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Team Building:
If you're like most people, you've gone to an awful
lot of meetings. Unfortunately, a lot of those
meetings were a waste of time. You spent hours
and hours in meetings but those meetings did little,
if anything to help you, your team, organization,
or customer.
Sometimes you felt punished having to go to those
meetings. You felt like you were in prison, "doing
time," when you would have preferred to be somewhere
else. At other times, you didn't mind getting away
from your job for a little while. Even though the
meetings were notoriously unproductive, you didn't
mind "killing time" at the meeting, just because it
gave you a change of scenery.
Well your meetings don't have to be that way. Indeed
your meetings shouldn't be that way. In today's tight
economy, organizations can no longer afford the luxury
of a wasted meeting. When you consider what people are
paid these days, a one-hour meeting of ten people will
cost an organization hundreds of dollars. You better
have something to show for it.
So how do you make sure your future meetings will be
"using" time appropriately and productively? Follow
these procedures.
For effective team building,
START WITH A CLEAR PURPOSE. Know why you're having
a meeting in the first place. It's not a good-enough
reason to say "we always meet on Thursday. "Imagine
how excited people would be if they know irrelevant
meetings would be cancelled, and all future meetings
would have a real and important purpose. Just don't
forget to tell your team members - in advance -- what
is the purpose of the upcoming meeting.
Second, BUILD THE AGENDA WITH YOUR TEAM. Many teams
don't use written agendas for their meetings, but if
they do, it is usually created by the team "leader. "
That's not the best approach. In fact, that approach
will significantly reduce the amount of participation
at your meetings. The team members will feel like
it's your agenda and your meeting, so you can run
it without their full participation.
By contrast, it works a great deal better to ask your
team members for their input before the meeting. Ask
each person what he or she wants on the agenda. It
will create a sense of ownership that almost always
results in a better meeting.
Then ANNOTATE THE AGENDA. In other words, do more than
list the agenda items. That will leave your team members
in the dark. And when people don't know how each item
will be treated, they also hold back their full
participation.
I suggest that each agenda item have four annotations:
time, purpose, process, and outcome. On "time," give
each agenda item an odd time frame, such as 9:12 a. m. to
9:38 a. m. It says you've given some real thought to
how much time each item should take, whereas rounded-off
numbers appear to be nothing more than guesses.
Then, of course, stick to those odd time frames if at
all possible.
For "purpose," add a brief sentence to each agenda item
that tells why that item is on the agenda. Tell your
team members why that item is worth their valuable time
and attention.
"Process" refers how each agenda item will be handled.
Very few teams or organizations ever bother to address
this issue. They just handle every agenda item the
same way; they talk it to death. Instead, annotate each
item with the process that would be most appropriate
and will be utilized. So you might write such processes
as "brainstorm," "discussion," "question/answer," or
"presentation. "
Then add an "outcome" statement. In other words, what
is to be done with each agenda item. You might insert
such descriptions as "information," "decision," "action
planning," or "implementation. "
Once you've done all that work, PUBLISH THE AGENDA IN
ADVANCE. It will get people thinking about your meeting,
and it will tell them what thoughts or resources they
need to bring to your meeting.
Try these tips. You'll find your team going from "Harrumph"
to "Hurrah" the next time they approach a team meeting.
Action on Team Building:
Take a look at the agenda for the next meeting you attend.
If you find today's tips being utilized, give yourself
or the team leader a pat on the back. If you find some
of these tips missing, incorporate or gently suggest that
you'd like to see some of the tips incorporated in the
next agenda.
More articles:
For additional information on the topic of team building, click on any of the
following:
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