"How are we working together?" Team Discussion by Renegade Partners

Renegade Partners’ process for uncovering and improving how teams work together

Roseanne Wincek

Susan Alban

Renegade Partners

Introduction: making teams better

Acknowledging the ever-changing team environment that exists today

In fast-moving technology companies, teams are constantly forming, changing, and reforming. A team may be created around a new company itself; around a specific product launch; around a new team member and so on.

Because of this continually shifting environment and in our own work today building a new venture capital firm, we’ve found that structured check-ins around how we’re working together can be very useful, especially in the early weeks and months of team formation and during rapid changes in the world.

Creating a more human-centered team

This practice enables us to learn more about particular challenges or opportunities that individual team members may have, and it allows us to build a more human-focused organization, which has only become more important in the working environment we’re in today.

We can learn:

How are Zoom and the new modalities of work going for everyone?

Are there circumstances at home around child or elder care that may be making work challenging?

Are there unique opportunities that individuals have, which a simple conversation could uncover and garner support for the team member?

Creating an inclusive team

By using the methodology we recommend, which uses practices garnered from decision-making experts (such as a short pre-work survey and structured facilitation), we believe we are helping to foster a more inclusive, efficient, and productive environment.

Short asynchronously-completed surveys help to ensure that team members will be less likely to modify or suppress what they have to the say, either consciously or subconsciously. Structured facilitation helps that the entire team can be heard and encourages the team to arrive at the best decision possible.

What’s in this doc

⁠

Survey / Prework Start taking the survey by hitting the "Respond to Survey" button and write in your responses.⁠

⁠

Facilitator View If you are the meeting facilitator, taking a few minutes to review responses in advance of the conversation will enhance the meeting⁠

⁠