How to do something valuable for your team
The most valued individuals in an team/organization are the ones that see success in the form of career growth, compensation and opportunities.
Value creators are definitely high performers but not all high performers create value for their team. Think about creating value and everything else will follow.
So how do you create value?
Understand the team’s goals
The most important thing is to internalize the team’s objectives, goals and mission. Note that this is important even if you just want to “do your job” and nothing more. This basic step is important so you there is alignment between the value you will create and the team’s needs and wants.
Identify people’s roles and skills
Company’s have large organization silos and functions. Different teams and individuals responsible for certain aspects and goals. You need to understand not just what people’s titles or teams’ say but what do they actually contribute. Understand what value they provide or not provide to the company. Realizing the strengths and weaknesses will give insight into voids and problems that are holding the company back.
Overlap data from above with 3Ps
People, Process and Product — I learnt and very much loved the simplicity of the concept from Marcus Lemonis of “The Profit” fame.
The concept is simple and elegant - focus on People (first), Process and Product and success should follow. Any well run successful company will be excelling or outperforming on these dimensions.
The 3Ps give you axes to rate the team/company on. As you build experience within the team/company you can use that framework to identify the axes/aspects where improvements can be done.
The 5Whys tool
The 5-Whys root cause analysis is an excellent methodology invented at Toyota to get to the bottom or root-cause of an error or issue. The idea is to go beyond the surface dig deeper, question assumptions, not stop and ask Why? at each step.
The 5-Whys when applied to areas of improvement you’ve identified will give you as close to a nicely packaged problem statement as possible in real life.
Last step — Action!
From this point on it’s pretty much up to you to take the initiative to socialize and partner on ideas and solutions, strategize and execute. Keep in mind that the tactics and strategy here will vary widely based on your role, skill set and resources. The key is to be able to influence or execute without authority.
Good luck! Happy to hear thoughts and comments.
