This article is based on an interview between Financial Services Review Canada and Tammy Ward, managing director of team member collaboration and enablement at ATB Financial, on challenges to maintaining a collaborative work environment.
Brief Background on Your Roles in the Organizations You’ve Worked For
When I look back on my life for the past 30+ years, I can see a golden thread that weaves through it, tying my experiences together and leading me to this point in my career as an English major who became an accidental IT person less than a year into my first corporate job back in the days of WordPerfect 5.1 and DOS to building End-user support teams in several organizations as a leader in an IT consulting company to overcoming a major life-altering health battle which created an inflection point in my life. This led to a complete career change that focused on my love of people and human dynamics, creating and consulting in the world of team and leadership development. Thus, an accidental HR person was born, leading me to my first opportunity at my current company, ATB Financial. Five years later, I was asked to consider coming back to my IT roots and building an internal End-user support team as the organization moved away from decades-long in-sourced arrangements.
All that to say, I recognize my path has been winding, but my role as managing director, team member collaboration and enablement has given me an opportunity to marry my love of people to my love of technology that can make people more efficient and effective at their work to make their lives better.
Challenges Adhering to Successful Execution of a Collaborative Environment in an Organization
Competing goals and objectives within and between teams can get in the way of successfully fostering collaboration. When people in an organization are fuelled by genuine care for others, the success of others, and a collective purpose, the environment is ripe for collaboration. So often in corporations, there is what Simon Sinek refers to as a finite mindset; essentially, we look at work as a zero-sum game; if I win, then I lose. This impacts true collaboration because it implies that I must ensure my needs are held above yours so I don't lose. On the flip side, Sinek also talks about an Infinite mindset, which is 'grateful, builds relationships, and works toward a common good.’ The more individual teams can truly see they are in it together for the good of others (the company, the clients, etc.), the easier it is to put ego and insecurity aside to achieve collective success.
“Building highly collaborative, high-performing teams requires high levels of trust”
Truly, this takes time spent building relationships. Understanding those around you and what motivates them.
Collaboration Trends Transforming the Way We Work in today’s Hybrid Model
The hybrid work environment forced video-based meeting technology to leap to the forefront. While many people used FaceTime and Skype personally for years, far fewer used the tech - especially the video portion - in any material way pre-pandemic.
This is where ATB is different from many organizations. We’ve worked in a hybrid environment for well over ten years in many parts of the business; we didn't call it that; it's essentially what it was. Even so, there was a pivotal point in our journey where the organization leaned into collaboration tools and video meetings. In 2017, we undertook a journey to re-imagine the way we worked at ATB. That provided the impetus to really shake it up by moving to a Google environment. The ease of collaborating without managing multiple versions of documents, slide decks, and spreadsheets elevated the feeling of working together to create, learn, and analyze regardless of where in the world you ‘sat.’ The introduction of Google Meet to the organization was an opportunity to reset expectations that the norm for virtual connections is ‘video on’ and to have quick ad hoc connections – I call it my ‘virtual hallway’ because a quick ad hoc call is equivalent to stopping by someone's desk. Google chat has become the bedrock for communications for many teams using group chats and chat rooms for everything from team chats, information sharing, and technical troubleshooting to social connections and special interest groups (i.e., there is a chat room dedicated to sharing about books people have read and recommend).
Collaboration Strategies to Maintain an Effective Team Development and Communication
In addition to providing ongoing end-user technology support, my team has to be constantly looking at the ever-evolving needs of team members as the demand for exceptional experiences with technology grows. We use several strategies to ensure that our TMCE team members stay aligned, can work on projects together, stay up to date on changes to the technical landscape, etc. We leverage technology to assist in this: chatrooms, regular virtual meetings, and annual all-hands-in-person to connect, collaborate, and celebrate.
I believe that more important than the tools for collaboration is the human factor. A foundational component is our team culture rooted in practices espoused by Patrick Lencioni and Brene Brown; this starts with recruitment but is something we cultivate and protect. Our core mission is ‘we exist because things break, technology evolves, and team member experience matters.’ I have an incredible group of seven leaders who report to me; they care deeply about the well-being and success of each other and work together to support their own teams and the larger team as a whole. It takes conscious, intentional effort and, most importantly, genuine care for people in order to create a collaborative, caring & safe environment that fosters collaboration, open communication, and growth.
Advice for Senior Leaders and CXOs in the Industry
In technology, it is easy for leaders who are technical experts to focus on the technology to solve problems and be the glue for teams. I believe that leaders need to keep the human element at the forefront. Building highly collaborative, high-performing teams requires high levels of trust. This trust needs to be vulnerability-based trust - this means leaders must be willing to show they are imperfect, fallible, but always evolving humans. Leaders should constantly invest in their leadership practice and share how they learn and grow with their teams. Leaders need to be willing to have meaningful conversations and sometimes difficult conversations - to lean into the messiness that being human involves. Leaders who can paint a picture of the desired future, establish desired outcomes, and create a high trust, high accountability environment set the stage for their teams to thrive in this fast-paced, hybrid reality.
