Culture of Efficient Teams: Team organization and Beliefs

The culture of an Efficient Team is our secret to creating efficient teams and giving the most value to our clients. CET resides on four pillars: Knowledge and Skills, Satisfied people, Beliefs and Team Organization.

We explained more about CET in this post, and we talked in detail about pillars Knowledge and skills, and Satisfied people in this post.

Let’s explore the other two components of CET that ensure the quality of solutions we provide to our clients. Our Chief Engineer, Slobodan Gaćaš, explains how the Team organization and the Beliefs shape team culture and are therefore crucial for delivering high quality service and solutions to our clients.

How do we organize teams so they can be efficient?

An efficient team:

• Is well-formed
• Has an organized way of work
• Practices transparency in communication
• Has development teams that are integrated into the company

Team leader has a great role in making sure the team is well organized.

Our CE, Slobodan, explains: “It is essential that all team members share the same culture and approach to work, that they have chemistry because that will bind them together. Knowledge and skills are very important, but we can improve that through practice and education, while these personal and professional attributes are more challenging to change. We know how much it matters to create a well-formed team, so we carefully choose the people we work with.

When it comes to the way of working, we have established processes, such as reviews, demo sessions, retrospectives, and planning. If there is any problem in communication with the client, they can always ask Key Account Manager (KAM) for help. They will communicate with the client and ensure that the project and solution to their problem go as planned.

Slobodan emphasizes the importance of transparency in communication within the team, between different teams in the company, and with the client, as another integral aspect.

If something is wrong, we don’t hide it, we solve it and improve it. We have processes here, as well. Every project team fills in project reports and has meetings with KAM, Chief Engineer, and Team Leader every two weeks. Here we have information exchange, and we also use task boards in Teams, where anyone can share any new or important information. All team members are active, and they communicate openly.

Team Leader has a major role in the integration of the teams in the company. Their role is to encourage team members to participate in formal and informal activities, such as internal training, knowledge transfers or simply hanging out with the team and having fun. In this segment, it is essential to align the goals of the team with the goals of the company. We all should be headed in the same direction, which is continuous improvement and creating value for our clients.

Beliefs as a key to cooperation and efficient team culture

Beliefs are our fourth pillar of the Culture of Efficient teams. It stands on 4 important segments:

• Developing solutions that create value for the customer
• Creating reliable solutions
• Empowerment of the team and its members
• Nurturing the company and team culture

This is another area where TL has a crucial role. When it comes to developing valuable solutions, TL makes sure that all team members see the purpose of their work and this is how they keep their motivation high. Team Leaders ensure that all members see and show their contribution to the project.

“We deliver optimal solutions, but we are well aware that perfectionism is impossible to achieve. We tend to incorporate the system of measurement in this part, to be sure that our product solves the client’s problem. Continuous monitoring of product development, regular meetings, and SEMAT workshops, with clear and open channels for communication, is what we constantly implement. This is how we know that our solution is good and reliable” Slobodan added.

Team empowerment is about the autonomy of every individual and their ability to show what they know. It also means giving opportunities to learn from their mistakes. Mistakes are an integral part of the work, and they are important because they always lead to knowledge.

When it comes to task division, the Team Leader makes sure that tasks are divided well and that there is optimal seniority in the team. Not every task is for seniors. Juniors can have an important role, too. This benefits everyone: all team members are motivated because seniors are dealing with more complex issues and juniors are learning through experience. Also, the client gets the best cost for value because the team is optimal.

Since our teams often become part of other, larger organizations, we find it important for team members to integrate in the team where they are working but also to nurture the Enlight culture through team building and socializing. They always have a clear picture of the company’s beliefs and goals, and always feel like a part of our company.

Conclusion — Efficiency depends on team culture

Over 60% of our company are seniors with over 15 years of experience. They have all worked in big corporations, where everything is strictly defined. In Enlight, we also rely on procedures, but we didn’t want to copy and paste the big corporation’s approach, where the needs of individual members are often not seen. That’s why we’ve created our processes for creating an efficient team where both team members and our clients can be satisfied and get the best results.

The Culture of an Efficient Team cannot be created overnight, nor can it be always ideal. It simply shows our attitude towards work: it assures that our developers will be satisfied, skilled, organized, and loyal to the values we as a company live and committed to the standards we’ve set. This creates a positive, stable, and reliable working environment and that is something we offer to our clients as the greatest value.