01

IMPROVING TEAM
EFFECTIVENESS
of a Lockheed Martin team

JESSICA STELTER
NOVEMBER 2020
 IMPROVING TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

CONTENTS

03 08

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS:

OBJECTIVE & GOAL SETTING

04
09
RESULTS & NEEDS ANALYSIS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
MEETING EFFECTIVENESS

05

TEAM SWOT ANALYSIS 10

RESULTS:
TEAM DIAGNOSTICS SURVEY
06

ACTION PLAN
11

07 RESULTS:
BURNDOWN CHARTS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
TEAM COORDINATION
12

CONCLUSION
 03

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this report, I analyze the productivity and

effectiveness of Lockheed Martin's Career &
Competency team. Based on results from a team
diagnostics survey, one-on-one interviews with
team members, and a workload analysis, I
implemented solutions and recommendations in
order to:

1. Enhance coordination and communication

between team members by utilizing Scrum and
Agile methodology supported by project
management and collaboration tools
2. Clarify goals and objectives of the team, in
addition to project realignment. goal, and
mission setting meetings
3. Improve the efficiency and productivity of
recurring team meetings, as well as revisiting
unaddressed concerns and ideas from previous
meeting notes

The result of these interventions and

recommendations were proven to increase team
productivity by 19% on the next Sprint rotation and
improve team member perceptions of the following
dimensions: team vision and purpose, individual
ownership & autonomy, meeting effectiveness,
morale, team coordination, team member
development, and understanding of goals &
objectives.
 04

TEAM DIAGNOSTICS
SURVEY
PRE-INTERVENTION RESULTS

AVERAGE DIMENSION NEED

Need more consistent work processes.

3.35 Team Coordination
Need more effective communication.

Meetings perceived as inefficient.

3.47 Meeting Effectiveness
Ideas not quickly implemented/revisited.

Understanding Not a shared understanding of what success

3.64 Objectives and Roles looks like. Unclear project work/status.
Individual Ownership Reward system does not reward individual
4.00 & Autonomy excellence. Autonomy is good.

Articulating Vision & Good, but need slightly more focus on big
4.02
Compelling Purpose picture issues/concepts.

Overall good, but lower scores on

4.15 Morale
perceptions of work being worthwhile.

Feedback & Great team feedback, perhaps need more

4.30
Recognition individual feedback.

Team Member Team members agree there are ample

4.62
Development development and leadership opportunities.

The Team Diagnostic Survey consisted of 3 to 5 questions for each of the 8 dimensions. The
average scores above represents the mean of those questions per dimension. Data was also
collected via open response survey questions, one-on-one interviews with team members, and
a workload analysis to measure how productive and efficient the team is being with their time.

Survey questions were compiled from the University of Colorado Team Effectiveness Questionnaire and
Cornell University's Leadership Team Effectiveness Survey, then were edited and adjusted for relevancy and
to fit the needs of the team.
https://www.cu.edu/sites/default/files/Team_effectiveness_questionnaire.pdf
•https://hr.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/gmc_sample.pdf

TEAM SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
Team member development
Team feedback & recognition
Morale and comradery
Balance of individual and collective
work
Autonomy and trust
OPPORTUNITIES
Optimize utilization of project
management and collaboration tools to
improve communication and processes
Onboarding of new interns presents a
good opportunity for goal, project, and
methodology clarification
Take advantage of Agile/Scrum guides
to improve effectiveness of meetings
Utilize NextGen Recognition for
individual recognition
05
WEAKNESSES
Communication and coordination
Team productivity
Meeting efficiency
Implementation of ideas
Communicating goals and objectives for
projects and team
Little room for individual
ownership/pride on assignments due
to collaborative work
THREATS
Leader bandwidth: leader lacks time to
update team on projects or explain
work due to too many simultaneous
projects and too many meetings
Team coordination: 7 interns on a team
with no defined roles may lead to role
ambiguity, task ambiguity, or
overlap/duplication of efforts
Undefined methodology of work
process can lead to inconsistencies
between members in team operations,
configuration management, etc.
 06

ACTION PLAN
The plan was to implement some quick changes to see fast results, in addition to
long-term corrections. Each Sprint (which is a duration of 2 weeks) would focus
on improving one of the 3 greatest pressure points, as shown below.

TEAM COORDINATION
Due to the collaborative nature of the team, an
analysis showed a duplication of efforts with
Sprint 1 impediments in coordination and communication. The
first Sprint focused on tracking and updating work
efforts and assignment status, establishing ownership
of work, and consistency of work and communication
processes.

GOAL & OBJECTIVE SETTING

While big picture visions were articulated well, team
members lacked a shared understanding of what the
objectives for the team were, what success looks like
Sprint 2 for the team, and what stage the multiple projects are
in. This sprint consisted of mission setting, goal
setting, and project clarification and realignment. The
timing of this goal setting sprint intentionally aligned
with the onboarding of new interns, for their benefit.

MEETING EFFECTIVENESS
Members expressed meetings needed to be more
efficient. Often due to the lack of time, solutions,

Sprint 3 ideas, and concerns discussed in retrospective

meetings are often not revisited or implemented.
Sprint 3 was focused on preparing for meetings,
reducing meeting length, adding steps from
the Scrum methodology, and revisiting notes and
ideas from previous meetings.
 07

RECOMMENDATIONS | SPRINT 1
Team Coordination

Before Every New Sprint:

Ensure fully stocked backlog. Cards
should be built out: immediately
actionable, negotiable, value is clear,
Box
estimated by the team, sized to fit in a
Organization: Follow file structure
sprint, and testable
Version control: Discourage saving
"Done" column should be cleared
newly edited versions. Box automatically
All story points should be estimated
saves all versions in "Activity"
If its a working copy, add "Draft" after
the title. If its the final, add the date it
was finalized to the title

Scrum Board
Add a task lead to every card. Lead is the
POC, responsible for that assignment,
ensures points are updated, and moves
the card along
Slack
Team members keep points updated -
Daily checklist in team channel
3:30 daily reminder sent to all members
Consolidate channels for team to
Include link to the assignment in the card
"cc_dev_team" channel to avoid
Include most recent update/status in the
confusion and missing information
"Activity" section of the card
Notify team members with @ sign,
Check inside the card first (Activity and
respond in thread if minor
Checklists) before working on the task to
Separate channel for interns
avoid duplication of efforts
Increase the size of the interrupt buffer to
14 points. Take from the buffer when
adding new cards; write what points were
deducted for in "Activity" of buffer card

RECOMMENDATIONS | SPRINT 2
Clarification of Goals & Objectives
Develop a Team Mission
A team mission will help team members
understand their purpose, what success
looks like for the team, and will help the
Product Owner only accept work that is in
alignment with the team's priorities.
Career and Competency Team Mission:
"To offer our I/O Psychology expertise to
support other teams and directly help client
groups co-create career frameworks and
related solutions that are applicable across all
of Lockheed Martin."
Project Clarification Meeting
Interns will collaborate to define the
purpose, scope of work, clients and points
of contact, desired end state, deliverables,
and most recent status of 10 projects. The
collaborative document will be given to the
team lead so he can 1) update it with the
correct information, 2) get a sense of what
the team members understand for more
effective communication in the future.
08
Develop Sprint Goals
A SMART goal for each Sprint will be
developed during the Sprint Planning meeting
before the next Sprint. This concrete goal or
deliverable needs to be realistically attainable
for the team to achieve within the 2 week
Sprint. The team will check in to see if they
are on track to accomplish that goal (or adjust
if needed) during the Sprint Check-In
meeting.
Centralized Location for Updates
Multiple projects occur in different stages
simultaneously. Not all team members work
the same days, and not all team members
receive project updates from the direct
source, resulting in a lack of understanding of
the status of said projects. The team should
keep a centralized location where team
members can refer to for the project
description, SOW, status updates, or any
questions about the project- perhaps in a
Slack channel, Box note, or the Scrum Board.

RECOMMENDATIONS | SPRINT 3
Meeting Effectiveness
Follow Agenda
An agenda for each of the 5 recurring team
meetings will be developed and used as a
checklist during the meeting to 1) ensure
the most important things are being
covered, 2) ensure the team stays on track
Revisit Notes from Previous
Retrospective Meetings
Diligent notes are taken during Retrospective
meetings, but ideas and concerns are often
left unaddressed. A review and compilation of
unimplemented ideas and unaddressed
concerns will be gathered for the team lead,
and "Review notes from last retrospective"
will be added as a checklist item to the
Check-in & the Retrospective meetings. This
will ensure team members feel heard, keep
morale high, and improve the team with
innovative ideas from team members.
Add Backlog Refinement Meeting
Time spared in from Sprint Planning Meeting
can be used for weekly backlog refinement.
Keeping the Product Backlog organized and
cards well developed ultimately saves time
during Sprint Planning meetings so the
Product Owner can quickly pull cards into the
next Sprint.
09
Incorporate Sprint Review
In accordance with Scrum methodology, a
Sprint Review will occur before the Sprint
Retrospective meeting to review what the
team created that Sprint, as well as
demonstrate the team's value to stakeholders
and get feedback.
Reduce Sprint Planning Time
Meetings often take up the amount of time
they are allotted, so by reducing meeting
length where we can, the team can have
that time back to do work. There was room
to take 30 minutes from the recurring
Sprint Planning meetings. Shortening the
meeting forces the team to be concise, stay
on track, and prioritize the most critical
things first.
Meeting Preparation
All team members will update their
consumed points individually prior to
Check-In and Planning meetings so group
time is not spent during these meetings to
do so. Two questions will be added to the
bi-weekly pulse survey asking team
members to reflect on the most recent
sprint individually in preparation for a more
efficient Sprint Retrospective meeting.
 10

TEAM DIAGNOSTICS
SURVEY
PRE AND POST RESULTS

AVERAGE AVERAGE
DIMENSION
BEFORE AFTER

3.35 4.25 Team Coordination

3.47 4.07 Meeting Effectiveness

Understanding
3.64 4.35
Objectives and Roles

Individual Ownership
4.00 3.73
& Autonomy

Articulating Vision &

4.02 4.36
Compelling Purpose

4.15 4.30 Morale

Feedback &
4.30 4.24
Recognition

Team Member
4.62 4.76
Development

Results were gathered after 5 weeks of interventions. The three dimensions we focused on
increased significantly, and in turn, other dimensions increased as well. For example, enhancing
team members' understanding of objectives and roles, in turn, enhanced understanding of the
team's vision and purpose.
Likely due to the focus on team collaboration, and because we did not focus on awarding individual
excellence, the two dimensions that decreased were "Individual Ownership & Autonomy" and
"Feedback & Recognition". In the future, I would suggest team members are given a good ratio of
group assignments and assignments where they have full ownership/responsibility. Additionally, I
would encourage the team lead to give individual feedback and rewards via "shout-out"s in
meetings and/or the NextGen Recognition tool.
 11

RESULTS
ANALYSIS OF BURNDOWN CHARTS
A burndown chart is a graphical representation of work completed and left to
accomplish versus time. An ideal burndown is when hours completed (red line) are
going up while hours remaining (blue line) are going down. Productivity can also be
measured by cards (tasks) completed and hours (points) completed.

SPRINT 0
BEFORE INTERVENTIONS
Hours/points going up because adding
cards and points during aSprint instead
of at beginning
Bottlenecking (cards being stuck in Stal
led or To Be Reviewed column)
Few cards fully completed (10/22)
because of multitasking
Cards Completed 10 / 22 (45%)

Hours Completed 51.5 / 77.5 (66%)

0 20 40 60 80

SPRINT 1
AFTER INTERVENTIONS
Increased completed cards by 34% by
prioritizing tasks and swarming (all
focusing on one task to get it done)
Increased story points/hours by 19%
Appropriate trend lines

Cards Completed 11 / 14 (79%)

Hours Completed 49 / 57.5 (85%)

0 20 40 60
 12

CONCLUSION
This team has many strengths. Team members are engaged and innovative, there
is good morale and comradery, and there is a great deal of constructive feedback.
Team leaders establish trust and encourage members to take the lead on projects,
as well as establish a good balance of individual and collective work. Due to the
broad and collaborative nature of the work, there was room for improvement in
regards to team coordination and clarifying goals and projects. Improving these
processes, in turn, enhanced the efficiency of the team's meetings.

To offer our I/O Psychology expertise

to support other teams and directly
TEAM help client groups co-create career
MISSION frameworks and related solutions
that are applicable across all of
Lockheed Martin.

Improving team coordination, communication, and the Scrum process resulted in

the team's most successful Sprint in the very first rotation of interventions. The
team's productivity increased by 19% according to hours completed and 34%
according to tasks completed. Due to mission setting, objective setting, Sprint
goal setting, and project realignment meetings, members demonstrated a clearer
understanding of their work, role, and purpose. Team members felt meetings are
more efficient and productive. Team members also felt heard due to revisiting
notes and ideas from previous meetings, addressing team members concerns, and
implementing their ideas. Adopting these recommendations contained in this
report and continuously reviewing team goals and processes for reaching these
goals is in line with the team's use of Agile methodology. More importantly, these
practices ensure the team continues to increase in innovation and effectiveness,
which embodies Lockheed Martin's culture of growth mindset.