Team activity: Build the roadmap to success
👥 Who:
Team session, led by manager/s
🕒 Time:
1 hour
💡 How:
Virtually or in person, not a blend of both (keep it equitable)
In order to focus on outcomes, your team needs to know where it’s headed, what everyone is individually accountable to deliver and how to define success.
Run this activity with your team to make sure they know what a successful outcome looks like and to establish expectations for how performance will be measured.
Pre-work: Clarify the team’s purpose
First, make sure you are clear on your organisation’s purpose.
Now, articulate your team’s purpose through the lens of the bigger picture: How does your team contribute to the overall organisational strategy?
A simple way to clarify your team’s purpose is to answer the question: Why does your team exist?
Example: Workers’ Compensation Team
Organisation’s purpose: To become Australia’s most trusted and sustainable transportation provider
Team’s purpose: To manage reputational risk through effective management of workers’ compensation claims, helping the organisation become the most trusted transportation provider.
Step 1: Set team priorities and outcomes
Share your team’s purpose (and get agreement on it!)
Now that everyone understands the team's greater purpose, clarify what your team needs to deliver in order to fulfill its purpose.
Spend a few minutes individually brainstorming goals. Allow time for each team member to present their ideas and encourage enough discussion to make sure you've got solid options.
To prioritise all these great ideas, try the #now, #next and #later prioritisation timelines (created by Noah Weiss at Foursquare)
Step 2: Define team member accountabilities
Once your team priorities are clear, individual priorities and goals follow. Setting clear expectations for work that individuals need to deliver makes leading a flexible team much easier. Plus, it gives them autonomy to deliver.
Involve your team in the allocation of priorities to individuals. Empower them. Consider factors such as current capability, development goals and capacity to make decisions.
Some goals may require further discussion to provide clarity on the outcomes you are looking for when it comes to each goal. Sometimes this involves being very prescriptive.
Step 3: Monitor progress
As a team, discuss and agree on how the goals will be measured.
Be clear on:
The method to monitor progress.
Eg. 1:1 check-in meetings, project stand-up meetings
How frequently you’ll monitor progress.
Eg. weekly, quarterly
How do they define outcomes at The TOM Co?
General Manager Brooke Franklin suggests being “really specific” about what outcomes look like.
“When do you want something and what does it look like? Eg. a report (looking like what, in what depth) or a meeting (what the format is, who’ll be there).”