GPR Improve partner relations

aka “Make friends”

Here you are focusing on your adjacent teams. Your goal is to reduce the level of collaboration required with other teams. Note: you are not decreasing your level of collaboration with other teams. You are decreasing the level that will be needed in order to succeed.

Get fluent at the levels that are necessary for your business. Most teams typically have a couple or a few other teams with which they need to cooperate or even collaborate. Find those. Make friends. Become fluent at your goal level.

Also start building your social networks. Interact with other teams that are working out loud. Follow them. Like/+1 their stuff to give feedback. Forward interesting stuff to others within the same social network system (or via email to pull others into the high-visibility system). Start commenting on other teams’ work products before they are finished.

Different sorts of connections

You can use the type of connection to help guide what the optimal level of interaction should be. For example:

Product connection – both teams are building the same product, or parts of the same product family.

• Remove connection – decouple products, so they can be separately built, released and sold

Technical connection – both teams are using the same system/service/codebase/component/…

• Remove connection – No code ownership, decouple architecture/systems, …

Knowledge connection – one team has knowledge or skills that the other team need

• Remove connection – knowledge sharing, move person with skill