Over the last 3 months I’ve been working with around 15 teams on answering the question “Where are we at?” These sessions have been an eye-opener for me in terms of how to identify and address team priorities and issues. Here’s some of what I’ve learned through the process:

• Cookie cutter agendas are nowhere near as successful as helping the team define their own agenda. This lets the team know they are actually on control of what gets discussed during the session. So all those typical reactions like:

• this will be a waste of time, and
• we won’t address the things we really need to:

go out the window (great news for the facilitator!).

• Conducting a subjective assessment of how the team is travelling on key team dimensions is a super-effective way to establish context for the day. You can introduce whatever dimensions are relevant, and ask each individual to rate the team out of 10 on each one. The differences in individual ratings form the basis for a valuable discussion. Why are people having different experiences of how the team is operating or performing? What drives those different experiences, and what does the team need to do to ensure a more common experience?

• You can be flexible with the direction of the day by choosing the team dimensions carefully. In my sessions we worked with a model of team effectiveness that included dimensions of trust, shared sense of purpose and goals, productive dialogue, accountability/commitment, working with complexity and team priciples/behaviours. So our discussions centred largely around these areas.

• Always make sure the team walks away with something tangible. At the end of the day, discussion is useful only if something is going to change or be done differently. Teams benefit from deciding what changes are most important, and how they are going to effect them. Bedding these down into some kind of action plan gives them tangible outcomes and holds them accountable for their own results.

I believe that these principles apply not just to external facilitators, but to team leaders/managers as well. One sure way of engaging a team is charging them with the responsibility for managing their own progress.

I’m interested in other views on this. What’s happening out there with your teams?