More so than any other industry, the IT industry is always in constant flux, every now and then changes to the industry or requirements of our products and services necessitates that we shake things up a bit and do some team reformation.
How is this done in Titansoft? We make a day out of it! But before that some preparation is needed…
Getting to really know each other better
You can’t just throw a bunch of people into a room and expect them to organically form the best combination of teams, a lot of thought and preparation has to go into such an exercise.
One of the main tools we used was this personal SWOT analysis form provided by our in-house facilitators. For this exercise, all team members were required to fill it in by using the helpful guiding questions.
Components
- Strengths– To highlight what you are good at. This can be especially useful to help to see who might be suitable to fill in certain gaps in teams
- Weaknesses– Everybody has them! It’s best to be upfront about areas you can improve on. If they are aware, maybe your future team mate could help you with it.
- Opportunities- What is it you are looking for? Maybe there are others interested to collaborate on this.
- Threats– What could possibly hold you back? Future teammates could help you to solve the issues if they come about.
- Individual Vision Statement– What do you want to be, do and have in your career? What you list here will be what success means to you and what is your driving goal.
- What kind of team do I want to build?– What does your ideal team look like? What is it’s culture, what can you accomplish together. This is especially useful for
How did it work?
Two days before the reformation exercise our pantry was plastered with everyone’s personal SWOT analysis self- assessments. Staff had the opportunity to go read up on what everyone else had to say.
One day before the team reformation exercise, there was a 2 hour session for our staff to learn from our Product Owners about what’s in store for the following year. In that same session staff grabbed their SWOT analysis self-assessments from the wall and our pantry was turned into a sharing marketplace! Everyone had the opportunity to go around and learn more about each other before the main event the next day.
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Want to try this on your teams? We’ve attached a downloadable template just for our readers to use!
T.8ytes by Titansoft 