This month I continue traveling cross country working with organizations, their teams and individuals helping them move into updated organizational networks, with new outlooks about the importance of teams and team alignment. My latest work has been in financial services, a national lab, and a national nonprofit. In all of these companies the status quo or organization and relationship is being questioned, and new ways to inspire, use time efficiently, and to collaborate are in the forefront. These organizations are now focusing on reinventing their identity, their ways of working, and consciously expanding the abilities of each person involved in the evolution to a higher level. Team Collaboration and Alignment is an important part of this process and must be the new focus for all businesses the second decade of the 21st century as it is the sure path to increased results. The key is a change in mindset around the importance of people and aligning vision and actions to achieve stated strategic goals. Our Team Alignment program provides organizations like the above with new methods for making communication a key component in planning for implementation, and represents a sure fire method to make results happen quickly. You may remember the three essential components to Team Alignment in prior postings:

1. Communication
2. Accountability, and
3. Solution Focus

Today my focus in on the Communication component, which I would like to suggest you include in your next team meeting. If you have not been meeting as a team but more in twos and threes or just when there is a “need”, then I suggest setting time aside for a team meeting for the next four weeks. Take time in the first meeting to have each person:

• Introduce themselves
• The way they see their function
• How their function relates to the function of each person at the table
  • Then it will be valuable to see if what people have said about their function, is actually how others see it. Obviously, if there are differences there is an opportunity created for more clarity to be established.
  • The focus of the team meeting will be to develop the alignment so discussion of current business can follow.

I will write in my next post about the remaining meetings of the four. In the meantime, make sure they are set up in advance and scheduled so people can arrange or rearrange the calendar. It is important to make these times a priority and for everyone on the team to do so. If you are the leader of a team taking the above steps and prioritizing communication will create powerful results. Contact me today to become more familiar with this very practical and effective process, and how it will help your organization increase productivity and results. I also invite you to learn more by reading an article recently published in Leadership Excellence, Collaboration, Create a Team Culture. The link is here: leadership_excellence_heyman.pdf Read More