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Andrew MacLaren is an academic who researches teamwork. Mark Ridley is an accomplished Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and consultant, who has extensive experience leading and working within with various teams throughout his career.

In this introductory episode of the first season, our hosts Andrew and Mark introduce the concept of Teamcraft. They delve into the key aspects of this concept and share insights from their own experiences. Additionally, they discuss the standout moments from the first season and reveal the most surprising moments they encountered during their interviews with their guests.

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Music by Tom Farrington

Our guest today is Lt Colonel Matt Johns MBE

After graduating from University, Matt started his career as an officer in the British Army in 2005, going through the Army’s world-renowned Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. This was an intense period for the UK armed forces with conflict going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Matt did multiple deployments as well as time in Kenya and Germany. He then went back to work in the delivery of the officer training programme at the Sandhurst Military Academy. From there Matt retired from the Army and co-founded Fieri leadership and development. A consultancy and education organisation that supports leadership development across all sectors from professional sport to pharmaceuticals. Fieri has a range of top level clients on its books, including Blue chip companies and Premier league football clubs.

Expect to hear about:

• Structure, rank and hierarchies in teams
• Action-centred leadership
• The muscle memory of teamwork and leadership
• Focusing on team results rather than individual results
• Everyday crises in management
• And How sometimes you don’t want a high performing team, just a performing team

Something to Share
Matt’s ‘Pass it on’ resource is Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-johns-fieri1/

Website: https://fierileadership.com/

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Music by Tom Farrington

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Parser is a software development and digital transformation business, founded by Ricardo and Hernan in 2017 and with clients and offices around the world. Parser offer their clients expertise in Digital Strategy & Transformation, Digital Portfolio Management and Product Development, which is primarily achieved by placing Parser teams within their client’s organisation.

As CEO, Ricardo sets and drives Parser’s organisational vision. Before Parser, Ricardo was responsible for building large technology teams, and developed products for the likes of Google, Santander, Ford & Sony

As Chief Growth Officer, Hernán is responsible for Parser’s evolution and expansion. He has spent his career helping organisations such as JP Morgan, Disney and Deloitte to design, lead and launch their digital portfolios.

In this episode we hear about how Parser approach the challenge of delivering teams into other teams, how even in a technology company the challenges are usually related to people, and how stable teams aren’t always the best way to deliver innovation.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moral/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hernan-griboff-9857411b/
Website: https://parserdigital.com/

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Music by Tom Farrington

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Alina is a Global Client Leader at WPP, a leading international marketing communications company. She has over 25 years of experience building global brands for large multinational clients, helping them grow their business through communications, experience, commerce and technology. Originally from the Ukraine and a US national, Alina has lived and worked in the UK, US, Australia and Germany, where she was CEO of Grey Advertising and, later, of DDB Tribal Group.

In today’s episode, we hear about Alina’s journey as a young advertising executive in New York to her current leadership role in one of the world’s largest advertising and communications companies. We discuss the importance of high professional standards in teams, the benefits of both working and playing together, how chemistry and shared culture is crucial to high performance, and the unexpected benefits of a scavenger hunt in the woods.

Something to Share

Alina's ‘Pass it on’ resource are the works of Frances X. Frei, in particular her TED video and podcast. You can also read her article ‘Begin with Trust’ at Harvard Business Review.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alina-kessel-0857832/

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Music by Tom Farrington

Susie served for 17 years as an Officer in the Royal Navy, where she was a Marine Engineer. After a service career that took her all over the world working on frigates and Aircraft carriers, she retired from the Navy and moved into the private sector, working in oil and gas. From there she moved to the charity sector where she worked as head of external relations for the veterans residences association. After 14 years there, she recently took up the position of Veteran’s Commissioner for Scotland. A public appointment that sees her responsible for the welfare and support for all British military veterans living in Scotland, of whom there are somewhere in the region of 250,000. In her role as Commissioner, Susie holds the Scottish Government and public services to account on how their policies and decisions impact the interests of Veterans.

Expect to hear about:

• Nested teams on a Navy ship
• Dealing with unexpected change and uncertainty
• Maintaining a sense of humour in a team
• Achieving unity of purpose, and
• Why teams don’t work in industry

Something to Share
Susie’s ‘Pass it on’ resource is Nelson: A Personal History, by Christopher Hibbert

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nelson-Personal-History-Christopher-Hibbert/dp/0201408007

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Music by Tom Farrington

Luke is an international rugby player who plays for Edinburgh Rugby and the Scotland national team. Luke was recently part of Scotland’s successful six nations campaign, where they finished third, their highest finish in recent years. As someone who has progressed through the grass roots of rugby playing for Livingston and Currie Rugby, he has demonstrated his skills both technically and as a leader, recently captaining the Scotland As squad during their tour of South America.

Expect to hear about:

• How to handle team success and failure
• Focusing on the details of your role in a squad
• How tech stole the term scrum from rugby and never looked back
• The importance of connections with the wider team and support staff, and
• The humorous use of fines to enforce standards and build camaraderie

Something to Share
Luke’s ‘Pass it on’ resource is Surrounded by Idiots: The four types of Human Behaviour, by Thomas Erikson

Surrounded by Idiots: The four types of Human Behaviour, Thomas Erikson

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Music by Tom Farrington

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If you’ve listened to the podcast so far, you’ll know that Mark is my co-host. We received some feedback that people would like to hear a bit about us, how we got to be so interested in teamwork and what our own current thinking is on some of the themes we cover in our conversations with guests. Mark is a Chief Technology Officer with over two decades of experience that span the dotcom boom and crash and a global technology revolution.

Expect to hear about:

• what tech gets right and wrong with teamwork.
• How an experience with the RAF changed Mark’s perspective on teamwork.
• Followership, Psychological safety, Trust and much more…

Something to Share
Work Rules! By Laszlo Bock

Links

https://ridley.co

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markridley/

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Music by Tom Farrington

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Our guest today is Andrew MacLaren. For those of you who have been following the series, you’ll know that Andrew is the co-host of the Teamcraft podcast. We received some feedback that people would like to hear a bit about us, how we got to be so interested in teamwork and what our own current thinking is on some of the themes we cover in our conversations with guests.

Dr Andrew MacLaren is a lecturer based at the CREWS research centre at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. His research is principally concerned with the sociolinguistics of teamwork: how teams communicate. Some of the teamwork projects he is involved in include astronaut communication in deep space exploration and the communication processes of healthcare teams in trauma scenarios. He has researched and authored textbooks, book chapters, peer-reviewed articles and international conference papers on subjects from the British Army in Afghanistan, professional kitchen teams and startup investing.

Before entering academia, Andrew spent 10 years working as a tennis coach and as you’ll hear in today’s episode, he still sees a tennis court as his spiritual home.

Expect to hear about...

• The dysfunction of teams in academia,
• The “expert paradox” and how it impacts team decision making,
• The importance of language as a non-technical team skill, and...
• The risks caused by the ‘newness’ of teams

Something to Share
Talk: The science of conversation by Elizabeth Stokoe

Links
Andrew on Linkedin

Read some recent teamwork articles written by Andrew:
There's no 'I' in team, but there is a 'meta'
The liability of newness of teams
Human Autonomous Teaming: The holy grail of AI

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Music by Tom Farrington