In my last two blog posts, “Are Your Executive Teams Looking Up for Answers?”and “Are Your Teams Taking Accountability for Their Results?” I discussed the importance of making team alignment a priority by scheduling regular team meetings, and I provided the outline for the first two meetings of four as a way of creating a more effective, functional, team for manifesting the stated goals and results of the business unit and the corporation.   Today, as promised, I am discussing the elements of the third meeting. The purpose of the first two meetings was to open up communication about each person’s role, and how the functions of each member can be connected to create better department results. The third meeting is a continuation of the process: • Take a few minutes for each team partnership to review their projects individually and to set some accountability agreements for the coming week. This is an opportunity for the leader of the team to model reporting on his/her goals and progress over the last weeks, and to request specific support. • Then give an opportunity for each person to give a brief, 2-3 minute, account of progress in fulfilling the opportunity to make agreements, have the supporting conversations, and to create the results. • Have Team Partners discuss any implementation details, and take time to set up check-in calls during the week, for 15 minutes. • Close meeting. Stay tuned for my next post on the fourth meeting which is solution-focused, and gives team members the opportunity to think about and present an area of challenge where a solution is needed. One of the reasons I developed the Team Alignment Process was to move teams into habitually using the Solution Focus rather than blaming or deconstructing to see where it went wrong in the past. Solution Focus focuses on creative thinking which leads to innovation and better results. A complete general description of the Team Alignment Process appears on the website http://www.bridgingassociates.com/ in the tab Team Alignment at the top of the Home Page. Read More