Team building and engaging to excel: Old vs new guard

Vasudevan Ramaswami

Partner, Verts Management Consulting LLP

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In a large financial services company, the senior leadership team comprising of about 40 employees had assembled at a nearby hotel for a 3 day workshop on ”Team building and engaging to excel”.

It was the first month of the new financial year and an apt time to kick off this initiative as a prelude to the strategic business planning exercise that was to follow later.

The composition of the leadership team has about 75% of the old guard (employees who have been with the company for more than 6 years) and 25% of the new guard (employees who have joined in the last 1 year).

The program facilitator started the proceedings by asking everyone to standup and assemble in the middle of the conference room. He then projected a statement on the screen that read as follows.

The company is aware of its strategic goals and is well positioned to deliver this over the next 3 years.

He then said that the left of the room indicates a strong agreement to this statement, the right indicates a strong disagreement to the statement, the center being neutral with the space between showing different levels of agreement or disagreement.

He requested all the leaders to occupy the positions on the continuum that best indicated their choices.

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What do you think happened?

The position showing strong agreement to the statement was quickly occupied by the old guard while the position showing strong disagreement was populated by the new guard.

It was not surprising because it is generally a reflection of the following human behavioral patterns.

1. An existing team believes that what it has done and is doing is appropriate and that nothing needs to change.

2. It also believes that they have the experience of what has worked well and not well and the same will be good for the future too.

3. It would be difficult for them to publicly state that there are areas that need to improve and that there is a need to innovate and adapt to the changing market environment.

4. Sometimes it is also a statement of “” We know best”” and therefore being blinded to potential opportunities that need to be pursued.

On the other hand, the new guard also comes with experience that is outside of the company and is able to dispassionately look at what are the things that need improvement and what are the possible opportunities and capabilities that can propel the company to meet the demands of the future.

However, it is important that the new guard acknowledges the strengths of the company, what has worked well and how the same can be reinforced to meet future business growth.

This black and white demonstration of this activity expressed the need for the entire leadership team to do a dispassionate SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), exchange ideas and bring the collective experience of the old guard and the new guard over the next 3 days to draw up a blue print on how the company can be innovative and successful in the backdrop of a rapidly changing market environment.

The most important need was to let go of preconceived notions on both sides, examine issues objectively and be honest in their assessments of what needs to be retained, dropped and changed (RDC model).

It is never easy but companies need to constantly do this to seamlessly integrate old and new teams, have clarity on the overall vision/ shared goals and set up strong engagement models to deliver excellence in their business pursuits.

On the last day of this program post deliberations, this same team was asked to occupy positions to express their agreement and disagreement to the same statement that was shared on day 1.

This time, there were more people of the old guard who had shifted towards the right of the room and more people of the new guard who had shifted marginally to the left from their earlier position but essentially showing a shift of about 65% now disagreeing with the statement and 35% agreeing with the statement from the earlier number 25% and 75% respectively.

It was a great beginning to understand where the company stands as of now and what the entire team in its collective wisdom and experience needs to do to ensure that 100% of them agree with this statement in the next 6 months to 1 year.

Collective Ownership, shared goals, strong team engagement and adaption to change is the only way to deliver strong sustainable business performance.