Make Teamwork Happen

Telephone conference calls are a low cost meeting alternative for teams located in different places.  They are great for routine status reports and for short-term, problem solving meetings, but not if you follow your instincts to just grab the phone and start talking!  Conference calls are not as easy as one-on-one phone conversations, so follow these tips or ground rules for effective conference calls:

Know Your Phone.  Whether you are using your office phone, cellular or conference phone, know how to use it, mute it, and connect to others without disconnecting.

Use a Moderator.  One person (typically the person who initiated the call) should be the moderator.  Start with a “roll call” of attendees and their location so that everyone knows who is on the line and announce when new members join in.  Give a short, precise overview of the purpose and goal of the call, followed by a simple, clear agenda.  Ask the participants to follow the agenda and conference call ground rules.

Keep Up the Pace.  Most participants usually speak very slowly, careful of what they say and how they say it.  But the average person is able to decode verbal information four to five times faster than the average speaking rate.  This makes for a very long, tedious meeting!  The moderator should set the tone of the conference call by speaking at a regular rate with good inflection and intensity.  Other participants will then follow the leader in style and rate.  The moderator should also ask the participants to limit their contributions to a reasonable length (for example one or one and one-half minutes) and allow questions for clarification.

Manage Voice Traffic. The more people you have on the line, the greater the potential for overload and domination of a few people.  Limit the number of people involved in the conference call to team members and one or two scheduled speakers.  Ask the participants to state their names and location each time they speak.  Recognize that one individual at one location will have more “air time” than several people huddled around a speaker phone at another location.   If possible, questions should be directed to specific individuals.  For example, “John, will you share your perspective on this issue?” or “Mary, could you please clarify that issue?”  The moderator may serve as a “gatekeeper” to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate.

Take a Poll.  At critical moments in the meeting, poll the participants for their input.  Call out each name and ask for their opinion, comment, or vote.  Recognize that this will take time, especially for larger groups, but is worthwhile for critical issues where the team must make a decision to move forward.

Use Handouts.  Where possible, mail or fax information to be used during the conference call.  Quantifiable data such as sales forecasts, trend charts, and other descriptive data is helpful to have prior to the meeting so that everyone is looking at and commenting on the same information.

Phone conference calls can save time, travel costs, energy and hassle–especially if the team follows these basic ground rules to enhance the effectiveness of your next conference call.

Question:  Do you have any more helpful advice for conference calls?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

Have you ever sat through a boring, non-productive, out of focus, “I’m wasting my time here” meeting?  If you have, you may be part of the problem.  Stop whining about the situation and do something to make your team meeting better.

Steve Davis of www.masterfacilitatorjournal.com has launched a personal campaign called “Random Acts of Facilitation.”  He beckons each and every one of you, no matter how low on the totem pole you might reside, to begin asking questions about the meetings you’re in. 

Questions to invigorate and empower you and your peers:

• See to it that a clear agenda is presented at the meeting. If it isn’t, request that one be developed either in the moment or that the meeting disband and reconvene at a later time until one is prepared.

• If a meeting is begun among strangers without any introductions or simple acts of relating, you will speak out and suggest spending a few minutes to go around the room and have people share something about themselves. After all, do you want to do business with total strangers when you don’t have to?

• If someone is hogging the air time, you will speak up and thank them for their great input and suggest that others be heard from, too.

• Long before you’ve been meeting for three hours straight without a break, you’ll request a short recess to accommodate personal needs and to just stretch and rejuvenate yourselves.

• When the energy is so heavy in the room you feel like you’re smothering, you will say something funny to make people laugh. The fog will lift; things will start moving again. You will risk being the “fool.” People will thank you later.

• When someone suggests a valid action during the meeting without assigning a responsible party and completion date, you will jump in and suggest that it be assigned, without feeling obligated to take it on yourself.

• Finally, trust your intuition. When something feels “off,” say so. You don’t have to have all the answers. Just know that your intuition never lies and if you feel something, others may as well. Your courage will inspire others to speak. The collective unspoken, given voice, will bring previously undiscovered wisdom, knowledge, and energy into the room. Great things will happen.

Question:  What have you done to invigorate your team lately?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

As I travel about the country, I meet people who are part of a “team.”  Perhaps they wear a “team” button, hang a picture proclaiming teamwork, or cheerfully answer the phone “Team Blue.  How may we help you today?”  These are the front line workers who make teamwork happen.  They, above all people, should understand the essence of team work.  And yet, when I probe beneath the surface and ask about their teamwork, I am immediately transported to my Top Ten Not-So-Great Reasons to Form a Team:

Get Your T-Shirts Here!  A fast food restaurant has tons of buttons, ball caps, and t-shirts proclaiming “Team ***” all over the restaurant.  When asked what makes their staff a team, a young man replied, “Well, I got this really cool polo shirt.”

One Person is the Hero.  An automotive dealership assigned a “team” of professionals to service my car.  I was assigned “team blue” where Terry is the main man.  He checks me in, tells me what he’s going to do, how much it’s going to cost, and when it’s going to be ready.  Now, I know Terry didn’t do the actual work on my car, but who did?  The blue team elves did, that’s who.

Test the Customer.  So when I came back to get my car serviced again (yes, I did come back!), the service department voice mail operator asked for my team: white, red, blue, yellow, or green?  How am I supposed to know?  I dealt with Terry – the human being.  I don’t remember the color.  I don’t care about color.  I just want to get my car serviced (presumably by those cute little elves).  So I press “O.”  “Ooops,” she said.  “Terry works all the positions.  He’s a floater.  So we’ll just assign you to a new team!”  As far as I can tell, I have NEVER had the same person, team, or elves work on my car.

Hide from Problems.  A manufacturing plant used “teams” as an excuse to call a meeting to discuss a problem, to then call another meeting to continue to discuss the problem (you get the picture?), to then call another meeting…all in an effort to make the problem go away.

Look Good on Paper.  One project manager formed a “team” involving all the departments who would “touch” the process.  Unfortunately, he didn’t trust them nor expect them to do any work to develop the new product.  In fact, the less others were involved, he reasoned, the better.  But it looked great on paper (and to his boss) that he had formed a team to achieve buy-in and involvement to the process.

Achieve Your Own Agenda.  A close kin to the project manager, a high-falootin’ lawyer was the president of a special commission to make some recommendations.  He said all the right buzzwords, went through the motions of building a team, but when it came right down to it, he drove that committee like a steel tent peg.  Needless to say, the commission did nothing and reported nothing of consequence.  Dilbert would have been proud.

Diffuse Blame.  A hospital uses the “team approach” to patient care.  Doctors, nurses, therapists and other caregivers assemble to agree on the care management of each patient.  So when a patient receives conflicting reports, team members shrug and point the finger at another patient care team member.

Dump the Undesirable Work.  A financial services office formed a team of the company misfits – the sick, lame and lazy – to do the work nobody else wanted to do.  Needless to say, they didn’t accomplish much.

Keep ‘Em Hungry.  A sales and service company supports the team work concept where the seasoned salespeople are supposed to train and mentor the younger sales force.  Unfortunately, all sales team members are still compensated by a dog-eat-dog commission system where the old timers eat their young.  There is no incentive to work like a team.  And they certainly don’t act like a team.  But I just love the “Team Work” picture hanging next to the company mission statement.

It’s a Party!  A manufacturing plant changes shifts every eight hours.  The process is pretty simple: the offgoing watch briefs the ongoing watch.  The ongoing watch relieves the offgoing watch.  Total Elapsed Time: 5 minutes.  However, during the 8am shift change, a gazillion people attend.  Not only do they change the shift, but others are invited “just in case” some problem needs to be solved, or the plant manager needs to have an immediate answer to some off-the-wall question.  Total Elapsed Time:  Anywhere from one to three hours.

Use teams where they make sense.

Question:  Do you see yourself or your teams in any of these situations?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

Spring means spring cleaning, so take a look at your workplace. 

A team effort would clear up the mess and build up your team at the same time.  Schedule a “Spring Cleanup” on a Friday after lunch.  Ask everyone to wear jeans or comfy clothes, roll up their sleeves and work. 

Put on some upbeat music and start with their individual workspaces.  Take a good look:  Where do you spend most of your time?  Things that are vital to doing your job should be at your fingertips, things that are important should be moved within an arm’s length, and things you use occasionally should be a step away—or even in another office. 

Move the vital (A’s), important (B’s), and occasional items (C’s) to the appropriate space.  This includes furniture, pictures, files etc.  Take all the remaining clutter and pile it into the center of the floor. 

Then move to the common areas.  Have two or three people do the conference room, another group do the kitchen and another do shared spaces.  At this point, you should have several large piles. 

Go through each item in them and quickly decide to: 

Trash it.

Refer it.  Put it in an out box with a routing slip or ask team members if they want it.  (If not, trash it). 

File it.  Make an A pile, a B pile and a C pile to be filed later.  Act on it.  You have to do something with the item.  Make an A pile, a B pile and a C pile to be scheduled later. 

This is the fun part:  If in doubt, ask your teammates what you should do.  Others will see a need or be much more ruthless.  When all is done, throw out the trash, route to the outbox, and file the A’s in your vital space, the B’s in important space and the C’s in the occasional space.

Now all you have left are the action items.  Prioritize them and schedule the work. A good rule of thumb is one task per person per day.  Before you know it, you workplace is less cluttered and you have done a lot of work in a short time.

Question:  Have you scheduled your team’s spring cleaning?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

Remember, whatever issue you are working on, the boss doesn’t have all the answers.  The boss can (and often does) identify the issues, assign priorities, direct tasks, measure progress, etc.  But the boss doesn’t do the work.  You do.  And who knows best how the work should be done?  You do.  So why not get your input in the process?  Working as a team, you will have higher quality and a greater stake in successfully carrying out the decision.

A funny thing happens when the boss suddenly wants input.  The team freaks.  Employees wonder why the boss isn’t telling them what to do – like the boss usually does.  At first, team members either welcome or resist the idea.  Many will watch the boss to see what happens with their ideas.  Will the boss smile?  Grimace?  Favor one person over another?  Over the long term, will the boss accept the team decisions?  The team will watch the boss carefully to see how committed hr or she is to the team concept.

Beware of the “rock phenomenon” where the boss asks the team for a “rock” and they bring back a different rock.  So the boss says “wrong rock” and tells the team to search for another rock – with little or no guidance.

To avoid the “rock phenomenon,” the boss should take time to explain the reasons for asking for input, any parameters or constraints, as well as how the decision will be made.  Is the boss simply getting team input and then making the final decision?  Or is the team aiming for consensus where the boss is but one voice and the team agrees to live with and support the decision?  The key to a consensus decision is that anyone on the team (including the boss) has an opportunity to voice their opinion. 

Keep in mind that if the team cannot come to a consensus, then the decision will fall back to the boss (or a majority vote).  So don’t worry, the boss still has input and if push comes to shove, the final say.  Over time, the team will trust that their ideas are truly valued and are important to achieving a team consensus.

Recognize that it takes a lot of guts for a boss to open up and ask for input.  The boss may not like what’s said and may feel compelled to justify each comment.  And the team may feel uncomfortable being open and honest.  So watch out for the “dashboard dog” effect where everyone on the team just repeats what they think the boss wants to hear.  The best thing a boss can do is sit back and actively listen.  Try not to judge and evaluate what’s been said.  Then add your idea as one among all the others.  Challenge others to discuss the issues openly.  And don’t punish them for speaking up.

Question:  How does your boss handle input from your team?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

So you have decided to have a staff meeting involving all your CSRs.  Rather than corralling them into a room and talking at them, spend a few moments planning a team-based staff meeting:

Know Thy Purpose.  What do you want to accomplish during your staff meeting?  Typically, these meetings communicate information from management, assign or clarify tasks, assess team progress, share information, prevent or solve problems, make decisions and build the team.  Have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish before committing your team’s valuable time.

Prepare an Agenda.  Staff meetings are prone to be informal chit chats that quickly degenerate into problem solving between just a few people.  Ask your CSRs what topics they want to cover in the meeting.  You may even want to ask the suggester to lead the discussion!  After you have collected all the topics (including your own), prepare an agenda specifying the topic, leader, and expected time frame.  Be realistic with your time estimates…teams usually take more time than you think!

Keep Time.  Use a timekeeper to help keep everyone on schedule.  The timekeeper alerts the team when time is running out (i.e., five, two and one minute to go).  When time is up, renegotiate the agenda, put the discussion on the next week’s agenda or drop it.  By all means, if you finish a topic early, move on!  Everybody likes to end a meeting earlier than expected.

Don’t Dominate.  As the supervisor, limit your “airtime” to 50 percent (or lower).  Recognize that some information must be formally communicated, provide further detail in handouts or “location pointers” such as a website, HR’s office etc.  If possible, hand out pertinent information about the topics prior to the meeting. 

Manage Participation.  Encourage input from all CSRs.  A good way to set the tone for participation is to start your meeting with an “icebreaker.”  Ask a simple question, such as “What’s one new thing you learned this week?” or “What do you like best about working together?”  Ask people for their opinions, thoughts, and comments.

Follow Up.  At the end of each meeting, close with a brief summary of assignments and due dates.  Ensure that taskings and key decisions are recorded and reviewed at the next staff meeting.

Question:  When do plan to schedule a team-based staff meeting?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

I was working with NASA Langley and during one of the breaks, a few people were chatting about a cross-functional team they were on a few years ago.  Comprised of people from all different parts of NASA, they shared fond memories of the work they did together and what a great team it was. 

Oddly enough, one of the team members said something that I have been saying for years: ” That was the best team EVER – and I keep bringing the expectation that every team should follow the same characteristics as that team.”  He continued to say, “I have been on several extraordinary teams over the years, and I think it’s hard for those who have NEVER been on a high performance team to understand just how cool it is.”

Related article:

Hao Chen, new communication techologies assistant professor, hopes to inspire teamwork.

Question:  Have you been on high performance, “Extraordinary Team” before?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

Since I work with a lot of workplace teams, I am often asked, “How do we compare to all the other teams you work with?”  I smile knowingly, nod my head and gently respond, “There is no comparison.  All teams are unique and have their own personalities.”

True enough; however, there are a few tell-tale signs of truly extraordinary teams who achieve exceptional results using an effective process while building cooperative relationships:

Diverse Agenda.  The agenda has many topics and different “presenters” to lead that section of the agenda.  Teamwork cannot thrive when the leader dominates over 50% of the agenda.

Volunteers.  When tasks are assigned at the conclusion of the meeting or as the team identifies actions forward, team members willingly volunteer based on their time availability, expertise, and the workload of the entire team.  Extraordinary teams don’t have to pull teeth to get people to volunteer!

Facilitator.  Extraordinary teams use a facilitator or process observer to ensure the team stays on track, on time, and gracefully intervenes when appropriate.  No one is allowed to hijack the team’s time and agenda without the full consent of the team.

Invisible Leader.  When observing the team during a brainstorming session, I cannot tell who the team leader is.  The leader is actively participating along with the rest of the team and no one defers to the authority in the room.

Aim for Consensus.  For really big decisions, most teams aim for consensus where all can live with and support the decision upon implementation.  However, sometimes teams get stuck.  Extraordinary teams have already determined a “fall back” position where the team either takes a majority vote, remands it to the team leader, or parks it until a later time when more information is available.  As a result, teams don’t feel pressured to compromise for the sake of achieving a consensus.

Focus.  Extraordinary teams have clarity of purpose.  They understand the big picture goal as well as the day-to-day mechanics of what needs to be done.  They don’t sweat the small stuff; they focus on the vital tasks.

No Bickering.  Conflict is a natural part of the team process because everyone brings a different perspective to the team.  It takes time to understand multiple perspectives and make some mutually agreeable decisions forward.  Yet some teams move beyond conflict and obsess over stupid stuff that shouldn’t even be an issue among adults.  Somehow, the issue creeps into the teams’ psyche, manifesting into annoying, petty, childish behavior.  Extraordinary teams give themselves a lot of space and don’t focus on these small, pea-sized irritants.

Have Fun.  As soon as you walk into the room, you sense that team members enjoy the work that they do and the people that they work with.  They appreciate a positive atmosphere and collaborative environment.

Question:  Are you part of an extraordinary team?

To book Kristin to speak or view her products go to www.ExtraordinaryTeam.com

One of my clients recently shared with me his frustration during an international conference call.  One of the key players joined the call an hour late!  When he wanted to reopen some of the issues that were already discussed and agreed upon, his fellow team members became audibly irritated.

One of them piped up and said, “We already covered that; I’ll brief you on the discussion at the end of this call.”  Rather abrupt, but it ended the latecomer’s desire to revisit each issue.

Question:  Do you stop the discussion and recap for a latecomer, “rewarding” him for his inconsiderate behavior?

On Thursday, the new administration officially launched the “Open Government Initiative” at www.whitehouse.gov/open ostensibly chartered to create a more participatory, transparent, and collaborative government.

According to Sandy Heierbacher, Director, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), the first “brainstorming” stage would wrap up next Thursday (May 28th)!  Doesn’t give us a whole lot of time to add our two cents worth, now does it?

You can add your great ideas to the Open Government Dialogue space at http://opengov.ideascale.com/ and I encourage all of you to join in and be sure to “vote up” the submissions you agree with! 

Sandy is keeping track of the posts by NCDDers that she hears about on the blog at www.thataway.org and it’s pretty interesting to read what they have been saying:

Ask Federal Agencies to Adopt the Core Principles for Public Engagement (Sandy Heierbacher) 

Promise USA – National Network of Citizen Conversation (Christine Whitney Sanchez) 

A national citizens’ assembly to represent the people’s wisdom (Phil Mitchel) 

Practical scholarship and assistance from Universities – the University Network for Collaborative Governance (John Stephens) 

Use Visual recording and mini animations to convey complex ideas (Nancy Margulies) 

Hold Agencies Accountable for Implementing the Open Government Directive  

Fully fund participation and collaboration activities 

Require all agencies to submit a plan for open government

Encourage State and Local Governments to Become More Open and Inclusive 

Integrate Participation and Collaboration into All Major Systems of Federal Agencies

Convene the American Public in National Discussions of One Million People or More on the Issues of Highest Public Concern

Create Incentives and a Recognition Program to Promote Participation, Collaboration and Transparency Among Federal Agencies

Address Legal Barriers That Impede Participation and Collaboration