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I am the lead of a software development team in a company of about 120 workers. The work that my team makes is very important and also technologically complex, but not well known and understood by the workers in all of the company's departments.

I feel that there is many room for improvement in the aspect of publicizing our work and effort. It's not that my team's reputation isn't good, but I feel the work that my employees do sometimes stays too much in the shadows.

I thought about maybe having a lecture with the company's employees explaining about the current work of my team and all its projects, as part of initiating a series of similar lectures that will be conducted with different teams in the company. The disadvantage about this is that veteran workers might feel like they should be familiar with these topics, and conducting this kind of lecture for the first time might make people realize that my team feels like it is being obscured.

Maybe there should be another more indirect way to make an improvement in this area. What do you think?

NOTE: not a duplicate of How to gain visibility in the workplace? because it only talks about making the work more visible to direct bosses/chain of executives, and I talk about company culture and connection of my team to the different parts of the company.

J. Doe
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    what do you mean by publicized? You want to increase the awareness of the existence of your projects, or do you want to have others to be able to use it and comprehend it more deeply? How much do you want them to understand your code (%)? – DarkCygnus Jan 09 '18 at 21:53
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    Possible duplicate of How to gain visibility in the workplace? – gnat Jan 09 '18 at 21:57
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    It's more the existence of the projects. The usage isn't the problem because they are being used. I would like people to understand not the code, but the technological challenges that we have to face, and the level of effort that we have to make. – J. Doe Jan 09 '18 at 22:00
  • This will create resentment. Inform about the technologies and challenges, but in a way that does not overly glorify your team's capabilities. You can glorify your team's capabilities in front of the team, but not in front of other employees who might already be negatively biased towards R&D or developers. – pmf Jan 10 '18 at 10:43
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    To what purpose is other departments understand your level of effort? How does that help the company? VTC – paparazzo Jan 10 '18 at 14:27
  • What is your end goal once other department understand the tech challenges that your team faced? What are you hoping to achieve? Is it so executives/management will appreciate and or justify your teams position/salary/promotions? – Isaiah3015 Jan 11 '18 at 00:03
  • It serves two goals: in the aspect of executives, their understanding of my team is aimed to improve/not hurt the resources (mainly employees) dedicated to my team; the second, is for my workers to feel a stronger connection to the company and a more inherent part of it. – J. Doe Jan 12 '18 at 12:41
  • I forgot to mention some detail that is quite important. We are not the only software development team in the company, and while our work is also important and essential, I feel that the work of other teams is more well understood by others in the firm, resulting some kind of foreignness feeling among my workers. – J. Doe Jan 12 '18 at 12:43
  • @Gnat Wouldn't say it's a duplicate as it's a team lead promoting their team's work, rather than a subordinate trying to get noticed. These take two different viewpoints and thus different answers – Draken Jan 18 '18 at 09:06

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Do you have a company newsletter. Draft an article about what your team is doing that is interesting.

Submit people for awards at every cycle if you have a formal awards program.

Casually mention the good work your team is doing at any cross-functional meeting.

Get team members to do presentations at local users groups or conferences. Then make sure to publicize the event.

HLGEM
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    If the company doesn't already have something like a newsletter, start one with the intention of having the whole company talk about what they do and not just your group. –  Jan 09 '18 at 23:02
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Interesting question. Unfortunately there is no definitive answer, only subjective ones.

In my experience your direct approach will put off more people than it will inform or impress. Perhaps even create division between other departments who also may feel much as you do.

I suggest a more indirect approach, a more long term and inclusive approach is education through trust; consider creating a “ new thought group “ or your own choice of appropriate name. The founding members are your team, they have the privilege to invite 10 people each from within the firm. Have it regularly but not too regularly, the evening of the last Friday of the month for example. Everyone gets an Uber to and from the location. Make sure you make it outdoors and provide plenty of bbq, wine and cheese etc. Max three hours.

Each month let one of your team give a VERY short update of the past months victories and challenges followed by an interesting local inspirational speaker / thinker for the greater amount of time. Get someone with a tripod to film it for YouTube.

Repeat for at least six months. Boom. Check mate.

You now have the coolest department in the company. Your department is center stage when people think of innovation or complex solutions for issues within the firm. Every department will be talking about your forward thinking group’s speakers or about your department’s exploits last month. The uninvited will eventually beg to be a part of your hip “thought” group.

Enjoy the adventure.

T

Talbot Clifton
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