Ways of Working

About this Project

Starting a new product is like starting a new school year. You may know a few people, but your level of comfort with working with those people varies. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone put the complexities of working with them on the table? This is the updating of an exercise that helped people describe how to best work with them called, Ways of Working.

Timing

September 2023- Present

My role(s)

Facilitator, Adaptor, Advocate

Approach

In Charlie Rowat’s article, The Ways of Working Canvas, he talks about a research project about high-performing teams that found sharing something personal (like how to best work with you) at the start of a project can go a long way in creating the psychological safety required to do great work as a team. I took that canvas, updated and facilitated it for what balanced teams might need to know to foster the feeling of comfortability and connectedness to work efficiently.

Changes and additions

Many of the base questions of the canvas are very applicable across any team. But to work fast and an increasingly hybird work environment, there were some gaps. I filled these in by adding questions like “I’m currently balancing…” which focuses on other working priorities and a spot to add personal facts such as Clifton Strengths or Myers-Briggs results. I also updated it to capture the welcoming vibe the canvas is aiming to create through updating the format, the style, and making it digital. You can download your own version here: Ways of Working Canvas.

Many of these questions are also very broad and without additional cues can leave participants floundering instead of inspired. To combat this, I created additional prompts for reference and encouragement.

Facilitation

While anyone can complete the canvas and share with their team, there is an advantage to having the activity facilitated. Time boxing filling out each section can push vulnerabilty and prevent procrastination. Sharing out in a group builds psychological safety and openness by keeping the team on the same playing field. For that same reason, having a third party facilitator to help keep time and guide conversation can set the tone for equality for the team.

Tips & Tricks

As a facilitator, when I’m walking the team through the form, I find showing my own vulnerability by sharing my answers opens up the team and helps level the room.
I give each prompt 2-5 minutes of time for completion, adjusting based on the speed of the group.
After the form is finished, I recommend a ten minute break for everyone. Having space to walk away allows participants to show up fully for the share out.
There are multiple ways to share out, but I’ve found round-robining, starting with a different person for each question, is the most successful way to garner engagement.
Setting some ground rules and an atmosphere of understanding can go a long way. Doing an icebreaker to get in the right mood for sharing is a great way to get started - a favorite of mine is sharing hot takes on candy!

Example of being vulnerable as the facilitator.

Successes

““The prompts really helped me think about my situation and helped us have a better discussion when we broke out into our product teams.””

— Workshop Attendee

This process has successfully been used in kickoff for three successful product teams as well as two seperate organizations. The first workshop which was for the entirity of FordLabs (65 people) was so successful that it was adapted into product team kickoff ceremonies. It was also used as a bonding event for an organization’s director level, who in turn ran similar sessions for their own teams. Reception was high, with a net-promoter score of 80;