From A-Players to An A-Team is designed for leaders looking to define and assign accountability across their organization and connect the resulting teams for effective collaboration.

We all know that small organizations rely on independent rockstars who simply “make it happen” while larger organizations crumble without effective collaboration and communication but how do you go about actually making that transition? I’ll give you a hint: letting it happen “organically” rarely succeeds. Leaders must make a proactive decision to reshape their organization’s operating model and shift from a collection of A players to a true A team. This talk is all about identifying when that transition is needed and designing a new organization that will enable both the business and the individuals within it to thrive.

Key Takeaways

1. Key indicators that your business is ready to make the A Players to A Team shift
2. 2 ways to approach designing A Team structures
3. 2 ways to approach ongoing engagement of the Rockstars who got you here

Whether thinking about “going hybrid” or already experiencing the challenges of mixed virtual and in-person work, a few concepts can help prepare any team for more effective collaboration in the Hybrid World.

Many leaders are eagerly awaiting the “return to the office” but most organizations are underestimating the challenges hybrid work poses. Ensuring that your People and Processes will thrive in a hybrid state requires targeted planning and an operating model or processes designed specifically with hybrid collaboration in mind. Fortunately, there is plenty of opportunity for smaller teams and companies to stand on the shoulders of giants as they plan for, or dive into, this new way of working. Starting with concepts like “structured informality”, this is a talk about the potential contradictions of hybrid operations and how to leverage them to your best advantage.

Key Takeaways

1. Colocated, remote, and hybrid teams require different norms to function effectively
2. Hybrid can be *harder* than either colocated or remote collaboration
3. Three best practices for building and leading effective hybrid teams

A shared understanding of what we mean when we use certain words can reduce conflict while increasing empathy and understanding.

Excellence. Quality. Respect. Many companies come back to the same words when describing their unique culture or vision. These words inspire and motivate but when it comes to day-to-day actions, the interpretations can vary widely. Even the most well-intentioned team members can find themselves in conflict traceable to a single word. Unfortunately, these misalignments can be particularly difficult to identify, even in teams that communicate openly and honestly, because everyone is using the same words – words that I have come to think of as “tricksy”. Fortunately, I have developed an algorithm for identifying tricksy words! 

Key Takeaways

1. Apply the algorithm for identifying tricksy words
2. Identify 3-5 tricksy words specific to their organization
3. Create definitions that empower rather than confuse