Imagine that you lead a team. You have led a kick-off meeting and presented the team’s provisional goals. You have also translated these into a clear picture of success.
How to get good quality responses from people? One approach is take the following steps to involve the team. Invite people to form groups and there is to be a scribe in each group. Ask people to give their responses under the following headings.
The things they like about it … The additions and suggestions they have … The concerns and questions they may have …
The success rating – the rating they would give on a scale 0-10 – of the team being able to achieve the goals plus their suggestions for improving the rating
Here are the exercises you can give to the team members to get their responses to the presentation.
Give people at least 30 minutes to do the exercise. Each group’s ideas can be written on flip charts as they go along.
If you are the leader – or if there is a leadership team that has introduced the strategy – you can give people twenty minutes to get started. You can then go around and look at the themes that are emerging.
This helps you to prepare to address the themes and answer any questions. (You will have told people beforehand that you will be going around to see the themes that emerging.)
The next step is to invite people to report back. It can be useful to cluster the themes and questions that emerge. You can then respond and answer more effectively. When answering questions, explain the following guidelines to people.
You will aim be honest and answer as fully as possible. You will do this because you want people to understand the strategy, the rationale behind it and the steps going forwards.
You will focus on the overall strategic issues when answering the questions. You will not be able to say exactly what each person in each job will be doing in a few months.
You will set aside time over the next week to meet individuals and answer, their questions. They can book a time to see you.
You may not be able to answer all the questions in the session. You will be able to get back with some answers. There may also be questions that, because of certain issues, you will choose not to answer.
You will also take away the ideas and see which of these can be added to the strategy.
Bearing these things in mind, you can embark on addressing the themes and questions that have emerged.
Good leaders often see these sessions as an opportunity to educate people about the team’s goals. People go away with a wider grasp of the issues. They are then more able to explain the strategy to new people who join the team.
Can you think of a situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? You can use it when presenting the goals, strategy or another topic concerning the team. How could you follow this approach in your own way?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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