Creating a Team Identity and Culture

Answering the question: “Who are we?” is a critical aspect of getting ready to work as a team. Creating a shared team identity involves discussing and determining the team’s purpose or mission, what the team values, and the team’s strengths and limitations. It involves understanding who each team member is as an individual, and the attributes and skillsets each person brings to the team. The development of a team identity also encompasses consideration of social norms – that is, what is appropriate and acceptable for engaging with one another? And what is not? Finally, it includes developing a common language, or a shared lexicon. While the team leader certainly plays a pivotal role in answering these questions concerning the team’s identity, every member of the team has a role in creating the team identity.

Having a shared team identity is important for common ground and a shared sense of purpose across the team. A shared team identity is also important when Communicating with Stakeholders. The team will maximize its opportunity for positive impact within the organization if members communicate the team’s purpose clearly and consistently to key stakeholders within the larger organization.

Key Issues and Challenges

The planning team’s identity is heavily influenced by the organizational context in which the team resides. What the team does, what the team’s activity actually looks like, and what the team can offer depends heavily on what is needed and wanted by others within the organization. It is also dependent upon what the larger organizational culture - and the organization’s senior leadership - will support. For example, some experienced planning team members reported that they had learned to avoid using the term “design team” when describing the team’s activities, because “design” was perceived so negatively in the larger organization. Thus, understanding the team’s organizational context is a key aspect in the development of the team’s identity.

The team identity is also based, in a very practical way, on the support the team receives from senior leadership. This includes the support and “cover” the team receives, both in a political sense and in terms of the resources dedicated to the team’s efforts.

Team members of more permanent, longer-term teams, may find that the team’s purpose and mission evolves significantly over time as the organizational leadership changes. In addition, as the membership of the team itself changes, the team’s identity will evolve.

Tips and Things to Consider

The following strategies have been suggested by experienced planning team leaders as a way to foster a shared team identity.

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Recognize what will “fit” the organization and its leadership (Expand)

Realize that the team’s purpose and identity is heavily wedded to the organizational context in which the team will be working. Therefore it is important to recognize and discuss “what the market will (or will not) support.” In other words, what processes and outcomes will fit or work within the organizational context? What sorts of work products will be well-received, and what are likely to be dismissed?

Elicit and recognize individual expertise (Expand)

Part of creating the team’s identity is understanding the unique skills, characteristics, knowledge, and experiences of each individual team member. Some straightforward strategies that experienced teams have found useful for uncovering the background and expertise of team members are:
- Providing a biographical sketch of each team member prior to the initial team interaction.
- Providing every team member an opportunity to describe who they are and what experiences and perspectives they bring to the team during initial team interactions. An example activity could be for team members to: “Describe in three minutes or less what you’ve done over the past 5 years.”
- Conducting a “speed dating” exercise. Each member of the team spends three minutes of time with another team member, learning about each other, and then moves onto the next team member. A variation on this exercise would involve pairing team members together. Each pair takes a few minutes to elicit background information from each other, and then each member of the pair introduces the other person to the team (Exercise Instructions).

Discuss “Who are we?” as a team (Expand)

Have team members ask themselves key questions such as: “Who are we? What is the team here to do? What unique value does the team offer?” Spend time as a team sharing members’ ideas about these topics. Creating visual depictions of the ideas can simultaneously foster visual thinking within the team.

Develop a team “elevator speech” (Expand)

As a team, construct a statement that captures the team’s reason-for-being, in just a few sentences. This is particularly useful when communicating with individuals within the larger organization and helping them to understand the value the team can offer (Elevator Speech Instructions).

Consider documenting key aspects of the team’s identity and culture (Expand)

Documenting the team’s identity can be done in an informal one-page “charter” that members can refer to periodically, or that can be posted within the team space for members to re-visit. Or the team’s identity can be documented in a more detailed manner. For example, one team leader created a “Team Handbook” that contained explicit statements and graphical representations of the team’s mission, the team’s values, key team members and their unique strengths, among other information. The Handbook became a resource that team members could refer to or share with members of the organization who asked about the team and its purpose (Team Charter Template).

Re-evaluate the team’s identity periodically (Expand)

For a variety of reasons, the team’s identity may adapt and evolve over time. This will be the case particularly if the planning team is together for a sustained period of time. Changes in organizational leadership and stakeholder’s needs and objectives, or the addition of new team members are factors that may contribute to the evolution and the need for adaptation. At these points, it can be helpful to revisit what the team discussed and agreed upon early in the team’s lifecycle with respect to the team’s central purpose and mission. Team members should review: “Is this still who we are as a team? How are we different now?”

One team we studied described the evolution that occurred when bringing in new team members. In some ways, bringing in new members can disrupt the existing team identity and create moments of confusion, particularly when legacy team members discuss or allude to past shared experiences. New team members generally will not have common ground or a shared language with the rest of the team. The addition of new members can be disruptive to the team’s identity, but can provide new perspectives on which to view the problem set. It also offers an opportunity for the team to re-visit the question, “Who are we and what is our purpose?”, and for the team to evolve their identity accordingly.

“I asked the very first question after the [team member] introductions in our 3-day course. I asked “who are we?” And that just set off a fire storm.”

(USAF COL, Ret.)

Tools and Resources

This section provides a set of tools and resources to supplement the topics covered in the “Building Trust and a Team Identity” module. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of resources, but provides a starting point for planning teams engaged in activities to build trust and develop a shared team identity. The material is organized into the following sections: 1) team exercises, and 2) suggested reading.

Team Exercises

Background Exploration Exercise [PDF]
Description: Provides an opportunity for team members to learn about each other’s unique skills, experiences, and perspectives through sharing of experiences and backgrounds with the team.

Scenario Training for Agile Teams (STAT) [PDF]
Description: A process and set of tools that helps team members get to know one other and rapidly develop into an effective team through discussion of realistic scenarios.

Elevator Pitch – Role Play [PDF]
Description: An exercise that helps teams consider and articulate their team’s purpose or reason-for-being in just a few sentences.

MAKING SENSE OF COMPLEX PROBLEMS

Creating a Team Identity and Culture

Key Issues and Challenges

Tips and Things to Consider

Tools and Resources

Team Exercises

Suggested Readings