2.4 Where are the team-architects?

Leadership Cockpit

When I started working with teamdecoder, I called it the “Leadership Cockpit.” The idea behind it was that leaders are the architects of their own teams and, as such, have an interest in building, reshaping, and developing their teams organizationally. They should be able to do that using teamdecoder. And they can — BUT as it turned out, there are very few leaders who are both modern and advanced enough to a) see this as part of their job and b) actually make time for it.

Most department heads bring in a consultant or organizational developer who takes the necessary time to analyze the team, identify problems, develop solutions, and implement them.

At teamdecoder, we deliberately speak of “Team Architects” to actively involve leaders. However, in practice, it often proves challenging to truly engage them in this role. Their own superiors, on the other hand, frequently recognize that middle management needs to be strengthened in order to effectively implement change programs from the top down.

As consultants, this puts a double responsibility on us: to empower the leader to successfully implement the change, and to create maximum team health for the team.

Operationalization Enablement

This is where companies need support — and where we, as consultants, can do a great job. Whenever “the people at the top” come up with something new, it still needs to be operationalized — meaning it has to be brought into the organization in such a way that the new initiative is actually implemented and executed, ultimately leading to the desired new results.

This gives us the opportunity to guide the leader, create clarity and transparency for everyone involved, and teach the whole team how they can continue on their own once the project ends. I'm a strong advocate of this approach to sustainable consulting; otherwise, our work often unravels the day our contract ends.

By the way, this is also a key objective of teamdecoder. If we help the team using teamdecoder and teach both the team and the leader how it works, they will be able to carry on without us — or (even better) bring us in once a month to review the current state and help optimize.

Links:

• Blog: Leaders - Architects of Team Well-being: https://teamdecoder.tawk.help/article/f%C3%BChrungskr%C3%A4fte-architekten-der-team-gesundheit

• Blog: Workforce Transformation: A Success Factor for German SMEs: https://teamdecoder.tawk.help/article/workforce-transformation-ein-erfolgsfaktor-f%C3%BCr-den-deutschen-mittelstand