Hacking the hackathon organizing team, part 3: When the going gets tough
Difficult situations, and ways you can work through them
This article is the last of a 3 part series covering the different aspects of team management as part of a hackathon organizing team. Check out Part 1 to learn about the organizational processes at nwPlus, and Part 2 where I walk through the people part of team management!
From my experiences leading a smaller subteam (as director of the nwHacks Logistics team) to running an entire organization (as Co-President of nwPlus), I have encountered and learned how to deal with different types of hard situations that may happen on a team. Although I’ve written many articles about the great things we achieved at nwPlus, none of it would be possible without going through rough patches along the way. This includes handling team conflicts, providing additional support to members, and having hard conversations with individuals when it is needed.
Difficult situations are not fun, but they are an inevitable part of working with a team no matter how great the members are. In this third and final part of my article series, I will talk about the different conflict scenarios that may occur while managing a hackathon organizing team and ways to understand and work through them.
Looking into the stages of group development
It is without a doubt that a team will grow and change over the course of the year — From when you first welcome the new recruits, to finally delivering your hackathon, there will be lots to learn about working with each other before you get to the end product. Tuckman’s 4 stages of group development is a commonly used model to describe these changes:
- The Forming stage is where team members meet and get started on the objectives for the year. Since most of this stage is used for learning rather than working on tasks, conflict is uncommon and productivity is moderate.
- The Storming stage is where conflicts and disagreements happen as the work stakes are higher and personality clashes come out. Productivity is low because energy is spent dealing with these conflicts rather than doing the work at hand.
- The Norming stage is when members start to acknowledge each other’s differences and work together to resolve conflicts. Direction is reestablished and the team’s working style begins to mature.
- The Performing stage is when harmony is established and members are able to work together effectively and efficiently. This marks peak productivity for the team.
The team’s goal is to get to the performing stage as soon as possible, as this is the point of optimal productivity and minimal conflict. It is possible for teams to move backwards or never progress past a certain stage, so having awareness of the stages will help with detecting problems early on.
As a team lead, your role will also change depending on which stage your group is at, with a more hands-on approach needed at the beginning:
- During the Forming stage, members will largely look to you for direction — This is a crucial time for you to lead by example, establish processes, and enforce expectations because it will set precedents for how the team will operate for the rest of the year. Examples include how to communicate with team members, use the Kanban board, and ensure everybody does their share of work.
- During the Storming stage, members will have difficulties keeping focus due to the conflicts and clashes happening on the team. Your role is to address these conflicts and clarify expectations whenever needed, and to help steer the group if they are having difficulty coming to resolutions themselves. Members may have trouble being open about their feelings to the team, so you should check in with them individually and provide support as needed.
- During the Norming stage, members may no longer be obstructed by big conflicts, but they are still learning how to work together effectively and efficiently. You can help them discover and develop their team working style by celebrating team wins and strengths, helping find what “works” for the team and ensure it continues being utilized, and encouraging members to make decisions amongst themselves rather than relying on you for direction.
- Once in the Performing stage, the team will be able to work more in a self-directed manner, and you can step back to pursue a more facilitative role. During these times, you can continue to check in on members periodically (1:1’s) to ensure that personal and team goals are being met, help promote team culture initiatives (socials), and step in to catch anything that may fall between the cracks.
2 types of team conflict
Conflicts can happen within your team for a variety of reasons, with the two common types being task conflicts and interpersonal conflicts:
Task conflicts
A task conflict is when there is conflict between group members over what and how work is done on your team. These often stem from differences in working styles and values, or from the lack of clarity in goals and expectations. Examples of this include deciding which meal should be served at what time, whose design direction to follow, and how tasks should be tracked on the Kanban board.
Since each individual on your team came from a unique background, there will always be times when an unanimous decision cannot be made. Oftentimes, these types of conflicts are a normal and healthy part of team growth. It shows that your members genuinely care about what decisions are being made for the event, and that they are comfortable enough to bring their own ideas to the table. Diverse ideas are also valuable because they push others to think outside of their comfort zone towards continual improvement.
To help navigate out of these conflicts, you should ensure that the team objective is clear and that each person is on a level playing field to reduce biases. This can include writing down each person’s idea so members can compare the different views side by side. In the best case (or win-win) scenario, a collaborative solution can be made that takes the benefit of multiple ideas. Many processes can be reversed and modified later (or even during the hackathon!), so it often doesn’t hurt to try one idea and pivot to another if it wasn’t effective. If the discussion is losing its productivity with no resolution in sight, a vote can be called or your judgement can be used if there is an even split.
Interpersonal conflicts
An interpersonal conflict is when there is a conflict due to who is on the team. These can encompass a wide range of issues including miscommunications, personality clashes, power dynamics, and personal relationships outside of the workplace. Many conflicts like these can lead to a poor team dynamic, where symptoms include when meetings are dominated by the same handful of people, there is a lack of transparency when members are working with each other or sharing their ideas, and “cliques” are being formed. These scenarios display a lack of accountability, trust, and communication between team members, which are fundamental components for a positive team dynamic.
In my article on building a positive team dynamics, I explain ways you can lead by example to build trust and accountability with your group members, and walk through different processes used to promote transparent communication at nwPlus. As mentioned in Part 2 of this article series, Team members also filled out a Team Canvas in the beginning of the year to help understand each other’s strengths and motivations, and to assign tasks according to each person’s strengths and weaknesses while minimizing potential friction with other members.
P.S. It’s not personal. From spending months working closely together, it is likely that friendships will be formed with your teammates during the process. That being said, it is important to recognize that any conflict that may arise between your teammates is a professional one and should not be taken personally — How somebody acts in a work environment does not always reflect who they are all the time.
External causes can create conflict too
Even when there appears to be nothing wrong with how your team is operating, when faced with external pressures, people are more likely to act on emotion or make decisions that can start a conflict. Although these circumstances are usually out of your control, it is beneficial to be aware of them so fault isn’t being placed on the wrong person.
Personal issues
The most common external factors are personal issues in a member’s life that may impact their ability to fully contribute to the team. This can encompass a wide range of issues such as upcoming exams, other commitments, mental health, and relationships. In most cases, hackathon organization is a voluntary extracurricular so it is not uncommon for other things to be higher in priority.
Depending on the type of issue, it may be hard for the individual to be open about why their performance on the team changed. You should provide support to the individual and manage the team accordingly — If the individual is comfortable with it, giving the team some awareness will help them understand why the individual is acting a certain way instead of being confused about it. If the person’s work capacity is hindered because of their personal situation, the team can usually share the workload until they are ready to jump back in. However, if they are unable to get back to full capacity over a long period of time, this role may not be the best fit for them anymore— More on this in a later section.
Deadlines and expectations
Another factor is external pressures to meet certain expectations. These can include launch deadlines, feedback from external customers (sponsors and attendees), and demands from higher ups to achieve a certain target. One way to help with these deadlines is to impose a soft deadline for when deliverables must be finished, so members have some leeway if anything unexpected comes up during the task execution.
While external expectations often cannot be alleviated, there may be some cases where you must evaluate at the situation and make decisions according to whether the importance of these expectations outweigh the circumstances your team may be going through. For example, if you find that your team doesn’t have the capacity to deliver a website feature by a certain date, a more realistic solution can be to ask for extra hands to help out, move the deadline (if it’s not critical), or push back on it (if it’s not completely necessary).
Internal pressures
Another type of these “external causes” are not actually external, but are instead internal pressures that members put on themselves because of their perceived expectations of the hackathon. They can feel the need to “match up” or improve on previous year’s hackathon iterations, because anything less would be seen as regressive. Because of this, members may be afraid of trying new ideas because their previous methods “worked” and they don’t want to risk failure. On the flip side, members may be driven to aim bigger than what they have the capacity for and overload themselves with work.
While it is easy to get caught up in making the best hackathon ever, it should not come at the cost of the team’s health and wellbeing. In the end, the team’s goal is to create an inclusive space for hackers to learn, build, and share together — The yummy food, flashy website, and fun mini games are all supplementary in comparison. Worst case scenario, any shortcomings will be a good learning experience for how to improve on the next iteration.
Sticky situations with individuals on your team
When an individual on your team is being uncooperative, causing conflicts, not carrying their weight, or is otherwise negatively impacting their team members, both the morale and productivity of the entire team can be dragged down. It’s best to catch this in its early stages before it grows into something bigger:
Where the reporting hierarchy comes to play
In my first article on team processes and structure, I gave an overview of the team structure of nwPlus. In a nutshell, the nwPlus team is comprised of 3 types of members: The coordinators (team members), directors (team leads) and Pres ‘n Tres team (organization leads). Most of the time, our members work together irrespective of their role title, but sometimes the reporting hierarchy gets utilized when it comes to conflict resolution.
Following the hierarchy, coordinators should be able to talk with their director when any problems arise, including both conflicts between members or other issues. If they are uncomfortable with bringing this up to their director (ex. if their director is involved in the conflict), they can go directly to someone on the Pres ‘n Tres team. As the organizing team for numerous Major League Hacking events, nwPlus follows MLH’s Code of Conduct in creating a safe and inclusive environment for its members and event attendees alike.
Transparency is a two way street.
As mentioned earlier, having one-on-one meetings with your team members gives you awareness of what is happening in your member’s lives that may be hindering them from performing well on the team. There could be something happening in their personal life, that they have a strained relationship with somebody on the team, or that the work they are doing is not satisfying their expectations of the role. In some cases, they aren’t even aware that they are negatively impacting the team— They may not realize that they are taking on less responsibilities than their teammates, using exclusive language at the team socials, or dominating the discussions during meetings.
Remember that everybody on the team had applied and interviewed to get onto this team, so they did not go into this position intending to do poorly. When both of you are on the same page, you can decide whether this person needs extra support or unfortunately, be best off the team.
Quantify whenever you can
Having a list of quantifiable actions makes it clear for both you and your member what needs to be done to improve their team performance. For example, if your member is having trouble staying engaged or being responsive to messages, a quantifiable version of “Check messages more often” would be “Check messages twice a day”. If the member has a problem with dominating in meetings, a quantifiable version of “Give other members a chance to speak more” would be “Wait for 2 members to contribute first before giving your opinion”.
Not only does having a list make it easy to keep track of what needs to be done, it also becomes very clear when things are not being done. Following the notion of quantification, implementing strikes or a probationary period are good ways to quantify a member’s ability to maintain expectations.
Sometimes, it’s for the best.
Sometimes, despite following all the steps to foster a positive work environment and giving your members the support they need, some people simply weren’t ready for the ride and it’s not anybody’s fault. It is better to leave on a positive note than to bear with it for the whole year and potentially hurt some relationships in the process. In the end, we want each member of the team to come out of this experience with a new set of a skills, friends, and pride for what they have accomplished over the past year. Nobody should dread about the work or view hackathon organizing as a chore.
If your team member is unable to get themselves back up to speed, there’s a good chance that they already recognized that they are not fit for the team anymore and will decide to leave the team on their own. If not, it might be time to have a hard conversation, for the sake of both them and the team’s best interests.
Remember that nobody is perfect at this.
Even though I wrote this article, I was by no means a perfect team lead and had plenty to learn from being in that position. The tips and guidelines laid out in this article were based on my experience leading teams at nwPlus and are not meant to be a one-size-fits-all solution for all teams. Difficult situations are an inevitable part of being on a team and learning how to handle them is essential to your growth as a leader. If clear communication is used and all sides are understood, there should not be hard feelings with how you choose to manage a situation.
That being said, while you may be dedicated to giving your team the best support and care, please remember to pay attention to your own wellness and reach out whenever you need help. Your health is just as important as the team’s health and we’re all here to support each other. 💪
Words by Anita Tse, nwPlus Co-President 2019/2020
