Wolf packs in the wild: perfect models of teamwork A C-suite guide to creating and unleashing high-performance teams

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If you’ve ever seen a nature film about wolves, you probably learned how these remarkable animals have developed group behaviors that allow them to thrive in some of the world’s harshest environments. Through smoothly coordinated efforts, wolf packs hunt together, nurture their young, and defend against enemies. Within the pack, every member has a role, but the roles are fluid—every member can perform every role. When the pack moves, the oldest members lead so no one is left behind; young wolves are flanked by older wolves for protection. The leader literally leads from behind, watching over the pack. Corporate leaders who want speed, flexibility and creative problem-solving can learn a lot from the wolf pack.

A work team is not a wolf pack. But the characteristics of a wolf pack are a good model when we think about how to reorganize corporate functions and activities around teams. In the long march from the rigid command-and-control systems that were perfected in the machine age to today’s agile teams, many organizations have been frustrated by the failure of teams to perform as expected. Even in IT, where agile development methods and DevOps have been used for many years, executives have trouble deploying teams on a large scale.

Yet the benefits of effective teams are increasingly recognized. In 2017, 71 percent of organizations polled by the Project Management Institute said they use agile “sometimes, often, or always.”1 In the latest Harvey Nash KPMG survey of CIOs, those who were identified as “digital leaders” were more than twice as likely as other IT executives to use cross-functional teams.2 Digital leaders “create a culture that empowers teams, encourages experimentation, incentivizes collaboration, and measures

performance of the team against business outcomes, not IT metrics,” according to the report. “The major change mechanism top performers used was cross-functional teams, adopting agile or similar approaches.”

Today, agile methods continue to spread far beyond IT. Companies recognize the value of using focused, multidisciplinary teams to quickly tackle problems, unleash creativity, break down silos, and speed innovation. In the current business environment, agile teams can play

1 2017 Pulse of the Profession report, Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org).2 A changing perspective, Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey 2019 (https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2019/cio-survey-harvey-nash-2019.html).

2© 2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

an essential role in responding to disruption and rapidly changing customer needs. Agile raises the

“clock speed” of the organization and allows it to be more opportunistic. We observe that agile is becoming a factor in valuing companies for M&A. Buyers now look for the presence of agile teams and sellers may build up agile capabilities to better prepare assets for sale.

For example, top leadership at BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank by assets, has made a commitment to adopting

agile across the organization. The goal, they say, is to bring about a

“strategic transformation” to a new culture and leadership model.3 In 2018, the company announced plans to transition 33,000 employees in the bank’s main departments to agile environments.

Simply changing roles and updating titles does not bring about such a transformation. Nor is an M&A transaction—an acquisition or separation—in itself a catalyst for true transformation. Effective adoption of

agile team-based approaches requires fundamental changes in how the enterprise operates.

Processes and roles must be reinvented. New roles must be defined, using a bottom-up approach that starts with the specific activities required by the new processes. New tools and skills are required. And, most importantly, companies must adopt new ways of managing, leading, and measuring performance.

Wolf packsUltimately, what happens at the team level determines the success of the transformation. This is where the wolf pack comes in. Think of the wolf pack as the most highly evolved version of an agile work team.

Like all agile teams, wolf packs are multi-disciplinary and organize their work around short, focused sprints. They use iterative processes—testing and learning, “failing fast,” and then trying another approach. Change is highly valued; sticking to a pre-existing plan of action, not so much. Agile teams may break the rules, but they are highly accountable for business results, including growth and profitability.

In addition to these traits and behaviors, a team that works like a wolf pack has other distinctive advantages. Such a team will be:

Self-directed—A wolf pack team will have a specific mission, but it will not ask permission to take on another problem it identifies or follow a new opportunity.

Self-empowered—While the group defines shared goals through both agreement and dissent, team members act autonomously. Members work toward documented and undocumented goals.

Self-supportive—Trust is written into the group’s genetic code. Trust that each team member will be supported, encouraged and valued. Trust that pack members have each other’s backs. Agile teams also perform better because members expect the best from each other.

Self-organizing—Roles within the team morph as needs change. Members of the pack can show off their individual strengths and continue to learn and advance in their careers.

The rise of cross-functional teams

According to the Harvey Nash KPMG CIO Survey 2019, cross-functional teams are the major change mechanism used by top performers. A total of 56 percent of the 3,645 respondents in 108 countries said that their company uses cross-functional teams combining IT and business staff. That’s up from the 23 percent in the 2018 survey. Companies that succeed in building agile, cross-functional teams, make it easy for people to find each other and collaborate, and they support that behavior through tools, coaching, and communication by leaders, according to the report.

(The full Harvey Nash KPMG CIO Survey is available at https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2019/cio-survey-harvey-nash-2019.html)

3 BBVA’s journey to becoming an agile organization, bbva.com.

3© 2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

Getting startedTo build a culture of high-performing, wolf pack–like teams, top leaders can proceed on three fronts. First, they should commit to fundamental change (no sacred cows). Then they have to be willing to lead the change in their organizations and take an agile approach to transformation itself.

To change, actually change.

Large-scale transformations require a deep reassessment of how the enterprise functions. Simply changing role titles and shuffling people around to declare “victory” over a modernization initiative will not suffice. All aspects of the operating model from processes (“how we do work”) to roles (“who does the work”) to governance (“how we make decisions around work”) and finally metrics (“how we measure our work’s effectiveness”) must be evaluated and redesigned to fit new fundamental ways of working.

Lead the change.

A visible and sustained commitment from the top is essential. In the wild, the alpha leaders of a wolf pack use body language, facial expressions, and vocalizations to guide group behavior. Likewise, the most powerful tool corporate leaders have is their own behavior. So, like leaders of agile teams, top leaders should not only champion success, but also embrace failure. Leaders must show that they, too, are learning. Like wolf pack leaders, business leaders should watch over their teams and give orders only when necessary— but always give the trust that empowers teams to think outside the box, take chances, and come up with better solutions.

Be agile about transformation.

It is natural to look for big wins that demonstrate the power of the new approach and can generate the value to help fund further change. But it will be better in the long run to take a more nimble and tactical approach to implementation. Start with a few carefully selected projects that are well suited to the team approach. The best teams thrive on problems that are complicated and have no clear path to a solution. Projects that involve direct collaboration with customers also have visible impact. Over time, the team approach can be perfected and rolled out to more parts of the organization.

The transformation of WorleyParsons

In 2015, WorleyParsons was feeling the impact of lower oil prices, which led to a precipitous fall in demand for services from the Australian engineering, project delivery and consulting services company. Sales, margins and the stock price were all falling. Compounding the problem was a heavy debt load related to earlier large investments. After initially undertaking several rounds of cost cutting, WorleyParsons decided to take an agile approach to the problem. Top-down directives gave way to the creation of semi-autonomous teams across the organization. These eventually numbered in the hundreds. The results were astounding. After one year, profit margins were up by 5 percent, cost savings had reached $400 million, and the stock price had quadrupled. Perhaps even more important, WorleyParsons developed a more innovative and entrepreneurial culture that should keep the gains coming.4 Darrell K. Rigby, Simon Henderson, and Marco D’Avino, “How Agile Teams Can Help Turnarounds Succeed,” Harvard Business Review, July 2, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-agile-teams-can-help-turnarounds-succeed

4© 2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

ConclusionBusiness organizations recognize that they must adopt new ways of working that give them the speed and creativity they need to keep up with disruptive change in their industries and markets. They understand that, increasingly, the value of the enterprise will be determined by its agility—a company that can’t get past the old command-and-control model is likely to sell at a discount, because its chances of success in this environment are diminishing. But companies that adopt agile models—and empower high-functioning “wolf pack” teams—will likely command a premium.

How KPMG can helpKPMG’s Technology M&A and Strategy practice has deep experience helping clients develop the strategic foundation to mobilize an agile workforce. And, marshaling the best of the wider KPMG organization, we provide hands-on operational support. In both M&A and strategy engagements, we help clients design and implement agile organizations, processes and governance structures, with a focus on enabling wolf pack-like collaboration.

Authors

Micky HoustonPrincipal, M&A Services

Micky leads KPMG’s M&A Technology Center of Excellence. He has participated in numerous M&A efforts, has led many IT and HR sourcing engagements, was CEO for a SaaS company, and led several IT organizations. Over the past 30 years, Micky has assisted many clients with a diverse and broad range of business and technology issues including helping build high-performing agile and DevOps teams and organizations.

Matthew TaylorPrincipal, M&A Services

Matthew leads KPMG’s M&A Technology Strategy Practice and supports technology M&A efforts for clients across multiple industries. He has over 25 years of technology and management experience, including creating cloud, agile and DevOps capabilities. For more than 12 years, he served as CIO in a wide range of companies and industries. In the past decade, Matthew has provided executive-level strategy consulting to all types of companies, from high- growth startups to the largest Fortune 100 organizations.

Jeffrey JohnsonDirector, M&A Services

Jeffrey leads KPMG’s IT Operating Model Offering and Thought Leadership for the M&A Technology Center of Excellence. He has over 15 years of experience leading engagements across various industries that align technology capabilities with business strategic priorities to drive his client’s short- and long-term goals, and has helped clients implement cloud, operating model, product/service-based teams, agile, and DevOps.

5© 2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

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Micky Houston Principal, M&A Services 214-840-8042 mdhouston@kpmg.com

For more information, contact us:

Matthew Taylor Principal, M&A Services 303-382-7574 mltaylor@kpmg.com

Jeffrey Johnson Director, M&A Services 617-823-4855 jeffreyajohnson@kpmg.com

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