Page 3 - The MIL Leadership Line: October 2021

Teamwork in Action

Positive work culture and good communication help a team do much more than just implement their projects; these
concepts help team members to excel in their tasks and rise to new heights. Culture is “how we do things around here,”
according to Gallup consultants. It is what makes your team special and different from others. Teams with positive
cultures have a greater sense of accountability. A 2018 ADP Research survey of 19,000 employees found that workers
who say there are on a team are 2.3 times more likely to be fully engaged, than those who are not!

At MIL, we had two sectors kick off new projects during the last year. Here are true-life examples of how they built
their team relationships:

» A Department of Homeland Security contract, led by John Hooley, started in 2020 during the pandemic. The team
was hired and will be working remotely for the entire five-year contract. John communicates frequently with all
four team members via email and text – mostly text. The team meets virtually roughly twice per month for a team
chat. John said, “We typically talk about not only what each other is working on, but we also share war stories and
identify tasks where the team can help each other. This type of banter and collaboration has really gone a long way
for this team despite the challenging and intense nature of the work.” Last week, we met for a team dinner.
» Paul Marshall has hired several new staff to support Robotic Process Automation (RPA) development for multiple
clients and for internal projects at MIL. They have found the most effective way to collaborate and grow team
relationships is to set aside a couple days per week where the team would come into the Tyson’s office and discuss
new RPA projects across all our clients and internally. Paul stated, “We demo prototypes, brainstorm approaches,
and share coding ideas. This has helped our RPA staff get to know each other quickly and identify innovative
approaches to both client and internal automation projects. For this team, setting aside some time every week to
actually meet in person has worked best to maintain engagement.” To a more limited degree, hybrid and virtual
team collaborations like these have worked as well. As far as what hasn’t worked as well, I would say virtual happy
hours as they are after hours, and folks are usually pretty tired by then. We’ve had a couple virtual events during
work hours that worked better for team building, including baby showers.

Several long-term MIL teams are starting to plan small in-person get-togethers to celebrate the end of the government’s
fiscal year. These examples demonstrate that teams that communicate well with one another are more likely to work
successfully whether they have been together for months or years.

Team building activities:
» Start each virtual meeting with a team check » How well do you know your team? Before your meeting,
in! Take a few minutes to catch up with team have your team members answer three questions (to you
members. Ask about their weekend or share only). During the meeting, read the answers allowed and
favorite coffee mugs! have each employee guess who gave the answer! After
everyone has guessed, reveal the team member. Examples
» Commit to routine “Ask Me Anything” sessions of questions can be such things as: What’s your favorite
with your team! vacation spot?; If I were an animal, what would I be?;
» Pancakes vs. Waffles – a game where you make Favorite Movie?; If I had to eat one thing for the rest of
decisions as a team! For round one, your team my life what would it be?
has to decide on whether the world is going to » With Halloween coming up, have the employees share
keep pancakes or waffles, and the other is to be pictures from previous Halloweens
obliterated from existence. Anyone can advocate
for a favorite choice, and ultimately you must have
a vote of majority to make the decision.
* The next meeting, after one option is
eliminated, you add a new competitor. For
example, the game may become Waffles vs.
Pumpkins, and then Waffles vs. Puppies, and
then Puppies vs Kittens, and similar.