Team of Teams

When I was getting certified as a Chief Happiness Officer in Copenhagen in 2019, we met with the successful CEO of Irma, a high-end Dannish grocery store chain. He gave a memorable and inspirational talk about leadership and discussed how he had transformed the culture of the company using the book and concept, Team of Teams. (https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/insights-2/teamofteams/

I was fascinated by the concept and learnings and immediately purchased the book. It is an incredible read and the strategies and tactics are invaluable in today’s complex world. I have since incorporated this culture philosophy into the Arrive At Happy offerings for leaders and teams. The book is not directly connected to The Science of Happiness, yet when leadership builds a “team of teams” in their organization, the culture and people will inevitably be happier and more successful.

In most organizations, there are several teams that closely work together on their various disciplines. The people that work in marketing will all be connected and will be constantly sharing information with each other. The same for finance, sales, operations, etc. The key concepts of team of teams are:

A.    Everyone in the organization is educated on and understands the entire system, not just their department/discipline.

B.    There are strong relationships between the teams & transparent, immediate information shared. Every person does not need to have a relationship with every other person in the organization, but there needs to be at least someone who is connected to each team.

C.     There is a culture of “bottoms up solutions” meaning that the employees closest the problems are encouraged to share ideas on how to improve.

D.    Trust is strong throughout the organization and every single person knows the overall purpose.

I have teams honestly discuss the current silos in the organization and how they are impacting employees and customers. They then work on increasing communication across departments, information sharing, and transparency. I highly recommend this book if you are an executive or leader of people and teams.