Part 3 of Team Topologies: Organizing Business And Technology Teams For Fast Flow, integrates team interactions with the team topologies. In Chapter 7, Team Interaction Modes, the authors define three basic interaction patterns. The three are:
- Collaboration – working closely with other teams,
- X-as-a-Service – providing or consuming a service with minimal interaction, and
- Facilitating – helping another team clear impediments.
Each team probably uses multiple approaches, however, one is the most common. The team’s topology predicts its most common mode. For example, a stream-aligned team will generally collaborate with other stream-aligned teams. Alternatively, they will use the x-as-a- service mode with other teams they have transactional relationships with. For example, procuring software licenses would require interacting with procurement. Interaction modes change based on context.
The first time I read this chapter, I felt the discussion modes were interesting but a bit esoteric. Upon reflection and a real-life team issue, I was confronted with the question: How can a team self-organize when they don’t know which pattern to use or to expect? Teams that feel that the only model is collaboration will not be able to be autonomous. This brings us to the intersection of team design and team chartering. Teams need to be designed to minimize handoffs and to help identify how they will interact with other teams. This approach requires understanding interaction modes that are good for flow; it is good for self-organization and predictability. This is why I have read this chapter three times at this point; it’s not so esoteric.
One of the macro ideas that I have taken from my reads of Team Topologies is that most teams are created with little thought to flow. Once formed they are like feral toddlers, set adrift to rise and fall on their own accord. How teams should interact is not a course taught in grad school or included in HR’s training for team leads (why the heck not?) The central premise of the book is that there are a few central patterns of team organization (topologies) and three core interaction modes. Predicting which interaction mode will be the most common, core, for each topology should be straightforward (assuming good team design). The word core evokes a go-to approach, not the only approach. Over the last few years, I have spent time advising teams that provided other teams with support while learning agile methods (technical and non-technical). In other words, I collaborated with enabling teams who then facilitated stream-aligned teams. Those enabling teams often struggled with which interaction pattern they should follow. Answering the question of whether a team’s role is to collaborate or facilitate isn’t an empty discussion. Enabling behavior supports another person or team. An enabling team provides assistance, and resources or removes barriers. The interaction is transactional. Collaborative behavior requires people to work together to achieve a common goal. Collaboration is relational. When people misjudge the role they should play, behavioral expectations are often misaligned.
When teams or people interact, they need to have the same expectations of the experience. If you are involved in facilitating, for example, coaching, you are delivering a transactional service. The goal of a coach is to help a person or team achieve something closer to their potential. Entering a coaching engagement with the expectation of collaboration can lead to misinterpreted behavioral queues. Many coaching engagements would be better structured as mentoring relationships which is a more collaborative stance.
Spend a week reflecting on the interactions between teams. Ask yourself whether they are using the most effective interaction mode. Ask yourself whether the mode they are using seems to be at odds with the expectations of those they are interacting with. At this point I think you will want to consider changing your team chartering approach to discuss interaction modes.
Buy a copy of Team Topologies: Organizing Business And Technology Teams For Fast Flow and read along!
Previous Installments:
Week 1: Front Matter and Logistics – http://bit.ly/3nHGkW4
Week 2: The Problem With Org Charts – https://bit.ly/3zGGyQf
Week 3: Conway’s Law and Why It Matters – https://bit.ly/3muTVQE
Week 4: Team First Thinking – https://bit.ly/3H9xRSC
Week 5: Static Team Topologies – https://bit.ly/40Q6eF2
Week 6: The Four Fundamental Team Topologies (Part 1) – https://bit.ly/3VUI7EB
Week 7: The Four Fundamental Team Topologies (Part 2) – https://bit.ly/3I70dxa
Week 8: Choose Team-First Boundaries – https://bit.ly/43i8W8A
