How to Form a Cross-Functional Team That Actually Works, with Valentin Yonchev and Matt Takane

Forming a team is often treated as a logistical task: bring people together, give them a goal, and get started. In reality, forming a team is a leadership act. And when people come from different functions, backgrounds, or organizations, it quickly becomes a real challenge.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis sits down with Valentin Yonchev and Matt Takane from Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to explore a deceptively simple question: how do you actually form a team?

From a group of people to a real team. Valentin and Matt have extensive experience building cross-functional teams in a wide range of contexts — assembled for a single meeting, for short focused engagements, or for longer-term initiatives. Rather than sharing abstract principles, they describe practical ways to move from a group of people to a team that can actually work together.

Practices and references. During the discussion, Matt mentions the Open Practice Library, a valuable resource for discovering concrete practices that support collaboration, learning, and experimentation. They also refer to the idea of pulling the Andon cord — originally from Lean manufacturing — as a way to make problems visible early, so teams can stop, reflect, and improve together rather than pushing through dysfunction.

If forming teams is part of your role, this episode is a reminder that teams don't just happen. They are shaped deliberately, through attention, intention, and small but meaningful leadership choices.