How to promote the fusion of old and new teamDear Wendy, My name is Richard Tian, I am a new hired CEO to this fantastic software outsourcing company. The founder has decided to retire as a chairman and hired me to take over the operation and take company to go to the next level- meaning IPO in NY Stock Exchange. It’s a very exciting & inspiring change for me. However, learning from my 1st month at work, I found this transition much more challenging than I expected. There are lots of things I like to change regarding the way we make decisions and get things done. At the same time, I think there are also lots of good DNA in this company I respect. I am wondering if you have any suggestions for me to build trust with my team in a faster way so that I can start implement my vision and be who I want to be in this new position?
Dear Wendy My name is Susana Fang, I just newly joined a new pharmaceutical company as HRVP. This quarter, our company hired another two senior executive at my level, new CTO and new Operation VP. Our CEO is trying to upgrade our management team so that we can be more professional as operation excellence. Yesterday 6pm, after our 1st monthly management team meeting, our CEO called me into his office. He wanted me to design an executive retreat to “bond” the team quickly. Do you think it’s possible? Or what’s achievable in the short time?
Dear Richard & Susana, Glad to know that both of you & your company is doing well and trying to upgrade your management system! I think the process you are going thru is almost like changing engine of a racing car in the middle of the race. Which is amazingly necessary, exciting and dangerous. Regular executive meeting is defiantly needed to bond the team. However to make the bonding sustainable and fast, I think there are two critical success factors: 1. The CEO needs to be the lead, HR can be the facilitator or architect, but the CEO needs to demonstrates your leadership style and your decision making expectation as well. 2. Some fundamental & sensitive topics needed to be covered, the drinking game or outward bond activities wont do it. Here are the 7 critical topics:
CEO needs to redefine or let’s say “frame” a fundamental question, who we were before, who we are now, and who we want to be in the future. Are we changing from an more entrepreneurial to more professional? Are we changing from product focus to solution focus? Are we trying to change from domestic to global? Or we are trying to expand from B2B to B2C market? This is a great opportunity to frame why the new management team or even CEO are hired.
The next important question is where are we heading to? What’s the vision of our company? Do we want to be the biggest? Do we want to be top 500? Do we want to get listed on HK Stock Exchange? Or Do we want to be the coolest? Or are we going to be the top 3 choice in the MNC customers? Or Are we going to be the most respected employer? The most valuable Brand?
This part the CEO needs to align with the founder regarding the mission of the company. If the mission is not inspiring enough, maybe you will need to have some real story to back it up or even update it. People will need a strong “why” beyond target, financial benefits to drive everyone to look beyond their current resources and limitation. For example, are you there to bring health & happiness to Chinese families? Are you here to help Chinese engineers to a global level? This part can be a bit “soft” among a group of senior executive, but it’s important to identify and define deeper meaning in everyone’s daily job, especially when there is lots of changes, uncertainly and pressure. This will act as an anchor, where we are here. Many people would argue this step should be put in the 1st. Normally it should, but if your team is now, I suggest you put in step 3, so that you have more common ground before you touch this deep & soft topic.
This part the CEO needs to design & communicate a “strategic roadmap” to convince our team how this leader can bring us from here to our vision. Basically, he or she needs to identify the battles and need to have a winning strategy. And summarize the change we need to make , how we define success of all those critical changes in all different functions.
This part I highly suggest you hire an experienced external facilitator. Ideally you conduct a individual & group psychological assessment before the retreat. Let the external facilitator share the strength & weakness as a team. And design some activities for people learn about each other’s preferred communication, decision making and working style. Of course, also more importantly, all management team member also share “what bother’s me”, “what cause the decrease of my decision making quality?” & “what kind of behavioral & emotional support I need under pressure?” This process can be quite sensitive but also fun. If you do it right!
If you understand the four basic steps of team development, it is “forming, storming, norming & performing.” You both have past the forming stage. If you wan to “bond the team deeper and faster,” you will need to design a “storming” event in the retreat. But in a safe way, we called that a “controlled fight” As Chinese People said, 不打不相识! You will need to pick an event that lots of people holds different opinion strongly. And talk about it directly, in a agreed behavior guidelines and agreed decision making process. This can be most critical part of the retreat if you want to see immediate results regarding accelerate team trust towards each other. If you are the new CEO, you shouldn’t involve yourself fin the discussion process, but put yourself in the final decision process, and share the reason behind your call. This is a very easy & safe way to introduce your trust & empowerment towards the team.
There are different ways you can do this. One way is that-You can announce this before you invite them to have a debate for the sensitive issue in stage 6, and conclude it at the end. Another way is to invite the new management team to redefine the Corp Values or behaviors( the Dos & DONTs) of the existing corporate Values together. If you have time, I highly recommend you select the 2nd option. Which is very effective to align everyone’s leadership believe, languages and boundary together. After the alignment, you also have clear answers regarding: how we are going to make decision as a team, and what happens if something is in the gray area? And how we are going to demonstrate our Value believes to our employees, customers and board of directors.
After all, building a team fast is like speed dating. There are tricks to make the relation happen. In short, you will need to understand each other fast, have consensus regarding why we want to do this, where do we want to go, how we are getting there, and finally have a safe fight before we really meet the big challenges, basically understand how to fight with each other. If can come up with the same answers for those questions, I think you have a pretty promising relationship: )
Good luck, Wendy
|
Wendy Wu,CEO of New Leaders Group