Testing Team Cohesion & Adhesion
Almost every CV you’ll read will seem to suggest that all people are team players. Herh! Maybe it’s true, maybe not so much. When we set out to look into the Drug Supply Chain in Uganda’s Health Care System, a team of five (5) gentlemen and two ladies set out to learn all we could and brainstorm fitting solutions to the gaps we found.
Fast forward to the UpAccelerate challenge, we were down to a team of five (5) people comprised of Ivan Higenyi, Samson Kapeyi , Solomon Kahuma, Alban Manishimwe and Joanitah Nvanungi Nalubega. We met at the International Health Sciences University postgraduate program in Applied ICT and leadership.
Quickly, but not without any strife, Samson and Solomon fell into programming and needs assessment of the system, Ivan and Alban concentrated on the research, documentation, understanding and and filling out M&E reporting templates such as the weekly and monthly activity work plans. Joanitah ably handles the finances, budget and sets up our different stakeholder engagements.
This team did not and does not always get along. And with differing opinions and problem-solving styles, misunderstandings have arisen so much we couldn’t recognize some people the way we have always known them. But that’s not the most fun part, the fights. It’s the resolution; watching the glow in each other’s eyes as people who were a few minutes back at each other’s necks, make peace and shake hands! Aha! Who said ‘adulting’ would come so easy?
To be able to deal with this cohesion, here are a few tips that will come in handy for you and your team.
Get a Coach/mentor
We don’t always sort out issues ourselves. Having somebody whose opinion you respect can create a safe space to have difficult conversations either as a team or as individuals so as to get to the root cause of the misunderstanding. This is largely helped by the weekly conversations the team has by Skype call with the scrum coach Karl.
Keep the experts close
When starting out in a field, you’re likely to run into people who know how things work around there. Find the, and keep them. Sometimes they’re not even stakeholders in your product or service development, but they’ll know the Eco-system. They’ll advise you on how to handle different situations and mostly, they will connect you to the right people. You’ll be surprised how glad they’re to have that phone call you may have put off for so long in the fear of disturbing their day. So make that call whenever your team is in doubt.
We have found so much stability in consulting with people who are familiar with the ICT and Health Care delivery systems, thus far.
It’s Business
Working with “friends” is never easy. And we have learned the hard way. From failing to define roles early on in the project development process, to not being able to put down solid guidelines to the way work should be done or identifying ways to measure each one’s contribution to the team effort.
This is where all the problems will arise. We’ve come to learn the reason there are legal procedures for doing business and the strife that grows from startups and SMEs not playing by those same rules. Find a lawyer and get to the heart of all matters before it all hits the fan. You’ll keep your friends and your business.
Remember when your team is falling apart, your relationships with other entities will most likely be the same!
