We bring to your attention a transcription of an open lesson that took place on the eve of the launch of the Team Lead 2.0 course. At the webinar, they talked about the success of the leader from the point of view of his team and examined various aspects of the impact on the functioning of the team: from legal to intercultural, including conflicts of corporate and team culture.
Lecturer - Stanislav Mikhalsky , Technical Director, Razvitie.Ru
Lesson plan:
- Legal aspects of the activities in the project team.
- Corporate culture: what is it and where does it come from?
- The impact of corporate culture on the team.
- Health Culture.
- Creating and providing a favorable atmosphere.
- Improving culture and atmosphere.
Legal aspects of the activities in the project team
The legal aspects of activities in the project team are just a framework, since there are a lot of nuances that can not be regulated by legal norms. Legal aspects are some basic standards and restrictions. And how it is accepted or not accepted to act in certain situations in a team already depends on the culture. We can say that the legal aspects are the “skeleton”, and the corporate culture is the “spirit”.
For example, it is accepted or not accepted:
- disclose your salary (your disclosure right is far from always legally limited);
- disclose information about their work. If we talk about the NDA, then sometimes the name of the project and the fact of participation in it are not disclosed, not to mention the details;
- disclose the terms of the employment contract, "who, whom and what should";
- come / go on time. Often a flexible work schedule is in place when we come from 9 to 11 and leave from 18 to 20. This is influenced by a control culture, a culture of trust, and a culture of accounting for actions / results, etc.
- "Staying up" at dinner. Someone leaves for half an hour, someone for an hour. Sometimes lunch time is tightly regulated, and sometimes flexible time frames are introduced, that is, an interval;
- go away from work. Somewhere this is allowed, and you can work from home for 1-2 days if, for example, you feel unwell. Somewhere you should immediately bring the sick leave.
In fact, if we want to achieve predictable employee behavior , we need to narrow down possible options for a person. But this is achieved not by legal norms, but by culture - a subtle tool that we will deal with now.
Corporate culture: what is it and where does it come from?
Let's recall the classic definition:
"Corporate culture is a set of behaviors that the organization acquired in the process of adapting to the external environment and internal integration, which have shown their effectiveness and are shared by most members of the organization."
Edgar Shane (MIT)
As always, we see some semblance of evolution:
- an organization was formed and held;
- the organization began to change and adapt;
- at some point, a certain set of models and tools developed that we consider to be a corporate culture.
Corporate culture is essentially a form of adaptation to the context. This is some way of surviving in the context in which the organization is located.
Corporate culture is changing depending on what is happening around. If it does not adapt, the organization suffers losses and may cease to exist.
Remember that there is always a set of behaviors. But if you allow an uncontrolled, spontaneous process of changing corporate culture, you are unlikely to like the result, so managers should monitor the corporate culture. And if you did not have the opportunity to “grow” the corporate culture in the organization according to a thoughtful pattern or missed this point, then you should adjust it along the way.
The first and main areas of influence on the organization :
The organization is affected by both micro and macro environments . The macroenvironment affects not only the company, but also the elements of its culture, and the organization itself cannot influence the macroenvironment in most cases. The microenvironment also includes sources that affect the organization, but the company can influence the microenvironment, partly adjusting it for itself.
If the organization cannot adjust the microenvironment for itself, the microenvironment for the company turns into a macroenvironment , and under such conditions, most likely, the company will not survive.
Thus, quite balanced tandems are formed between the organization and the microenvironment. A simple example is regular suppliers who are used to working the way you like.
Sudden changes in the macro environment can destroy the organization , and it will not even have time to react. An example is a law prohibiting any activity. Let's remember how poker clubs disappeared in Russia. Once - and they are gone, at least legally they no longer work.
So, we looked at the basic sources of influence (which forms the culture), now let's dig a little deeper and see what it can consist of.
The picture above shows the “layers" of culture. Culture can be developed and powerful, as well as weak and primitive. The most understandable elements of culture that are formed first are processes and tools . Next is the practice . Practices are the best-proven options for performing processes and tools. Practices, processes, and tools are good because they can be implemented in a directive manner.
Then less tangible things are formed, for example, principles and values . These are more powerful strata of culture, because they are in people and represent a “program” that is already in place. It is people who are the bearers of principles and values, therefore, if they contain the right values ​​and principles, you do not need to control their behavior, as they say, step by step. You can give them some freedom by understanding that they are acting within the framework of the right program. But to implement this, you need to try.
Even higher and more powerful is thinking . If practices, processes and tools are about activity, and principles and values ​​are the answer to the question of what to do in a situation when it is not clear what to do (“program”, internal instruction), then thinking is more interesting. Sometimes situations arise that cannot be resolved with the help of principles and values ​​(“We don’t know anything about this”, “We never did such a thing”, etc.). And then thinking works.
Thus, corporate culture begins with processes and tools, and ends with a way of thinking . If the corporate culture of the company includes a way of thinking, people entering the company must accept this way of thinking, or they simply will not get along. And it is not in vain that some companies call them “sects,” because their culture has a serious impact on a person.
There are many approaches, ideas, theories and methodologies that affect the corporate culture, the way of thinking. Conventionally, we call their thinking systems :
- Agile
- Lean;
- Scaled Agile Framework;
- DevOps
- Business Agility
At the first stage, the culture of the company is influenced by the people it was built on. If people who firmly believe in Agile gather, they will be together quite simply, but if a person who is used to project management gets into such a team, it will be difficult for him.
Over time, culture can change, and this happens with all organizations. New people come with new ideas, and these people influence the culture. And those who began to build everything often leave.
What else determines corporate culture? A leadership culture that includes the following points:
- leadership system (in different companies, leadership is defined and perceived differently: somewhere this is a hierarchy, somewhere the leadership of experts, somewhere leadership is family-tribal);
- conflict resolution style (in some companies there are special conflict resolution methodologies, sometimes conflicts are resolved behind the scenes);
- communication system;
- stories, myths, heroes (where did the company come from when they made the first release - that's all). Sometimes it’s just an entourage, and sometimes it’s an underlying guide to action. There is a beautiful word - euhemer - a leader who is no longer there, but his image strongly influences how current leaders and the entire society as a whole behave;
- symbolism, slogans, rituals. The most common ritual in the company is a corporate party .
Corporate culture defines a number of important things for a company:
- vision of the development of the company;
- Values
- traditions;
- code of Conduct.
The stronger the corporate culture, the higher its inertia.
The impact of corporate culture on team
Any result of the leader is achieved with the help of people subordinate to him. If subordinates achieve something, we can say that the leader has also succeeded. If we consider these people as a team, then we should recall one of the main team properties - emergence . And, of course, any leader is interested in having a strong team. But the professional leader does not wait for this team, but creates. And it’s very important to understand what happens to the team after set up. And at this moment, we are just faced with the issue of culture within the team , which we can manage and which we can influence.
Imagine that we have a team that we are trying to instill some values ​​in. And there is a great external corporate culture. What's happening? The values ​​of the team at the time of their formation are latent and may not be clearly defined, but they are always there . Moreover, the values ​​themselves can be determined by different factors, here is a great slide that demonstrates:
It is based on spiral dynamics, which assumes the nth presence of development levels of both a person and a team. Depending on what level your team members are at, different things will be at the forefront.
In addition to spiral dynamics, there are other models and theories of the development of people and human systems :
- complexity theory;
- levels of corporate culture;
- change management ADKAR (Jeff Hiatt) :
Now consider the impact of corporate culture on the team in terms of organizational structure:
Here we take an arbitrary structure, which is an ordinary tree hierarchy. All elements, beginning with the director and below, are subject to corporate culture. Then we can talk about culture in a specific department, about culture in departments of a department, and even about culture in a specific team.
It is clear that this is all superimposed on one another, and the farther from the director, the more layers, and the less significant the corporate culture, since it is superimposed on the rules and way of life introduced by the head of the department, then the head of the department, etc., up to each person individually.
The main idea of ​​this stratification is that if there are contradictions between these multilevel cultures, a conflict may arise . For example, you built the work of your team according to the Scrum methodology, and this is not accepted anywhere else in the company. Therefore, if we are talking about the culture of the team, we must consider what is “above us” in order to avoid inconsistency and rejection.
What else can be said about corporate culture:
“Corporate culture eats corporate strategy for breakfast!”
P. Drucker
We can draw any strategies you like and try to implement them within the framework of our own approaches, conflict resolution methods, information exchange methods, etc. But if the big boss takes all decisions, our efforts may be futile.
Corporate culture always exists whether you want it or not.
Culture Health
When we understand that we have a “big” culture and a “small” culture, and we want to manage the latter, the question arises of the health of the culture . What does it mean?
We want our employees to be guided by things that we consider important. Let's call them values. And we influence the culture within our team through the implementation of values. With this approach, value becomes an instrument to achieve the behavior we need.
If we are talking about values, the wording is very important , because simply formulating everything in general terms is not enough, as a person will not understand how to apply this in the current situation.
The next thing that you should pay attention to when speaking about the health of culture is significance , that is, what we will rely on when making decisions. What can be attributed to the values:
- the trust;
- respect;
- obligatory;
- tolerance;
- exactingness;
- a responsibility;
- performance
- creativity;
- sincerity;
- honesty;
- determination;
- perseverance;
- environmental friendliness;
- ingenuity;
- emotionality;
- engagement.
There are also values ​​that can be formulated by the company :
- innovation;
- knowledge;
- Creativity
- motivation;
- diversity;
- self-organization;
- desire to develop competence.
If the company's values ​​are not formulated, trying to do this only at your own level is pointless. At its level, it is better to operate with basic things - values.
And here, for example, specific values ​​at Microsoft :
- Self-criticism.
- A responsibility.
- Willingness to take on the solution of complex problems.
- Commitment to technology, the interests of customers and partners.
- Honesty and openness.
Or Spotify values ​​(more about Spotify's engineering culture here and here ):
- Innovation
- Cooperation.
- Sincerity / honesty.
- Engagement / passion.
- Playfulness / fun.
Two different companies - two with completely different sets . Their values ​​do not match either in type, in quantity, or in anything. This means that company values ​​are unique things. And if we accustom our team to our set of values, all the actions of the team will take place under their influence.
How else do values ​​help:
- Recruiting, formation of an HR brand.
- Onboarding.
- Scaling.
Creating and maintaining an enabling atmosphere
The imposition of the necessary values ​​in people should be carried out relatively slowly (we are doing everything gradually ). It is important that the team includes people who are the living embodiment of some of the values ​​that we are going to implement (the presence of carriers ). We can also describe the negative experience gained due to lack of value . And if we form some common conceptual space , we will be able to rely on the elements that everyone understands when introducing values. In addition, it can be useful to explain the opposite (an explanation backwards ).
If we raised any value “to the flag”, we must think about how to support it - a plan of supporting measures will help here. Another point is the eradication of “reservations” . If we follow any value, it is important to protect it.
What is meant by a single conceptual space ? First of all, a set of some images, rules, stories that are close to all team members:
- ideals;
- metaphors;
- books
- movies
- people;
- stories, etc.
We can create a readership club, put a shelf with books, share motivating videos and other information with each other that form a single conceptual space. And when this space is, that is, things that are shared by all team members .
Examples of elements for creating a single conceptual space:
- images of the characters of the series "Silicon Valley";
- person: Nick Vuychich;
- person: Martin Fowler.
Nick Vuychich is a good example of cheerfulness, stamina, perseverance. In fact, a lot can happen to a person, but all this is “non-fatal” if a person has some purpose. And when the employees once again start whining that they have given us an unfinished task, and you can’t live like that anymore, you may ask: “Are you sure that this is the main problem?”
And then there is Martin Fowler and his famous quotes, characters from Silicon Valley and so on - you can take anything you want. But if you tie it to the right values ​​and lead the track to the behavior you need, everything will work out.
Improving Culture and Atmosphere: Supporting Activities
A fair question arises: “How to maintain everything?”, Because if we hang up a photo of Steve Jobs once, nothing will work. For this, supportive measures are needed:
- Discussions:
- joint choice of wording;
- consolidation (confirmation of wording);
- his proposal as a way to "swing";
- joint decision making;
- fixation of the decision;
- verification confirmation.
- The joint process of "development".
- Own reviews.
- EPP communication service system.
What do we have to face when we launched a story about values, but something went wrong ?
As already mentioned, reservations should be avoided . For example, if we are talking about the quality of the product, we must make sure that the phrase: “Come on, somehow do it!” Didn’t even slip out loud.
Naturally, we need to ensure that the declared is not at variance with the real . If we declare transparency, we must do things that confirm this, for example, put up a schedule of all our meetings in open mode, etc. And, of course, there will always be relapses that we will have to deal with.
What should values ​​be protected from?
- from the external environment (pressure difference);
- from sabotage (attack on values);
- from propaganda of antivalues ​​(sarcasm).
How harmless, at first glance, is a picture from a famous comic book:
Is it cool? Cool. Are you sure now that the people in your team will selflessly plow over the release if this picture hangs in the corner? Exactly.
Therefore, the first thing to watch out for is the lack of antipatterns. Here are a few more examples from the Dementia and Courage series:
Yes, this seems to be humor, but it’s difficult to seriously talk about the level of quality, if it hangs. Why? Let's remember the theory of broken windows . Pictures in our case are the same broken windows, because:
- if the window is broken, you can throw a cigarette butt;
- if the window is broken and the cigarette butt is lying around, you can steal a bicycle;
- if you can steal a bike ... you can continue the list yourself.
Thus, the initially innocuous, it would seem, situation can lead to unpleasant consequences. From irony to sarcasm, and then to open sabotage, the path is not so great, remember this.
Perhaps this is the end. You can watch the entire webinar so you don’t miss anything.