Table 1 A summary of Reaktor observations [39]
Company says | Teams say | Teams do | Client says |
|---|---|---|---|
Community | “Our team feels like a family”. | Collaborative decision-making: everyone’s opinion matters. | “Hi honeys!” |
Focus on doing | “We don’t book meetings”. | Passive resistance to meetings practice, but seek to solve the issue immediately so that the project proceeds. | Natural and spontaneous co-operation |
Empowering the teams in decision-making | ”We don’t want any asshole bosses” ”There are no fixed roles”, ”The one who happens to be around will communicate with the client” | No corporate ladder to climb, team members are treated equally. Challenging the team to better performance with constant sparring and leading collective self-control: asking e.g. How effective do you think you were today? | Need to justify own opinions |
Minimizing bureaucracy | ”It’s everyone’s responsibility, you don’t have budgets at home either do you?” | People have the power to act immediately according to own judgement. They feel responsible. People are free to focus on what is most important. | At first confusing, but effective results |
Quality work | ”No flaws, let’s get it right from the beginning” | Constant testing is essential, other person tests, team pressure, coaching other team members | When will things be ready? |
Solely high level professionals | ”we just do it”, ”only competence matters, not a degree” | Learning by doing, team or extended team helps: ”If we don’t have the knowledge, we find out together how to do it” | How can we trust? |
Constant questioning of given models, even own existing practices | ”How could we do it even better?” ”What could go wrong?” ”How do you feel today?” | They prioritise and focus on what is necessary and timely. A lot of visualization: tags who does what now, planning together before doing. | Takes time but it is important |
Social fit of employees a priority | ”We want to recruit active people with hobbies and interests” ”How could I improve myself as a person or as an employee?” | They want to recruit the kind of people they would like to hang out on their freetime. They recruit new team members themselves. They invite family members to team gatherings. | Participating in team competitions & common hobbies |
200 years focus | Fast fail | Teams focus on the task at hand. | Too much focus on instant tasks |