Team Work and Team Behaviour :
Findings of a CDF Team Leader
Robin Biesbroek
SECESA 2012
17/10/2012
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
Teamwork within Concurrent
Engineering
1. The concurrent engineering approach is based on 5 key elements:
a.
a process
b.
a multi-disciplinary team
c.
an integrated design model
d.
a facility, and
e.
a software/hardware infrastructure
2. Note…in the ESA CDF there is no „standard team‟ dedicated to
concurrent engineering sessions
a.
Team members give support to other projects too
b.
…and are therefore selected based on availability
3. Therefore: for each study we have a different team. No team is the
same…
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 2
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The role of the team leader in ESA’s
CDF
1. ESA CDF is customer oriented
a.
Customers such as: Science directorate, Human spaceflight,
Navigation, Telecom & Integrated applications, Earth Observation
CUSTOMER
TEAM LEADER
SYSTEM ENGINEERS
TEAM
2. The team leader coordinates the study (organises sessions and the team,
the manpower allocation, prepares agenda for the sessions and always
communicates to customer)
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 3
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The problem of being team leader
1. Team leaders are typically chosen due to their excellent capabilities in
their previous work (for example, within the CDF) and shown skills to
„lead‟ and be very pro-active
a.
„Move up‟ from engineer to system engineer, and then to team
leader
b.
This means we are not trained people managers
c.
In your CDF….mostly likely this is the same
2. This presentation informs on my experiences during the last nine years
working as a team leader
no psychiatry though…..
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 4
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
Photo: Corbis
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Different kinds of team members….
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 5
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘good’….
1. Good team members are motivated
2. Good team members are pro-active
3. Charming is a good feature of team leaders
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 6
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘good’….motivation
1. Good team members are motivated
a.
How do we motivate people?
b.
„New approach‟ (only if they are new to CE)
c.
We make the decisions together; i.e. they help „shaping‟ the entire
satellite design
d.
Satellite project approval cycle may depend on this team
e.
Team feeling, team feeling, team feeling… Go for lunch together after
the session, even for dinner after the study
f.
Nice environment (CDF used to be in barracks…team members liked the
„Swiss chalets‟ feeling inside
g.
Nice project: new type of project (see presentation on OpsSat), but:
–
What is nice to you may not be nice to others
–
People need to believe in the project (budget, technology
readiness etc.); negotiate with customer
h.
Easier for younger engineers than soon-to-be-retired
i.
Make sure that everybody in the team is properly introduced!!!
j.
Make sure that the objectives of each design session is clearly set
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 7
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘good’….Pro-activity
2. Good team members are pro-active
a.
Remind team members that they are always allowed to „stand
up and shout‟
b.
Make sure team members are involved in the discussions
c.
Enforce „informality‟ (sometimes discussions are more heated
during the lunch after the session!)
d.
Reward pro-activity
–
A „thank you‟ as a minimum…but perhaps even a
thanking letter to his/her boss after the study, informing
of the team member‟s excellent behaviour
–
Combination of good engineering skills and pro-activity
are keys to be system engineer and even team leader: if
a team member shows good system engineering skills
and pro-activity during a few studies, evaluate the
possibility of offering a system engineering job
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 8
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘good’….Charm
3. Charming is a good feature of team leaders
a.
If you are an idiot…people are less likely to talk to you…
b.
A team leader has a special „role‟
c.
a.
Stand in front of the team
b.
Motivate the team
c.
Solve problems within the team
d.
Persuade people to work
If the team leader is in a bad mood, it will be noticed
during a design session
a.
Important to stay calm, friendly and kind
b.
But…not too kind; still need to be persuasive
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 9
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘bad’…..
1. Bad team members are stressed
2. Bad team members lie
3. Bad team members have conflicts
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 10
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘bad’…..Stress
1. Bad team members are stressed
a.
Stress is one of the most common problems for team
members not doing an adequate job. MORE than motivation
b.
In the ESA CDF, team members are expected to dedicate 40%
of their time to the study. What if they need to dedicate 80%
of their time to another project, which is already running for
years?
c.
It‟s important to inform team members‟ managers that they
should ensure proper task management of their engineers
–
Not „just a pre-phase A‟…..
–
Job of team leader to identify stress with team members
and act accordingly
–
Distribute work over 2 team members for the same
engineering discipline?
–
If needed: system engineers need to step in and take
over part of the work
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 11
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘bad’…..Lies
2. Bad team members lie
a.
b.
“Need to go to another meeting”…
–
…around lunch time…
–
…or exactly at the time of a karate lesson…
“I‟m looking into it”…
–
…is synonym for “I‟m lazy or simply forgot about it, and
now that you reminded me I may actually have a look at
it”
c.
Take it with a grain of salt if it doesn‟t jeopardise the study
results; it‟s rarely a problem
d.
Anticipate if you work with this person again
e.
But ensure that this person understands the importance of
Concurrent Engineering components (team, sessions, etc.)
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 12
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘bad’…..Conflicts
3. Bad team members do not get along
a.
Rarely poses a problem: we are professionals, even if we don‟t like each
other it doesn‟t mean we cannot work together
b.
But CE builds on team work and sharing data with each other: the
better we work together, the better the CE aspect
c.
So if it truly poses a problem: team leader and/or system engineers
need to identify the problem and liaise („sit apart with each of them‟, be
communication buffer)
d.
Not more than a handful of occurrences in 9 years
There are other conflicts though:
a.
Customer doesn‟t agree with the proposed solution by the team (or the
cost estimate!)
b.
More common and very difficult: we need to keep a happy customer,
yet a realistic design; need to have good convincing skills towards the
customer
c.
ESA cost estimates are done independently; we check their work but
customer cannot „steer‟ the results (i.e. lower the cost)
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 13
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘ugly’…….(problem)
Not ugly people  but „ugly‟ problems as they are extremely hard to
solve…
1. Shyness
2. Stereotyping
3. Laziness
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 14
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘ugly’…….Shyness
1. Shyness occurs more often than people think; often strongly related to insecureness
Can lead to different situations:
a.
Fear to „speak up‟ which can lead to decisions being taken not fully in
consensus (which is a key point of CE!)
b.
Slow start up: often the first design iteration relies on „best guesses‟ by
engineers‟ experience. An engineer may feel uncomfortable sharing this
guess as he/she may fear it is wrong
–
c.
Slow in giving results: a shy engineer may not understand the task but
is simply too insecure to ask for explanation
–
d.
Team leader & system engineers need to convince people that if
their first guess is wrong, we still have iterations to come to
improve the design; it is common to have mistakes in the
beginning (wrong assumptions or interpretation of requirements,
etc.) and we always solve them in iterations to come
For example: not understanding an acronym
Team leader needs to understand this and give more personnel
attention to these engineers. Do not force them to be less shy
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 15
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘ugly’…….Stereotyping
2. Stereotyping is common but often can be dealt with (not solved) quite easily
This is Mr. „Slick‟
This is not slick
Well dressed, shirts etc. Clean haircut. Stupid car
Never wears suit. Long hair. Takes the tram
Smiles at manager
Smiles at team members
Managers like this guy as system engineer
Managers prefer Mr. Slick as system
engineer…….
…..but they are wrong!
Team leaders often need to convince customers that the engineers he/she selected are the
right ones, despite looks, gender or age!!! Often this is easily done, though stereotyping as such
will always remain
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 16
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
The ‘ugly’…….Laziness
1. Laziness is an irritating feature
a.
Team members may not follow standards (presentation format, design
standards etc.). This often leads to more work for team leader or
system engineers to convert to the correct standard
b.
Team members may not use design models. This is a serious problem,
as it may result in wrong results as all other team members are using
the model and expect results via the model
2. Need to force people out of this laziness
3. If after repeating attempts still not successful, try to avoid this team member in
the future if possible, as quality may depend on it
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 17
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
Other issues
1. Hardware: make sure it all works
a.
Everybody gets irritated if hardware doesn‟t work
b.
PC‟s, servers break down: team members are obscured in
their efficiency, often leading to demotivation
c.
Videoconference: if image or in particular sound doesn‟t work,
leads to much stress on team leader & IT engineers, and
„people on the other side‟ feel left out
2. Growth of the facility
a.
ESA CDF started as a section of a few members. Now over 20.
Do we still feel motivated? Still have team spirit??
b.
Yes we do… See motivation slide: we influence project
decisions, we still have different and new design challenges
c.
But…customer expectations grow (for long-lasting customers)
-> need to keep agreeing on expected outputs of a CDF study
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 18
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
So…
1. There will always be good, bad and „ugly‟ team members…
2. Impact of bad & ugly can be minimised by:
a.
Keep the motivation going: remind of importance, give proper
introductions, clear study & session objectives
b.
Enforce informality: keep the sessions as informal as possible, allow
everybody to speak up, go for lunch together, keep a good team spirit
c.
Reward the good ones!
3. The team leader needs to act as a „guide‟ to help the team go through the entire
design process
a.
Help team members if there are problems with shyness, conflicts, stress
or hard problems to solve
b.
Keep a good & strong relation with system engineers
–
Team leader may not solve all problems at the same time, needs
to allocate tasks to system engineers
4. After nine years of doing this; I‟m still very happy in this job. If you handle it
properly, working with people (& meeting new ones) is one of the nicest things of
your job
Team Work and Team Behaviour | Robin Biesbroek | SECESA 2012 | 17/10/2012 | D/TEC | Slide 19
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use