Twenty “old friends” met for dinner last week. One flew 1,200 km to Zürich and back, one took the train for a total of 350 km just for the evening. Why make the effort? We all have busy professional lives and families. A couple of us are still with the same company, some have retired and most of us have been gone from the company for five years. Most people just go on with their separate lives after leaving a team, never to meet again… Why are we different?
This team successfully led, for over a decade, what were probably the largest / most complex transformational business model changes, integrations and divestitures in the global Food Industry.
I asked everyone at the dinner what they thought made this team great, and why they made the effort to meet. Here are the top answers:
- One of the most formative times in our lives. The team was not only very professional, but learning oriented, and fun. These colleagues were, and will be an important part of our lives;
- A European team with people from all over the world: our diversity of personalities, experiences and cultures was celebrated, and it made us strong;
- The top senior leader was able to insulate the rest of the team from the inevitable noise of organizational politics at the executive level, allowing us to focus on the task at hand;
- Team members at all levels were completely transparent: we always knew where we stood. It was not always smooth going, but any issues were visible & quickly addressed, and no one was afraid to escalate them: we did not have a “blame culture”;
- What I could measure, as the senior HR leader, was our ability to cooperate, which was “off the charts” vs. all benchmarks.
We also received outside validation: a senior project director / external consultant, who was part of the team for the decade, still regards our team dynamics as the best he has ever witnessed.
I would be happy to hear that these five principles are replicated by other project teams. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to the next “old friends” dinner!
