There is a trend generally noticed in startups that take on a number of small projects for their clients. They do not have dedicated teams or sub teams looking after specific projects. The whole organisation generally works as a large team. Although they do assign a project to one senior enough individual, the other resources are assigned and reassigned on a random and ad hoc basis.
This is a common feature in firms that are few years into working with a good idea that seems to be working largely on the entrepreneurial energy of the founder. They explain this way of working with the following reasons:-
- They are able to optimise the resource cost to get the same work done with less number of people hence reducing cost especially in the initial stages when revenues are low.
- All the ad hoc teams and resources are optimally utilised to the fullest and at no time is any employee idle or on the bench. This is an obsession that afflicts most entrepreneurs.
- Personal attention of the founder is given to every project hence more value to the client.
- All projects run smoothly and since overall strength is small, resource coordination sees no conflicts and is managed well.
In a way these firm owners are justified in thinking so since it is with this mindset that they have been able to achieve the traction thus far. However they should consider that while this kind of working may be fine in the initial years, to realise meaningful and realistic growth of the company, the mindset of these firm owners would need to change. There will be a need to develop teams and sub teams as against one large team and developing teams that are effective and which deliver remarkable results over time is a carefully planned and complex process. A process that takes time among other things.
CEOs and founders should understand this and have the necessary patience and faith in the process. They should understand that time is required for the following:-
- Selection of team leader who not only understands the business and client interactions but is a person with right people skills and is able to coordinate effectively.
- Selection and allocation of team members who have complementary skills and knowledge keeping in mind the nature of projects and project deliverables for the client.
- Time for the CEOs to set clear goals and objectives for the team in view of client requirements and in tune with the overall company vision, mission, values & culture.
- The team would thereafter need some time to understand these goals, internalise them, align them with their own working goals as well as develop tasks and subtasks including their workload distribution by the team leader.
- Thereafter once the team starts working together duly driven by the team leader they start recognising the capabilities of their teammates or understanding their mutual strengths, weaknesses and most importantly the interdependencies within the team.
- This interaction is complex, ongoing and iterative. It needs good communications processes, feedback mechanisms, deft handling of conflicts and establishment of processes by the team leader. All these need time to develop and fructify.
- Then slowly team members start developing trust in each other, in their overall capability and confidence. There develops an espirit de corps or a bonding/camaraderie and the feeling that they are the best as a team and they can deliver most value.
Teams created with due deliberation and with right kind of people once given the time as required for its maturation, can become formidable performance nodes within organisations who would start punching many times above their cumulative weight. The founders have to only ditch their mindset regarding resource cost and idle or benched resources. It is not easy to let that mindset go, and they are justified in a way since that is what has got them to some sort of a success. Nevertheless it has to be overcome and they must realise that the benefits of strong high performing teams would far outweigh these perceived resource costs.