Teamwork, essential to the success of your business

People in team training exercises often want to know the key steps to get their team moving in the right direction.  Of course, any team needs a clear mission, skilled leadership, talented members, just to name a few.  If the team understands and accepts the ground rules, they can move forward in a unified purpose and function as a team.

Ground rules establish standards and expectations.  Take the time to develop a list of ground rules, keeping them visible and using them can help your team move more efficiently and effectively toward its goal while helping team members develop a commitment to each other and to the team.

Here are some tips for teams as they go through the establishment of ground rules:

Let the team establish its own ground rules – Team leaders and supervisors may be tempted to just make a list of expectations such as, start the meeting on time or complete work assignments.  But this just becomes a list of directions for the team to follow.  A team that develops its own ground rules spends time discussing and agreeing to how the team will behave. “Our” ground rules become much more significant than a list that is prepared by someone else.  Advantages to the team setting its own ground rules:

• Team members are much more likely to respect and adhere to the rules they have created.

• An added bonus is the team building that takes place as team members discuss ground rules.

Usually, teams can come to a consensus on ground rules fairly easily and quickly. This small, early success can pave the way for the team members feeling confident about proceeding with the team’s work.

One way to facilitate development of ground rules is to create an affinity diagram by posing the questions: What gets meetings off track? What do you dislike about meetings? What goes wrong with meetings?

 1. Have team members write answers on sticky notes, one item per note. No discussion is made at this point.

2. Put all the sticky notes on a chart on the wall. Have team members silently sort the notes into categories.

 3. When the notes are grouped, have team members discuss and label each category. Use these to define and document the team’s ground rules on a flipchart for all to see. Date the flipchart and post at every meeting.

Post—and use—your ground rules ­- Without ground rules, team leaders can start to feel like the “Team Police.” They call the group to order, refocus discussions, step in to smooth out disagreements, and catch up with team members who miss meetings.  By developing base expectations, the leader doesn’t always have to play the authority figure. The ground rules give the team the power to call attention to problem situations. The flipchart on the wall reminds team members of the agreements they’ve made together, and allows every team member to participate in facilitating the team. A brief review of the ground rules will usually eliminate annoying problems like chitchat during group discussions and delays in getting meetings started. Keeping ground rules visible is also helpful in bringing new team members up to speed. Ground rules give a new person a quick snapshot of how the team goes about its work.

Evaluate the ground rules after time - As your team spends more time together, the members will change how they behave.  They will develop norms, learn how to manage conflict, and figure out ways of working with each other.  In short, they will grow and become better at being a team.  As this occurs, team members need to decide if their original list of ground rules still fits and make changes if they find it necessary.  All teams, whether they’re brand new or longstanding, can benefit from ground rules.  Take a look at your teams and help them get “grounded.”