‘Can we have a new edition that aligns with the methods and tools that we are now using in our business and with partners?’
The first and most significant of these developments is the business landscape of unstoppable, transformational change. Across all industries, the effects of digital technology, boundaryless competition and economic uncertainty continue to create an environment of almost limitless opportunity, enormous risk and massive challenge.
The main target audience for the book has always been the operations teams inside these organisations and they are, to paraphrase one of our clients, ‘Working flat out to keep the lights on, while transforming into a new business model, and at the same time searching for a game-changing breakthrough before competitors find it’. It is these teams that have looked for guidance from change management and leadership development only to find that the former isn't designed for continual adaptive change, and the latter provides concepts but not a simple, practical toolkit.
It's because of these people that think one team has evolved to answer a bigger question than just, ‘How do we fix the silo thinking?’, from where it all began.
The new question is more fundamental, more crucial to the very survival of the business. It goes something like, ‘How do we create a nimble and adaptive culture that equips us to thrive in these turbulent times?’
It seems so obvious now, but it took many an international assignment and the researching and writing of first be nimble to help our team realise that the answer was right in front of us.
While we focused on tools and practices that strengthened the collaboration within and between teams, we began applying an insight that came partially from sports psychology and partially from studying the way that adversaries came together to work as one team in a crisis.
In both settings we noticed that teams created a loop of conversations that we called ‘Align – Collaborate – Learn’ (ACL). For example, in a crisis, leaders create this fast loop of aligning goals and expectations, then going out in the field to work together and meeting again to debrief, and then repeating the cycle. Sports teams do the same and in both cases there is a timing or rhythm that suits the situation.
We encouraged teams and alliances to create this ACL loop using ‘think one’ tools such as team clipboards, collaborative problem solving and action debriefing.
They liked it immediately because whether building a team, driving a change initiative or forming a new alliance it gave leaders a framework or scaffold from which to guide the development and ongoing performance.
As these ACL loops became more popular, we realised that we had stumbled inadvertently on a way to strengthen the one capability that's essential if a person, team or enterprise wants to adapt and even to shape their world. That capability is not vision, resilience, courage, communication, teamwork, alignment or any of a dozen other concepts. It is simply and powerfully the capability to learn together.
Peter Senge was right when he wrote, twenty-five years ago, of the learning organisation1. By combining the ‘think one team’ tools with what we came to realise is a natural learning loop, we found that ‘think one team’ significantly enhances the ability of teams, colleagues, organisations and alliance partners to learn (and perform) together. The elimination of the silo effect is something of a bonus – because that dissipates when people are set up to learn together.
The second development seems small in comparison but has the potential in the next few years to do its own share of disruption to the status quo. That development is in collaborative technology and is a story both of the limitations of current approaches and the opportunities this presents. Suffice to say that collaborative technologies (such as intranets and social business platforms) can and should play a major role in developing a one-team ethos; however, the reality is a bit different because most have at least one of two major deficits.
First, the majority of intranets and related platforms are designed for project management or file sharing, which is lowlevel collaboration. Second, the vast majority lack a navigation model and content that encourages and guides people and teams to come together to learn and co-create. In many ways they are like a training centre with great rooms and nice technology but no content or facilitation.
These observations across countless organisations led us to create our own prototype online Think One Team Collaboration Space, which includes a comprehensive toolbox and guided collaboration activities that bring people together and reinforce one-team practices.
At the time of writing we are still experimenting with what we believe has the potential to be a game changer for collaborative software – not to mention change management and development of teams and leaders. Please visit www.thinkoneteam.com for an update on what's been happening.
The third development is the repositioning of ‘think one team’ as a solution to the frustrations that leaders express about the disconnect between linear, technical approaches to change management and a workplace where change is continual and disruptive.
As you will read throughout the book, we have ramped up the power and impact of ‘think one team’ by applying it in ninety-day projects targeting real business change initiatives (within and across teams). Business unit leaders, project leaders and collaboration advocates use the tools and ACL framework to lead change through collaboration and co-creation. This is a far more nimble and adaptive approach than the highly planned traditional change management and delivers new capabilities and a business result at the same time.
And so, with these three developments in mind, my approach here is to preserve the spirit and style of the original book and in particular the story of The Big Jelly Bean Team where you will join the engaging, enlightening and at times funny transformation of O'Donnell's Jelly Bean Company from silo-afflicted to one team. From its experiences you will learn the five practices that define the difference between ‘think silos’ and ‘think one team’, and see what these practices mean for leaders and employees across an organisation. All of this is presented in the context of developing the capabilities and culture that are essential to being a nimble, adaptive team or organisation.
From the vivid story, a ‘think one team’ method is built that you will find easy to understand and apply to your organisation. This method will give you a language to share across the business, and lots of ideas for thinking and acting as one team.
It's important to stress that ‘think one team’ is not a call to make your organisation one big department, because that will create the poison of bureaucracy. Rather, it's a simple yet powerful message for building the effective and enduring partnerships and collaboration that are needed among the people of your organisation to survive and thrive in a volatile business world.
‘Think one team’ is both a mantra and a philosophy of work because it offers a more productive and enjoyable way of living and working.
part I
the story of the big jelly bean team
Once upon a time, in a now-fashionable inner-city district of Sydney, Australia, a business called O’Donnell’s Jelly Bean Company became the market leader in the confectionery industry.
Founded by brothers William and Walter O’Donnell on their return from the Second World War, O’Donnell’s Jelly Bean Company was enormously proud of its seventy-year-plus history, its role as an employer of people from the local community and its profitability. Most of all, however, the people of O’Donnell’s Jelly Bean Company were proud of its products.
It had been that way since William and Walter produced the first jelly beans in the kitchen of their home in Birchmore Street and sold them to children in the neighbouring streets. ‘O’Donnell’s’, as the business came to be affectionately known, produced the best-looking, best-tasting and best-value jelly beans that money could buy. Any kid who lived near Birchmore Street could tell you that money spent on those monster-sized O’Donnell’s jelly beans was a far superior investment to the bland fare at the local store, which carried all the ‘brand’ lollies. Importantly,