Stumped! What to Do When a Meeting Agenda is Derailed?

February 02nd, 2012

So many corporate teams are raddled by strained resources, frequent deadlines and multi-tasking. I am working with a few clients in exactly this position. In one case,  the CEO still manages to schedule regular management meetings. This is a good thing for reviewing progress, learning new team competencies and if need be, recalibrating objectives for better results. The not-so-good part is that because they are only monthly, the meeting agendas are generally so chock-a-block that there is little time to ‘renew and connect’.

Recently, this team acquired a new member. Let’s call her Georgina. She has great power and influence and a strong willingness to participate. She will be instrumental in helping to promote the company’s vision of the future. She has also achieved great results before, literally rebounding from the depths of bankruptcy. The CEO and the team recognize her potential for helping them all achieve better results this year.

My role on this team is, as usual, “meeting fairy” instilling the importance of team norms.. My responsibility is to provide an equal and open forum and make sure that all agenda items receive adequate coverage.

I now face a new challenge with Georgina in these brisk meetings. I have noticed among her talents one incredible skill: she can speak for up to 90 minutes without a single break – I kid you not! As an experienced meeting fairy, I am extremely skilled at jumping in with force after a breath or slight pause to move the conversation on. But, wow, with Georgina I fear I have met my match!

So what am I to do about this powerful, authoritative and influential person who dominates the forum? What do you need to do when all participants of a meeting buy-in and agree to the norms except one rebel?

This problem illustrates one very basic rule of thumb: get all new members to buy in to the team norms for meeting participation. I must make this the key issue.

I have decided to meet one-to-one with Georgina in order to do three things:

1. Bring forward the team norms.
2. Be transparent about my inability to fulfill my meeting fairy responsibilities with her monologue behavior.
3. Negotiate a solution for future meetings with her input.

Have you ever met a Georgina in one of your meetings? If so, what did you do?

Next week I will post the outcome of my conversation with Georgina – come back to find out what happened!

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #12: Dance in the Streets

August 31st, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #12: Dance in the Streets

Work is sometimes so monotonous that we often move from task to task without letting out a wee yelp of celebration or gathering in the halls to high-five a co-worker.

Celebration increases team confidence and individual motivation. Motivated teams stay engaged and produce results.

Think of something that you can ‘dance in the streets or company hallways’ about today. It might be something small like sending an email you’ve been putting off or something big like closing a deal you’ve been pursuing for months. Hard-pressed to think of anything? What about the fact that you’ve just completed our 12-week Teamwork Challenge?

Instead of sweating the small stuff, celebrate it!

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Did this week’s teamwork challenge have a positive or a negative impact on the effectiveness of your team?

We’d love to hear about your experience with our Teamwork Challenge? What did you learn about your teammates? What did you learn about yourself?

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #11: Ask Dr. Phil

August 25th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #11: Ask Dr. Phil

How do you know if you’ve done a good job on a project? What about the impact your input has on a team presentation? Sure, your teammates might say ‘thanks’ or ‘good work’, but what if you’re looking for a more constructive response?

The idea of soliciting feedback is generally met with resistance, as we’re afraid of the outcome. What if we hear something about ourselves that we don’t want to know? But effective feedback can significantly improve results and strengthen teams.

Instead of being scared of feedback, I use it as my GPS to see how I’m doing and ask for it regularly  from my teammates…

Ben, what did you think of my draft presentation?

Graham, can you give me some feedback on the effectiveness of our blog?

Kathy, was how I directed you on that particular task clear and concise?

A simple question can lead to a great deal of personal learnings. Which teammate will you ask for some feedback from today?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Can you believe next week is the last week of our Teamwork Challenge? Time to pull out your party hats and celebrate!

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #10: Let Go

August 17th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #10: Let Go

I hate to say it, but I’m still impacted by something a business partner said to me years ago. I had just made a presentation to potentially build a community within our business and my business partner shouted out ‘business is typically not done that way!”

Retrospectively, I think geez, I wish my response had been ‘that is exactly my point!’ Instead, I chose to think his opinion was more valuable than mine! Yuk. From then on, I had a tough time presenting ideas to him and couldn’t overcome my feelings of inadequacy.

A candid conversation with him about how his comment impacted me was all I needed to do to let go and move on. Do you have some unfinished business to take care of? Have you been holding on to something a co-worker said about an idea you had or something you did or said? Take a moment to have a chat with that teammate and let it go.

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Just two more weeks of The Teamwork Challenge. How much have interactions within your team improved? We’d love to get your feedback.

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #9: Get Naked

August 11th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #9: Get Naked

Many of us are too timid to reveal ourselves to others because we’re scared of negative consequences or of others not seeing us in a good light. In reality, quite the opposite is true.

High-level emotional intelligence accounts for 60% of all team productivity. Opening up your ‘private self’ is key to developing your emotional intelligence and to building trust with your teammates.

Recently, a woman on a team revealed that she was feeling insecure about her inability to think outside-the-box when her team was solving problems and that, during these types of meetings, her nervousness paralyzed her ability to contribute. Her teammates had often wondered why she was so quiet, but had never thought to ask.

With this key piece of knowledge, her co-workers were now able to support her with probing questions to get her creative juices flowing, which encouraged her participation.

Your challenge this week is to get naked with a co-worker and reveal a piece of your private self. What did you reveal? How did your teammates react? What else of your private self are you willing to share?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Now that you’ve gotten naked, letting go next week with tip #10 will be a piece of cake.

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #8: Clean Out the Closet

August 04th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #8: Clean Out the Closet

Co-worker assumptions are killers for team productivity.

By choosing to believe our own ‘story’ about a team member, we can really get team projects off-track…

• Suzy’s too lazy to get her task(s) done.
• Tom doesn’t believe we can reach our sales targets.
• Melanie’s siding with John in production and will never see our side of the story.

Instead of getting stuck in your own assumptions, why not check them out? Part of effective communication is ‘checking out our assumptions’.

Perhaps you’ll change some of your project actions once you realize that Suzy is caregiving for her aging mother as soon as she leaves work every night and, as a result, is having difficulty keeping up. Meanwhile, Tom has recently lost 4 of his preferred customers and is feeling defeated. In reality, Melanie is perplexed by our problem and has been asking John to help find solutions.

In the next 24-hours, try to check-out one of your co-worker assumptions. What’s the real story?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

We’re now three-quarters of the way through The Teamwork Challenge. How’s it going for you? Are you ready to get naked?

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #7: Sweeten the Deal

July 27th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #7: Sweeten the Deal

Today so many of us are multi-tasking with emails, running from meeting-to-meeting and working towards strict deadlines on the tasks we are responsible for that we sometimes forget to lift our heads from our computers and support someone else’s task. Similarly, we are sometimes quick to judge our team members if they’ve missed a deadline that impacts getting one of our own tasks to completion.

Teamwork is all about collaboration. Collaboration involves ongoing support.

This week’s challenge is something outrageously different. Find a co-worker and support one of their efforts. Peak around the threshold of their office door or hang over their workstation panel and ask the simple question “Is there any task on your plate that I can help you with today?”

What kind of response did you get? Was the task easy or hard? Was it a task you knew they were responsible for or did it surprise you? What task would you give a co-worker if they asked you the same question?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #8 involves leaving your assumptions at the door.

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #6: Button Up

July 21st, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #6: Button Up

Are you constantly correcting statements your teammates say while justifying in your head that everyone will understand the way you said it better than the way s/he said it?

Or maybe you’re one of those people in team meetings who rambles on and on with an idea? You do your best to be succinct, but always end up jumping from point-to-point without clarity or direction?

Perhaps you wonder why you’re the only one who ever talks in team meetings?

Enough already!

Getting in the way of collaboration and team support can really decrease team productivity. External processors do just that. These types of communicators think out loud and feed on the silence of others as a green light to keep talking.

At your next meeting, go in with the intention of saying less and listening more. Take notice of your experience. It may well be excruciating to not be the centre of attention, but it will be worth the effort. Who on your team comes forward instead? Button up and watch the results.

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Do you want to learn how to sweeten the deal? Look for tip #7 next week on The Teamwork Challenge.

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #5: Roar Like a Lion

July 14th, 2011

Teamwork Challenge Tip #5: Roar Like a Tiger

Have you ever been in a meeting and kept quiet, to the point of biting your lip, when someone’s made a suggestion you completely disagree with? What about that tightening or burning in your chest you’ve felt when you can’t get out the words to explain your distress over a decision you think is wrong?

If so, it’s time to ask yourself why you are so adverse to conflict on your team. Conflict does not always have to be a bad thing. Conflict brings new ideas to the table, engages individuals in the debate and challenges the status quo. Without conflict, teams die a slow, lingering death into the trap called boredom. Low levels of commitment and personal motivation are soon to follow.

Can you be like the Lion in The Wizard of Oz and have the courage to roar like a lion? Discuss with a teammate a recent decision and compare your opposing reasoning with the decision made. Reveal that you chose to hold your tongue in that meeting and that, by coming clean with your teammate now, you’re making a commitment to roar like a tiger in the next meeting when you disagree with something.

So how did it go? Was it hard to disagree? Did it give other team members the courage to speak up?

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #4: Weighing In

July 06th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #4: Weighing In

Last week, with tip #3, you took the opportunity to ‘lose some weight’ with a teammate. This week, let’s maintain that momentum by ‘weighing in’ or, as many say, ‘speak your truth’ or ‘pour a clear glass of water’.

Working with teams as often as I do, it doesn’t take long to recognize those who speak often and those whom either seldom or never voice their thoughts during team meetings. I generally think the seldom-to-speak individuals have much to say, but are opting to stay quiet so as not to ‘rock-the-boat’ and/or to protect themselves from criticism. Does this sound like you or someone on your team?

Contrary to popular belief, speaking up in team meetings is really part of your job description when you’re part of a team. Only when all individuals contribute their viewpoints and opinions can team meetings become rich with creative ideas and solutions.

So, if you’ve been in a team meeting recently and consciously chose NOT to speak your truth, it’s time for you to weigh in. At your next team meeting, take the opportunity to discuss a viewpoint or opinion that you’ve chosen to hold-back in the past and explain the reasoning for your reluctance to share.

I’m curious to know how it goes for you. Were they surprised? Did they ask you to further clarify your thoughts? Most importantly, how did it make you feel once you spoke your truth?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Next week’s teamwork challenge tip is about the “C” word – having the courage to confront conflicts – and realize that conflicts can be turned into good things.