How to build a teams of teams organisation and thrive in a complex world

A complex world calls for organisations that can move quickly, adapt and innovate. We need teams that can innovate to bring products and services to market with agility, but we know that traditional hierarchies are getting in the way. Matrix, agile and cross-functional teams have opened up opportunities and delivered some success but it’s not enough.

So, what’s next? How can businesses change the way they operate to survive and thrive? We believe that XXXXXX is the answer and in this guide we explain why.

Teams: a missed opportunity?

We believe that teams are the unsung heroes of organisations, and the way organisations are structured often works against them, making it harder to deliver results. And in a post-pandemic world when there is increased pressure on teams to deliver against the challenge of adapting to hybrid working, organisations need to ensure barriers to performance are identified and removed as a priority.

We believe that flipping the traditional structure - by function and reporting line – to a network of teams connected by a common, overarching goal, organisations will thrive. In a network of teams of teams, the team becomes fluid, forming, evolving and disbanding in response to business priorities. And leaders become untethered from a single team, acting instead as connectors for multiple teams, creating the context that the teams operate in and their conditions for success.

Teams of teams is emerging as the route to success in a rapidly changing world. It’s a term that’s been in circulation for a few years now, particularly following General McChrystal’s hugely powerful and successful book of the same name. But teams of teams isn’t just found in the armed forces, it has been successfully adopted in tech companies, professional consultancies and not-for profits too.

What are the conditions of success?

• Clarity: What the team is trying to achieve and why as well as how it will achieve it

• Climate: Including the ‘hard climate’ such as resources and processes and the ‘soft climate’ including culture and stakeholder relationships

• Competence: The skills, knowledge, behaviour and attitude of the team members

What are teams of teams?

Teams of teams is defined as a network of teams that work towards a common goal. It drives performance because it focuses on getting the right people in the room regardless of their position in the organisation. Teams collaborate, connected by their shared goals and freed from their silos, with autonomy to act without waiting to be told.

1. Teams of teams: A collection of teams that work towards a common goal; not based on hierarchy, discipline, expertise or function. You might know them as hubs, or scrums.
2. High levels of trust & psychological safety: Trust is essential for building relationships in teams of teams. Creating psychological safety in teams will help to build a culture where people feel safe to challenge others and share ideas – essential for collaborative working.
3. Leaders and teams are free to work together unencumbered by hierarchy and functional silos. The focus is on getting the right people together with access to the data, insight, knowledge and skills they need.
4. Innovative: Teams work together in a more effective way, enabling collaboration across functions, geographies and cultures.
5. Agile: Teams that experiment, learn and evolve as they work to deliver their priorities. The agility is also in the system allowing the team to form, flex and disband as needed to bring the right combination of skills and knowledge to the situation for as long as needed.
6. Knowledge sharing: Not just data but ways of working, experience, skills, learning and insight.

From traditional hierarchies & structures to teams of teams

Teams of teams offers organisations a fluid way of working with teams forming and performing in response to business priorities. The leader’s role becomes a connector of people, teams and knowledge, providing the ‘so what?’, the broader vision and context.

Teams of teams might feel like light years away from the way your organisation currently operates, but the organisations that survive and thrive will be those that organise themselves around their teams, not reporting lines or business functions and siloes. The reality is that teams of teams are already operating in your organisation, by identifying them and giving them the right support, they will thrive.

1. Leaders as connectors

In teams of teams, the leader becomes a connector leading multiple teams, coaching and connecting people, sharing knowledge, skills and data. Empowering team members to build relationships with people outside the immediate team to get the business-critical work done.

Leaders as connectors:

• Provide teams with clarity about the broader purpose, vision and mission.
• Lead multiple teams, acting as ‘connectors’ within the organisation, untethered from one single team.
• Create a culture based on trust and psychological safety, prioritising collaboration, knowledge sharing and communication.
• Encourage open, free-flowing communication, empowering teams to share knowledge, insight, data and feedback.
• Lead autonomous teams who don’t need to wait to be told what to do.

2. Trust and psychological safety

Trust and psychological safety are crucial components in the success of teams of teams. Not just for people’s wellbeing and happiness in work, but for delivering results too. A psychologically safe culture is one where people feel safe having honest conversations, disagreeing with each other, and where failure is an opportunity to learn.

Question: How safe do team members need to feel to have candid, honest conversations?

“In teams of teams, trust between teams becomes essential to effective execution and requires building relationships outside the core team.” Andy Chevis, Head of Design and Research, LIW

3. The learning mindset

Leaders will need to embrace a learning or experimental mindset in a teams of teams organisation. The focus is on continuous learning and being open to new ideas and taking risks, even if it doesn’t work.

• Listening to everyone and giving everyone the same opportunity to speak up.
• Showing genuine curiosity for all perspectives, including those outside your team, function and experience.
• Making time for ‘slow thinking’ where ideas are explored rather than continuing as in the past.
• Aligning rewards to psychological safety behaviours – recognising that experimentation is a necessary part of the learning process, and not disciplining or criticising failure.
• Rewarding team achievements over or at least alongside individual goals.

"In any company that thrives in our complex and uncertain world, leaders must be listening intently, with a deep understanding that people are both the sensors who pick up signals that change is necessary and the source of creative new ideas to test and implement." - Amy Edmondson, The Fearless Organization

4. Team Acceleration – helping teams perform as teams of teams

Leaders can accelerate their teams’ performance by supporting them in creating the conditions for success. We use a pragmatic five-step ‘Team Acceleration’ framework to help teams we work with to deliver results.

Team Acceleration: Give your teams the common language and tools to succeed

Step 1: Context & core tools

Team agrees its own context and creates a common language

Step 2: Purpose, vision & strategy

Team co-creates the ideal end-state

Step 3: Team dynamics & behaviours

Team learns to leverage its strengths & agree the best way to get things done

Step 4: Leadership & individual impact

Individuals understand the role they need to play to reach the agreed end-state

Step 5: Execution & embedding

Team establishes how to integrate these learnings into the team forever

Teams of teams will help organisations to thrive in a dynamic world where leaders connect teams, encourage them to share knowledge and work collaboratively, releasing a stream of innovative ideas from different parts of the organisation. In this environment, employees are supported in taking risks in order to learn. It’s a world where new teams are established, older teams evolve or disband so that the business vision can be brought to reality.

What next for HR leaders?

1. Is your organisation already a team of teams? Where does the real work get done, not the formal structures.
2. Do your leaders focus on one single team, or do they see the bigger picture and act as the connectors you need them to be?
3. Do you have learning and skills development programs in place to support leaders in teams of teams?
4. Is your organisational communication mostly top down or does communication flow freely across teams?
5. What level of trust is there in your organisation? Do people feel safe challenging each other and sharing ideas?

Consider: Could the Team Acceleration framework be used to move your organisation towards a teams of teams way of working, one team at a time? Maybe consider a team that you feel is capable of more, or a team with a specific challenge or a mission critical team