Summary
External agencies augment internal enterprise teams by providing fresh perspectives and adding energy. However, often the agency's capability is not being utilized to its full potential due to poor engagement strategy. In this talk, Séamus highlights obstacles to "inter-team" integration and presents tactics to prevent engagement issues and empower teams to work better together. We can achieve successful inter-team alignment with choreography, but it involves learning new routines, moving to the same beat, and not stepping on each other's toes. Séamus based this talk on real client stories from running an agency for 12 years.
Key Insights
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Unprepared internal teams often greet external agencies with skepticism or resistance, harming collaboration from day one.
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External agencies frequently receive only partial snapshots of a client's organizational landscape, limiting their effectiveness.
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Shifting project scopes without clear role definitions lead to confusion and diluted responsibility among teams.
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The 'dancing monkey' culture pressures agencies to perform theatrics instead of focusing on genuine collaboration.
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Choreography—a practice of designing coordinated movements—can serve as an effective metaphor to align teams and workflows.
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Clarifying four dimensions—space (zoom level), time (roadmaps and deadlines), people (roles), and routine—improves team integration.
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A dedicated discovery phase of at least one or two sprints is critical for external teams to onboard deeply and make sense of complex products.
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Informal 'first rehearsal' sessions before official kickoff meetings facilitate relationship building and realistic collaboration expectations.
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The Team Alignment Canvas helps surface ambiguous product definitions, vague timelines, and unclear collaboration practices early.
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Internal champions who proactively manage onboarding and bridge-building are vital to agency-client success.
Notable Quotes
"No two teams are the same. Every team comes with its own unique relationships, expectations, interpersonal dynamics."
"When teams gel well together between outside and inside, that elevates the success of the project."
"Often internally, teams are unprepared for us; they look like, oh my God, not again, they brought an external team."
"As externals, we only get a snapshot of the client's organizational landscape, missing deeper complexity."
"If the nature of the engagement is not precise, expectations are mismatched and scope starts to grow legs."
"The dancing monkey culture expects agencies to turn up and be entertaining, but that doesn't help real collaboration."
"Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements where motion and form are specified—just like aligning teams."
"Clarifying space means understanding the level of zoom of the project—from interface to CEO level involvement."
"We need more than just a kickoff; we need a 'first rehearsal' where teams informally get to know each other and their tools."
"The champion on the client side is the ideal choreographer, building trust and managing onboarding proactively."
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