Kick-off Pt 2 - Building Trust & Communication

Rebecca highlights the dangers of neglecting key kick-off activities. She explores the practical outputs of kick-off, alongside the human-centric, relationship-based elements which are essential to setting teams up for success.

This is Part 2 of 3 articles. If you haven’t read Part 1, I recommend starting there!

Building Trust

As a Brit I naturally fall more on the task-based side of the ‘Trusting’ scale. As a Consultant working with clients from all over the globe I’ve had to adapt to operate on the relationship-based side of the scale.

Taken from “The Culture Map” by Erin Meyer

Travelling for business, the practical task-based side of me is usually itching to go back to the hotel after a long day of client meetings, to catch up on emails and absorb the day’s info, to prep for the following day’s sessions. I have learnt to ignore this instinct and spend valuable time engaging in an evening dinner with clients and team members. It’s helpful when you engage in any kick-off activity to always offer the option of an evening dinner or a good, long lunch.

Trust in emerging markets tends to sit on the relationship-based side. Erin Meyer’s provides an illuminating example:

If a Danish business owner sells 200 purses to a new store in Copenhagen, and the store promises to pay next week, the Danish business owner knows they will pay as they have signed a contract. If they don’t pay there is an established legal system to ensure they are adequately compensated.

However, if a Nigerian business owner sells 200 purses to a new store in Lagos, they can sign a contract with them, however the legal system is less reliable and enforcing payment may not be possible. The only way they may feel assured that payment will be made as agreed, is perhaps if they have done business with the new store owner’s brother before. Or, perhaps a close friend recommended the new store owner advising that they are reliable because they’re family friends. As such our Nigerian supplier concludes they are trustworthy through these relationships.

As Erin Meyer states

 “For this reason, investing time in establishing trust will often save time (and many other resources) in the long run.”

Communication — who, what, when, how:

Understanding communication preferences is extremely important. During any kick-off phase with a new client you want to establish a jointly agreed Communication Plan, which details the ‘who, what, when and how’ of your interactions

Especially in The UAE or Saudi Arabia, picking up the phone or meeting face to face (if possible) is very valuable. Weekly, semi-weekly or even daily calls with your main client stakeholders or partners goes a long way.

 Ensuring personable interactions and ultimately being a reliable problem-solver rather than risk mitigator, will cement a strong relationship from the outset. See my post on Risk Mitigation vs. Problem-Impact Planning.

Conclusion:

As an Agile Lead you are part coach, part subject-matter expert, part-mediator, part-anthropologist! This is especially true in an increasingly borderless business world: the need to understand cultural norms, establish client relationships over Zoom, and effectively bring together distributed teams on new engagements, means navigating a slalom of obstacles on an often intimidating slope of hidden crevasses!

You can never be all things to all people all of the time, but with knowledge comes understanding and the means for you to build relationships with the right foundations.