8.3 Say Nothing of the teamdecoder!

I’ve made it a habit to use teamdecoder like a notebook. Whenever I meet a new client, whether for an organizational development project or something else, I create a new, empty team and start jotting down the names of the people I meet, what I learn about who does what, and so on.

It always helps a) to have a good overview of the client’s structure and b) most projects eventually have an organizational aspect, so you can definitely use teamdecoder to, for example, operationalize an innovation strategy.

Depending on how the project starts at the client, I often decide not to add complexity at the beginning by introducing teamdecoder right away. Instead, I wait, use td just for myself, and only show it publicly when its use clearly reduces complexity. Then everyone immediately understands the value.

If after a few sessions it becomes clear in which direction the new structure should go, I gather all the workshop content and build the new team in teamdecoder. In one of the upcoming sessions, I then carefully introduce the first overview in teamdecoder (the “Dashboard”) and see how the team reacts.

Important at this moment: Don’t give the impression that you want to introduce a new tool, but present it really like a notebook — the tool you’re using to develop team structures.

Give it a try! Simply open a new board for each customer and make a note of what you pick up!