While working with teams, we find them at different points in their journeys. Not one team can get to its peak effectiveness using the exact same formula. What is however the one thing all knowledge-work teams seem to have in common, is that sooner all later all pillars of the canvas will need to be taken care of.
Our Team Effectiveness Canvas was designed to be a versatile tool. Starting from an attempt to find patterns, through teaching up to application in the actual working environments.
You can use the canvas to:
- map your current situation
- design future states in one or more areas
- choose focal points for your efforts with the team
- find areas you need to deepen your knowledge in to guide your team
We have prepared this simple workshop to support you in using the Team Effectiveness Canvas according to your needs.
Workshop scenario:
The aim of this workshop is to create a discussion starter and a jumping off point for your team. You should be able to craft actionable steps to take after you leave the room.
- Open up by explaining the goal of the workshop. Make sure that the usual elements of the workshop contract are know and accepted by the participants.
- Take 5-10 minutes to briefly explain the basics of the Canvas, why you have chosen to use it as a discussion basis and the 7 Pillars of Effectiveness.
- Move on to the practical phase. This can be conducted in multiple different ways, depending on the size and needs of the participating team. You could choose to do one of the following or mix the strategies as you find fit:
- Use voting to determine 1,2 or 3 areas that your team feels are the most important to tackle right now or work on the whole Canvas at once
- Organise a series of workshops allowing you to look into details of how team members perceive each of the areas
- Provide the Canvas ahead of time to gather ideas and focus on discussions in the meeting or gather ideas during the workshop
- Work in one big group, split the participants up into groups or use the 1-2-4-all technique for fast distilling of the most common, shared views
- Remember to facilitate the discussions, helping to mitigate conflict and get to the bottoms of disagreements. Support the quieter voices so that everyone gets a chance to be involved. When the team gets stuck, use you expertise to suggest solutions that worked elsewhere.
- When you are done with the discussions, make sure to include an action-planning phase. You can use voting to determine the most urgent items to tackle first, add the defined tasks to the team backlog etc. Make sure that you leave the meeting knowing where to look for the defined actions and their status and who is supposed to spearhead each of the items.
Write to us on LinkedIn for more guidance on how to use the Canvas for your personal growth and needs!