Dynamic Reteaming, 2nd Edition

Appendix B. Team Choice Marketplace

A team choice marketplace (also called a self-selection event) is a lively event where people go from booth to booth to “shop around” for the team they want to join. They indicate three preferences—first, second, and third—for which teams they want to join. After the marketplace is over, some time is allocated to work out the final teams with the managers. Once the teams are set, they can start their calibration sessions according to recommendations in “Team Calibration Sessions”.

This approach is inspired by Sandy Mamoli and David Mole’s book, Creating Great Teams, and is also influenced by the team self-selection approach used with a 75-person team at Redgate Software in Cambridge, England, as recounted by Chris Smith, head of product delivery.

In a blog post, Chris details their event, which included follow-up one-on-one meetings with each team member to help finalize their team assignments.¹

The entire process took place over 20 working days, and a lot of care was taken to help reduce the people’s worry and fear about changing teams. Only 33% of his employees elected to actually change teams. And that’s fine. The goal is not to change everyone around for the sake of changing, but rather to provide opportunities to change.

In my view, the spirit of self-selected reteaming events is to help people pursue the learning goals that they feel will motivate them, while still meeting the needs of the company.

The following are some basic steps for ...