Your Team Needs a Reboot, Too
Microsoft WorkLab releases an annual report known as the Work Trend Index, which uses data from Teams and LinkedIn to reflect what’s happening in the workforce. Typically, the researchers provide a list of trends and corresponding recommendations for addressing these situations. I just read the 2022 report and much of the data corresponds with this series on enhancing your organizational culture. Last week we learned about teambuilding. Today, we discuss working agreements.
Working agreements establish the rules of engagement and clearly define expectations of each other. Some examples include roles, working hours, shared documents, meeting agenda, and virtual break needs. I’m curious to hear your answers to this question, “Past or present, what is the best team experience you’ve ever had?” You may go all the way back to childhood or a group of friends or a recent work experience. Heck, you may not have any great team experiences. That’s okay. I’m asking because our history with team experiences can impact how we show up in new groups.
Take another five minutes to dig deeper into your answer with these follow-up questions.
· What role did you play in the team?
· What did you assume about your teammates?
· How did you communicate with others?
· How did you handle conflict?
· What structures were in place to enable strong performance?
I would enjoy hearing your answers as each of us brings such interesting experiences to this space. Think about taking this same question and the follow-up ones back to your team. What would your teammates say? This discussion can help you with crafting a set of working agreements that guide your team to stronger performance. Discussing a set of working agreements within a team is important because it offers the opportunity to get the spoken and unspoken needs of the group onto the discussion table. Here are some examples from a previous client of mine:
· “We say, we do. We say what we mean and mean what we say.”
· “It’s my responsibility to leave every conversation with absolute clarity. I’ll take the initiative to clarify and understand if I am at first unclear.”
· “We address issues and speak with each other directly. We tell the truth as we see it, without blame. We discuss issues directly, never indirectly.”
· “We help each other be successful in demonstrable ways.”
· “We take breaks every 45 minutes in meetings longer than 90 meetings.”
In the 2022 Work Trend Index, Microsoft WorkLab released a manager’s guide to developing team agreements. You can find it here. While you or your organization may not have defined practices for effective team meetings, just using a guide like this can create new conversations and provide innovative ways to meet and work together.
It is also important to revisit your working agreements on a regular basis, especially when transitions happen in the team. Someone leaving the team may create new needs that impact the team’s work together. The addition of a new teammate is a perfect time to revisit your working agreements because this new person will add new dimensions to your team’s workflow. Evaluation may look like simply asking, “What’s most helpful? What would be more helpful?” And then respond accordingly.
Teambuilding and working agreements are two ways that you can decrease employee turnover right now. Remember, forty-two percent of respondents in March 2022 Gallup survey said they left a job recently due to bad bosses and toxic organizational cultures. Another twenty-one percent stated that they had concerns about their personal well-being and safety in the role. Each of us have the agency to change our surroundings. Come back next week to learn about decision-making.
This is the second article in a four-part series on rebooting your leadership momentum. Other ways to build your team include asynchronous and synchronous work, virtual collaborative workspaces, and generative team meetings. Learn more here.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash