Team Dynamics — Hip Hip Hooray!
Humans are, by nature, a social being. They need each other to do things and without interacting with each other, they wont survive. In a way i guess you could say same thing happened with developing a Software. Without each other — or a team, Software Development will be hard to develop; and almost near impossible.
If you really want your team to succeed and perform at the highest levels possible, Team Dynamics is one thing that your development team should create and manage.
What is Team Dynamics
A team dynamic is the willingness and the ability to work in an interdependent fashion where team members need to rely on other team members to accomplish their work or to achieve the goals of the team. Imagine it like this: you and your team are getting on a sailing boat, and all members must have the same direction where they are going, otherwise the boat won’t go.
Team dynamics are created by the nature of the team’s work, the personalities within the team, their working relationships with other people, and the environment in which the team works.
Now all of this definition won’t mean a thing if we don’t know how to build a team dynamics; here’s some steps to start your team dynamics building:
Building Team Dynamics
In order to build great Team Dynamics, the following things are essentials
- Open Communication
Consider this scenario: A young manager-to-be accompanied his mentor, an experienced manager, to observe a high-performing team in operation at a manufacturing company. When he first walked into the room, he said to his mentor, “Oh man, this is a dysfunctional team! Listen to the way they’re arguing with each other.” The older man replied, “Pay attention, you’re witnessing a great team.”
It took the younger man several minutes to understand what the manager meant. This team was in conflict. The members were strongly disagreeing with one another on the best way to improve their product. It is often a good ign when this kind of friction exists. A team that cares passionately about its task is very positive. It had open, honest communication. That is a team dynamic!
2. Empowerment
You will get a strong team dynamic when you empower your team members by giving them the right to make decisions concerning the work they are doing. Of course, you set boundaries of time, money, choices, and so on. But once you give the team the final power of decision making, you will notice a confidence, friendship, and a feeling of strength emerge. Whatever you do, make sure you do not empower teams that are not ready for it. That can be disastrous, and many new team members make this big mistake. They probably do it because they want to get into the good graces of the team. Make sure the team is ready for empowerment or you and the team will suffer from the consequences of its poor decisions.
3. Clear Roles and Responsibilities
Ask yourself this question: Can you walk up to any one of your team members and have this person clearly define his role and responsibilities on the team? Can you walk up to any one of your team members and have this person clearly define the roles and responsibilities of every other team member? When team members can do this, they know what is expected of them and what is expected of every other team member. They also know on whom they can count for helping them with their work. All of this leads to an effective team dynamic.
After building Team Dynamics, There are also another thing that you should build — and no, it’s not Lego. The other thing that you should also build is called Team Capacity.
What is Team Capacity
Capacity building (or capacity development) is the process by which individuals and organizations obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment and other resources needed to do their jobs competently or to a greater capacity (larger scale, larger audience, larger impact, etc). Capacity building and capacity development are often used interchangeably.
Now again, what good does the definition comes when you don’t have a way of building them — improving them into something more valuable as time goes by
Building Team Capacity
To build a successful Team Capacity, there is 3, yes three things you should know:
- Knowledge
In developing a software as a team whlist building team capacity, knowledge of how the project will be conducted, and also the project itself is important to build a successful team capacity.
2. Skills
Having all the knowledge necessary to develop something doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have the skills to actually applying those knowledge. This is important also to the capacity building to maximize the capacity each and every one of your team.
3. Tools
Tools are also important to a maximum capacity building of a team. Actually know using the tools and implement them remove all sorts of trouble that will block the team to achieve or build a maximum team capacity.
Team Dynamics and Capacity — wow we learnt two important things today, lets apply it guys!
“Oh no, why it isnt working??”
My dear friend, there is only one solution to your problem: Servant Leader.
What is a Servant Leader
The Servant Leader is responsible for determining the direction of the team. The leader have a responsibility to ensure all members work well. A servant leader must be brave to approach another member who are considered to be not working optimally. If team members have difficulties or need help, the servant leader must also always be there for them. The servant-leader objectives are to enhance and increase teamwork and personal involvement.
If you are using Scrum as your Development process, Scrum Master is the Servant Leader. It is the duty of Scrum Master to ensure the project, and the team, are on track. Scrum Master will also help team members that have difficulties, and provide necessary solution.
Are we done here? i think i got everything i need!😡
I know, i know it’s a long read. But hey, why don’t you bear with me for a little bit more and let me present to you some example — to clear your mind a bit:
Team Dynamics in My Team
Here is my team for a Software Engineering Project. and yes, by the looks in our face, we are pretty tired — maybe because the night before this photo was actually taken, we spent all night trying to finish our sprint, but hey, at least we did it.
The team name is Ikan Lele, which stands for “Ikatan Lelaki Lucu dan Kece”. I know it sounds cheesy, but i mean 😌. We are a group consisting of a members that are already familiar with each other long before this project exists, but even with that so-called advantage, we still run into a problem.
We are constantly trying to build our Team Dynamics as the project deepens toward more sprints. As said before, we still constantly ran into many problems, whether its a problem with the project that we are working on, or problem with the team itself. It is necessary to apply Team Dynamics into these things because without it, i don’t even know if we are still a group today.
Team Capacity is also something that we learn constantly. getting familiar with the tools, in this case our framework, and then the knowledge of let’s say, implementing a feature that you have never done before. The eagerness and willingness to apply these team capacity aspects also creates some kind of bond into our team — one that can never be broken.
This example i give you is not for nothing, but rather to prove a point. In the end, me and my team were just a bunch of students, with limited knowledge. We are students after all. But actually applying Team Dynamics and Team Capacity will change how the team will advanced, and actually crafting the product. Without it, we are just 5 person with limited knowledge that somehow, formed into a team.
Why not do it yourself if you don’t want to learn about Team Dynamics?