• Information For
    • Computational Molecular Sciences Community
    • Environmental System Science Community
    • Exascale Computing Community
    • Scientific Libraries Community
    • Software Engineering Community
    • Community of Supercomputer Facilities and their Users
  • Contribute to BSSw
  • Receive Our Email Digest
  • Contact BSSw
  • Information For
    Computational Molecular Sciences Community Environmental System Science Community Exascale Computing Community Scientific Libraries Community Software Engineering Community Community of Supercomputer Facilities and their Users
  • Contribute to BSSw
  • Receive Our Email Digest
  • Resources

    Better

    Planning

    • Software Process Improvement
    • Software Engineering
    • Requirements
    • Design
    • Software Interoperability

    Better

    Development

    • Documentation
    • Configuration and Builds
    • Revision Control
    • Release and Deployment
    • Issue Tracking
    • Programming Languages
    • Development Tools
    • Refactoring

    Better

    Performance

    • High-Performance Computing (HPC)
    • Performance at Leadership Computing Facilities
    • Performance Portability

    Better

    Reliability

    • Testing
    • Continuous Integration Testing
    • Reproducibility
    • Debugging

    Better

    Collaboration

    • Projects and Organizations
    • Strategies for More Effective Teams
    • Funding Sources and Programs
    • Software Publishing and Citation
    • Licensing
    • Discussion and Question Sites
    • Conferences and Workshops

    Better

    Skills

    • Online Learning
    • Personal Productivity and Sustainability

    View All Resources

    • Better Planning
    • Better Development
    • Better Performance
    • Better Reliability
    • Better Collaboration
    • Better Skills
    • View All Resources
  • Blog
  • Events
  • About
    • Team
    • Policies and Code of Conduct
    • BSSw Fellowship Program
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Scaling Small Teams to a Team of Teams: Shared...

Scaling Small Teams to a Team of Teams: Shared Consciousness

Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Tweet Copied! Permalink

PublishedApr 17, 2018
Author Elaine Raybourn and David Moulton
TOPICS
Better Collaboration
Strategies for More Effective Teams
Discussion and Question Sites
Projects and Organizations

This post, the first in a series on the topic of better collaboration, introduces the idea of developing shared consciousness among and within teams as an important step on the path toward scaling the productivity of small teams to a large networked aggregate team, or a team of teams (McChrystal et al., 2015).


For many computational scientists, past success may have been achieved by working shoulder-to-shoulder on small, trusted teams (e.g. professor, collaborating students and postdocs, or a modest sized research group) that rapidly innovated, prototyped, and delivered. In a December 2017 Better Scientific Software post, (What Are Strategies for More Effective Teams?) McInnes asserts that “increasingly prevalent as CSE teams work toward next-generation challenges in predictive science are aggregate teams, composed of multiple successful previously existing teams, where software is a primary means of collaboration.” These aggregate teams are often distributed across organizations, physical locations, time zones, language communities, and cultures. As such, it can be a challenge to foster successful collaboration in larger, distributed teams.

In our own projects we have been exploring ways to apply lessons learned from the book, “Team of Teams: New Rules for Engagement in a Complex World” by retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal and others (2015). The authors describe a team of teams as a network of coordinated teams who are interdependent and share trust as well as an awareness of a common purpose, and goal. This connectivity of common purpose, trust, awareness of each other, and transparent communication is referred to as shared consciousness (McCrystal et al., 2015). We don’t have to be in project management or a formal leadership role to help our teams reach across rigid organizational structures to achieve shared consciousness.

We believe shared consciousness among teams can enhance organizational productivity and facilitate innovation critical to achieving an integrated exascale vision. Whether we are co-located or distributed, post docs, team members, or group leaders, we can all participate in reaching an integrated exascale vision together. Below we summarize three strategies from the authors to help us get started toward developing shared consciousness in our programs.

1. Identify a single, aligning narrative:

Before we can have shared consciousness among our distributed teams, we’ll have to first foster a shared mental model of why we are doing what we are doing. That is, before focusing on the technical capabilities to connect, we could take time to engender the willingness to connect (Fussell & Goodyear, 2017). One way to accomplish this is to have a single unifying message that speaks to everyone—consider, each individual, on every team, can see themselves as participants in the story as it unfolds. Try repeating this aligning narrative as often as needed, perhaps by opening each meeting with the common purpose, until team members feel comfortable articulating it themselves.

What is your aligning narrative?

In your organization’s current state, how would an aligning narrative be best emphasized and contextualized for your teams? Fussell & Goodyear (2017, pg. 61)

2. Build trust:

Use the common conceptual model or aligning narrative of the entire, interconnected project to build trust among individuals within a team, and across distributed teams. The terms “within” and “across,” may also refer to vertical and horizontal alignment in hierarchical organizations. Many of us who are part of hierarchical organizations may often perceive building trust within vertical alignment to be easiest, although that may not always be the case. Trust may also be built across horizontal organizational alignment with individuals with whom we share common purpose, language, and conceptual models. In the book, “Great at Work,” Hansen (2018) describes trust as confidence in individuals to consistently and reliably deliver high quality work that is expected from them. If our teams have not reached this level of trust, Hansen recommends applying “trust boosters” to specific trust problems as needed. For example, if distributed team members across a project do not know each other well (they may be strangers), the teams may want to try some bonding exercises or techniques to share personal information.

Do your partnerships need a “trust booster?”

Your teams might claim to trust and have open lines of dialogue with one another—but can they demonstrate examples of how this trust is helping accomplish your organization’s strategy? Fussell & Goodyear (2017, pg. 61)

3. Commit to sharing information to develop and maintain strong connections among teams:

Achieving a team of teams will rely on our ability to foster interdependent teams. Interdependence does not merely rely on co-located, “shoulder-to-shoulder” communication. Interdependence must be built on information sharing that is transparent and efficient, and allowing teams to execute work based on their initiative. Since teams are increasingly distributed and virtual, we can try using cloud-based development tools and video/whiteboard meeting software environments. The use of information technology will help propagate information across the network and foster transparent communication. We’ll have to be patient—strong connections won’t happen overnight.

How well is your aligning narrative supported by transparent and effective communication?

Could your organization leverage both physical and virtual spaces to drive cross-silo coordination and improve communication on strategy? Fussell & Goodyear (2017, pg. 108)

Summary

In summary, when scaling from small teams to a team of teams, consider how to bootstrap your efforts with the goal of shared consciousness. While this may sound daunting at first, scaling collaboration found in small teams to an aggregate can be made much smoother within our programs by considering the connectivity of an aligning narrative, trust among interdependent teams, and the use of modern technology to foster transparent communication, and efficient information sharing. Taking time to build trust and a unified sense of purpose within and across teams are important steps in scaling from a small team to a distributed aggregate, or team of teams.

More Info

See slides from a breakout session led by Elaine and David at the 2018 ECP Annual Meeting: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6151097.

References

Fussell, C. & Goodyear, C.W. (2017). One mission: How leaders build a team of teams. New York, NY: Penguin Random House LLC.

Hansen, M. T. (2018). Great at work: How top performers do less, work better, and achieve more. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

McChrystal, S., Collins, T., Silverman, D., Fussell, C. (2015). Team of teams: New rules of engagement for a complex world. New York, NY: Penguin Random House LLC.

Comment

More on Strategies for More Effective Teams, Discussion and Question Sites, and Projects and Organizations

Give Thanks!

Published Nov 23, 2020

By Angela Herring

Increasing Productivity by Broadening Participation in Scientific Software Communities

Published Sep 25, 2020

By Mary Ann Leung, Damian Rouson, and Lois Curfman McInnes

Working Remotely: The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Panel Series

Published Jul 30, 2020

By Elaine M. Raybourn, Reed Milewicz, David M. Rogers, Elsa Gonsiorowski, PhD, Benjamin Sims, and Greg Watson

Working Remotely: The Spack Team

Published May 16, 2020

By Todd Gamblin and Elaine M. Raybourn

Maintainers Drive Software Sustainability

Published Apr 14, 2020

By Steven Smith

Research Software Science: A Scientific Approach to Understanding and Improving How We Develop and Use Software for Research

Published Sep 25, 2019

By Mike Heroux

Making Open Source Research Software Visible: A Path to Better Sustainability?

Published Sep 12, 2019

By Neil Chue Hong

Leading a Scientific Software Project: It's All Personal

Published Jun 27, 2019

By Wolfgang Bangerth

Building Connections and Community within an Institution

Published Oct 26, 2018

By Greg Watson and Elsa Gonsiorowski, PhD

Do Social Media and Science Mix? Twitter Use in a Large Research Project

Published Aug 30, 2018

By Tim Scheibe

BSSw Fellowship Activity: Promoting Software Citation

Published Mar 13, 2018

By Daniel S. Katz

New FAQ List for BSSw Fellowship Program ... Applications Due by Jan 5, 2018

Published Dec 13, 2017

By Mike Heroux and Lois Curfman McInnes

BSSw Site Launch at SC17 ... Contribute to Better Scientific Software!

Published Nov 13, 2017

By David E. Bernholdt, Mike Heroux, and Lois Curfman McInnes

Pending BSSw Site Launch at SC17

Published Sep 27, 2017

By Lois Curfman McInnes

Better Scientific Software: 2020 Highlights

Published Jan 07, 2021

By Rinku Gupta

Introducing the 2021 BSSw Fellows

Published Dec 16, 2020

By Hai Ah Nam

The RSE-HPC-2020 Workshop: Creating Community, Building Careers, Addressing Challenges

Published Oct 26, 2020

By Charles Ferenbaugh, Sandra Gesing, Simon Hettrick, and Daniel S. Katz

Applications Open for the 2021 BSSw Fellowship Program

Published Aug 19, 2020

By Hai Ah Nam

2019 BSSw Fellows Guide Developers through Each Stage of the Scientific Software Lifecycle

Published Jul 17, 2020

By Hai Ah Nam, Rene Gassmoeller, Ignacio Laguna, Tanu Malik, and Kyle Niemeyer

Research Software Engineer Stories

Published Apr 24, 2020

By Vanessasaurus

Scientific Software Projects and Their Communities

Published Mar 23, 2020

By Rene Gassmoeller

Spreading Ideas about Better Scientific Software

Published Feb 28, 2020

By David E. Bernholdt

US Research Software Engineer (US-RSE) Association

Published Jan 15, 2020

By Ian Cosden, Chris Hill, Sandra Gesing, and Charles Ferenbaugh

Better Scientific Software: 2019 Highlights

Published Jan 03, 2020

By Rinku Gupta

Introducing the 2020 BSSw Fellows

Published Dec 13, 2019

By Hai Ah Nam

Software Sustainability in the Molecular Sciences

Published Nov 14, 2019

By Theresa Windus and T. Daniel Crawford

Data-driven Software Sustainability

Published Sep 18, 2019

By Daniel S. Katz

Applications Open for 2020 BSSw Fellowship Program ... Q&A Webinar on Sept 20, 2019

Published Sep 04, 2019

By Hai Ah Nam

Building Community through Software Policies

Published Aug 12, 2019

By Piotr Luszczek and Ulrike Meier Yang

2018 BSSw Fellows Tackle Scientific Productivity Challenges

Published Mar 28, 2019

By Hai Ah Nam

Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Reusable Software: Special issue of IEEE CiSE

Published Mar 19, 2019

By Scott Lathrop

Better Scientific Software: 2018 Highlights

Published Jan 04, 2019

By Lois Curfman McInnes, David E. Bernholdt, and Mike Heroux

Introducing the 2019 BSSw Fellows

Published Dec 11, 2018

By David E. Bernholdt, Mike Heroux, and Lois Curfman McInnes

SC18: Does That Stand for “Software Conference”?

Published Nov 08, 2018

By David E. Bernholdt

Applications Open for 2019 BSSw Fellowship Program ... Q&A Webinar on Sept 21, 2018

Published Sep 10, 2018

By David E. Bernholdt, Mike Heroux, and Lois Curfman McInnes

URSSI: Conceptualizing a US Research Software Sustainability Institute

Published Jul 30, 2018

By Daniel S. Katz, Jeff Carver, Sandra Gesing, Karthik Ram, and Nic

Research Software Engineer: A New Career Track?

Published Jun 14, 2018

By Chris Richardson

Call for Papers ... Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Reusable Software

Published Feb 26, 2018

By Scott Lathrop

Introducing the 2018 BSSw Fellows

Published Feb 05, 2018

By David E. Bernholdt, Mike Heroux, and Lois Curfman McInnes

Applications Open for New BSSw Fellowship Program ... Q&A Webinar on Dec 12, 2017

Published Dec 01, 2017

By Mike Heroux and Lois Curfman McInnes

logo Better Scientific Software
  • BSSw Fellowship Program
  • Policies
  • Site Contributors
  • Contact BSSw
  • Receive Our Email Digest
  • Follow Our RSS Feed

Copyright © 2020 Better Scientific Software under MIT License

United States Department of Energy Office of Science National Nuclear Security Administration Exascale Computing Project