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Insurance for Ailing Teams!

by Becky  Nickol    

• Below average performance

• Negativity and apathy

• Conflict among team members

• Unclear goals

• Domineering team members

• Ineffective team meetings

• Cliques

• Lack of accountability

• Diversity intolerance

• Reduced commitment

• Sabotage of team leaders

• Disempowering team leaders

If these symptoms sound all too familiar, the diagnosis is that your team might be veering off-track and heading for disaster. Don’t panic! Here are five policies to insure team success:

Retreat

Arrange an off-site, overnight retreat. Scout and church camps are great locations, i.e., they have inexpensive, clean accommodations, the food is plentiful and delicious, and the environment is rejuvenating and natural.

Tell team members to dress casually (truly casual, not business casual) and to leave their mobile phones and organizers at home. The agenda should be designed with time for open discussions regarding pre-determined issues. In order to achieve maximum results it is wise to hire an professional facilitator. Don’t forget to include free time and fun in your schedule.

Popular retreat activities are campfires, sing-along, Charades, story swapping, hiking, horseback riding and hay rides.

Housekeeping meeting

Conduct a quarterly housekeeping meeting in order to check the pulse of the team. The following questions should be asked.

• What is working well?

• What is working well, but could be working better?

• What do we need to do to make it work better?

• What is not working and why?

• What are the barriers to our success?

• What can we do to abolish those barriers?

• Whose aid do we need to abolish those barriers?

• Are we on track to meet our goals?

• Do we need to revise our goals?

• What are the potential problems that represent red flags to team

        members?

• How are team members feeling about the team process?

The teams should leave each housekeeping meeting with a specific action plan with a "point person" assigned to each action. This plan should have deadlines and time frames.

Rotate team leadership

It is always wise to rotate team leadership. If the same person is always the team leader, the team members often feel that teams are really no different than hierarchical management. In other words, the leaders have just changed titles. The term for team leaders should be determined by a team vote, but team leaders usually rotate once every 6-12 months. Team leadership rotation cross-trains all team members to assume a leadership role.

Team creativity day

One of the major advantages of teams is increased innovation and creativity. However, teams can become stagnant and continuous improvement slows to a trickle. If this is the case with your team, hire a creativity consultant to "jump start" the process of innovation. Your team members will spring to life as they perform hands on, experiential exercises designed to encourage team members to think "out of the box". Your team will catapult to new levels of innovation.

Site visit

Ask permission for your team to spend a day with a high-performing team at another location. This team can be a team from another branch of your organization, a team from another company within the same industry, or a team from another company and another industry. Your team will learn valuable tips and lessons through the objective observation of another team.

The experience is most beneficial if team members are allowed to have face-to-face discussions with the other team members without management interference.

Just follow these suggestions, and your team should be back on track in no time. Remember, team insurance policies = successful teams.


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Copyright© 2002, Becky Nickol. All right reserved. For information contact Frog Pond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@frogpond.com.