Axway’s R&D team in Sofia builds SecureTransport, software that companies trust to move their most sensitive files. More than a hundred engineers and Scrum Masters, working across product teams and, often, across screens.
When they first looked at AhaPlay, they asked for something small: a pilot with five or six people and one program. Standard content, nothing custom. They ended up doing the opposite.
From a pilot of six to the whole team
Anyuta Chipchenkova, the R&D director, and Petya Taleva, then a senior engineering manager and today Director Operations, wanted to invest in how the team works together before the end of the year. A pilot of six would have left them with six people who had a new way of talking about teamwork, and a hundred colleagues who didn’t.
So the whole team started together, and the first month became the trial. Axway’s legal and security teams reviewed the platform first, as a company that moves its clients’ most sensitive files should, and approved it for the program.
- Asked for A pilot: five or six people, one program.
- Ran The whole R&D team: twelve sessions in two tracks, from September to December.
Teamwork, in two tracks
The program was called Teamwork: collaboration and relationship building. Everyone joined one session a month. The Scrum Masters, who carry a team’s dynamics day to day, joined two more.
| For everyone | For the Scrum Masters | |
|---|---|---|
| September | Dutton’s high-quality connections in remote settings | The diamond of participation for remote teams · Benne and Sheats’ dysfunctional roles in meetings |
| October | Ken Blanchard’s ABCDs of trust | What turns a group of people into a team? · Thompson’s types of task interdependence |
| November | The Big Five personality traits | Lencioni’s five dysfunctions of a team · Waldroop and Butler’s six problem behaviors |
| December | Hart and Bell’s eight causes of conflict | Tuckman’s stages of group development · When do we have a conflict? |
Each session lasted an hour and ran without a facilitator. The engineers formed small groups, answered on their own first, then had to agree as a group. The questions were built for engineers who like to argue a case: more than one defensible answer, and a team that has to settle on one.
To build trust, your team recognizes and celebrates the people who consistently keep their commitments, so others follow their example. Which part of Ken Blanchard’s ABCDs of trust are you building most?
- Able
- BelievableMaria
- Connected
- DependableIvaNikolayPetar
The Scrum Masters’ sessions went into how they run their own team’s conversations:
A facilitator says in a virtual meeting: “Jane talked about better communication, Tom about stronger collaboration. How do the two connect in our current project?” In which stage of the diamond of participation is linking ideas like this most useful?
- The divergent phase
- The groan zoneMartin
- The convergent phaseTeodoraStoyanYana
- The closure phase
The team made the program its own quickly. After the first months, Petya and Anyuta took over the scheduling themselves, fitting each session to what was happening in the team.
What the numbers showed
The numbers held from the first session to the last. Around 85% of those invited took part, month after month. People rated the sessions eight out of ten for usefulness, and most left in a better mood than they had arrived in.
The most telling number was time. The groups that gave a session 45 to 55 minutes scored 95 to 100 out of 100. The value was in the conversation, and the hour is what bought it.
Petya didn’t want to wait for our reports. She wanted the numbers in her own hands, to steer the program herself, and once she had them, they paid off:
“Seeing the results ourselves, right in the program, gave us a lot of insight.”
That is what ExecuteOS gives every leader today: the results in front of the leader who owns the priority, team by team, as the sessions run.
The end of the year
The program ran session by session until December, as planned: twelve sessions, two tracks, and a team that chose to invest the end of its year in how its people work together.
The request had been for six people. The answer was everyone, because the way a team works together is something the whole team has to share.
What we learned
Axway showed us what makes structured conversations work for engineers, people who often like a right answer. Five principles came out of it.
1Start with everyone, not a pilot
How a team works together is a shared norm, and six people can’t carry it for a hundred. Axway started with the whole team, and the first month was the trial.
In ExecuteOS: the same sessions for every team that has to act on a priority, from the start.
2The value is in the hour of conversation
The groups that gave the session 45 to 55 minutes scored 95 to 100. Speed through a session is a warning sign, not efficiency.
In ExecuteOS: we look at how long each group discussed, not only whether it finished.
3Let people choose when, and with whom
One fixed slot for everyone turns a session into one more meeting. Several slots, chosen by the people with the colleagues they work with, keep it theirs.
In ExecuteOS: every session runs on many dates, and people pick theirs.
4Make it a choice people want
People take part willingly when they know why it matters and who is asking. For the groups a leader knows will push back, a person in the room helps.
In ExecuteOS: every program starts from the priority, in the leader’s own words, and leaves room for a leader or coach to join a group.
5Say which questions are for arguing
Engineers enjoy a good argument, and many want a right answer too. Saying up front which parts have an answer and which are meant to be debated lets both kinds of people get the most from the hour.
In ExecuteOS: each session says what is open to debate, and why the disagreement is the point.