How to fix your team

This entire book project was based on the idea that working with other people is the hardest part of being a designer. And it’s the part of design we get the least training to understand.

If you are on a struggling team here is the simplest playbook I know for how to make things better. It works if you are a team leader or not. It’s just a way to reframe your frustrations to make them actionable.

1. Build a theory of what’s wrong. The superficial reasons a project is struggling are rarely the important ones. We notice symptoms first, low quality work or bad morale, not the causes. Racing to fix symptoms often just creates other symptoms (and cultures that stay in panic mode are prone to have dysfunctional teams).

2. Use your investigative powers. Go into detective mode, which means you are an investigator, not a judge. Be curious! For an afternoon, talk to individuals about how they’re feeling and what they think is going on. Take notes. Ask clarifying questions. Talk in private, offer confidentiality, and listen. What are the common frustrations you hear?

3. Know the four major reasons teams are broken: lack of trust, old wounds, conflicting priorities, or poorly defined goals. As you talk to people one on one, let them help you translate their complaints into those reasons. If they don’t fit ask them to offer another bucket. Be patient. Pay attention to their language. Ask questions. Listen and look.

4. The team leader may be the entire problem. The habits of a leader can create friction or help people thrive. Many in leadership roles don’t understand how their habits impact others. If the team doesn’t trust it’s leader it’s hard to trust anyone else.

5. If you are the leader. You may have a wake up call to hear: the problem may be you. Trust is grown slowly over time and if you are seen as incompetent, annoying or unreliable your teammates will hold back, weakening how the team works.

6. If you are not the leader. Set better expectations. Recognize gravity problems. Where is change possible? Alternatively, what on the team is more like gravity and will be a force to accept for a long time?

7. Find allies. Learn who is most interested in change. They might be the angriest, most critical people at first – but once they’ve vented, are they willing to invest energy in working differently? Among them, who is most liked by their peers? These are the people you need to involve in reviewing your assessment of the situation. Make a list of the issues you’ve heard, and work with them to rank the issues in terms of priority.

8. Identify liabilities (people who resist change) and treat them with respect. Some people will resist change, even if they are miserable. Despite their resistance they can be just as useful as the positive folks. Explain what you see as the problems, offer your straw-man for fixing them, and ask for their feedback. See if there’s a way, even if the plan has to change, to get them on board. Don’t fall into the trap of ignoring people who don’t agree with you: a great person, sufficiently upset, over enough miserable months, will be indistinguishable from a bad seed. They may come back around if the climate improves.

9. Pick a small, easy thing to fix. Morale works on momentum. If the team has been struggling it’s hard to turn it around all at once. You need to identify one single point of pain that is small, but real and fixable. The first tiny shinny star can change people’s minds about what’s possible. Let everyone know what you are going to solve first. Then ask them for their help in doing it. Once it has been fixed, report back. Ask for feedback? Is this better? If yes, you’ve now earned a small piece of trust that you can mortgage to solve the next problem. Go back and re-evaluate your assets and liabilities. Who is on board now? What feedback do they have?

This is a useful list to share with your teammates and leaders. It’s a menu of healthier ways to talk about what’s going on that you can pick from. Remember that in the end, design work is always team work.