, of course, related. The types of risks confronted are very much based on the type of mission, and the mission achievement may be impacted by the risks encountered.

Unconscious incompetence or the Dunning Kruger effect comes into play here also. As does culture. Some cultures will be more conducive to the achievement of the mission, and some cultures will create additional hurdles, perhaps even risks, that need to be managed to achieve the mission.

Summary

So, each of these… culture, risks, and mission…combine to describe the attributes of the ideal LT. However, depending on the scope and complexity of work, it may be impossible to find one person with all of that. Plus, even if you could, do you want to be completely reliant on that one person. This is why a Leadership Team, together, can form the capabilities required.

And external suppliers can play a role here too. And all these factors should play a role in selecting those external providers. But there are also other considerations that come into play. That’s why we have separated out external team members into the next article in this series.

References

Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass, 2010. “The culture of a group can now be defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration.”
Hillson, David. Managing Risk in Projects. Gower Publishing, Ltd., 2009. “Effective risk management involves understanding the nature of risk, making informed decisions about how risks should be handled, and then implementing risk responses to ensure that risks are managed proactively.”
Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Harvard Business School Press, 1996. “The balanced scorecard retains traditional financial measures. But financial measures tell the story of past events, an inadequate story for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation.”
Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012. “Leadership is different from management but not for the reasons most people think. Leadership isn’t mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with just charisma or other exotic personality traits. It’s not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it. Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action.”

Wondering whether your leadership team and delivery structure are set up to succeed?

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Mark D Nicholls
CEO and Partner, Information Professionals Group (IPG)

IPG provides independent leadership support for government agencies, utilities, health services, and growing organisations across Australia on ICT and digital strategy, program delivery, and technology transformation.

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Mark Nicholls

Chief Executive at Information Professionals Group

With experience across almost every industry, Mark brings more than 30 years of accumulated knowledge to each and every project, leading technology transformation within organisations across Australia.Mark understands and has seen first-hand the challenges around technology that organisations face today. He is dedicated to helping IPG clients find a way through these, helping them to do what they need to do, within their capabilities to achieve whatever success might look like for them. A member of the Australian Information Industry Association Board, Mark is at the forefront of technology transformation. Known for his ability to engage people at every level, he is adept at honing in on client priorities and finding the right formula to help organisations grow their way.