4. Create and Present the First Draft Team Building Plan to Leader
In Step 4 of our 12-step course in how to design a Right-Minded Team Building Workshop, you’ll learn how to:
- Create a First Draft Team Building Plan.
- Present, clarify and modify the Team Building Plan.
- Agree on how and when to announce the team building workshop.
Finalize the First Draft Team Building Plan
Your First Draft Team Building Plan must have four key elements:
- Outcomes
- Agenda
- Punch List
- Announcement
1. Outcomes: 2-4 Statement Covering the Leader’s Desired Outcomes
The most practical outcome for an RMT workshop is a Work Agreement. Work agreementsA Work Agreement is a collective teammate promise to transform non-productive, adversarial behavior into collaborative teamwork behavior. More are:
- Created by the team
- Define how teammates will work together to resolve, eventually, all of their Punch List issues. We’ll talk about the Punch List in just a minute.
When you hear needs like the ones in the Root Cause Story from Step 3’s lesson, I trust that creating Work Agreements makes practical sense to you, right?
Nine times out of ten, a Work Agreement will be the best outcome for what the team needs. So, when you present your plan to the leader, say something like:
I hear you want better meetings and better communication. I believe both topics can be successfully addressed by following a mutually agreed-upon Work Agreement.
Let’s do this: I will complete the teammate interviews and afterwards propose a Second Draft Plan. In the meantime, let’s assume that Work Agreements will successfully address and resolve meetings and communication. How does that sound to you?
Here’s an unfortunate reaction that rarely happens, but it is worth mentioning now.
Work agreements are so incredibly simple that some teammates and even leaders find the concept too elementary.
It’s as though their sheer simplicity is justification for why they can’t work. When teammates think this way, they bog the team down with unnecessary complexity and confusion. These teammates could actually sabotage the team-building workshop.
Do your best to present the practicality and usefulness of Work Agreements. Don’t give up, and don’t give in to the argument that Work Agreements don’t work.
The truth is, if the team creates Work Agreements and follows them, they will indeed achieve their workshop outcomes.
2. Agenda: An Outline with Potential Exercises that Will Achieve the Chosen Outcomes.
You don’t need a detailed agenda right now; just be sure to present a general flow of agenda items.
In the First Draft Plan example, you’ll see it starts with the leader kickoff, followed by a discussion on what effective meetings and communication looks like. After that, you will see placeholders for Punch List issues. And finally, the workshop close.
IMPORTANT: Don’t rush the workshop. It is very important to address all the topics listed in the example agenda.
3. Punch List: A List of Teamwork Topics to Address and Resolve.
The list you present in your First Draft Plan will only include the leader’s outcome ideas. The Second Draft Plan will include a longer list, which we call the Punch List because it will contain teammate ideas you collected in the teammate interviews.
4. Announcement: How and When to Announce The Workshop.
The ideal way to announce the workshop is in a team meeting. If that’s not possible, send an email invitation. We will discuss the announcement in more detail in step 5.
Presenting and Discussing Your First Draft Plan
First Draft presentations are usually easy and non-threatening because it represents what the leader wants.
Presenting the Second Draft Plan might not be so easy, because parts of what you present in the updated Punch List might be difficult for the leader to hear.
Present your ideas in writing. Don’t use PowerPoint because it’s impersonal and typically it will only be you and the leader in this meeting. Once again, the template you have been provided is a good example of what to present and how much information to include.
When presenting, sit next to the leader. Walk through each page.
They will ask clarifying questions. Spend as must time as necessary to answer them.
I guarantee you that the leader will think of a number of terrific ideas on how to modify and improve your plan.
Be grateful for the leader’s input. Remember: You’re partners.
Write down their ideas. Make certain they see you do that. Incorporate their ideas in your Second Draft Plan.
Other Topics to Briefly Discuss
The Final Decision
Even though everyone will contribute to the workshop design, let the leader know they have the ultimate decision approval.
The Design Team
Ask if 2 teammates might work with you as a design team.
Read Right Minded Teamwork?
Decide if teammates will read the Right-Minded Teamwork book in advance of the workshop. The main benefit is that it will help teammates identify legitimate teamwork issues to share during their interviews.
Conduct RMT Teammate Survey?
Here are two good two reasons for doing this:
- It helps the team pinpoint workshop outcomes.
- It is a very good tool for tracking actual teamwork progress; a scorecard if you will.
- We recommend conducting the survey every 3 months.
- This helps reinforce positive gains as well as it spots downward trends before they become toxic. A valuable teamwork tool, indeed!
Teammate Prep
At this step, your task is to only present a few initial ideas. In the Root Cause Story, see Step 3 lesson, the initial idea was to simply ask teammates to be prepared to offer suggestions for improving meetings and communication. You’ll learn more about preparation in step 5.
Teammate Interviews
Discuss logistics such as when and where to conduct these interviews. You may want to agree on two or three standard questions. At a minimum, you will show teammates the leader’s outcomes and ask if they agree, or you may ask if they have other outcomes to propose.
Important Topics
Inform the leader that you will discuss other design topics probably in Step 8 like:
- team building roles and responsibilities,
- how to track team progress, and
- when to conduct the second workshop.
Preventions and Interventions
Make sure the leader is willing to work with you to identify issues that could prevent teammates from achieving the outcomes. For example, one issue might be a teammate who is resistant to engage in team-building because he hasn’t seen it work very well in the past.
Your discussion will enable you to create and implement preventions that will, hopefully, prevent those issues from happening.
But, if your preventions don’t work, you also want to prepare how to intervene. For example, if that teammate continues to be resistant in the workshop, your pre-planned intervention could be that you and the leader will talk privately with the teammate during a break.
Continue to discuss preventions and interventions with the leader all the way up to the day of the workshop. In Step 9, we will discuss this very important planning process more thoroughly.
Overwhelming?
If you are a new team-building facilitator, all these tasks may seem a bit overwhelming. But I assure you, they will make perfect sense once you’ve followed them a few times.
For the more experienced facilitator, you will be happy all of these tasks are clearly presented for you and your team leader to use right now.
OK, you’ve presented the plan and gotten the leader’s feedback. In Step 5, we’ll discuss the importance of announcing the workshop and preparing teammates.
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 |