BUILDING THE RIGHT TEAM FOR YOUR CAPSTONE
By Maxine Holden
You’re committed to your Capstone. Next is building the right team to support you on your journey. You want a high-performance team given the importance of the project and what is at stake: time, money, reputational risk. We always refer to high performance when it comes to building a team as our definition is:
‘people and groups that are highly focused on their goals and that achieve superior client results’
Over the years, we have been part of great teams and not so great teams. There is nothing more inspiring and energising than being part of a high-performance team. On the other hand, building a team that over promises and under delivers is nothing short of demoralising. Of all the factors that help a project reach success, it’s people people people that are the most important.
Like in all that we do- there are steps to take on each individual’s project path. Building the right team for the three parts of our process is crucial to success.
THE FIRST PART OF OUR PROCESS IS AWARENESS
“If you don’t know where you want to get to how will you know how to get there?”
Getting the right team to help uncover and articulate the vision, measures of success and clarity on where you want to get to. This could be a mix of people you trust the most, those who know you the best, potentially people strategically you want involve from the start of the process and often people you trust but haven’t spent much time with before.
THE SECOND PART IS ACTIVATION
“The magic dust is marrying a good idea with great execution”
This is the doing part. Action. The delivery. Execution. The team may evolve from those required in part one alongside some remaining for consistency. This is the making it happen part. You want problem-solvers, the ones that find the way, overcoming adversity at speed. Some are better at doing than others. You want those that roll up their sleeves and crack on. Again the team needs a mix of characters with different strengths and weaknesses. Clarity is again key here in terms of delivering tasks, project management, etc. The team built and tasks need to move you forward. We believe an outlier ability these days is the ability to execute on visions that change the world…
THE THIRD PART IS AMPLIFICATION
“Without amplification, Capstones are very unlikely to be sustainable nor scalable”
This is about those that want to go the extra mile. Those best at storytelling, partnerships, communication, and advocacy. Again often a sprinkling of fresh people to the team but some members remain to see the project through and to drive consistency.
Naturally, each of our projects is customised to the individual client. Each team we build WITH the owner. There is more strategy to casting and team selection than many think. However, some things around teams and high performance are universal and… perhaps whilst common sense… worth reiterating:
Diverse angles
The last thing you want is an echo chamber of like-minded ‘yes’ people. You want a plethora of ideas, opinions and experience. Some that will challenge, others that are happy to follow. The obvious areas are differences in age and gender. Having an ‘Eden Team’ of 50/50 male-female is a potential force multiplier. Having the potential wisdom of experienced people alongside disruptive thoughts of next-gen often has the potential to spark magic. Having people that you have worked with for years and know you inside out alongside others that you instantly trust but haven’t spent time with can be of great benefit. You want new and old angles. You also want to make sure your blind spots are covered. You will be playing offense but some on the team are there for defense- more risk management-minded. Being fully aware requires hearing different perspectives and thinking.
Energisers
The best teams create real momentum. They create their own culture. You want this project to be fulfilling, rewarding and meaningful. This should be an uplifting, positive experience. The team built play a crucial part in the experience. Obvious but true!
Numbers
We advise sticking to the ‘Bezos pizza rule’, individual teams shouldn’t be larger than what two pizzas can feed. Those in the team should all have clear roles and responsibilities and there to add value. Our good friend Seth Godin neatly explained the spiral of having steps of steps with too many in the team to get stuff done https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ or in his words ‘Don’t shave that yak’!
Driver/ Wingman/ Confidant / Consigliere / Lieutenant
Clear and regular leadership is required. You are often best appointing a lieutenant. The consigliere/ confidant/ Wingman. They are there day to day to drive the project alongside you. They see the project from start to finish. They are accountable. They drive to ensure that your vision becomes a reality. It’s on the assumption that you won’t dedicate all of your time to the project- but you want someone you can trust this is solely focused on this. They can answer quickly many of the questions the team has. There is a clear hierarchy that allows fast and appropriate decisions to be made without bottlenecks. They are the bridge between day to day team and you/ your vision.
Creating the conditions to thrive
So many teams we’ve seen have not fully seized an opportunity because of:
1) Lack of clarity (for example ownership of tasks, choice, roles and responsibilities, plan)
2) Action (momentum being lost, bottlenecks, resilience)
3) Confidence (not feeling they can say their ideas, express themselves freely)
4) Healthy competition (injecting fun and a winning mentality, better together moments, not wanting to let others down)
5) Growth (opportunities for people to push boundaries, achieve together and grow themselves)
Trust
At the end of the day, building the right team will boil down to trust. Trust that they can do the job, trust that they will represent you and execute your vision in the right way. Trust within the team that they will be inspired by the project and their contribution will be recognised and rewarded. Trust that there will be some flexibility to create within a framework.
Consistency
Lastly – the best teams have a backbone that are there to see it through. Resilience, perseverance, consistency. People in a team that will be there from the start to the end. That will live it alongside you. That know where they want to get to with you and keep on the right path.
When you assemble a team that feels as close to perfect as possible- it’s a magical thing to be a part of.
