Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever.
Amy Poehler
Our last post introduced the teamwork canvas and we thought it might be helpful to unpack the individual elements in a bit more detail. We’re starting with purpose and I suspect there might be a bit of collective groan – ‘surely we don’t need that, we have an organisation purpose why do we need one for a team too!’
It may seem like duplication but just as so many of us are revisiting our overall organisational purpose as a result of all the ongoing changes it is useful to think about your team at the same time. It too, as a collective and a group of individuals, has had to endure a lot in the last ten months. Taking time to step back and do a quick review can help everyone involved. We gave you some initial prompts with the canvas:
- What is the overall purpose of the team?
- How does your team contribute to the wider organisational vision and strategy?
- What are your aims and objectives?
Here are some tips for getting the process started:
Why do you do what you do?
This is about the impact you have as a team.
- What impact do you want to have as a group?
- What difference do you intend to make?
- How do you know – what evidence do you have to support your view?
- What motivates you as individuals and as a team?
What do you do?
Try and identify the core activities you are involved in and responsible for. A good way of doing this to get each team member to concisely write down five or six core activities. Then share them as a group. That way you can identify areas of common ground, confusion, or differences. As you do this, you might also want to think how your view on your core activities lines up with what you actually pay attention to and invest time in.
Another useful tool is to think about what the team does and what it shouldn’t be doing. Here’s an example that might apply to a senior management team:
| What our team does… | What our team doesn’t do… |
| Makes strategic decisions
Empowers other teams Allows for different viewpoints and perspectives |
Only discusses operational matters
Micro-manages other teams Become rigid and has one way of doing things… |
Who are you doing it for?
This involves identifying your key stakeholders. Who are you responsible for and accountable to, and how would you describe those relationships at the moment? Think about any changes that have happened over the last year and how well you have responded as a group.
Consider who takes up the majority of your time and whether that is the right balance of your attention. Sometimes in groups those who quietly get on with what they’re doing tend to get overlooked while others become a main point of focus. This is particularly pertinent as teams are working remotely and it is harder to pick up on the non-verbal signals we might notice when we’re physically together. Other factors to consider include:
- Are any stakeholders missing who should now be included?
- Is responsibility for working with others divided equally across the team or are they driven by one or two people?
- Who are your priority stakeholders for the next twelve months?
What do you need to do in future?
Having reviewed the three areas above think about what this tells you about how you need to work in future. This will help with your aims and objectives setting. Don’t forget to think about your team processes as much as your core activities and purpose.
Think about the criteria you might set yourselves for determining how well you are doing, they might include:
- Communication
- Effectiveness
- Idea generation
- Efficiency
- Trust
- Openness etc…
Having worked through this kind of process, and it needn’t be lengthy, try not to over complicate it! You might want to record some reflections and actions or you may decide to create a team manifesto or charter. This can help set out your reason for being and core working principles, it can also be useful for new arrivals to the team.
Dawn & Susan