Step 5 – Design a Right-Minded, Team-Building Workshop: 12 Steps to Create a Team That Works as One

5. Leader Announces Workshop and Prepares Teammates

In Step 5 of our 12-step course in how to design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop, you’ll learn how to:

1. Announce workshop
2. Start preparing teammates

Announce Team Building Workshop

A team meeting is the best way to announce the workshop. If that’s not possible, the leader can send an email invitation.

Either way, it is your responsibility to create the “talking points” for the leader’s announcement.

Announcing in a Team Meeting

In a team meeting where all teammates are present, the leader announces the workshop. They present the purpose and possible outcomes.  They introduce you.

Teammates ask clarifying questions and the leader’s answers will create genuine excitement for the workshop.

The leader will also communicate teammate preparation assignments, such as:

• Reading the Right-Minded Teamwork book
• Taking the teammate survey
• Making interview arrangements

The leader will explain how the workshop results will benefit teammates and the team’s customers.

The leader will communicate that this will be a custom-designed workshop where the team will achieve real-world results. There will be no games or personality tests. You will be dealing with the team’s actual work issues.

Announcing via Email

If the leader has to email the workshop announcement, it is your responsibility to draft the text. Again, use the First Draft Team Building Plan as a template.

Caution: A poorly communicated announcement can create resistance. Take time to craft your message. Choose your words carefully, and be certain to frame this team-building effort as a positive benefit for all.

Preparing Teammates

Leaders love hearing that teammates must prepare for the workshop. Say something like:

It’s important that we make sure the teammates are ready. They must be prepared to discuss and agree on how to resolve their Punch List items.

That means two things:

We want to give them the opportunity to help design the Punch List and workshop outcomes, and

We want them to be ready to offer legitimate solutions.

We don’t want the first time they think about outcomes to be at the beginning of the workshop, right?

When you say something like that, the leader will wholeheartedly agree!

There are actually two steps involved in preparing teammates:

1. Managing Teammate Expectations

Let teammates know what they can expect to happen before the workshop. You’ll want to communicate the following key points:

• Planning: Let teammates know that the leader wants them all to contribute to and influence the workshop agenda.
• Survey: Tell them they will be asked to complete a survey, which will help identify the most important workshop outcomes. Let them know how and when the survey will be conducted.
• Logistics: Make sure they know the date and location for the workshop.
• Reading: Ask teammates to read the Right-Minded Teamwork: 9 Right Choices book and let them know why it will be helpful.
• Interviews: Tell them that the facilitator will interview each team member and that the leader encourages honesty. Let them know that interviews will last 30–60 minutes.
• Final Workshop Agenda: Let them know that you will use survey and interview feedback to create a final agenda, which you will distribute in advance of the workshop.

2. Explaining How Teammates Need To Prepare

This preparation should not take more than 30 minutes for teammates to complete. That means your instructions should be simple but effective.

You will write these instructions after you finalize the workshop outcomes in Step 9.

For example, in the Root Cause Story from Step 3, I asked teammates to come prepared to offer solutions to their unresolved conflicts.

Tip: Sometimes, at this early design stage, you’ll already know you’re going to ask certain teammates to research a topic and present their findings in the workshop. So, if you know for certain that some tasks or research needs to happen at this point, go ahead and give those preparation assignments now instead of waiting until Step 9.

For example, I once had a team leader who had to secure a legal opinion before we conducted the workshop. In another team, we had to send several teammates off to shop for a sophisticated software program.

Note: The next four steps are actually one large step that leads to your next milestone: finalizing the workshop design. How and when you do these steps is up to you, but they will ensure you successfully achieve the final design in Step 9.

In the next lesson, we’ll discuss the benefits of the RMT survey.

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Can’t Wait? Links to All 12 Lessons

Over 2 Hours of Audio Instruction from Dan Hogan, Certified Master Facilitator.

These lessons will continue to arrive in your email.

Introduction – How to Design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop

Step 1 – Start with the End in Mind. Leader Defines Purpose

Step 2 – Leader Meets Facilitator. Shares Purpose & Outcomes

Step 3 – What the Leader Wants May Not Be What the Team Needs. Facilitator Uncovers Root Causes

Step 4 – Facilitator Presents First Draft Team Building Plan to the Leader

Step 5 – Leader Announces Workshop and Prepares Teammates

Step 6 – Facilitator Conducts 9 or 20 Question Right-Minded Teamwork Survey

Step 7 – Facilitator Interviews All Teammates

Step 8 – Facilitator Presents Second Draft Plan to Leader

Step 9 – Leader & Facilitator Finalize Agenda and Workshop Plan

Step 10 – Achieve Workshop Outcomes

Step 11 – Track & Report Progress for the Next 90 Days

Step 12 – Leader & Facilitator Begin Designing the Second Workshop

Did you get here from a friend? This is the fifth lesson of our 12-step course, How to Design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop.  These steps are key characteristics of effective team building. Buy your copy today. Click here.