Heidi Helfand kept encountering one concept that was never quite right: The essential elements for building a team effectively are stability and consistency. It was mentioned in books about scrum and agile. The coaches of leadership discussed it.
However, she discarded this idea when she set up a coaching team at an early-stage company to improve the teams’ efficiency.
“It would have run counter to helping our company thrive,” Helfand states. “As the company expands and expands, especially at a rapid rate, things require adjustments and changes. It is crucial. Refusing to embrace change is counterproductive.”
She believed that successful businesses could change their structure when they expand, and a culture of static teams will harm a dynamic workplace with a vibrant culture of continuous learning. Reteaming, any change in how teams are organized or constructed, occurs at every level, from every new employee to an executive constantly rethinking every aspect of their work. Specific organizations adjust to the changes. Some capitalize on them.
She also conducted interviews with industry professionals on how teams shift. She identified five distinct patterns of reteaming, which she outlines in the work Dynamic Reteaming The Art and Wisdom of Reforming Teams.
In addition to writing the work, Helfand coaches software development teams through a people-centric approach geared towards creating resilient and scalable companies. She is currently director of R&D excellence in Procore Technologies, after serving as Director of Agile Coaching at AppFolio and as the Manager for Technology Project Management at Citrix.
In this interview, Helfand examines how her five reteaming strategies are manifested in tech teams and how the leaders can apply them to their development teams and companies while observing (and believing in) the people on these teams. Then, she delved into creating a humane and effective reteaming process through feedback loops created by teams’ people as well as workflows, customers and.
The pattern One by One
The most straightforward way to form a brand-new group is to include or eliminate just one individual. A team is a system of people. And even the smallest of reteaming shifts can create a team with a different approach.
“People bring things to the team, whether a skill or a hobby or just personality,” Helfand adds. “You can feel that things are different with or without them.”
The one-by-one model prevails when a business is shrinking or growing; teams recruit many developers in what Helfand calls “batch addition,” or companies choose to let their employees go during uncertain periods. Also, developers move between teams within the same organization.
The pattern is more evident during extensive scaling or reduction events; however, effects tend to be more gradual at every scale. “It’s reteaming at the edges,” Helfand clarifies. “New employees are arriving on the job is common. We may not be aware of how much our team is evolving until at some point your team has swollen by two times the size.”
How can you be consciously implementing how to consciously implement the One by One pattern
Instead of allowing gradual changes to take over the organizations, tech executives can plan for the inevitable demands of growing teams. “We can proactively plan for the growth by strategic organizational planning.” Helfand states.
Define career ladders and hierarchies. The structure will emerge regardless of whether we have planned it or not. Therefore, she suggests taking action to prevent it. “People are going to ask when they are going to get promoted, and what’s their career trajectory,” she states. “These things are normal and they are going to come up, no matter what company you’re at.”
Make it easier for the extra ones. People who join an organization change the team for everyone else. However, the experience is new for the team members. They’re learning everything. “You can make it easier when you add people by having mentors, buddy-system pair programming, familiar ideas like that,” Helfand states. “Always keep a keen eye on bringing the person you are adding up to speed and involving them in the process. Being a part of the group is essential.”
Get new ideas from the team’s new members. Often, new team members feel shy in sharing their thoughts. They might be unable to talk out of the blue or feel uninformed. “But if we can encourage them to share, especially at the beginning when they have fresh eyes, it can help them feel more included earlier on,” Helfand states. “You get diverse ideas and thoughts when new people join, and you don’t want to shut that down.”
Think about the experiences of members of the team already. “Rather than only paying attention to the new person, you have to pay attention to the people already there,” she adds. This is true for teams that shrink, regardless of the reason: a downscaling company or breaking up a team into a rapid-growing one. “When everything changes quickly, that can impact morale,” she explains.
“It’s all about belonging,” Helfand states. “Your company is evolving and how do individuals feel at home to this new environment? How can existing employees remain feeling like they are part of the family.”
This pattern is known as the Grow split pattern
Growing teams require new developers to tackle the increasing list of tasks. But the usual ways teams are organized are often broken when teams become too big.
“Inevitably, you reach the point of a rigidity trap,” Helfand states. “Things become slower. The work is not related. Meetings can take longer. It’s just more difficult.”
This is why this Grow or Split design recognizes that teams, once efficient, may be unable to keep pace, and separating these teams into more efficient modern, sleeker, and more specific groups can prove beneficial.