The Afterburners
Last week, in an effort to meet an impossible timeline, our team was asked to make a few changes. We were assigned 7 people from other teams. We also were asked to stay some extra hours and work the weekend. Our commitment was amazing. We worked for an entire week of 12 hour days. The lack of ego and complacency remarkable. This was not by any means my ideal way to spend a week but I understood what needed to be done and the consequences if the goal was not met.
Introduce 7 new people
to a team that has been working together and there are bound to be a few bruised egos. Think of the actors involved
- Heros – some people love to be the one person on their team that knows one subject better then anybody else. With 7 new people there are bound to be one or two people the will match or exceed that skill.
- Black Boxers – Some people just don’t like to collaborate. Maybe they are trying to hide a perceived or real lack of talent or maybe they are just anti-social.
- Power Grabbers – There is usually one or two on the team that aspire to manage the entire team. They can be arrogant, nosey, and pushy.
All of these types are toxic to a teams ability to gel. I am not absolutely sure how, but we seemed to have none of these on board. Sure we had our conflicts but everybody was genuinely glad to help. This is more impressive considering most of the new people were traveling from our main office, and are now more then 5 hours away from their homes and families.
Management started off on the right foot,
We all got the impression early on that this was a short term push for an important goal. Most of us felt that the request was made with respect and we saw our management committing themselves at the same level. Every hour that we were there we knew that they were there too. Now beyond that they picked up our lunched, dinners, snacks, and even threw in 30 minutes of seated massage with the professional misuse. These gestures did a lot to keep the 12 hour days from becoming stressful, which would have been very easy.
Agile methods were employed
in one way or another. It was not a proper Agile project but we had tasks, a burn down, standup meetings, and most importantly a time box of one week of which we all were made well aware. These key articles of Agile were the keys to any successes that week. Many to my team mates had never been on a proper Agile project. I do not think that anybody could deny the positive affect that they had even if they never credit it to Agile.
Lastly, sense of purpose
was the jet fuel that propelled most of us through the week. We were obviously convinced that the work that we were doing was going to affect the bottom line in more than a usual way. There was a sense of pride.
This pace was astonishing though not as all sustainable.
By the final day of the week I did start to see cracks appear. Everybody on the team was obviously exhausted and creativity was starting to wane. The next week, (yes this one) seemed less productive then any before. This was not a bad exorcize though, we managed to build some strong relationships and get a lot of work done in a short time. I am not sure if I would recommend this as a way too save time because it seems like there will be more time lost as the team recovers their motivation and creativity. It is however a great way for a new team to gel.