- At the Start of Teamwork
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At the Start of Team Work
The first meeting together should have several important results [D2] [D8]. At the end of the first meeting, the team should
- agree about what the goal is
- share the same ideas about what will happen after the goal is reached
- know what decisions will be made as a team
- agree on how decisions will be made and what to do if people do not agree
- be clear about who has what jobs in the team
- know who does what next.
Each team member should
- think it is important for them to work on the goal
- think that they can help the team meet the goal
- feel that they are an important part of the team
- feel that others listened with respect to what they had to say
- feel that they had a say in the decisions that were made at the meeting.
The first list is all about the results of the work at the first meeting. Sometimes results are called outcomes. The second list is all about how the work at the first meeting was done. Sometimes these are called processes. It is important to find out about both of these things for the team to work well.
An easy way to get answers about the important outcomes of the first meeting is to write up a short outline of the plan, near the end of the meeting. When you do this, ask team members to tell you what they think are the goal, results, decisions, way to make decisions, jobs and next steps. This way you can find out what they understand from the meeting.
After a team member says what they think the goal is, ask
- Do others have a different idea about what we agreed?
- Does anyone think we agreed on more than this?
If people have different answers, make sure you all agree on the answer before you leave. You can do this for each of the outcomes. If people were not sure about the outcomes, maybe you need to do more to get the team working together at meetings.
It is also important to find out how team members feel the meeting went. People may not yet feel safe to tell you that you did not listen to them or that they do not want to work with you on the goal. So it is probably better just to ask each team member to tell you
- What did we do well?
- What do we need to be better at? How can we do better?
What they say may tell you how they feel about the team and about working together. Ask another person who is not a team member to call people some time after the meeting to find out if they still want to be part of the team, if they feel they can do the job, and if they feel that they were treated well.
