The ORCS team type, also known as "The Working Group," excels in structured communication and collaborative decision-making. These teams are adept at adapting their plans based on group consensus, which allows for broad-based responses to new challenges.
However, ORCS teams face specific challenges due to their reliance on key individuals for providing context, which can slow down decision-making. This dependency can create bottlenecks, leading to continuous planning with little execution. For example, an ORCS team might spend more time discussing campaign strategies than actually launching them.
ORCS teams flow information through consistent channels, ensuring quick sharing of information across the team.
These teams look to specific individuals for insight and context, which can create bottlenecks or–if individuals are asked to flex outside their comfort zones–bad decisions.
These teams prioritize broad involvement in decision-making. This ensures that decisions are widely accepted and supported across the team, fostering a strong sense of unity and buy-in.
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Where ORCS teams excel:
Tend to thrive where responsibilities and knowledge domains vary widely across the team, and where considerations and input needs to come from a variety of stakeholders.
Excel in attracting and developing new team members, who can be quickly oriented to the team’s knowledge base and ways of working.
Excel in situations where input from many different stakeholders needs to be constantly incorporated and reflected in new paths forward.
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Potential blind spots for ORCS teams:
Reliance on specific individuals who bring context to the group can hinder autonomous decision-making.
Group involvement in plans that are then inconsistently applied can lead to a perception of perpetual planning without sufficient follow-through (something that can be particularly grating for more action-oriented team members).
Specific individuals may serve as a bottleneck of information and context, potentially overwhelming those key influencers and delaying the translation of insights into action.
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Areas of growth for ORCS teams:
To prevent bottlenecks and dependency on specific individuals for critical insights and context, ORCS teams should work on diversifying their analytical process. Encouraging more members to take on leadership roles in providing context can spread the responsibility more evenly and accelerate the decision-making process.
To prevent planning sessions from becoming unproductive (and never ending!), establish clear guidelines on when and how team members should contribute. This might include structured brainstorming sessions with specific time limits or assigning roles for each meeting to ensure that discussions remain focused and productive.
Implementing stricter time limits on planning phases can help ORCS teams avoid the trap of perpetual planning. By setting a deadline for when a decision needs to be made, teams are encouraged to focus discussions and make more timely decisions.
ORCS quick reference
Keep this overview handy for conversations about how your team works. It describes the team type, not anyone's personal results.
ORCS
The Working Group
O
Ordered communicators
R
Relational processors
C
Concordant deciders
S
Spontaneous executors
Key characteristics
Conversation is the lifeblood of the team
We have unique expertise that we're always tapping
We want to hear from everyone before deciding
Working with us
Break projects into smaller pieces to build momentum
Help us limit endless discussion by establishing a clear decision-making cut-off
