Guide for Creating Teams:
Meeting Practices of Successful Teams
Note: IS&T uses the terms Project Team and
Standing Team to differentiate between temporary teams tackling
a one time effort (Project) versus a Standing Team which provides
an ongoing service.
Practice Definition
Successful teams (these that get through the development stages
in a positive way) have a set of agreed to meeting practices.
Practice definition: An actionable, observable,
and repeatable activity agreed to by the team; is meant to become
a routine way of doing business.
Practices become the way to make 'Working as a Team' the way the
group does business.
Based on the experiences across many IS&T teams, as well as
external research, the following practices are highly recommended
for all IS&T teams.
Highly Recommended Practices
Establish Agendas in Advance of Meeting
- Establish start and end times for meetings
- Estimated time for each agenda item
- Assess meeting flow to ensure sufficient time
Set Roles to Support the Task Work
- Team Leader can focus on content
- Facilitator may serve as discussion leader using process tools
and techniques to help the group accomplish their work
- Scribe acts as a recorder who writes what is being said on a
wallboard or surface to help the group stay focused
- Note taker captures action items
Develop Ground Rules at Outset
- Make explicit what behaviors are needed to be effective
- Address the need for active listening, respecting other people's
ideas, how decisions will be made, how work will be shared, ways
the group will deal with conflict and other such areas
Use Process Techniques and Tools
- Structure agenda items so you select the right tools for the
tasks
- The least efficient process technique is throwing the topic
open for discussion.
Capturing Action Items -- WHAT/WHO/WHEN
- Agreeing on what will be done by whom is a simple but very helpful
practice -- leaving out who or the due date means the action may
not be followed through on and thus may undermine the good work
leading up to the action phase. Getting the action items out within
24 hours keeps the process on track
- Checking back and holding people accountable will move everything
forward. (See Action Register Example)
Use a Visible Means to Display and Track What's Being Said
- Writing on a board or chart in front of people helps groups
stay focused
- This also helps the group build on the prior points
- This makes it easier for a facilitator or group member to prompt
the group to converge or summarize
Planning and Delegating Make a Huge Difference
- The better the preparation for the meeting, the more likely
you can maximize the time spent at the session. For example sending
out any background material prior to the meeting encourages people
to do their homework. If you clarify what you want to accomplish
when reading the material or when taking up agenda items, this
will help people focus better.
- Recognizing what needs to be done by the full team and what
can be done by an individual or a subset of the team will be more
efficient and make better use of the group's time. This practice
also tends to expedite the group's work so there is greater progress.
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Other Recommended Practices
Use Process Checks or Parking Lots to Keep People on the Subject
- Group members will inevitably digress from the issue at hand.
Ask for a "Process Check -- are we still on the issue?
- Sometimes people bring up related issues that need to be discussed,
yet if this conversation continues, the initial topic is lost.
Suggest placing the issue in the "parking lot" which makes it
a future agenda item.
Meeting Critiques
Groups that improve make it a practice to conduct self-assessments
("plus-deltas"). Spending five minutes at the end of the meeting
will allow the group to comment on what helped the meeting and what
hindered the meeting. This allows the group to use real time feedback
as a way to catch things that didn't work well while enhancing the
group's effectiveness.
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