At Vincit, we work on software development in project teams. We have a lot of different people working for us. Some are more introverted, like to be on their phones all day, some are more extroverted and everything in between.
When starting a new project, there may be people in the team who do not yet know each other well. It is important to get different people to work well together from the start. This will give the project an effective start and get it moving quickly.
The basis is trust
The starting point is trust and everything is built on it. trust is the ability to be vulnerable in front of another person. It takes courage for many, and it is important to lower the threshold to be vulnerable. It is often more difficult than one might think.
In SmoothTeam, people open up their own thinking and sometimes their own homespun to others. So they are vulnerable and it builds trust effectively. Laughter is also an essential part of the sessions, which releases the atmosphere and makes it easier to talk about things.
With the sales team, we played a "team strengths" simulation and got to know each other better. In a nice way, the game revealed new facets of our colleagues. Although we had all been at Vincit for a long time, we didn't know each other very well because we hadn't worked together before. Six months after the game, I said to a team mate when we were planning an event: "you're probably not coming for a beer tonight, as you're not interested in that". The guy was very surprised, which I guessed. "You told me on SmoothTeam."
Teleworking simulation helped to find common ground
With the corona pandemic, the whole of Vincit also went telecommuting, which of course has affected the work in many ways. We have organised virtual coffee breaks and other remote activities, but of course many people are longing for a return to normal everyday life.
At the start of a new project I recently started, I wondered how team building would work when the team members couldn't see each other. Building trust remotely seemed difficult, although all sorts of communication tools were available.
In the start-up phase of the project, we played a remote work simulation. That worked amazingly well too. It was great to have teammates hear how others were working remotely. How they take breaks, who has children, who prefers to work in the morning and who in the evening. The discussion made it much easier to find common ground in a changed situation.
People in the main
The SmoothTeam tool is great for supporting the progress of an event, but it doesn't take the lead. The main focus is on the conversation between people. The discussion brings good insights and reduces prejudices.
The simulations encourage us to pay more attention to the fact that we are all individuals. This makes a real difference to the way we work and provides support for our daily work.
I highly recommend SmoothTeam to anyone who works in a team.
Veli-Pekka Eloranta
Agile coach
Vincit is a service design and software house with around 500 employees.
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