April 2022

Is this your reality?

You arrive promptly for your team meeting and watch in dismay as the rest of the team come straggling in late, some with muttered apologies, some continuing prior conversations and others bemoaning their workload.

You did send out an agenda, but few have looked at it and it isn’t always clear what is expected for each topic. The meeting dissolves five minutes after the advertised time with each team member scattering to their next appointment. You really haven’t accomplished much, all you have is a vague promise to get together again and thrash out your current problem.

Sound familiar? We all know what good teamwork looks and feels like and how uncomfortable and unproductive it is when teamwork is missing – as it often is. An important question for all teams to ask is whether the team’s meetings and conversations are producing the level of teamwork needed to succeed and meet (even exceed) their customer’s expectations.

Teamwork as a set of conversations

Teams come together around a shared objective. Everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction – even as they have different roles, experience and expertise. You want your team members to have a diverse set of skills and bring them to work together.

There are ten different types of conversations that all successful teams engage in, at different stages of their evolution.

In the early stages when the team is being structured or formed, you will probably focus on:

• Getting the team aligned around a shared vision, purpose, values and goals
• Moving to have all team members take a personal responsibility for the team goal
• Gaining commitment from each member to deliver their piece of the action
• Establishing how decisions are made and when and who will speak on behalf of the team

Once the team is operating and dealing with the day-to-day business of delivery, there is more of a focus on:

• Creating and working with team plans, dealing with problems, creating solutions and learning from experience
• The messy work of ensuring that the team is making trustworthy commitments that all fit together
• Creating and working with the standards that guide how the team works together and deals with the problems that inevitably arise

Then there are the conversations that sustain the team throughout its life:

• Learning to observe team morale and be able to change it when necessary
• Building the high level of trust between the team members that sustains high performance
• Attending to the development of individual team members, as well as the health of the team and its contribution to the wider organization

To learn more about these ten conversations, what they can do for your team, and how to check on the conversational health of your team, view our current offerings.

RICHARD J. HEWS
Leadership and Change Coach
860-857-3588 • richard@pathwaysofgrowth.com