{"id":16430,"date":"2019-04-30T13:41:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T13:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=16430"},"modified":"2019-06-17T03:47:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T03:47:07","slug":"dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"Dysfunctional Teams and the Wisdom of Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The following insights were gleaned from a presentation at INDUSTRY given by Kirsten Butzow, formerly at Pragmatic Marketing (now at Salt River Project)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KirstenButzow\">@KirstenButzow<\/a>.&nbsp;Download <a href=\"https:\/\/producttactics.com\/vol1\/\">Product Management TACTICS eBook<\/a> for more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cross-functional interaction is critical for success.&nbsp; This is true for any team, but product teams in particular.&nbsp; Surprisingly, an analog and useful metaphor for thriving product teams can be derived from ants.&nbsp; Yes\u2026 ants.<\/p>\n<p>Ants are known for being highly efficient and effective team members. They have a shared vision. They have clarity and know why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing. Your shared vision is critical to creating a high functioning team.&nbsp; Your products and technology aren\u2019t your vision. They\u2019re what help you achieve it.<\/p>\n<p>Have you noticed that not everybody is completely aligned and that shared vision doesn\u2019t seem to be \u201cshared\u201d so much anymore?&nbsp; Then it\u2019s important to re-calibrate your vision statement. Ensure you\u2019re all marching in the same direction in fulfillment of the bigger goal. Ask, \u201cDo I believe it? Can it succeed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If people don\u2019t buy in, it won\u2019t work. This creates infighting, which just leads to more issues within your team.&nbsp; Convert your vision into something tangible that people can believe in and truly buy into.<\/p>\n<p>Consider how ants essentially form a superorganism by working together. Think how your team can function together as a single unit as opposed to a collection of individuals working separately.&nbsp; Organizations tend to overemphasize their organizational chart. This shouldn\u2019t be the case, though. The focus should instead be on the work that needs to be done &#8212; regardless of what the organizational chart looks like. If it isn\u2019t, people will find workarounds. The system breaks down quickly from here.<\/p>\n<p>You can create a great shared vision, commitment in it, and succeed with it.&nbsp; If ants can do this successfully, product teams certainly can, too.<\/p>\n<p>To view Kirsten\u2019s full presentation, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-wisdom-ants\/\">https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-wisdom-ants\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following insights were gleaned from a presentation at INDUSTRY given by Kirsten Butzow, formerly at Pragmatic Marketing (now at Salt River Project)&nbsp;@KirstenButzow.&nbsp;Download Product Management TACTICS eBook for more. Cross-functional interaction is critical for success.&nbsp; This is true for any team, but product teams in particular.&nbsp; Surprisingly, an analog and useful metaphor for thriving product [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dysfunctional Teams and the Wisdom of Ants - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dysfunctional Teams and the Wisdom of Ants - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following insights were gleaned from a presentation at INDUSTRY given by Kirsten Butzow, formerly at Pragmatic Marketing (now at Salt River Project)&nbsp;@KirstenButzow.&nbsp;Download Product Management TACTICS eBook for more. Cross-functional interaction is critical for success.&nbsp; This is true for any team, but product teams in particular.&nbsp; Surprisingly, an analog and useful metaphor for thriving product [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/productcollective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-30T13:41:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T03:47:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-30-at-9.40.09-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1353\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"792\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/\",\"name\":\"Dysfunctional Teams and the Wisdom of Ants - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-30-at-9.40.09-AM.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T13:41:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-17T03:47:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-30-at-9.40.09-AM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-30-at-9.40.09-AM.png\",\"width\":1353,\"height\":792},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/dysfunctional-teams-and-the-wisdom-of-ants\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dysfunctional Teams and the Wisdom of Ants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\",\"name\":\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"description\":\"For people who build, launch and scale world-class software products.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\",\"name\":\"Paul McAvinchey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Paul McAvinchey\"},\"description\":\"For over 20 years, Paul has been building and collaborating on digital products with fast-growing startups and global brands, including AOL and WMS Gaming. 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