Building (and keeping!) a cohesive team: AMA with Rep. Seth Moulton
On December 9th, 2020, Members-elect of the 117th Congress joined current members, staffers, technologists, scientists, academics, and advocates for the inaugural Tech, Science, and Data New Member Orientation Day, hosted by the First Branch Tech, Science and Data (TSD) cohort.
In the “Tech” section of the day, Representative Seth Moulton (D, MA-06) offered advice to new colleagues on the importance of taking the time to set clear goals as a whole team early in the process, and some concrete tips on how to build and maintain cohesion among a team spread out between multiple offices and tasks. Especially while working virtually, a clear sense of shared goals and a structure in place to knit together the different teams is vital.
Read on for how to conduct an effective less-than-ten-minute morning meeting, why ‘wins’ aren’t just legislation, and how and why you should set clear a mission, vision, and value statement at the beginning of the Congress.
For a full transcript of this video, please see here.
Using tech to create shared consciousness among the whole team has been crucial to success
Two of the practices Congressman Moulton’s office recommended for all offices are 1) a daily morning video call standup meeting where the whole team goes through global headlines, national headlines, district news, and project updates from each team, and 2) technology like Slack or Teams that lets offices communicate without endless email CCs. Both of these contribute to a clear shared consciousness, where each member of the team has a clear sense of goals, priorities, and progress.
Speaking of goals, take some time at the beginning of your time in Congress to make sure you set a clear mission, vision, and value set for your team.
When first elected, Rep Moulton took his team on a several-day retreat with mentors and advisors to come up with a clear mission statement and set of values. These are public in the office and part of onboarding for new staff, making the cultural expectations of the office clear and keeping everyone aligned through the ups and downs of congressional life.
Sometimes you need to ask forgiveness rather than permission if you have a clear vision for how you want to run your office
When Congressman Moulton’s office asked House Admin for permission to use a messaging app, they were denied. Eventually, after doing their own research to make sure it met security requirements, they started using Slack anyway, and were eventually granted a waiver after the fact.
Being tech-forward from the beginning has security benefits as well as operational ones.
Like planning for a pandemic, planning for a cyberattack may not be the first thing that comes to mind when setting up your Congressional office, but Rep. Moulton makes the case that it should. Every year, the House is targeted by thousands of cyberattacks. Not only are these dangerous, but can derail operations as well. Setting up your tech and your team to minimize damage — for example, using Macs rather than PCs, investing early in a culture of cyber safety — can pay off down the road.
And bonus content — reach out to the Moulton office for copies of their casework handbook, Veterans Town Hall playbook, intern training manual, and Staff Assistant resources.
The First Branch TSD Cohort is a forum for information sharing and collaboration, bringing together innovators on and off the Hill focused on Technology, Science, and Data research and resources for Congress. The cohort is a forum for information sharing and collaboration, made possible by support from Democracy Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, and led by POPVOX.
For more information, contact tsd@popvox.com.
