When time is limited and the task is critical

Sometimes you don’t have time to be nice...

Teams. They can be far more effective than the sum of individual members’ capability. They can also be time consuming, cost consuming, ineffectual talking shops. What makes the difference? And, if the project is both urgent and vital, how can you ensure you have the right team and a winning approach?

Fast Teams are fundamentally different from the groups that companies normally form to pursue goals. They comprise the elite experts in their particular fields and are specially convened for ambitious projects. Their work style has a frenetic rhythm. They emanate a discernible energy. They are utterly unique in the ambitions of their goals, the intensity of their conversations , the degree of their esprit, and the extraordinary results they deliver. Despite such potential, most companies avoid Fast Teams due to the high risk of failure.

The Success Group has developed a unique process to solve this critical business issue. Drawing from experience with leading clients in Government, Finance and Technology, a four-stage process has been created to dynamically impact on the key stages, which make the difference between project failure and success. The cost could be less than that of one average team member but the benefit could be measured in £millions for business critical projects.

For further information please contact Bruce Wallace

Fast Teams Research

What Works

A recent study by Bill Fischer and Andy Boynton for the Harvard Business Review highlighted the following essential elements of a Fast Team:

Choose members for Skills
- Insist on hiring only those with the best skills, regardless of each individual’s familiarity with the problem
- Recruit specialists for each position on the team
Emphasise the Individual
- Celebrate individual egos and elicit the best from each team member
- Encourage members to compete, and create opportunities for solo performances
- Choose a solution based on merit
- Ensure that creativity trumps efficiency
Focus on Ideas
- Generate a frequent and rich flow of ideas among team members
- Find and express the breakthrough ideas on time
Work Together and Intensively
- Force members into close physical proximity
- Force members to work together at a fast pace
- Force direct dialogue without sparing feelings

What can our team bring to your team?

We do a lot of high-stakes project work; usually very successfully. What value can you add?

We will enable you to deliver business critical projects with high quality outcomes: on time and on budget. We ensure that the talent you have used in a high risk project is brought back into the mainstream. We capture the expertise from the project in order to ensure it is spread amongst other staff. Our intervention will provide you with the expertise to do more challenging and adventurous projects next time.

On area we have struggled with in the past is how to choose a leader for the project team - can you help us with that?

Yes. We recognise that the best leader for a Fast Team may need different skills from your usual leaders. Fast Teams often contain strong individuals who need freedom to operate. The leader orchestrates the project rather than building a team. We offer personality profiling and one to one coaching for your Fast Team leader. Get this bit right and you can save a lot of unnecessary delays.

You mention using Pit Stops in order to monitor progress. Will this not delay implementation in the long run?

We find Pit Stops essential in sorting out problems quickly and ensuring that any evolving implications of the task are addressed. They also provide important motivation for team members and re-energise them towards the goal. We also use Pit Stops to capture any individual learning. We find that a Pit Stop often increases the speed of work rather than delays it.

What kind of personal development do you build in to your process?

As we have already mentioned, the Fast Team leader will receive one to one coaching from a highly experienced coach both prior to for the duration of the project. In addition we also coach the project sponsor to ensure that they reach their goal. Team members are all given the opportunity of a 360 degree feedback and assessment. This element of our process if vital for capturing the experience and learning of the team members.

What experience do you have in working with these kinds of high stakes projects?

The coaches at Kynesis and The Success Group have all worked in senior management positions in large and blue chip organisations. We have consultants from the Energy, Pharmaceutical, Marketing and Retail sectors who have all worked extensively with top teams.

I like the idea of capturing talent but how will you ensure we don’t lose people when the adrenalin of the project wears off and they are back to work as
usual?

Due to the high level of individual development interventions that make up this process the team members will come out of a Fast Team with a personal development plan that relates their experience directly back into mainstream work and operations. We leave team members with a high level of motivation and loyalty to the organisation.

Individuals

People, and the quality of relationship that they create.... is the area where personal performance can have a direct and sustainable positive impact on profit and growth. More...

Teams

Working together is as important for a top team as it is in a rowing eight. When the whole leadership team is moving in the same direction, the momentum takes organisations with them. More...

Organisations

The best performers are increasing their own awareness... Organisations need... to build in personal development and learning at all levels to retain the high performers.More...