The Leaders Council Podcast – In Conversation with Vicky Reddington, Co-founder of Amplified Group
Welcome to the Podcast
Scott Challinor welcomes our co-founder Vicky Reddington on to the Leaders Council podcast.
Amplified Group, a change management organisation which helps build more engaged, coherent, and united teams through a breakthrough business methodology which is built on clarity of purpose and Patrick Lencioni’s ‘Five Behaviours’ model. Vicky has more than 20 years of experience working in change management within the IT industry. While she co-founded Amplified Group in 2017, she has previously worked in senior roles within VMware (in partner progression and strategy for the EMEA region), as well as in sales and business development for Citrix Systems and Westcon.
Listen to the podcast here
Tell us about the Amplified Group
[1.11 min] Amplified Group was set up to support companies in the tech industry and to help those organisations execute faster.
Vic tells us that even though the companies are about tech, the industry is powered by people. It’s how we work together that really makes the difference.
How has working in the tech industry inspired you to do what you do now?
[2 mins] Vic explains that all the different roles she has had over the years were about driving change. She calls herself a ‘change management agent’ and came to the realisation that her passion was not the tech – it was people. She began to understand that it’s how we work together that really makes the difference.
The conversation moved on to question how Vic found working across different cultures, but Vic commented,
“It’s not just understanding cultural differences but having an understanding about what makes a great team – having the right team dynamics in place.”
When touching on diversity, Vic explains that we focus on diversity of thought.
“To have an effective team you need to have a mix of different personality types – you need to have the forward thinkers but it’s equally important to have the people that can focus on the details and execute.”
One lesson Vic has learnt over the years, is developing your own self-awareness. She comments that understanding yourself is the first step to understanding team dynamics.
How do you build an effective team?
Vic jumps straight to Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team methodology and tells us that Microsoft describe his work as the operating system for teams.
“What I love about the Patrick Lencioni methodology is there are ways to really accelerate how a team work effectively together. It’s like riding a bike. You can actually learn the process.”
What is Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors® to build a team?
Vic provides a whistle stop tour of the Five Behaviors:
- Trust [6:04 mins] – Vulnerability-based trust is the foundation layer. It’s about working in an environment where you feel safe to say what you really think, that it’s a safe place to ask for help and you are able to admit mistakes. The new language for trust is psychological safety.
- Conflict [6.52 mins] – If you have a safe place to say what you really think, the next stage is productive conflict. The idea here is that you are mining for the best ideas. It’s about ensuring everyone is being heard. If you can create the environment to let everyone talk, you’ll get to the best idea.
- Commitment [8.06 mins] – If people have been heard, and they feel like they’ve contributed to the idea, they are much more likely to commit to the decision.
- Accountability [8.33 mins] – This is the hardest of the Five Behaviours. If you lack clarity about what you’re being asked to do, then it’s difficult to hold people accountable and to have those difficult conversations. Going back to robust debate, if you have a clarity seeker in the room then it’s much easier to hold each other accountable.
- Results [10:03 mins] – This refers to team results. It’s important to look at the bigger picture and understand how the team can contribute to the overall goal. As a result of remote working, we’re missing those general ad-hoc conversations. Silos are forming more than ever, causing issues in organisations.
What can leaders to better?
Great question! The conversation leads to a few key points.
- Be a compassionate leader
- Take the time to get to know each other
- Ensure people feel valued and are invited to contribute
- Make sure everyone is ok
This may sound simple, but it matters. Vic comments,
“If you care about your employees, you are going to outperform your competitors!”
Scott agrees, “Productivity correlates with employee satisfaction and happiness.”
- Include attrition in your risk strategy
- With 30% attrition in the tech industry, the speed of getting new hires productive is vital. Our recent New Hire Productivity Report identifies more than 80% of people (both individual contributors and leaders) are taking over 6 months to reach full productivity. Businesses are being unrealistic if they believe people can hit targets after 3 months.
- Everyone is feeling the pressure. With new hire time to productivity on one side and a looming recession on the other, we are all feeling that squeeze in the middle.
- Unlock great team experience
- People join an organisation because they believe in the business potential. People leave because of their managers. It’s about who you work with and the team experience that keeps people.
How do you unlock that team experience?
Vic tells us we need to be more conscious about the team experience.
“It’s about getting the right people together in the room – create psychological safety and the magic happens. It’s about unlocking that team experience. We need to do that more consciously and that’s what we’re about.”
When working with clients, Vic explains we have a simple formula to measure the speed of execution through four elements:
- Purpose – this is your why
- Trust – ensure people have that psychological safety to speak out
- Clarity – lack of clarity can paralyse an organisation as people don’t know what’s expected of them
- Simplicity – the simpler you can make things, the faster you go
What practical steps can leaders take?
- Show vulnerability – As a leader, you don’t need to have all the answers. If you show your vulnerability and ask for help, people feel like they are
contributing. In the words of Patrick Lencioni, “The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage.” - Deliberately build trust – We have several tools available on our website to help organisations with this. Our tools accelerate getting to know each other, and it doesn’t take long! [26.27 mins] Listen to Vic’s story about how Alan Mulally transformed Ford by creating the environment for people to feel safe to speak out. To quote Alan, “You can’t fix secrets”
- Build a diverse team – we think of diversity as diversity of thought. We use DiSC as psychometric tool to help us understand ourselves and those that we work with.
contributing. In the words of Patrick Lencioni, “The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage.”What’s the future for Amplified Group
[29.35 mins] Vic shares her passion for wanting to change the world of work and to change team experience.
“We have a goal to help 200 teams over the next two years. We measure that through our Team Speed Check. The magic number you need to reach on our speed check is 83.”
Summary
Every industry is powered by people and it’s how we work together that makes the difference.
“Team experience and breaking down silos is an organisation’s absolute competitive advantage, and I don’t think we realise it.”
Thank you so much for joining us on the Leaders Council podcast. We hope you enjoyed it.
If you would like to learn more about the Five Behaviors® methodology, or take a Team Speed Check, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
You can find the podcast episode here:
YouTube: In Conversation: Vicky Reddington – YouTube
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0L9ndgGHBHg2RbwE0IrymX?si=28d32e8f2ec34816
Biography Page: https://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/vicky-reddington
